# Bye Bye Angel Puppy; Welcome Adolescence



## JazzNScout (Aug 2, 2008)

I have been just amazed at what a well-behaved puppy I've had...so good, so calm, so obedient, so...trustworthy. At around 5 months she seemed to want to try sleeping overnight outside of her crate. We let her. Everything was fine. :halogsd:

Once a week I stay overnight (at least one night) where I work because my office is 1.5 hours away. Layla goes to doggy daycare 2 days a week, is with me at home when I'm working from home, and spends a maximum of 1 day a week in a townhouse where I stay (just with her) at work if I have to stay over. I leave her in a crate there maximum 3 hours and bring her into the office with me at least half a day -- she's only left at "home" if I have meetings. 

This past week was a long week, that's for sure. She spent 2 consecutive days at doggy day care (the days are normally split), and on the third morning I put her in the crate with her breakfast.

I came back to the townhouse around noon to find the crate pad torn apart (foam insert), SPRINGS from the crate torn off and uncoiled (dangerous) and of course her food and water all over the place like she had a nice little tantrum in there. (I leave the TV on for her.) 

I take her to the backyard to go to the bathroom and she wants nothing to do with it. I begin cleaning up the huge mess she has made, and of course I am grumbling so she knows I'm not happy with this, and she disappears.

I go upstairs, and she is jumping off the master bedroom bed, which she has just POOPED on! I yell at her (I have _never_ yelled at her before) and begin cleaning that up. As I'm doing that, little do I realize she has run to another bedroom, gotten on the bed and peed on it! 

I scold her again, she SASSES me -- barks at me and runs. I have to admit that inside I was laughing. . .the whole situation was so unlike her, I knew she was upset about something, it was so strange! 

Of course I gave her a good talking to, shaking my finger at her and all. Then she seemed depressed the rest of the day (in my office with me), not even acting like herself.

There are a few reasons I can think of why she was so upset as to behave like this, but I also cannot have a dog hold me hostage, so I'm going to have to figure out something (suggestions welcome) -- I think I'll take her own crate with us in the future or begin leaving her at home with the other dogs. 

Last night, we leave her loose in our house overnight, as we've been doing. She is barking at us at 1:30 a.m. I let her go outside, then put her in her crate. I wake up this morning to fine a wine bottle cork all chewed up on the living room couch.

She just turned 6 months old. Back to puppy basics. Sigh.


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## Stevensondrive (Jul 20, 2010)

Dang!! She a lot of pent up energy. 

Smart dog though.


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## Deuce (Oct 14, 2010)

Lol


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## PaddyD (Jul 22, 2010)

Seems normal to me.  Mine did some bratty things like that, thank goodness no pee or poop. They become like pre-teens and teenagers and they take a lot of mental energy to deal with. Lots of exercise helps but they will still be brats. Then all of a sudden you realize the brat is gone and you have a GREAT dog. (with the occasional misbehaving)


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## Mrs.K (Jul 14, 2009)

Man do I not miss those days. HAHAHA

What you can do:

you can do is to not only puppy-proof the house and make sure that she can't chew up anything.

Pay very close attention and be right there to catch her in the act. 

Exercise her and work on obedience because soon she will not listening as well as she used to be. You will probably find yourself running after her because she doesn't want to get back into the house anymore. 

She will challenge you much more in future and now is the time to work on obedience if you haven't done that allready. 

She might also start reacting to other dogs or things out of the ordinary. While Indra is through all of the stages already she still reacts to things out of the ordinary. Like somebody sitting on the stairs at two in the morning while it's pitchblack outside. it's something that is out of the ordinary and a pup at that age may react by barking at the woman on the stairs even though she didn't do anything, just sitting there smoking at two in the morning could startle them since it's completely out of the ordinary, so lots of socialization is the key.


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## JazzNScout (Aug 2, 2008)

Today I caught her on the couch (wet) after a bath and told her, "off." She looked at me. "Come here, Layla." Stare. "Get off the couch, Layla." Ummm..Stare. I push her behind. She resists. I put one hand on her rear and the other up front to move her, and she actively resists. I win.

Later, I think she's napping. No, she had taken my husband's glasses off the coffee table, took them up on the couch and chewed them.

She just finished puppy basics training. We're signing up for obedience. And I think the little angel will be tethered to me the next few days. No more freedom. 

Sigh. I guess I should have known it was (up till now) too good to be true!


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

I'm stilll enjoying my angel puppy, don't remind me what is looming in the near future!


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

more crate time and training.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

when you keep an eye on your dog only good
things are looming.



Rerun said:


> I'm stilll enjoying my angel puppy, don't remind me what is looming in the near future!


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## Mrs.K (Jul 14, 2009)

Jazz, I feel for you. Been there, done that. Indra chewed my glasses too. It was the only thing besides two pair of shoes and the vacuum cleaners cable that she has ever chewed up... well... besides a ton of toilett-paper, Magazines and the newspapers... going through the trash, literally covering the floor with groundcoffee and eating half a bag of food and last but not least dragging trash into our bed. 

Looking back... it's actually comical and you still got to love them. It'll be over in a couple of months. 

By the way, I did not put her into the crate. I've watched her very closely and taught her the rules around the house and by the age of six months she was free to roam around. 

Did she still chew toilet paper when we left the bathroom door open? Yes, she did. It was like an invitation and sometimes she still does. But being close to eight months now, she's a well behaved young dog around the house but sometimes she can still get startled by things that are out of the ordinary. It doesn't happen very often but it still can happen from time to time. 

