My partner and I have a 9 month old english labrador, and his teenage phase is really giving me the puppy blues. 

We hit a sweet spot when he turned 6 months until he became 8 months where he was a dream to take on walks, could settle outside his playpen and his puppy biting stopped. We have been to puppy classes, and are now taking a teenage dog class. I do consistent training with him, and he gets mental stimulation through lickmats/puzzles/sniffing for treats outside. We do more mental stimulation than long walks. He gets his daily food through training and not from a bowl.

Even though we live in a city, we live right next to a big park and we have a big green field right outside our appartment complex. So the area we live in is a very popular place to have a dog. And that means dogs everywhere, and all he wants is to play with all the dogs, so he pulls and sometimes lounges/whines/barks. It is not aggressive, but it is so frustrating and he is becoming quite strong. No amazing treat (not even cheese which is his favourite) or toy can distract him, we have tried to find what has a higher value than other dogs, but we havent found any. 

He has two playmates that we meet almost daily so he gets to play, and he is really good at playing with other dogs.

He has also started jumping/nipping on us again on walks. I use a «treat rain» over his head and say «search» when this happens, which works, and I also use the «sit» command. I am very calm in these situations, but it is still so frustrating to go throuh this again. 

He loves to chew on furniture again, it stopped for a while but now he is back at it. so I have to be supervising almost every waking hour.

And he gets over excited when people want to greet him, he jumps and is all over the place. He manages to calm down after a little while, and I keep consistent training with not letting him greet people when he jumps. 

And a new challenge is he has started barking at doors slamming, people running in the stairway, and other unknown noises. He only barks when we are home with him, and we train on this as well by saying «its ok», and making different noises by knocking on windows/walls/the door/ringing the doorbell while we give him treats. 

I have to admit, it is a lot of work, it is non stop - and I feel exhausted. I try to calm myself by reminding me of what he is good at. He can be home alone in his playpen for 6 hours, he sleeps/chills the whole time when we are not home. He is not interested in shoes or socks anymore. He can relax and lay down when we eat dinner. He sleeps through the night and is used to our daily routine. He has been potty trained since he was 12 weeks old. 

I think what broke me today was barking at one of the neighbours after a very frustrating walk. I just felt like such a failure. 

This post is more me venting because I am so tired, but I love our dog so much and hoping that he will become the chill dog we are striving for. I know it is hormonal and a fear period for him, and he is probably having a challenging time too. 

So, how did you survive the teenage phase? 

Ps: sorry for my english, it is not my first language❤️

Teenage labrador