Just Like Us, Teenage Is Tough For Dogs And They Need Help And Understanding, Claims Study

Teenage is hard, for the person experiencing it as well as for parents and other people around them.

However, just like every human goes through this ¡®rite of passage¡¯ so do dogs. And believe it or not, adolescence for them is hard, too.

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This is according to a study lead by Dr Lucy Asher from Newcastle University who is the first to find proof of adolescent behaviour in dogs. The researchers found dogs not responding to commands that were being given by their caretaker. They also saw that training the dog at the age of 8 months -- the time they go through puberty -- was harder.

Asher warns that adolescence can be a vulnerable time for dogs as at this age many are taken to shelters for rehoming during this age, when owners find that they¡¯re getting harder to tame.

She explains, "This is a very important time in a dog's life. This is when dogs are often rehomed because they are no longer a cute little puppy and suddenly, their owners find they are more challenging and they can no longer control them or train them. But as with human teenage children, owners need to be aware that their dog is going through a phase and it will pass."

Researchers also looked at research from the University of Edinburgh of a group of 69 dogs to look at how they behave during adolescence. They looked for obedience in breeds like Labradors, Golden Retrievers, as well as their cross-breeds from the age of five months (before adolescence) and eight months (during adolescence).

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The findings revealed that dogs took longer to respond to ¡®sit¡¯ command while in their adolescent stage, that too only when given by their owner/ caretaker and not a stranger. More and more eight-month pups were responding in a similar fashion. However, when a stranger commanded the pup to ¡®sit¡¯, the responsiveness improved for both five and eight-month pups.

To look for more evidence the team took a larger group of 285 Labradors, Golden Retrievers, German Shepards as well as their crossbreeds. Owners and trainers filled a questionnaire looking at ¡®trainability¡¯, asking them to rate factors like ¡®refuses to obey commands¡¯, that they¡¯ve learnt in the past and how the dog responds to recall commands.

Caretakers gave low ¡®trainability¡¯ scores to dogs going through adolescence than to dogs of five-month or a year of age.

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Dr Naomi Harvey, co-author of the research University of Nottingham's School of Veterinary Medicine and Science and the charity Dog's Trust says while the results might not be as surprising to many, they have important consequences, stating, "Many dog owners and professionals have long known or suspected that dog behaviour can become more difficult when they go through puberty. But until now there has been no empirical record of this.¡±

She added, ¡°Our results show that the behaviour changes seen in dogs closely parallel that of parent-child relationships, as dog-owner conflict is specific to the dog's primary caregiver and just as with human teenagers, this is a passing phase."

Asher concluded stating, "It's very important that owners don't punish their dogs for disobedience or start to pull away from them emotionally at this time. This would be likely to make any problem behaviour worse, as it does in human teens".