Latest / Sometimes There's Side Eye / STSE #60: Adolescent Angst
Transcript
- 0:12Welcome to Sometimes Their Side Eye, a podcast about two friends
- 0:16having real and unfiltered conversations about dogs and
- 0:20people. Listen as we talk about our
- 0:22lives with dogs, training, behavior, share some laughs and
- 0:26a whole lot of banter. I'm Heather.
- 0:30And I'm Christy. What are we talking about this
- 0:32week, Christy? This week we're going to talk
- 0:35about how concerned we should be with teenage dog behaviors.
- 0:41Oh, what inspired this one? We both have teenage dogs who
- 0:45have behaviors. Imagine that we have dogs and
- 0:51they have behaviors. Oh my goodness.
- 0:57You know what's really funny? When you told me this topic I
- 1:03was like I didn't even think about.
- 1:05Trin. Oh my goodness.
- 1:07I thought about this story I wanted to tell about Thiago, OK?
- 1:12Well, that's good. Oh gosh, do you have an
- 1:17inspiring story? Maybe it's not inspiring.
- 1:20Maybe it's like made you cry. I don't know.
- 1:22Teenage. Teenage.
- 1:24Behaviors can be tough. They can be.
- 1:27And one thing I was thinking as I was walking Jackson the other
- 1:31day is when I first got him, the first few weeks I told Heather,
- 1:37even though I'm not adopting him, it is really nice to have a
- 1:40dog. I don't have to worry about
- 1:42watching for other dogs or people.
- 1:44Like I can just walk and it's no big deal.
- 1:47And that lasted for a while. And then he decided that people
- 1:52were very suspicious if they didn't have a dog with them.
- 1:55So then he started barking at people and growling at them.
- 1:59It's it really started with like a woman doing yoga in the park.
- 2:04And he was like. You're not supposed to be
- 2:06sitting on the ground in the middle of the park like that.
- 2:08He found that. Very offensive.
- 2:10Yeah, And then it just grew from there to where he would just
- 2:13bark and growl at people as we walked along.
- 2:17And I thought, oh, I'm gonna have to deal with this forever.
- 2:22This is his. This is who he is now.
- 2:24And. It's not aggressive.
- 2:26It's not, but it is. It's fearful.
- 2:29And it's disconcerting to see and.
- 2:31Yeah, yeah, absolutely, 'cause I really wanted a friendly dog and
- 2:36people are not intimidated by him.
- 2:39So a lot of people are like, what a cute dog, let me come see
- 2:43him. I'm like, no, you can't because
- 2:45he's gonna growl at you and bark at you.
- 2:47A boof he more. Boofs at I.
- 2:49Would say it's a boof. Yeah, in.
- 2:52Combination. Yeah.
- 2:53And so the other day I was walking and I realized he's
- 2:57really outgrown that he doesn't bark at people.
- 3:01He he, what he does now is he mostly ignores that.
- 3:06He watches people, but he mostly ignores them.
- 3:08And then if they say hello to me or him, his eyes get big and he
- 3:12like, whips his head back and whips like what?
- 3:15They're talking to us. And I, I give him a treat and
- 3:20then he moves on and he's like, oh, OK, they must be OK.
- 3:22It's fine. Well, and like, when you started
- 3:25fostering him, you were told he was 3-4 years old, and then you
- 3:32spent a moment with him and you were like, yeah, no.
- 3:35And then I spent a moment with him and I was like, yeah, girl,
- 3:38you got yourself an adolescent. So he's in that mode or that
- 3:44space of time where, you know, one to three, they can change,
- 3:49they're maturing, you know, all the hormones depending on the
- 3:53dog, all those things are happening.
- 3:54So it it's reasonable to kind of be like, oh, I thought I signed
- 4:00up for a full adult here and now all of a sudden I have an
- 4:03adolescent. And then to kind of take a step
- 4:07back and say, oh, wait, hold on a second.
- 4:09Like these, things could change. Yeah, yeah.
- 4:12So I was concerned that he he was only going to like people
- 4:16with dogs then moving. Forward.
- 4:18And that that doesn't really fit into my life.
- 4:21It really doesn't. So it was a concern, so I did
- 4:25treat it as as if it was going to possibly be a problem.
- 4:31Yes, which? I think we should hope for the
- 4:35best, but train for. The worst this.
