Siloh
Well-Known Member
*big sigh*
When we got Hamlet at 16 weeks, we were all like, Oh man, THIS is puppy adolescence? Pshha.
No. No, I don't think it was.
Next Tuesday, Hamlet will be 26 weeks. I thought he was teething when we got him. In the last week we have found 3 or 4 teeth, and the poor boy's mouth is obviously in pain now more than ever from what I can tell.
I see him coming out as an independent mind. He is much more of an independent thinker than he had been.
I was patting myself on the back for his social skills. We're finally in a place where he looks at me 99% of the time he sees a distraction. He is good with people who ignore him if they stop to talk to me. In the house, forget about it. But on our walks, he has been a real champ. Until...
I went down a new street recently. He freaked out! Tail tucked, hackles up, whining and barking at nothing. Okay, so I failed there. I'm stepping up my game now in taking him *everywhere* I can to generalize his training better. But still, this felt like a curveball. He had never behaved this way when traveling somewhere by car and then getting out in the new environment, even with a bitch in heat 15 ft away and without his hound friend to tell him how to react.
My biggest issue, perhaps--he will REFUSE to go to sleep, even when taxed to the max with stimulation and exercise. I have resorted to crating him when he won't sleep just to put him down for a desperately needed nap. He will sleep any time next to me or my SO, but when we're out of the puppy area sometimes he is fine, his usual old calm self, and sometimes he will simply reject the idea of sleep to the point where I have watched him dozing off while sitting in between finding new forms of trouble.
His nose seems to have suddenly kicked into drive. He has always seemed particularly terrible at using scent, but now sometimes it seems scent is hugely compelling and a much bigger part of his interaction with the world. I think that it's good he is using his nose more, but he is forgetting his walking manners in a big way to put his nose to the ground. The "look" command has been very helpful, but sometimes it seems he is just tossing me a bone with a 3 second eye contact so he can put his nose back down. As I feared, an abrupt interest in something on the ground while walking briskly is quickly becoming a show-stopper as he is now so heavy it feels as if someone dropped an anchor. Frustrating.
Not to mention, his ability to get into EVERY damn thing is incredibly advanced. He finds things that we forgot we have from god-knows-where. He is tall enough to counter surf, but he does understand (I think?) this is unacceptable and generally does not get up on surfaces when we are in the room.
Then of course I'm sure my expectations play a role here in further frustrating myself, because sometimes I feel like I'm failing him if he is having such basic troubles.
I will give him a silver star for potty training. He is almost always good about going outside.
The kicker for me is that when I look for moral support from articles about this life stage, central to the advice given is NEUTERING WILL DO AMAZING THINGS. I want to hold off on neutering given the climate here on the subject of neutering at 6 months.
I guess I'm just feeling discouraged. Occasionally I panic, thinking good lord maybe this is emerging personality and not puppiness. But I think it is all puppy really.
Any survival tips, commiseration, and general support is welcome. Also please share success stories of getting past this developmental stage if you have them! And when?
"Nothing is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so."
Hamlet Prince of Denmark
When we got Hamlet at 16 weeks, we were all like, Oh man, THIS is puppy adolescence? Pshha.
No. No, I don't think it was.
Next Tuesday, Hamlet will be 26 weeks. I thought he was teething when we got him. In the last week we have found 3 or 4 teeth, and the poor boy's mouth is obviously in pain now more than ever from what I can tell.
I see him coming out as an independent mind. He is much more of an independent thinker than he had been.
I was patting myself on the back for his social skills. We're finally in a place where he looks at me 99% of the time he sees a distraction. He is good with people who ignore him if they stop to talk to me. In the house, forget about it. But on our walks, he has been a real champ. Until...
I went down a new street recently. He freaked out! Tail tucked, hackles up, whining and barking at nothing. Okay, so I failed there. I'm stepping up my game now in taking him *everywhere* I can to generalize his training better. But still, this felt like a curveball. He had never behaved this way when traveling somewhere by car and then getting out in the new environment, even with a bitch in heat 15 ft away and without his hound friend to tell him how to react.
My biggest issue, perhaps--he will REFUSE to go to sleep, even when taxed to the max with stimulation and exercise. I have resorted to crating him when he won't sleep just to put him down for a desperately needed nap. He will sleep any time next to me or my SO, but when we're out of the puppy area sometimes he is fine, his usual old calm self, and sometimes he will simply reject the idea of sleep to the point where I have watched him dozing off while sitting in between finding new forms of trouble.
His nose seems to have suddenly kicked into drive. He has always seemed particularly terrible at using scent, but now sometimes it seems scent is hugely compelling and a much bigger part of his interaction with the world. I think that it's good he is using his nose more, but he is forgetting his walking manners in a big way to put his nose to the ground. The "look" command has been very helpful, but sometimes it seems he is just tossing me a bone with a 3 second eye contact so he can put his nose back down. As I feared, an abrupt interest in something on the ground while walking briskly is quickly becoming a show-stopper as he is now so heavy it feels as if someone dropped an anchor. Frustrating.
Not to mention, his ability to get into EVERY damn thing is incredibly advanced. He finds things that we forgot we have from god-knows-where. He is tall enough to counter surf, but he does understand (I think?) this is unacceptable and generally does not get up on surfaces when we are in the room.
Then of course I'm sure my expectations play a role here in further frustrating myself, because sometimes I feel like I'm failing him if he is having such basic troubles.
I will give him a silver star for potty training. He is almost always good about going outside.
The kicker for me is that when I look for moral support from articles about this life stage, central to the advice given is NEUTERING WILL DO AMAZING THINGS. I want to hold off on neutering given the climate here on the subject of neutering at 6 months.
I guess I'm just feeling discouraged. Occasionally I panic, thinking good lord maybe this is emerging personality and not puppiness. But I think it is all puppy really.
Any survival tips, commiseration, and general support is welcome. Also please share success stories of getting past this developmental stage if you have them! And when?
"Nothing is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so."
Hamlet Prince of Denmark
