Don’t Wait for Your Puppy to 'Grow Out of It'

As a professional dog trainer, my solutions for puppy problems rarely include waiting for them to “grow out of it.”

In fact, just the opposite. Your puppy’s age is a reality, but not an excuse for poor behavior.

Do not think there’s nothing to be done about problems because, “he’s just a puppy,” and be very careful assuming problems will go away once the puppy grows up.

Best case scenario, maturity does resolve the issues. Worst case, it doesn’t and your now adolescent dog is 4 months into a bad habit that’s driving you nuts, making him difficult to live with, and possibly damaging your home.

Yes, puppies do have more energy than senior dogs, but that doesn’t mean they can’t start rehearsing nice behaviors NOW.

• Do I expect them to sleep all day like a senior dog? No, but I do expect them to practice short periods of relaxation every day.

• Do I expect them to ignore the children running around the backyard? No, but I do expect them to spend a few minutes paying attention to me before going indoors with a yummy chew.

Your puppy’s age is a reality, but it is not an excuse for poor behavior.

Watch 5 month old Jovie practice saying hello without jumping

But How Do We Know??

One of the trickiest things about puppies is determining how much of their behavior is influenced by their age, and how much is their “personality” that will stick around regardless of how hold they get. This is where working with a qualified, positive-reinforcement professional who has been around a lot of puppies is so beneficial!

I recently had a puppy who was a great example of this. She was “high energy” and easily over-stimulated—getting so excited about new people that she didn’t respond to her family. Had they chalked those behaviors up to “being a puppy” and waited for her to grow out of it, they would have been disappointed when their adult dog was still having these issues.

Because we identified these “personality” tendencies early, we were able to get ahead of problems she might easily fall into (like poor guest manners) and focus on the big concepts she needed to succeed in life. Things like finding the brakes instead of flooring the accelerator

We DO have to adjust our expectations to match the reality of Puppy’s abilities. We do NOT have to suffer through horrible behavior.