- 4:39Being. Permanent behavior.
- 4:43Yeah, and I do think his behavior was was influenced by
- 4:48training too, that we we stopped approaching people, we stopped
- 4:53letting people approach him. We walk with two other dogs
- 4:56sometimes and and those dogs are very friendly.
- 5:00And so people come up all the time and say hello.
- 5:02And when people come up to say hello, he often will act like he
- 5:06kind of wants to go in. We just walk.
- 5:09He doesn't actually want to go in.
- 5:11He gets in there and then he's like, oh, I think I'm in over my
- 5:14head. I don't think I like this
- 5:15actually. So what we do is we just keep
- 5:18walking and let the other dogs catch up with us once strangers
- 5:22are done petting them. Well, you also have gotten to
- 5:25know him and you learned his personality and then you learned
- 5:28what he was comfortable with, what he wasn't.
- 5:30And he has learned to trust you. And you 2 have built this
- 5:34relationship. So I mean, it makes sense that
- 5:37everything's going to change over time.
- 5:39And it is interesting to have the two different perspectives
- 5:43because I'm going to tell a story about Thiago, like of you
- 5:48entering into owning this new dog who, oh, surprise, it's an
- 5:53adolescent. And so you don't know.
- 5:55I mean, you know stories you've been told about his background,
- 5:59but you don't actually have facts about his background.
- 6:02You don't know how he was raised as a puppy.
- 6:05You don't know the situation with his mom when she was
- 6:08pregnant with the puppies. There's so many things that go
- 6:11into it. And so you're working off of,
- 6:13OK, what do I see in front of me right now?
- 6:16And so it's one way to go about it where we were just sitting
- 6:21there being like, OK, what are we seeing?
- 6:24What do we know about Jackson? What it, what is he OK with?
- 6:27What is he not? What's triggering him?
- 6:29What is not? And kind of, and I feel like
- 6:32there was a little time where you and I just sort of sat there
- 6:34and went not really sure what to do.
- 6:37Yeah, you know, Yeah, there was. That's OK, that's fine.
- 6:42Yeah, 'cause that was my friend. Kara had come over.
- 6:46Hi, Kara. Hi, Kara.
- 6:48And he barked at her for like 45 minutes.
- 6:52Like just. Barked at your house?
- 6:56And she was already inside the house.
- 6:58She's sitting eating with me. He's still barking.
- 7:01It's very annoying. And, and then all of a sudden he
- 7:04decided she was safe. We involved some treats and she
- 7:07decided he, he decided she was pretty safe.
- 7:10And then by the end, he was rolled over on his belly.
- 7:13They were good friends. He had his head on her lap.
- 7:16He decided she was great. And she is great, like what the
- 7:19hell? Jack said.
- 7:20But she does not have a dog right now, so.
- 7:24Yeah. And so then when another friend
- 7:26was coming over, I said, hey, my dog might bark at you, but I'm
- 7:30gonna try some different things. And Heather and I had talked
- 7:34through several different options and really weren't
- 7:37coming up with anything solid. True.
- 7:42And so I just thought, OK, you know what I'm gonna do?
- 7:45I'm just gonna be really excited when that car pulls up and I'm
- 7:48putting a whole bag of treats that I know he loves outside of
- 7:54the door. So when my friend comes in,
- 7:55she's just going to pick up the treats, have them in her hands
- 7:58and just start doling them out. And I said if he has an upset
- 8:02stomach tomorrow, who cares? Yeah, he can have the whole bag
- 8:06of treats today because we are going to make sure he makes a
- 8:09correlation that people coming over are at who are invited in
- 8:14are OK and a good, good thing. So it went so much better.
- 8:20Well, and it kind of goes along with how, because this happens
- 8:23sometimes too, when you're out and about how I was saying to of
- 8:27essentially putting on cue, hey, that's a friend, you know,
- 8:31that's someone who is OK. And I think that because you are
- 8:37building all this trust with Jackson, because you're doing
- 8:39all these sports and you're doing all this training, there
- 8:42is a level of like a platform where you're kind of working off
- 8:47of, like, you've already built this foundation.
- 8:49So when you teach him this cue to be like, this is a friend,
- 8:53you know it, He can kind of look to you and be like, all right,
- 8:56like, you haven't steered me wrong so far.
