[Indy]

We adopted our 8 month old puppy from a shelter about two weeks ago. We've been absolutely thrilled with the progress she's made on learning her boundaries, manners, and a few commands/tricks. She completely exceeded our expectations with how much and how fast she is learning. We also enjoy that she is fairly mellow- she enjoys walks around the yard and neighborhood and typically 30-45 min of other play time (fetch, tug o war, chase the squeaky toy). Otherwise she likes belly rubs and laying down chewing on a her Kong or rawride bone.

But something got into her last night and she seemed to forget all the manners she gained in the last couple weeks. She was jumping up on us and mouthing our hands- something she otherwise does rarely. And continued even after a verbal No and ignoring her. It was more playful than aggressive and would have been fine if she stopped when she was told, but it just keep going. She also tried to tinkle twice inside last night- something she's only ever done once or twice up to this point. She usually does a good job on the leash of healing and walking beside us, but last night she was constantly pulling and ignoring Come commands.

At first we thought she may still be hungry since she was all over any treats in sight so we gave her a little bit of extra food in her dish (since we've been feeding on the light side due to all the treat training). Then we thought she needed to expel some puppy energy so we went for a decent walk and then came home and played fetch and tug-o-war. She got as much if not more attention and exercise than normal but just seemed to have forgotten her manners for the day.

What's up? I've heard this puppy stage is sort of like the terrible 2's in kids. Is she testing us? Was it just a bad day? Or are we missing something? We just gave her a dose of Heard Guard- that wouldn't have anything to do with it, would it?

 

[mandymmr]

I believe dogs need to be riminded time to time the rules! Perhaps she was jsut overly excited! But I also believe that dogs do have bad days as well. Perhaps she didn't get a good nights, sleep!

 

[ColoradoSooner]

Many dogs go through a "honeymoon phase" when they first go to live in a new home. During that time, they're typically on their best behavior because they really don't know what's expected of them. From what I've read, it can last anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months.

Now that she's more comfy in her home and with you, she probably IS testing her limits to see what's allowed and what's not. You just have to be firm but gentle. At this point, she really doesn't know what the rules are. Two weeks is a very short period of time. Just keep up the work you're doing and she'll get it.

I also think that during that honeymoon period, there's a lot of stress that builds up because of the new environment and sometimes dogs just need to get it out. Mayzie had one day in particular like that. She had been the most calm, well-mannered, low-key dog up until that day and for that one day she was a whirling dervish! I was thinking, holy cow, what did we get ourselves into? But even though she has more energy than she did at first, she DID eventually calm down to a manageable energy level.

Good luck!