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Another adolescence period at ~2.5 years?


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Our Bailey is 2 years and 5 months and over the last couple of weeks seems to be going through another sensitive/anxious stage - do they still have these adolescence periods at this age? He's been a bit more unsetted/barky, and has also occasionally got the devil in him and ignored his recall to carry on with whatever fun he's having. 

It's unlike him as his recall was pretty solid, and although he has some reactivity issues we know his triggers. This week he's started barking when I've left the house which he's never done before. He's had recent vet check ups and all is well healthwise.

I've also heard that some dogs born during covid seem to be maturing slower and may take a bit longer to reach adulthood. Has anyone else heard this?

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Hi Meghan -- that's really frustrating.  I think that you're right to believe that "this too shall pass".  A similar thing happened when my dog was just turning 2 (about 6 months ago).  He suddenly decided that recall was optional.  It's not.  ;)  We went back to square one, where instead of off-leash walks, they were on-leash where I asked him to give me a lot of attention (which was rewarded by treats or play).  We did a lot of bonding type exercises over the next month.  It really paid off, and I'm glad that we did it as our relationship is better than it's ever been. 

I think that the main cause of him thinking that recall was optional was that I had become complacent because he was doing so well.  My complacency may have translated, to him, as "my owner doesn't care".  Re-creating the bond was great for both of us, and I make sure that we're working on strengthening it every day.  Hopefully there's something in my experience that you can use in your situation.

 

Good luck!

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It is my belief that in all walks of life there is a learning curve and regression is inevitable, no matter if it is learning a skill or learning life lessons.  When it happens I do try to figure out why -- but I don't dwell on that.  No sense - it is what it is.  I just go back and re-teach and work through it. So the bad news is, this is probably not the last time you will see regression.  The good news is you can work through it.  People get in trouble when they ignore it and don't try to work through it.  Then they end up reinforcing the unwanted behavior. 

Case in point - just last night!  Parker started baling on the teeter.  Never did that before.  Once could be a fluke.  However, it is now beyond that.  I tried to figure out why this has started, but I'm not going to dwell on it because he was probably just in a hurry the first time he did it and it has now become a habit.  We are moving on and going back to teeter basics.  Also, once you've laid a good foundation and they know it, then correcting the regression does not take nearly as long as when they were first learning it. 

For your dog:  back to basics with the recall and approach it calmly (as opposed to being frustrated.)  Remember that it is just a normal part of the learning process. :)

 

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Thanks everyone for the advice! Tonight his recall was perfect, even when it had started to get dark as we were ending our walk, he came right back to me!

Recall aside, any thoughts as to why he's being more reactive and barky in the house? It definitely seems like alarm barking

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I think we need examples of his reactive behavior.  What was he like before when he was young and reactive?  Then what was he like after he matured and was not reactive?  Now what exactly is he doing and what seems to be the trigger?  So those are 3 separate stages that you should give examples of.   I think your initial statement is too generalized to try to answer. 

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