- 8:59And so, yeah, we did. Start doing that practice.
- 9:03We started saying like, oh, there's our friend.
- 9:05There's our friend and he would be like, oh, OK, that's
- 9:08exciting. Isn't it funny how sometimes
- 9:11just like, changing the tone of your voice even when they don't
- 9:14know what the hell you're talking about, changes their
- 9:16mindset so much that it's exactly that's all it needs, you
- 9:22know? Right.
- 9:23And I really thought originally that it would be helpful.
- 9:28I had a friend's dog over a lab who's extremely friendly and I
- 9:32thought that will be a confidence booster for him.
- 9:35With our friend Kara, unfortunately, she is also a
- 9:39Barker when people come up. And I did not think through that
- 9:44being an issue. But once she started barking,
- 9:47Jackson was like, oh, oh, she doesn't like this lady.
- 9:50So like, it's a problem. And of course, as soon as Kara
- 9:53came in, the lab was like, hey, cool friends here.
- 9:57But Jackson was like, no, I've already made-up my mind.
- 9:59It's it's terrible. Everything's bad.
- 10:02Yeah, with my situation with Tiago, I mean, everybody knows.
- 10:07Got him from a breeder. He was like 9 1/2 weeks old when
- 10:10he came home. He's perfection.
- 10:12He has perfection. I worked really hard on, you
- 10:15know, socialization. So unfortunately as well, he has
- 10:23this elbow problem and he had to have elbow surgery right before
- 10:30his 2nd birthday. And two to three is really
- 10:34critical. I find in and I'm, it could be
- 10:38all working dogs, but for me, Rottweilers, I find male
- 10:41Rottweilers especially, it's like a really critical time
- 10:44where they are maturing and they are getting their big boy pants
- 10:49on and they really need continued exposure and training.
- 10:56And really, really, I don't want to say strong but clear
- 11:01guidelines of what is acceptable and what is not.
- 11:05They're kind of sewing the roads a little bit.
- 11:07And unfortunately for Tiago, he had this surgery at 2:00 and his
- 11:13recovery was six months. And for I think it was, it was
- 11:19definitely 14 weeks. It might have been 16 of that.
- 11:22He was in an X pen 24/7, like he had to potty on a leash and that
- 11:27was pretty much it. He was not allowed to do
- 11:30anything. So this dog went from going
- 11:33everywhere, doing all the things to the absolute worst time in
- 11:38his life to be in a cage for six months.
- 11:44And he was not cleared by the surgeon to go back to starting
- 11:50obedience and whatnot until he was about a little over 2 1/2
- 11:55years old. And I So when I had my first
- 12:00Rottweiler link, I had neck surgery on like myself when he
- 12:06was in this critical period. And.
- 12:10Yeah, and he was, I mean, look, his genetics were terrible.
- 12:16I mean, he was always meant to be like a reactive, genetically
- 12:20unsound dog, unfortunately. But I really felt that I had
- 12:25like exacerbated that because I couldn't do anything with him
- 12:30for a year after, like during that time.
- 12:33OK so now Fast forward to Tiago same time period for a different
- 12:40reason and I take him back. The 1st place that I take him
- 12:44when he's released is to barn hunt and I get him out of the
- 12:48car and he fucking boofs off in a reactive mess.
- 12:55And I just in my mind, I'm like, Oh my God, I ruined my dog.
- 13:02Like he now he's reactive like Link.
- 13:06I'm never gonna fix this. It's gonna be horrible.
- 13:09He's an he's a, he's a mature adult now.
- 13:12You know this is the rest of my life.
- 13:14Yes, yeah. Down the rabbit hole I go of
- 13:18complete terror and chaos. I mean, I probably cried all the
- 13:23way home, to be honest, if I but and I don't think I had Christy
- 13:28like really in my life at that time to really have the kind of
- 13:31conversations that I would need to have because he would have.
- 13:34I knew we knew each other. Yeah, but I don't.
- 13:37It wasn't like now where you're my. 1st 2:00.
- 13:40Person Yeah. And you would have talked me off
- 13:43that ledge immediately, but it took me a moment to really talk
- 13:48myself off that ledge and sort of be like, OK, you know, this
- 13:53dog, you know his temperament, you know his background, his
- 13:58pedigree, you know, the training and everything you've put in.