Crating, doesn't teach her anything.


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## JazzNScout (Aug 2, 2008)

I don't crate her to punish her. I just let her out of the crate (at night time, for sleeping) at too young an age -- she's not ready. Tonight will be her first full night back in the crate to sleep. She has proven she cannot be trusted yet. 

She is 6 months old. She just started this behavior this week.

My husband asked, startled, "What happened to our dog this week?!"


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## Mrs.K (Jul 14, 2009)

> My husband asked, startled, "What happened to our dog this week?!"


Tell him she's a 14 year old girl going through puberty.


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## BowWowMeow (May 7, 2007)

JazzNScout said:


> I don't crate her to punish her. I just let her out of the crate (at night time, for sleeping) at too young an age -- she's not ready. Tonight will be her first full night back in the crate to sleep. She has proven she cannot be trusted yet.
> 
> She is 6 months old. She just started this behavior this week.
> 
> My husband asked, startled, "What happened to our dog this week?!"


Wow, she's really hit the butthead stage full force! :shocked:

I wonder if she's getting enough exercise? Mine have all slept out of the crate once they're housebroken (fosters included) and no one has ever chewed anything during the night because they're too tired!


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

doggiedad said:


> more crate time and training.


Well of course if you lock them away all the time they can't do anything, but what kind of life is that? I crate my dogs when necessary and for training purposes but to say that a dog will never go through a testing stage is ridicuous. I've raised a lot of puppies and crated to varying degrees over the years and they've all done it to some extent.

your post doesn't even make any sense. The dog was crated that day and destroyed the crate and when let out pottied all over the house. What exactly would "more crate time" accomplish? Of course training helps, but puppies aren't born trained. I'm sure the OP is training their dog. Sometimes **** happens, no need to fault them for posting a story.

Dante pee'd on the floor last night! I must be a terrible dog trainer now because he had an accident even though he's basically house broken.


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## PaddyD (Jul 22, 2010)

You crate her for your sanity and hers. You both need quiet time. Some call that training, I call that peace and quiet. Either way, it works. I used to write complaint emails to my breeder, bless her heart (and patience). She had kept a sister and was going through the same things. She confessed that she doesn't really like them all that much until they get out of the teenage bratty phase ..... THEN they prove that they were worth it for the rest of their lives.


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## JazzNScout (Aug 2, 2008)

BowWowMeow said:


> Wow, *she's really hit the butthead stage full force! :shocked:*
> 
> I wonder if she's getting enough exercise? Mine have all slept out of the crate once they're housebroken (fosters included) and no one has ever chewed anything during the night because they're too tired!


lol -- It is like night and day! I thought we made it nicely through the chewing stage since her adult teeth have come in -- She didn't chew anything but her own toys before this. 
She gets lots of exercise, but a before-bed activity might be in order. Brat!


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## smileydog (Jun 11, 2010)

I would give her some raw bones to chew on, I give my boy one everyday, he needs some thing to do for a few hours, he's a bratty 8 month old and has started to jump up on me and other bad things but he is a good dog just going through stages. Hand in there!

Julie


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## Cherry314 (Jul 21, 2010)

*Oh I needed to hear this!*

Jax (male) is 5 months and Kona (female) will be 6 months in a week. They had started driving us nutts. Kona is trying to undermine the deck buy digging every hole she can (Wish I could train her to til the garden like that) around it, both are jumping on me when I go outside with them, They ate parts off the grill when I left them outside, and last but not least I had a canvas folding chair out on the deck and was feeding them some treats. Went in the house and put a bowl up and came right back out and there they were!!! They had pulled the folding chair off the deck and out in the yard had eaten the cup holder and tags off of it and was playng tug of war with it.  When I got out there they started running around like they were crazy. They had that look as if they were telling each other, "There she is. Run!" So, long story short this post reminds me that in the long run I will end up with two wonderful, though they might be stinkers at times, dogs.


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## shawnhines (Oct 27, 2010)

Until you have her fully trained, maybe you should keep her in the crate whenever you don't have time to interact with her ... it's when you are focused on something else that she can get into trouble before you know it (and it's too late to redirect, prevent, or correct).

While you were cleaning up her mess, she pooped on your bed? Wow!

Put her in the crate while you clean and until you have time to pay attention to her and catch the bad behaviors before or as they are beginning.

I allow my dogs to "hang out" with me in the office. If I am into something that requires me to be focused and un-interrupted, I send them to bed (crate), just in case. When I have the freedom to hang with them and pay attention - and to stop or correct unwanted behavior (not on the phone, etc), I have them with me and use all of my movements around the house as opportunities to train them (how to wait at doorways if I don't want to be followed, how to get used to staying in place with me out of sight, how to relax into the down/stay for an indefinite period of time, come to me, etc).

You have to WATCH your dog until she is reliable. 

Also, she probably needs LOTS more mental stimulation and physical exercise. She IS a German Shepherd, after all. Puzzles, Kongs, and other interesting chew toys can work wonders. And don't forget to teach her something every day. Anything at all. Just engage her mind and exercise her body. Doing so will strengthen your bond, and cause you to have the kind of companion dog everyone wants!

Shawn Hines
Best Buddy Dog Training || Home
====================
Simon, WGSD
Gabby, Rescued GSD


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