You will find that as your puppies add weeks to their lives that many things get easier. Older puppies are in the swing of house training, they are sleeping all night, and have adapted to their schedule. Play ebbs and flows, with older puppies being generally less frantic in play and starting to get an understanding of how to treat each other, working out disagreements, and generally getting on pretty well together.

Then hormones hit and so many things start to change…

Puppies who are sterilized will still have an adolescence thought it will be slightly different than puppies who still have their hormone systems intact. For the purposes of this course we will treat both intact dogs and sterilized dogs the same.

Dogs generally start puberty around the time they are finished teething their large molars and we can expect to see changes in behavior that range from barely perceivable to impossible to miss.

Puberty affects the brains of dogs just as it does humans, and don’t forget that your teenage dog is still pretty immature (brain wise) even as their body begins to look more and more like a mature adult. Adolescent dogs are impulsive, quick to anger, quick to fear, and very quick of body. Their behavior and emotions often swing wildly!

If your dog(s)inherited the genetics for dog related or directed aggression or intolerance you can expect to see that starting around puberty (though sterilization doesn’t decrease the odds or severity of these types of aggression). There are several different form this may take, some dogs inherit a general aversion to all dogs, including housemate dogs. Some dogs develop intolerance for dogs of the same sex. Some dogs develop intolerance for dogs of the opposite sex. Finally, dogs who inherit traits such as resource guarding may see an escalation of this trait as adults over how they were as puppies.

As dogs leave puppyhood behind we can expect to see less “frivolity” to their behavior, just like we do in humans and most other animals, as part of growing up. This means that bickering that escalates might become a fight in adult dogs who have not learned to diffuse.

It’s not all bad news though, just as often adolescent dogs are starting to see an overall decrease in energy and a resistance to fatigue as they grow up and so we will often see less intense fatigue fueled interactions between our siblings. yay!

The primary thing to remember during adolescence is that our work with our dogs won’t change much. If they have learned their training lessons management of the dogs is in a practice/maintenance phase.

Once finished with teething they are less destructive overall and need fewer chews and less supervision. They rest on their own more often, so observing for fatigue is easier.

That said, we will be keeping an eye on our teenagers for out of control pushy behavior with each other. We still want to prevent hard feelings between the dogs and instead continue to focus on nurturing good feelings between them.

We may see an intensity escalation in their play/roughhousing at any time and if we do use any of the previously taught tools and techniques for a few weeks to manage them as they test each other.

We may even need to increase separation and use more “crate and rotate” protocols to keep things calm and to protect good feelings towards each other.

Value this time, which can span a few weeks (for toy breeds) to a couple years (for giant breeds) to give your dogs the best chance at making it to adulthood as good friends.

Keep on Keeping on