Broken door panels, wolf lesson and lots of bites and bruises. However, no longer from razor-sharp puppy teeth, but now from the crazy teenager in the house. The puppy has grown out of its sweet and innocent phase, where learning happens quickly, and has now entered the dreaded teenage period.
I've been through it myself. Suddenly Asco wouldn't respond to calls at all, and the basic commands I had trained for skinlessness were also gone like dew before the sun. I could jump and leap like another circus performer on the training ground, and all the dog did was turn away from me. He couldn't be more indifferent.
He happily nibbled his way through our panels and dug up my roses in the garden. Nothing could get through, which was strange with the huge antennae he had replaced his shaggy puppy ears with. Nothing worked, and to get the slightest bit of peace, chew bones and frozen Kongs filled with wet food became a temporary solution. The good advice from the trainer was: "Find your inner zen and just hold on... it will pass." - Yes, thank you, you don't say that...
I was lucky, though. For Asco, this period was shorter than for most, and we got back to normal relatively quickly. We entered a calm period, and learning picked up again. His focus was better than ever before, and we made incredible progress in a short time. Calm settled in the home, and we actually established some rules that made the dog bearable to be with. He found his own bed when the rest of the household was also calm. I really thought that the terrible teenage life was long gone… I wonder if I was wrong.
At the beginning of the summer holidays – at the age of 12 months – our “little” boy started to lighten his legs. It was the beginning of a very tough fight. The male dog in him slowly started to wake up, and as it did, he slowly turned off his brain again. Suddenly he raised brushes of shadows, sounds or even people, and that behavior at home was gone. We suddenly had to share the living room with a hormone-filled terrorist weighing 42 kg. What a year ago were innocent puppy antics are now almost an assault. With the chance of being misunderstood, I knew this day would come, and of course we still love our dog … but wait, how he tests our patience sometimes.
At 18 months old, this phase is still in full swing, but fortunately some of his hearing has returned, so I am now able to train him until he is tired. And he does that for UG, but on the home front there is still room for improvement. We are very much looking forward to the day when we can wave goodbye to The Terrible Teen 2.0 .
This blog is written by
Sanne Rath Madsen is currently studying to become a veterinarian at the University of Copenhagen.
Dog mother and owner of the German Shepherd, Asco. Trains daily in the German Shepherd Club in districts 3 (Ballerup) and 84 (Skovbo) and runs the small photography company SRM Photography.
The Terrible Teen
Broken door panels, wolf lesson and lots of bites and bruises. However, no longer from razor-sharp puppy teeth, but now from the crazy teenager in the house. The puppy has grown out of its sweet and innocent phase, where learning happens quickly, and has now entered the dreaded teenage period.
I've been through it myself. Suddenly Asco wouldn't respond to calls at all, and the basic commands I had trained for skinlessness were also gone like dew before the sun. I could jump and leap like another circus performer on the training ground, and all the dog did was turn away from me. He couldn't be more indifferent.
He happily nibbled his way through our panels and dug up my roses in the garden. Nothing could get through, which was strange with the huge antennae he had replaced his shaggy puppy ears with. Nothing worked, and to get the slightest bit of peace, chew bones and frozen Kongs filled with wet food became a temporary solution. The good advice from the trainer was: "Find your inner zen and just hold on... it will pass." - Yes, thank you, you don't say that...
I was lucky, though. For Asco, this period was shorter than for most, and we got back to normal relatively quickly. We entered a calm period, and learning picked up again. His focus was better than ever before, and we made incredible progress in a short time. Calm settled in the home, and we actually established some rules that made the dog bearable to be with. He found his own bed when the rest of the household was also calm. I really thought that the terrible teenage life was long gone… I wonder if I was wrong.
At the beginning of the summer holidays – at the age of 12 months – our “little” boy started to lighten his legs. It was the beginning of a very tough fight. The male dog in him slowly started to wake up, and as it did, he slowly turned off his brain again. Suddenly he raised brushes of shadows, sounds or even people, and that behavior at home was gone. We suddenly had to share the living room with a hormone-filled terrorist weighing 42 kg. What a year ago were innocent puppy antics are now almost an assault. With the chance of being misunderstood, I knew this day would come, and of course we still love our dog … but wait, how he tests our patience sometimes.
At 18 months old, this phase is still in full swing, but fortunately some of his hearing has returned, so I am now able to train him until he is tired. And he does that for UG, but on the home front there is still room for improvement. We are very much looking forward to the day when we can wave goodbye to The Terrible Teen 2.0 .
This blog is written by
Sanne Rath Madsen is currently studying to become a veterinarian at the University of Copenhagen.
Dog mother and owner of the German Shepherd, Asco. Trains daily in the German Shepherd Club in districts 3 (Ballerup) and 84 (Skovbo) and runs the small photography company SRM Photography.