Episode #204 Ages & Stages of Dog Development: Six Months to One Year

Ever wondered why your pup seems to be testing boundaries or engaging in mischievous behaviors like digging and barking? Discover the natural origins of these actions and learn how to provide appropriate outlets that keep your pup happy and stimulated. We'll explore advanced training techniques that balance freedom and structure, perfect for harnessing their heightened energy and curiosity. Whether you're looking to enhance basic behaviors or dive into dog sports, our episode is packed with tips to foster a harmonious relationship with your canine companion. Patience and consistency are key, and we're here to celebrate the joys and triumphs of this rewarding journey with you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Dog Development
• 7:04 Advanced Dog Training Tips

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

On today's show, we are talking about ages and stages of development for our dogs, specifically six months to one year. Welcome to the Puppy Training Podcast. I'm Amy Jensen, founder of Baxter and Bella, the online puppy school. Here we are all about helping you create the best possible experience raising a puppy, from training tips to practical tricks, all aimed at fostering a happy, well-behaved dog who truly feels like part of the family. So if you are ready to enjoy the journey and strengthen the bond with your dog, let's get started. Hello and welcome to the Puppy Training Podcast. Thank you for listening.

Speaker 1: 0:43

A few weeks ago, I asked for your ideas on what we should talk about here on the podcast, and today is one of those topics that we received. So let's dive into our dogs ages six months to one year. Some people stress about this age. Other people adore this stage. I'm one of those people. I love teenagers. So six months to the one year mark with your dog is where they enter adolescence typically, and it can be super fun. It doesn't have to be scary. So let's dive into some details today to help you through this phase of life. Let's start by talking about what's happening physically with your dogs from six months to one year. Now most dogs are nearing their adult size. So take a lot of puppy pictures when they're little, because they grow up quickly, though they may still have some growing to do, particularly if you have a larger breed dog. Many of them are maturing around this time Now. The growth plates in your dog's bones are starting to close and they'll begin to fill out and gain some muscle. Check with your veterinarian if you have any questions as to when that exact time frame is for your dog and when they can handle more exercise than you're currently doing. By nine months most dogs reach their full adult size, but some breeds, even the larger ones, may continue to develop physically for a longer period of time. So again, any questions you have around the physical development, talk to your veterinarian. They are the experts. Another thing physically happening with your dog is teething. So around this stage they're losing their baby teeth and they're getting their adult teeth. Can you imagine growing a set of teeth, losing the baby teeth, growing a set of adult teeth all within six months of life? No wonder our dogs chew and bite right. A lot is happening inside their mouths, so this can lead to chewing behavior. Dogs may become possibly more destructive if they're not provided with appropriate outlets for their chewing needs. Always make sure you have something that they can put their mouths on. All right, how about cognitive and social development?

Speaker 1: 2:37

Now, cognitively, dogs between six months and one year begin to refine their problem-solving solving abilities and they may become more independent in their thinking. So we see this in terms of maybe some trial behaviors or things they give a little bit of attention to and say did I like that? Was that fun? Barking comes to mind right away. Typically, if I have clients that will say our puppy is so quiet she never barks. And then the puppy hits six months old and all of a sudden the puppy's barking. This is pretty typical. So oftentimes they'll experiment with new behaviors, see what happens when they do them and then, based on the outcomes, decide if they want to continue doing those behaviors. So they become a little more independent.

Speaker 1: 3:20

Their attention span can increase at this time, making training more effective in some ways. But they can also become more distracted and less focused, especially if they haven't been properly socialized or if just new hormones are raging inside of them, right. So this is the age where we start to see that territory matters. Other dogs are way more exciting than we are. So sometimes we can lose their focus or it can be harder to train because they're more distracted.

Speaker 1: 3:48

You may notice in this phase that your dog starts to test some boundaries and they push some buttons. They start to see what they can get away with and what they can't get away with. This can be super frustrating for many people who are still navigating basic training, as dogs may begin to challenge some of the established rules or show a lack of impulse control. Dogs may begin to challenge some of the established rules or show a lack of impulse control. I'm telling clients who are in this phase it is always okay to go back to the basics. It is always okay to take a break from a training session. We don't want to get into power struggles with our dogs. We want to say it once. We want to help or show our dog what we want them to do and then reinforce it. We might again have to go back to those basic steps, but that's okay. It's a typical phase of life that we're in.

Speaker 1: 4:32

Behaviorally, an adolescent dog can show an increase in energy, curiosity and drive. Now every dog has some sort of drive and they're all on different levels. You might see your dog's drive increase or decrease. That's pretty normal. They are more physically capable than when they were little puppies and they may seek out more stimulation, whether it's mental challenge or physical play. It often appears that our dogs are being stubborn right. They're just being more independent, or they might be again distracted with other things in the environment. You might say to your dog something as simple as a sit and they look at you like they have no idea in the world what you're talking about. They're really not trying to be annoying to you. They simply might not be able to focus on you at that moment or the word that you're saying.

Speaker 1: 5:18

So we wanna be patient with them. We wanna recognize there's a lot of changes happening in their brains right now and we can work with them in a kind, loving way to get past this phase. So as we work through this phase, recognize it can be good. There's a lot of good happening right. We can work on longer stays. We can work on more leash walking skills. Many dogs at this age start to love things like frisbee and fetch dog sports. So there's a lot of fun that we can have in this age. We just need to remain positive and be patient Again. Don't fight a power struggle. Don't get into that. We can pick good times for training and if the time's not great for training, we can wait it out.

