18/09/2025
Is your dog in that not quite a puppy but not quite an adult stage?
Around 6–18 months, your sweet puppy morphs into a full-blown punk ass teen. Much like moving from primary to secondary school, adolescence is when your dog starts seeing the world differently, they’re starting to carve out an identity of their own.
Don't forget, just because they look grown up and did great in primary....I mean "puppy" school, it doesn’t mean they’re ready for adulthood yet and we've more exploration and learning to do.
🔹 The Geek Bit:
The adolescent brain is still under construction and wired to test boundaries. Impulse control, decision-making, and emotional regulation aren’t fully online yet (Mills & Levine, 2017; Bray et al., 2020).
Hormonal changes crank up sensitivity, risk-taking, and fear responses (Pongrácz et al., 2017).
Dogs at this age often “ignore” their caregivers (Wray et al., 2020) — not because they’ve forgotten you, but because they’re learning independence, testing limits. This “push and pull” helps them learn what works, what doesn’t, and who they can rely on.
It’s less disobedience and more their version of slamming the bedroom door while blasting Minor Threat.
🔹 What This Means For You:
Your job isn’t to squash the rebellion, it’s to guide it. This is how we future-proof adulthood:
✨ Support good decision-making (reward the right choices)
✨ Build confidence gradually (exposure at their pace)
✨ Work through worries or anxieties with compassion
✨ Reinforce safe, positive social experiences
✨ Keep training fun and consistent (think less drill sergeant, more supportive band manager)
Rebellion is part of the process. By testing boundaries, your pup learns coping strategies, resilience, and trust in you as their anchor.
They’re not “done learning”, they’re learning for life. So embrace the punk stage, roll with the chaos, and remember: today’s rebellious teen becomes tomorrow’s confident, well-balanced adult (according to my Mum anyway)!