- 14:02This is a moment in time. And now we have to rewind, go
- 14:09back to the basics and remind him how we behave in public and
- 14:14what is OK and what is not OK. Yeah.
- 14:18And it was tough for a little bit there, yeah.
- 14:22Because it wasn't instant. No, it wasn't.
- 14:25You worked. At it.
- 14:26It got better it once we got over the hump, then it got
- 14:31better quickly, but it took a little time.
- 14:34I had someone tell me that I needed to put a prong collar on
- 14:38him, which I ended up not doing. I, I sort of took the approach
- 14:44of, Hey, I really want to like put my head down and like try to
- 14:48work on this the way I think I know I can work on it and the
- 14:52way I think my dog can, can be successful.
- 14:56And if that doesn't work, then I will work up the, the tree, you
- 15:01know, then I will go to whatever the next step is.
- 15:04And I never had to do that, thankfully, or however you want
- 15:07to say that I didn't. But it probably, like, I think
- 15:11it took me about six months until I felt confident that he
- 15:14was not going to act a fool. And probably some of that was
- 15:19longer than it needed to be only because of my past experience
- 15:23and me not trusting. But that's part of the process.
- 15:27Like, we're A-Team. If I don't trust in him as a
- 15:29handler and trust him where we're at, right then, then it
- 15:34doesn't work. Yeah.
- 15:35So I really feel like Heather today would have been less
- 15:42likely to go down, like, that whole rabbit hole and just been
- 15:45like, hey, he's OK. This is a moment.
- 15:49He's an adolescent. But it took me a while to sort
- 15:52of, yeah, not wrecked myself. Do you think he would have
- 15:57changed the training at all or just not going down the rabbit
- 16:01hole? I wouldn't have changed how I
- 16:03did anything. Yeah, because you would.
- 16:06Have addressed the issue. I think I just.
- 16:08Would have been, not. As hard on myself.
- 16:11Yeah, not as as frantic. About it, yes, I think I would
- 16:16have been more easier on my, my own emotions because I was never
- 16:21hard on him. Of course.
- 16:23I I just wouldn't have gotten like so in my feels about it and
- 16:27been like, hey, these things happen.
- 16:30It's an adolescent boy. He's got his balls.
- 16:33He just spent six months in prison, like, solitary, watching
- 16:38other dogs play around him and couldn't do anything.
- 16:44So yeah, but I do. I really do think that sometimes
- 16:50we have this moment with our adolescent dogs and it's like
- 16:54the whole world is crashing down.
- 16:56Yeah. And I think the danger is to go
- 16:59the other direction also and say, well, they'll just grow out
- 17:04of it. They'll just grow out of it.
- 17:08Jackson obviously loves like I've never met a dog that loves
- 17:11other dogs so much. But agility, it's interesting
- 17:16because he he started becoming crate reactive to other dogs.
- 17:21And I was shocked, like if you could see my face when the first
- 17:27time it happened, I was like, what is happening?
- 17:30And so I had to implement immediately.
- 17:33Of course, I, I talked to Heather and then I think through
- 17:36how can I implement some protocols where he doesn't have
- 17:41to deal with whatever emotions he's dealing with.
- 17:45And one of the things is it was very convenient to put my crate
- 17:49right by the gate so that I don't have to.
- 17:53I carry it so far because it's heavy and it's faulty.
- 17:56And, and so I didn't want to carry it back and forth to the
- 17:59car for very long. So I was like, OK, suck it up.
- 18:03Like go to the other end of the field, the far end where nobody
- 18:07wants to be because they all want to be by the gate.
- 18:10And guess what? That helped a lot.
- 18:13Yeah, because I feel like that was such frustration for him.
- 18:17Absolutely was, yeah, a lot of frustration.
- 18:21And I also learned to, if I felt like he was starting into that
- 18:26frustration mode, I would stay by his kennel and toss treats.
- 18:30And so he was still working with me instead of just sitting there
- 18:35amping up. Yeah, yeah.
- 18:37Yeah, I've seen. Well, we went to a trainer who
- 18:41had a very crate reactive dog and I always would ask how that
- 18:48like, why doesn't she work on that with her dog?
- 18:51Like it is her dog is like going after my Pitbull through the
- 18:55paint and yeah. And I was like, oh, I don't
- 18:58trust that dog. Or manage it.
