The Teenage Dog Brain: Why Less Can Sometimes Be More
Has your once-responsive puppy suddenly started ignoring you?
Perhaps they’re more easily distracted, more excitable around other dogs, suddenly worried about things they previously seemed fine with, or finding it much harder to settle and listen when you’re out and about.
Welcome to adolescence!
The teenage stage can be a challenging time for dogs and their people, but there’s an important reason behind many of these changes: your dog’s brain is still developing.
Understanding what is happening inside the teenage brain can completely change the way we approach training during this important stage of development.
The Teenage Brain Is Under Construction
Adolescence is a period of significant brain development and reorganisation.
One of the areas still maturing is the prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain plays an important role in things like impulse control, decision-making, emotional regulation and the ability to pause and think before responding. We like to think of the prefrontal cortex as the brain’s librarian. The librarian helps organise information, assess what is happening and make sensible decisions about what to do next. The problem is that, during adolescence, the librarian is still learning the job!
At the same time, the parts of the brain involved in emotional responses – including the amygdala – can be particularly responsive. The amygdala is a little like the brain’s alarm system. It helps detect things that may be important, exciting or threatening and prepares the body to respond.
So, while the teenage librarian is still developing, the emotional alarm system can be VERY good at getting everyone’s attention.
That can look like:
Becoming extremely excited when another dog appears
Barking or lunging when frustrated
Suddenly seeming worried about unfamiliar people or objects
Finding it difficult to disengage from something interesting
Struggling to respond to familiar cues around distractions
Becoming overwhelmed in busy environments
Appearing to have completely forgotten their training!
Your dog hasn’t necessarily forgotten everything you taught them. Sometimes, their emotional brain is simply shouting louder than their librarian can manage.
More Exposure Isn’t Always Better
This is where we need to be particularly thoughtful about what we ask of teenage dogs.
There can be a temptation during adolescence to think: “They need to get used to it.”
So we take them to busier places. We encourage them to meet lots of dogs. We expose them to increasingly stimulating environments and hope that, eventually, they’ll learn to cope.
However, simply exposing a dog to something doesn’t make it beneficial. If the experience is overwhelming, they may be learning the very opposite of what we intended. Keep in mind that every experience is also an opportunity for the brain to learn. If a teenage dog repeatedly sees another dog and becomes incredibly excited, pulls towards them, barks and completely loses the ability to respond to their person, they are getting lots of practice at having that enormous emotional response and their amygdala is growing stronger.
Similarly, repeatedly putting a worried adolescent dog into situations they find frightening doesn’t necessarily help them learn that those situations are safe. If the experience is too intense or overwhelming, it may instead reinforce their perception that there really was something to worry about.
So rather than asking, “What does my dog need to be exposed to?”, consider asking: “What is my dog learning from this experience?”
Because when it comes to socialisation, it’s not simply the experience itself that matters — it’s how your dog perceives it.
Quality Over Quantity
Adolescence isn't about keeping your dog wrapped in cotton wool. We absolutely want them to experience the world. But we want those experiences to be manageable, positive and appropriate for the individual dog in front of us.
A five-minute outing where your dog can sniff, explore, take food, check in with you and calmly observe the world will be far more beneficial than spending an hour somewhere so stimulating that they cannot think.
Sometimes the best choice is to create more distance.
Sometimes it's letting your dog watch rather than interact.
Sometimes it's choosing a quiet walking route instead of the busy one.
And sometimes it's recognising that your dog has had enough and heading home.
More experiences aren’t necessarily better; what matters is whether your dog can cope with and learn from them.
Your Teenage Dog Doesn't Need to Greet Everyone
This is particularly important when it comes to other dogs. A common misconception is that socialisation means allowing dogs to interact with lots of other dogs.
It doesn't.
One of the most valuable lessons we can teach an adolescent dog is: “You can see another dog without needing to interact with them.”
Your dog doesn't need to greet every dog on a walk. They don't need to play with every friendly dog. And they certainly don't need to attend a busy dog park to become well socialised.
For many teenage dogs, learning to calmly notice another dog and then continue walking with their person is a much more useful life skill.
Help the Librarian Get Stronger
Our goal during adolescence is not to stop our dogs experiencing emotions.
It's to give their developing brains lots of opportunities to practise regulation, disengagement and good decision-making.
We can help the librarian by:
Training in environments where our dog is capable of learning
Gradually introducing distractions rather than throwing them into the deep end
Reinforcing calm choices and engagement
Allowing plenty of opportunities to sniff and explore
Providing adequate sleep and downtime
Avoiding unnecessary high-arousal situations
Giving our dogs distance from things they find difficult
Teaching them that they don't need to interact with everything they see
As their brains continue to mature, these experiences help build the skills they will need as adult dogs.
Have a Teenage Dog? Join Our Teenage Dog Academy
Our Teenage Dog Academy has been specifically designed for adolescent dogs aged 6–18 months.
Rather than simply expecting teenage dogs to “behave” around increasingly difficult distractions, we focus on helping them develop practical skills for navigating everyday life.
Across our four-week small-group course, we'll work on skills including settling and regulation, leash manners, engagement around distractions and impulse control – while helping you better understand the teenage dog standing at the other end of the lead.
Classes are deliberately kept small, with a maximum of six dogs, so we can create a supportive learning environment without overwhelming our teenage students.
Teenage Dog Academy is available at Blackwood and Flagstaff Hill.
If your sweet puppy has suddenly become a distracted, excitable or opinionated teenager, we'd love to help you navigate this stage together.
Enrol in Teenage Dog Academy and help your teenager build the skills they need for adulthood.
