Adolescent Laddie I (in the background) had lots of entertainment with his older “sister” Sessan (playing tetherball). I didn’t even need to be there. Sessan regularly made up her own games and took care of providing Laddie with things to do.
Photo taken by Kinna in June, 2009.
Dogs have a relatively short puppyhood before entering dog adolescence. Just some quick clarifications before I continue:
– Puberty defines the changes in sexual and physical characteristics.
– Adolescence is the period between puberty and adulthood.
So, the term adolescence includes puberty changes, but you’ll soon read that it
also includes other changes that have nothing to do with puberty.
Time Period: Dog adolescence typically runs from 6 to 16 months, with the
average age of puberty ending around 12 to 14 months. These time periods vary
according to the size of the dog.
Many of the changes that happen to adolescent dogs occur despite a dog being
neutered or spayed. In the old days (fortunately this doesn’t happen much
anymore), shelter dogs might have been neutered or spayed as early as 8 weeks.
So, there is plenty of data showing even these dogs exhibit the body and brain
changes that non-altered dogs exhibit.
In the opening of Amber’s presentation, she showed a quick comedy film about a
boy named Kevin becoming a teenager. He went through a countdown to
becoming 13 years old – an energetic, apologetic youngster so excited to turn 13.
The second he turned 13, he became emotional, over-reactive, and began making
strange decisions. His parents exclaimed, “he’s lost all power of rational thought!”
As we learned during the seminar, all these changes are explained as natural —
and it’s up to us to be gentle to our dogs during this time period as it’s an
important time for their development. What happens during adolescence can
shape who they become as adults!
Here are some facts (similar in human teenagers!):
- Dogs undergoing adolescence are primarily developing their limbic brains. This is the part of the brain involved in emotions and reward seeking. The development of the pre-frontal cortex is limited during this time (rational thinking, self control, focus, planning, emotional control, problem solving).
- As a result, the dog is primed for incentive seeking, risk taking, and exploration. But, as with teenagers, this is coupled with poor decision making, heightened emotional responses, and more reflexive responses. So, it’s a tough time for dogs and teenagers when they can’t act out what their body desires.
- Dogs in adolescence have a brain developing at a phenomenal speed so the brain’s need for sugars is high (indirect sugar through food – not feeding sugar!). If the dog is put through situations where the muscles demand sugars too (ie: fast exercise), the dog becomes super hungry (like the always hungry teenager).
- Adolescent dogs are motivated by the reward, whereas adults are motivated by the anticipation of the reward. So, since stress negatively affects reward pathways, a stressed adolescent is much harder to train (or, an adolescent in a stressful situation).
- Adolescent dogs feel uncomfortable with strangers and do better with friends. They actually need time with friends and not just family members. (Think of the teenager who just wants to hang out with his/her friends!) Although they are driven to explore, it’s more about personal exploration and exploration with friends.
- And finally for today, adolescent dogs are primed to leave their primary caregivers. So, research shows the adolescent dog’s response to carers decreases while their response to a non-household members increases. Again, this is not a choice they are consciously making – it’s part of their development to become independent adults.
Now, how might we inadvertently make things worse for our adolescent dogs?
Just like teenagers, adolescent dogs experience an increase in frustration with some common constraints placed on them by us:
- leash frustration (they are driven to explore now)
- delayed rewards or reduced rewards (expectation of hot dog and they get andry biscuit) cause frustration because it’s the reward itself that motivates them now
- intrusions into private space (think teenager and his/her room)
- someone taking their resources (brain NOT set up to have things taken away– so in households where people take things without exchanges, the adolescent dog is much more likely to react than the puppy)
- a lot of these things were tolerated pre-adolescence but adolescent brain and
body can’t handle them anymore!
And, despite all this “independence” – dogs need familiarity and adolescent dogs actually need social contact with the same 2-6 dogs. When they meet unfamiliar dogs, it takes them a while to recover from the stress of this change. So, regular meetings with familiar dogs during this time is beneficial, but regular meetings with unknown dogs is detrimental.
So how can we help our adolescent dogs thrive during this sensitive time?
- Remember they get frustrated easily so be clear and patient with your requests.
- Make sure you train in small, easily understood steps.
- Try to arrange regular meetings with familiar dogs, even if just walking on leash or off so they can explore together.
- Try to limit exposure to areas with unfamiliar dogs and people.
- Increase the amount of times you feed your dog per day. Frequent feedings (at least 3x/day) help them maintain blood sugar levels.
- If you use puzzle toys or do anything involving finding little bits of food at a time, make sure they’ve had a good portion of their meal first so there is no food frustration during the puzzle or search games.
- Limit fast, intense exercise to 5 minutes at a time so their bodies can recover. It’s fine if the dogs don’t do any fast, intense exercise too!
- Reward frequently and raise the difficulty slowly to minimize training frustration.
Remember, this is a special time for our dogs — just like our teenagers. If behavior changes during this time, it is most likely due to the body and brain changes that naturally happen during adolescence. Of course, it’s always worth a veterinary visit to make sure the changes are due to adolescence and not because of any medical issue.