- 19:01Yeah, yeah. And and I wonder though, if she
- 19:06thought he would just outgrow it and never really worked through
- 19:10it. And then it became part of who
- 19:14he was. Yeah.
- 19:15'Cause he was going in there and the longer you let things go,
- 19:19the harder it is than to come back from them.
- 19:22Oh 100%. Let me tell you about my dog who
- 19:25chases the TV. No.
- 19:28Oh yeah. Oh my God, yeah, I think.
- 19:32But I do really, really love the approach of don't assume the
- 19:38worst, but make a training plan and, and just get to it because
- 19:46what's the OK if you're overreacting and being like, Oh
- 19:50my God, and you set up a training plan and you do this
- 19:53whole thing right? And then it was never going to
- 19:56be anything in the 1st place. One, you're never going to know.
- 19:58And two, what did you get out of it?
- 20:01You just trained your dog, spent some time and made some really
- 20:03solid behaviors. Exactly.
- 20:05Well, it's like a whole bunch of wins.
- 20:07I mean, I remember us talking about the Jackson thing in the
- 20:10parking lot at Barn Hunt, and I just kind of looked at you and I
- 20:13was like, well, like, if you do this, what's the worst going to
- 20:15happen? Yeah, exactly.
- 20:18I mean, he learns to have a cue that says, hey, that's friendly,
- 20:22OK, like. Who cares?
- 20:25Yeah. Yeah, even.
- 20:27If this isn't an ongoing problem, it's it's OK 'cause
- 20:31we've trained it, yeah. You know, OK, I feel like I'm
- 20:34just really do something terrible to myself here, but I,
- 20:39I am not seeing anything in Trin adolescence wise well, that I
- 20:49didn't already see out of. Like there's nothing new from
- 20:53her as an adolescent yet that I'm like, ah, fuck the things
- 20:59that I'm like, I wish that wasn't that way.
- 21:02I knew we're going to be that way.
- 21:04I saw in her as a young dog, right?
- 21:06So dear God, please let there be nothing new but I.
- 21:12Everybody's in hope and prayers. I know, but I find myself
- 21:18instead with her as an adolescent seeing bright spots.
- 21:26So I would say to you, if you are sort of struggling with
- 21:31something in adolescence with your dog while you are working
- 21:36and planning for, you know, your training plan and sort of
- 21:39saying, hey, we're just going to work at this.
- 21:42Also look for the bright spots because when you have an
- 21:47adolescent dog, there are things that are happening that you're
- 21:51like, oh crap, my foundation really did come through.
- 21:56Should I tell the birdie story for example?
- 21:59Yeah. I worked really hard with Trin
- 22:01on her recall and her drop it, ask me why and earlier this week
- 22:06she went out into the yard to do her regular perusing at 5:00 AM.
- 22:11And I look and there she is with something in her mouth and I'm
- 22:15like oh boy, I don't know what that is and I'm afraid to find
- 22:19out. And I do my whole what do you
- 22:22have? Let me see it.
- 22:24And she actually dropped it and it was a dead bird.
- 22:28Now first of all, for her to even do that is mind blowing.
- 22:31I can't believe she dropped. It also I do want it noted she
- 22:35did not kill the bird, she just found a dead bird.
- 22:38Yeah, it was. It was already dried up.
- 22:40I. Know.
- 22:43And in this story's example, we do not have murder by my dog.
- 22:49No. And I, I was 1 grossed out a
- 22:53little bit, but two, really the first thing I thought was, holy
- 22:57shit. Like, she dropped it.
- 22:58This is a really big deal. And so like, that's a bright
- 23:02spot, you know? And so I would encourage you as
- 23:06you are making your way through adolescence, that, hey, this
- 23:11could very well just be a snapshot in time.
- 23:13They're growing, they're changing, they're becoming like
- 23:16their little adult selves. And that if you have bright
- 23:21spots to really kind of note them and celebrate them and just
- 23:26know that those bright spots are a little, look hopefully into
- 23:29your future with your adult dog. Yeah.
- 23:32Yeah. Absolutely.
- 23:35I would say I I'm glad that you have not seen some of those
- 23:40adolescent things I feel like Jackson was full of.
- 23:42Them. I mean, give it time, give it
- 23:44time. She's not 2 yet.
