# Reaching the end of my tether :(!



## elliegracex

Hi all! 
Hope you had a fab Christmas & New Year. Loved having Christmas for the first time with Bertie, he loved opening presents.

I just need a bit of reassurance/advice/anything (!!) with whats happening lately. He is ten months in a couple of days and it's like this week something has completely changed within him. He has always been quite strong willed and sometimes stubborn but lately he is being so badly behaved. He deliberately ignores commands, excessively barks and is just hard to handle at the moment. 
It's seriously frustrating as he is truly a lovely dog but it's really hard to deal with. He seems to have endless energy as well, after an hours walk he still runs around like a mad dog, barking to demand attention, barking to go outside every 10 minutes even tho he doesn't need the loo. 
I'm really not sure what to do anymore. 
And we've made absolutely no progress with stopping him jumping up. He jumps at absolutely everything. If we meet someone on walks he jumps up at them and won't stop, it's embarrassing and frustrating. Anyone comes to the house and he jumps at them constantly til he gets attention. We've tried ignoring him for a couple of months and that doesn't work at all. He would win every medal at doggie olympics!

He was neutered before Christmas, and I'm hoping maybe it's just adolescence but any words of wisdom would be hugely appreciated. 

Thank you so much in advance!


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## RuthMill

10 months is adolescence, teenager time! They all go through it and some owners have a difficult time with their dogs at this stage. You have to take it all with a pinch of salt but remain assertive, keep at the training and don't let him think he's boss. He's testing the boundaries, got an extra bit of confidence and he's using it to the best of his ability. I am certain this will pass. Plenty of exercise and mental stimulation, it's a good time to really focus on training even though it will be frustrating for you but reinforcement is a good idea.

The jumping up thing can be hard to break. Ignoring it is probably your best bet, it's the only thing that works for us. 

Good luck.. Don't worry your lovely boy will come out the other end! Oh.. and so will you


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## Lottierachel

Fingers crossed, I didn't have the adolescent stage too bad (there's still time!) but Tilly did go through a phase of barking lots and came out of the other end of it. She barks occasionally, but not excessively.

She was always a jumper-upper. I hated it. I found it really anti-social. I tried ignoring, teaching the command "off" and clicker training. Then I found pet corrector spray  it's a compressed air spray that makes a really loud hiss, dogs hate the sound of it. You have to get the timing right and spray it right as the dog jumps up, but it made Tilly get down straight away, and after spraying it on 4 or 5 occasions, she now no longer jumps up at visitors or people on walks!

You can get it from amazon or pets at home - I would strongly recommend!

Hope your boy comes out of the other end of his teenage phase xx


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## RangerC

Barney is a similar age and he also is barking much more and his recall is not as good. He has discovered that everything on the ground is much more interesting to sniff at and he will come when he is ready and not before.

We bought one of those air sprays which someone on here recommended for the barking. He hates it but the difficulty is having it to hand for every time he barks. However, he is getting the hang of it and the barking is not so bad. He only has to be shown the can now and he looks guilty.

I always thought it was odd that barney has more energy when he just comes back from a walk. He seems to need another 5 or 10 minutes play otherwise he looks for trouble (ie stealing something). The laser pointer is the answer. I was entralled at the descriptions of play on here so barney got one in his stocking. He loves it and 5 minutes chasing it around when he comes in from a walk is just the ticket.

Jumping up is a hard one. Barney was good as a pup but it's other people that are the problem. Once someone encourages it, it's a hard habit to break. I put my hands in the air and say "off" and he is as good as gold but it doesn't stop him jumping up everyone else.

I have heard they calm down at about 14 months so it won't always be so hard. Keep up with the rewards for good behaviour - I keep telling myself it will calm down soon.


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## Lexi&Beemer

You could be describing my two. Beemer will not stop barking. Tried corrector spray but difficult to have all the time. I'm trying something different rather than try to distract that way call him to do some training. Both are very good motivated. So he has a touch time barking and touching my hand to get a treat. Also for them sit includes being quiet so that works too sometimes. As for jumping, ignoring didn't work and he was especially bad as he's take a nip too. What did seem to work is when they jump up I had my hand up and lightly tap their noses. A couple of time and they only jump on me if I encourage them. I've increased how much time I spend training. And that seems to help big nothing else makes them difficult to do the things that are frustrating. As for laser crack. Can't say enough. It'll even work in small or big spaces. But most of all, I feel your pain. It does seem like it keeps coming at you. But I bet if you wrote out all the things he doesn't do anymore and all the great things he does do it'll be bigger than the list of things that drive you bonkers. And if nothing else works, I just hold their face and look into their eyes up close and fall madly in love and the other things kind of fade away.


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## tessybear

Hi Ellie,
It all sounds very familiar! Mine are very naughty about jumping up and i have to shut them behind a see- through gate when someone comes to the house. Mine are both very lively and are far better off having 2-3 short walks rather than one long one. ( this is easy for me as I live right next door to a park) They always sleep well after walks as they are much calmer. They also play together a lot in the house so burn up lots of energy together. Dare I suggest another dog?!


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## rellek

I hope things are going at all better for you Ellie. I wish I had solid advice for you, but all I can say is that I completely understand how you feel. Our puppy Ludo is 8 months old and I feel like we can't have a social life and have people over because of how absolutely obnoxious he is with the jumping, nipping, and begging for play. I asked my husband what we could do about it and he said "get rid of him." hno: ... hang in there, and I will try to as well. Sending patient vibes your way to you and your pup.


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## Lexi&Beemer

My two started the jumping and nipping around that time. The nipping has gone away by going back to the corrections that worked before. As for the jumping, I decided trying to stop the jump isn't working for a variety of reasons. So I've decided to train them to jump up on command so that they can also learn to get off on command. They seem a bit calmer and I am trying to make every opportunity a way to improve obedience and extra training. So they seem to listen a bit more too. I probably should have nipped it in the bud when they were small but I fully take responsibility and own up to the fact that I can't resist their cute faces. Now, any clues about barking?


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## DB1

Hang on in there, I'm sure it will improve but I think there are times when we just deal with things better than others and you are probably going through one of the harder times. I will say that I was warned Dudley could get worse before getting better after his op, while the hormones were settling down, I wouldn't say Dudley did but I didn't really notice much calming down until 2 or 3 months after his op, but of course that may have just been due to maturity anyway.
I think you need to try to calmly assert your leadership over him again, just a little reminder. Ask him to sit before letting him out when he needs to go, and always before feeding if you don't already. When you say you have been ignoring him do you ignore him whenever you come home? or get up in the morning, it feels sad because the welcome is lovely but I found if I completely ignored Dudley for at least 10 mins, made a cup of tea or something and then sat down and called him to me for a fuss it really worked. The jumping up at others is something we are still working on, too many people still fuss him the second he jumps up. if we have visitors I know won't appreciate him jumping I have to hold onto him when they come in, others that don't mind are told not to acknowledge him until he settles. The barking is another one we have yet to overcome, I may try the pet corrector again, it did help a little previously but then he just got used to it! He doesn't bark quite as much as he used to though. Good Luck!!


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## JasperBlack

Most certainly adolescence, it is so frustrating! Jasper would suddenly dive on me a bite at me, little monster. No commands worked, water spray was amusing to him and crating was a temporary fix. I opted for a training whistle to get his attention then gave the STOP command with a hand gesture. We used the whistle for about 2 weeks then found it was no longer required. He is back to being a good boy 😊 At 18 months jumping up is still an issue especially when excited, I will look into the corrector spray Lottie, thanks for the recommendation! Good luck and hang in there xx


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