Dogs are harder to train – and more likely to ignore the commands of their owners – once they hit puberty around eight months old, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Nottingham and Newcastle University looked at a group of 69 dogs to investigate behaviour in adolescence, monitoring obedience in the Labradors, Golden Retrievers and cross breeds of the two, at five months – before adolescence – and eight months – during adolescence.
Dogs took longer to respond to the ‘sit’ command during adolescence – but only when the command was given by their owner, not a stranger.
However, this response improved for a stranger between the five- and eight-month tests – suggesting the dogs were more likely to listen to someone they didn’t know than their ‘parent’ (I knew it!)
When the team looked a larger group of 285 Labradors, Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds and cross breeds of them, they similarly found that owners rated their pups lower on ‘trainability’ during their adolescent phase, compared to when they were aged five months or 12 months.
However, again the trainers reported an increase in ‘trainability’ between the ages of five and eight months.
It’s the first study to show that typical teen behaviour happens in our canine counterparts too.
But while we laugh, the researchers warn it does serve a serious purpose, showing that adolescence can be a vulnerable time for dogs as many are taken to shelters for rehoming at this age.
“As with human teenage children, owners need to be aware that their dog is going through a phase and it will pass,” Dr Lucy Asher, a Senior Lecturer in Precision Animal Science in Newcastle University’s School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, and co-author of the research, said.
“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” (sounds familiar).
So, if your furry friend has yet again failed puppy school, don’t despair – they will make it through this phase.
You just may have a few more grey hairs by the end of it.