- 23:47She'll be two in August. Because I know that he had like
- 23:52just two incidents within a week over food with another dog
- 23:57which. Oh, I forgot about that.
- 23:59Right. Yeah, so it was with.
- 24:02Was it Bo Zephyr? No, it was Zephyr and then it
- 24:05was a large pit bull in my neighborhood.
- 24:09Both big dogs. Interesting.
- 24:11Yeah. One, it was interesting because
- 24:14I was like, no, like he chews bones with the neighborhood dog.
- 24:17He has no resource guarding and like, and then I was like,
- 24:20Heather, I can't live with a resource guarder like we're.
- 24:23So upset when it happened. I was, you were like really
- 24:27upset also because Zephyr was a puppy and you were like, Oh my
- 24:30God. Oh no, I just ruined that dog.
- 24:35Zephyr's owner is not a huge fan of shepherds.
- 24:38Yeah. And so that's true.
- 24:40She was like, oh, your shepherd's so nice.
- 24:42I like he's the only shepherd. I tried and then he was like and
- 24:45I was like, Oh no, but. She didn't actually like, she
- 24:50loves Jackson, but it was really kind of a whole funny like turn
- 24:54of events. We were like, oh shit.
- 24:56But I thought because I don't know his background, I don't
- 25:00know his heritage, I don't know, was his mom a resource Garter?
- 25:03Was his dad a resource Garter? Like, I don't know.
- 25:06But that doesn't matter. Genetics matter.
- 25:10Genetics matter, but like you, it doesn't also mean that you
- 25:14need to slap a label on him is. What I mean, right.
- 25:17But I was very concerned because and I also thought, Oh no, like
- 25:20my brother's dog is a resource Garter.
- 25:22Yeah, this could be problematic in them peacefully coexisting
- 25:28it. It had a lot of ramifications in
- 25:30my life. I thought like what's
- 25:32interesting is the second one, after I thought about the
- 25:36situation with the pit bull, his reaction was really to move the
- 25:41pit bull away so he could explore what was there.
- 25:45So he was reactive and he did. He obviously was resource
- 25:49guarded, but his reaction? How do I say this?
- 25:53He was reacting so that he could be curious about what was there.
- 25:58Not necessarily. Like I smelled the piece of food
- 26:00and I want that and you may not have it.
- 26:03That but also had Lucy reacted in that same way with teeth and
- 26:10showing and barking and like moving the there's a very
- 26:16different intent than a shepherd because he 100% look like a dog
- 26:25who was hurting another dog away from the resource he.
- 26:30Wanted as in hurting HERDING. Yes, not hurting.
- 26:35Yes, hurting. Yes he was.
- 26:37He was controlling the movement of the other dog.
- 26:40Whereas those actions from my Pitbull would not have been for
- 26:46the that intent. Those actions would have been
- 26:50because a, a fight is about to start.
- 26:55And so there was a very different intent in those
- 26:58actions. And once I had a chance to kind
- 27:00of think through that, I was like, oh, he did look very, very
- 27:04much like a dog who wanted to control movement from another
- 27:09dock. Yeah.
- 27:10And thank goodness that Pitbull was just a St.
- 27:13He was like. He was like, bloody, I didn't
- 27:17care that much. I was just, there wasn't even
- 27:18food. He just sniffed the ground
- 27:20because they thought there was food.
- 27:21And then Jackson was like, oh, I think there's food there.
- 27:24I'm getting it. But.
- 27:25The point of that is that those two incidents happened very
- 27:28close to each other and you were distraught.
- 27:31I was distraught. And how many times has it
- 27:34happened since then? It it hasn't.
- 27:36Yeah, there was nothing. And, and Heather's OK, what is,
- 27:42what's the game plan? So you, you work through we, we
- 27:46need to start working on limiting times that that can
- 27:50happen. Also watching closely, you know,
- 27:54all these things, but also you're not getting rid of him
- 27:58if, if it really is an issue. So we just address the issue if
- 28:03it is an issue and then it wasn't an issue at all.
- 28:09No. It it was just a angsty teenage
- 28:12boy. Yeah, teenage boy.
- 28:15And and for all we know, it could have been like an angsty
- 28:18teenage boy who was like completely trigger stacked by
- 28:22like 17 things we didn't even know about.
