Your puppy hits seven months, and something strange happens. That recall you worked on for months? Gone. The polite leash walking you were so proud of? Disappeared. Your puppy looks at you when you give commands with an expression that can only be described as considering their options. Welcome to adolescence.
I call this the phase where dogs temporarily forget their own name. I have seen it in every herding breed I have trained, including my own. The dog who won a flyball tournament at six months would not come when called at eight months. The dogs we compete with nationally went through periods where I genuinely wondered if all my training was pointless.
It is not. This phase is temporary. But living through it does not feel temporary.
What Is Happening in Their Brain
During adolescence, your dog's brain is undergoing significant remodeling. Neural pathways are being pruned and reorganized. Hormones are fluctuating wildly, especially if your dog has not been altered. This affects impulse control, attention span, and the ability to respond to learned cues.
Think of it as your dog's brain temporarily under construction. The foundation is there. The training is stored. But accessing it is harder while the renovations are happening. Your job is to support them through this process, not to expect them to function normally when their brain chemistry is anything but normal.
Regression Is Normal
Behaviors that seemed solid will slip. This is not a training failure. This is developmental. Treat it the same way you would treat a child who suddenly starts having accidents after being potty trained, which also happens during developmental phases.
Go back to basics. If recall is failing, do not practice recall in distracting environments. Practice in the house with high-value treats. Practice on leash in the yard. Make success easy again before increasing difficulty.
Do not get angry when your dog appears to have forgotten training. Anger damages your relationship and does nothing to help them through this phase. They are not being defiant in a human sense. Their brain is just not processing normally right now.
The Long Line Becomes Your Best Friend
Between months seven and nine, your dog should not be off leash in unfenced areas. Period. Their recall is not reliable enough. Their impulse control is compromised. One failed recall when a squirrel appears can result in a lost dog or worse.
Use a long line. Fifteen to thirty feet gives your dog freedom to explore while keeping them safe. This is not giving up on training. This is management that allows you to continue training without disasters.
Long Line Safety
- Attach to a harness, never a collar. Sudden stops can injure necks.
- Wear gloves to prevent rope burn if your dog bolts
- Never wrap the line around your hand or any body part
- Let the line drag. Step on it if needed rather than gripping.
- Inspect regularly for fraying. Replace when worn.
Energy Levels Peak
Just when their brain is least equipped to handle it, your dog's energy levels reach maximum intensity. This is the age when most herding breed owners start seriously questioning their life choices. The combination of teenage brain and adult energy is genuinely challenging.
Physical exercise alone will not solve this. You cannot out-exercise a herding breed. Trust me, people have tried. What you can do is provide mental stimulation that tires their brain.
- Puzzle feeders instead of food bowls. Make every meal work.
- Training sessions multiple times daily, kept short
- Scent work games. Hide treats around the house and yard.
- New environments to explore. Novel locations require mental processing.
Our mental stimulation guide provides detailed activities for channeling that adolescent energy productively.
The Zoomies Intensify
If you thought the puppy zoomies were intense, wait until adolescent zoomies. Your dog may run laps around your house at speeds that seem physically impossible. Furniture may be casualties. Your sanity will be tested.
These energy explosions often signal that mental or physical needs are not being met. But sometimes they just happen because your dog is a teenage herding breed with more energy than sense. Provide a safe outlet when possible. A fenced yard is invaluable during this phase.
Social Behavior Changes
Dogs who were friendly with everyone may become more selective during adolescence. Dogs who loved the dog park may suddenly start posturing or getting into altercations. This is normal social development, but it requires management.
Reduce unstructured dog park time during this phase. Adolescent dogs are figuring out their social place, and dog parks provide too many variables. One bad interaction can create lasting reactivity issues, especially in breeds already predisposed to noticing and responding to other dogs.
Fear Periods May Resurface
Many dogs go through a secondary fear period between six and fourteen months. Something that did not bother your puppy before may suddenly become terrifying. This is developmental and should be handled gently.
Do not force your dog to confront fears. Do not coddle excessively either. Acknowledge the fear matter-of-factly, create distance from the scary thing, and reward calm behavior. Forced exposure during a fear period can create permanent phobias.
If your dog suddenly develops fear of something common like cars or bicycles, slow down. You may need to do desensitization work that feels like starting from scratch. This is frustrating but necessary. The fear period passes, but trauma created during it can persist.
Hormones Complicate Everything
If your dog is intact, expect hormonal behavior to peak during this phase. Males may start marking, showing interest in females, and becoming more reactive to other males. Females approaching their first heat may become moody, clingy, or distracted.
The decision of when or whether to spay or neuter is personal and should be discussed with your veterinarian. There are health considerations on both sides. What matters for training purposes is recognizing that hormones are affecting behavior and adjusting your expectations accordingly.
Training Focus During Adolescence
This is not the time to teach complex new behaviors. Focus instead on maintaining and strengthening basics. Every successful repetition during this phase builds neural pathways that survive the remodeling.
What to prioritize:
- High-value recall practice in low-distraction environments
- Impulse control games. Wait, leave it, stay.
- Focus exercises. Rewarding attention on you heavily.
- Relationship building. Play together, explore together, be interesting.
Be More Interesting Than the World
Adolescent dogs are increasingly interested in everything except you. Your job is to become more interesting than squirrels, other dogs, and random smells. This is harder than it sounds.
Find what your dog loves and use it. Tug games. Chase games. Food thrown in tall grass. Whatever makes your dog light up, use it to reward engagement with you. Competition for attention is real during this phase. You need to compete well.
Do Not Give Up Now
Month seven through nine is the peak surrender period at shelters. Adolescent dogs are given up at higher rates than any other age. They are frustrating, demanding, and seemingly untrainable. But they are not. They are puppies in development. The dog they become depends heavily on how you handle this phase. Hold on. It gets better.
Self-Care for Dog Owners
I cannot stress this enough: your mental health matters during adolescence. This phase is exhausting. It is discouraging. It is easy to feel like you have failed your dog when really you are just in the hardest part of the journey.
Find your support system. Online groups of breed-specific owners who understand what you are going through. A trainer who can reassure you that this is normal. Friends or family who can give you a break when needed.
Take photos and videos of the good moments. Watch them when the bad moments feel overwhelming. Your dog does still love you. Your dog will come back to their trained self. The proof exists in those captured moments.
What You Are Working Toward
By the end of month nine, the worst should be behind you. Not the end of adolescence, which continues into the second year, but the peak chaos tends to happen around eight months. You are weathering the storm.
Small improvements start appearing again. Moments where your dog makes the right choice without thinking. Glimpses of the adult they are becoming beneath the teenage chaos. These moments will become more frequent.
The investment you have made in time, energy, and patience is building toward something real. The final stretch from month ten to twelve shows you what that investment yields.
Continue to Month 10-12: Light at the End of the Tunnel to see what awaits on the other side of adolescence.