Speaker 1: 5:58

Okay, one thing that often gets overlooked in the adolescent phase of life is socialization. Many of us do such a good job socializing our young puppies. We're taking them out on field trips, we're carrying them around until they're fully vaccinated, so that they're experiencing life with us and the life that they're going to live as an adult dog at a very young age. Sometimes, during adolescence, we start to let some of that slide, or we forget about it, or it's not a top priority. But that can be really important for these adolescent dogs. So they can start to exhibit some behaviors that might be protective or territorial, just because of the hormones and the changes in their brains that are happening. It's important that we continue to expose them to new experiences, people, other dogs, um in a friendly way, to ensure that they maintain good social skills and they don't develop any fear or aggression. So we want to control this exposure to various environments in a positive way so that the dog can remain confident and well-adjusted in different situations. So make sure, as your dog heads into adolescence, that we remember to keep that component of socialization as part of our routines.

Speaker 1: 7:04

If your dog starts to exhibit problem behaviors, such as barking, digging, chewing, you can always reach out to us for help. So these behaviors can stem from boredom, excess energy, a lack of proper outlets for mental stimulation. When your dog was young and a puppy, they slept a lot of the day. When they're in adolescence, they're awake for more of the day and because of that they start to get into a little bit of trouble. Right Now to them recognize they're awake for more of the day and because of that they start to get into a little bit of trouble. Right Now to them recognize they're just doing normal dog behavior. Right the barking, digging, chewing those are things dogs do. So don't get angry at them for doing those. Recognize oh, they're a dog and this is a natural instinct to them. How can I make that appropriate in a human household? Right? So barking? I might not love that. My dog's barking out the window. I can interrupt, redirect that or even if I can possibly catch it before it happens and give my dog something else to do. So maybe I could give them their favorite chew toy to work on or a food puzzle toy would be great, right? Something to take their brain away from just staring out the window hoping a bird flies by, to a better behavior.

Speaker 1: 8:11

Dogs love to dig oftentimes, so instead of, you know, telling them no to everywhere, maybe we can find a spot in our yard where they can dig like, create a little sandbox for them or put some. Maybe you've seen those ball pits that people get. Now that looks fun to clean up. I'm not going to lie, but dogs do enjoy searching through things and digging through things to find things. So if you can create some kind of like a blue plastic swimming pool or one of those ball pits where you can put things inside and maybe hide some biscuits that they get to search out, that's an amazing outlet for their energy and it allows them to dig right. So chewing again.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Dogs need to chew things. So rather than fighting them on chewing your furniture and other things in the house you don't want them to chew, give them appropriate chew toys and have times of the day where it's chew time. They go in their crate or in their exercise pen Uh, you don't have to babysit them, okay, and they can chew on something appropriate. So give them these outlets that, yes, they need physical exercise, and more so as they hit adolescence. But recognize your dogs are going to be more out and about during adolescence. It's also the time when they're doing pretty well with house training. So as house training goes better, they get more rain, free rain of our house. Then some of these problems can occur because, yeah, they're getting more freedom but at the same time, if they're not going to then follow the household rules, we need to restrict that freedom back down, go backwards in the process and start to build our way back up, totally normal. Okay. So as we give our dogs more freedom in our house, recognize we might need to take a step back. Maybe they need to be tethered to us a more of for more of the day. Maybe they need to spend a little more time in their exercise pens with appropriate chew toys. That's 100% good and okay, all right.

Speaker 1: 9:56

So what can we start doing at the one year mark that maybe we haven't done with young puppies? We can do some more advanced training, things like stay or go to bed. We can lengthen that behavior out. A puppy at that age can hold it for minutes, even hours possibly, whereas a young puppy could only hold it for seconds. Do you remember that phase of life when we were literally just trying to get our puppy to hold still for two seconds or 20 seconds or 30 seconds? Now we are on minutes to hours, okay, so that's exciting.

Speaker 1: 10:25

If training's going well at this point, you can get into more advanced training. You can enroll in some local classes, find a dog sport that your dog really enjoys and that you like doing together. So you can branch out. At this point, because you've done so much great work with the basic training, you and your dog are ready for more. I like taking my dogs at this age to parks. I put their harnesses on with their long lines and we work on recall. I throw frisbees, they chase after them. We work on distant recalls instead of close recalls like we're doing with young puppies.

Speaker 1: 10:55

So recognize the training just advances. Our dogs will never be perfect. I'm not perfect. I don't expect perfection from my dog. Remember they are living, breathing creatures. They are not robots. So don't get frustrated if you know one day the training didn't go great or you said, come and your dog had a hard time listening. That's going to happen.

Speaker 1: 11:15

There's a lot of ups and downs as we train our dogs, try to find the good in what they do. Reward that and you will see that more often. And then again, just remember to be patient, be consistent and love these creatures for how amazing they are. Dogs truly have so much to give. We are so lucky to have them in our lives. All right, you guys. Thanks for listening. Have a wonderful rest of your week, happy training. Thanks for tuning in to the puppy training podcast. I hope today's tips help you feel more confident and excited about raising your dog. I hope today's tips help you feel more confident and excited about raising your dog. Remember, with a little patience and consistency, you can create a loving bond and a well-behaved pup who's a joy to have in your family. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share it with fellow puppy parents. For more resources, visit Baxter and Bella online. Until next time, happy training.