- 28:25Yeah, could have been. I'm trying to remind myself
- 28:28right now that Trin is she's probably going to go into
- 28:32season, like who knows, probably next Saturday when she's
- 28:35supposed to do our ORT gone. Into season yet?
- 28:38No, no. So I am also trying to remind
- 28:42myself like, OK, adolescent and also getting ready to go into
- 28:45her next heat cycle. And so if she's like a real mess
- 28:48right now, I probably need to just sort of put that on the
- 28:52shelf. So we should probably remember
- 28:54those things things too. Is your dog intact?
- 28:57Is it a boy? Is it a girl?
- 28:59Is is it a boy and there's a a bitching season in the house?
- 29:03Is there an aging dog in the house that suddenly has an
- 29:06illness and you have an adolescent?
- 29:08It's not just your adolescent dog.
- 29:12It's also all the things that are going around around on
- 29:16around that adolescent dog that could be contributing to
- 29:20whatever's going on with them as they're going through this
- 29:23little angsty phase. Yeah, and I think it's almost
- 29:27like human teenagers where this is a learning phase.
- 29:31They a mess. They're a mess, They're.
- 29:33A. Little bit angsty and hormonal.
- 29:38They're figuring out who they are, but also there's new
- 29:42experiences that feel really scary and there can be a couple
- 29:47different ways that they experience those new where it's
- 29:51they stay in that fear. For example, when Jackson saw a
- 29:55tractor for the first time, super scary.
- 29:58So I had the option to let him just stay in the fear.
- 30:01I had the option to say no, you you can't be afraid of it.
- 30:05It's nothing that doesn't work to.
- 30:08Say like, hey. Do you do you feel comfortable
- 30:11exploring it? Do you feel comfortable moving
- 30:14towards it? How about we just stand here and
- 30:16look at it and kind of like you would with your, your teenager?
- 30:20There's parents, parents who are like, don't be stupid, that's
- 30:22not scary. And then there's parents who are
- 30:25like, just ignore it. Like it'll be fine.
- 30:27I don't just. And then there's parents who are
- 30:30like, let's talk through this, like, why is that scary?
- 30:33How can we overcome some of those fears?
- 30:36Offering support. Yeah, and that's what.
- 30:39I want as as a owner of a teenage dog, I want to be there
- 30:43to support. In fact, just before this
- 30:45podcast, I I went to move the shower curtain and the whole rod
- 30:50fell down. Oh no.
- 30:52And Jackson was right. There, so it almost fell on him
- 30:55and I caught it, but but then we had to work through 'cause that
- 30:58was very scary. So it worked through.
- 31:01Do you want to? See it and the shower curtain is
- 31:04still on the floor because we're going to go back and readdress
- 31:06it in the in the room. No, after this, 'cause we're
- 31:10going to give it a few hours and then see if it's still scary,
- 31:13'cause I don't think it's going to be scary in a while, yeah.
- 31:17So I would just say adolescent dogs, keep in mind what you know
- 31:23about your dog, your relationship with your dog, your
- 31:26training habits with your dog and what you've built already.
- 31:30Keep in mind the environment around them, the other animals
- 31:33and people they're interacting with.
- 31:36Keep in mind their status. Are they intact?
- 31:40Are they not? And then just remind yourself
- 31:44that this really is a snapshot in time, and better to prepare
- 31:48for the worst and make it a training program that way.
- 31:51Yeah, we. Can't.
- 31:52We can't ignore it and pretend it's not happening.
- 31:55Well, we shouldn't, right? Please don't.
- 31:59I guess we can, but we shouldn't.
- 32:01Let's not pretend you know it's not happening, but also let's
- 32:07not think it's the end of the world.
- 32:09Yeah. Because it may be nothing, but
- 32:13it's not going to hurt to train through some of these things.
- 32:16Yeah, all of these things, Yeah. And.
- 32:20Like, oh Gee, darn, an excuse to train your dog.
- 32:23It'll be better for both of you and to build that relationship.
- 32:27Of trust and support, yeah. And make it even.
- 32:29Stronger, yes. I agree.
- 32:32Good. We're on the same.
- 32:34Page If you've enjoyed this episode, subscribe rate and.
- 32:40Share us wherever. You get your podcast also come
- 32:43on over to Instagram and engage with us at sometimes their side
- 32:47eye. Thanks for listening everybody.
- 32:49Talk to you next time. Bye bye.