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Anyone have a very good puppy, but experience a lot of issues later?


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I have a 13 week old puppy who I've been training since I got her at 7 weeks. First was housetraining and crate training. She was able to sleep through the night at 8 weeks and comes up to me when she has to potty during the day if she's outside of her crate. She can guzzle water right before bed and sleep 9 hours straight. She also learned to sit for things she wanted (food, toys) in her first week home with me. We've been working on down, look, touch, leave it, recall for the past several weeks. I just started duration work with her. She's doing very well and picks up everything quickly. She was good on a leash when I first started walking her around 9 weeks. She is learning how to be calm around people passing by and people greeting her. She's good in the crate in my car and at my house. She's well socialized with dogs and puppies at a doggie day care. They tell me she's confident and will play with any sized dog. I take her to cafes and coffee shops all the time and she does great. I'm honestly not experiencing any huge issues with her. Just training good behavior and teaching her what's acceptable and what's not. I feel like she's too good to be true and I'm going to jinx myself or something! Did anyone else have a very good puppy, but things went downhill for whatever reason? Just curious if this is an indicator of fewer issues down the road or if it's completely hit or miss.

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I wouldn't say I experienced a lot of issues with my former puppy, Bandit, but things did get . . . interesting when he hit adolescence. It makes sense - new chemicals in the brain, everything developing. He went through a stage where he turned into a Beagle and did NOTHING but sniff. We took those stages in stride and he came out on the other side better than ever.

 

I don't know about girls, though. I have only raised boy puppies.

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Well they do usually go through some stages, there will be stages where they will forget everything you taught them or just decide not to listen to a command that as a a little munchkin they listened to everytime ... Fear stages where something normal will freak her out... and some things... Like reactivity are known to show up later... However regardless of all those stages and the possibility and probability of it getting much harder (relative to what your experiencing from a very young puppy) down the line that foundation and socializing will do WONDERS for her focus and training no matter what happens.

 

You are setting her up for huge success by teaching all of these things early. So yes and no... Things may pop up but because of her history and your bond, it will probably be much easier to work through IF that happens.

 

Puppies at that age are known for being very very eager to please and it is completely normal for them to "back track" when they start growing older and more independent... Don't be worried or nervous that it means anything at all just work through it, they get past that too... Oh man I have puppy fever thinking about it!

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I wouldn't say I experienced a lot of issues with my former puppy, Bandit, but things did get . . . interesting when he hit adolescence. It makes sense - new chemicals in the brain, everything developing. He went through a stage where he turned into a Beagle and did NOTHING but sniff. We took those stages in stride and he came out on the other side better than ever.

 

I don't know about girls, though. I have only raised boy puppies.

Haha just had flashbacks to how frustrating walks were when Wick wouldn't stop sniffing EVERYTHING and I had to drag him away because he wouldn't listen to me... Not to mention every thing was worthy of eating ;)

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The dog I raised from puppy-hood was my labradoodle puppy, and he never developed any real issues as he got older. Went through typical bratty adolescence, but was in general a well-balanced, social, well behaved dog. Except for that time I discovered he loved chasing deer more than ANYTHING and he took off in the woods. We had proofed recalls against a lot of distractions, but not that one, and clearly it was too much. He was social enough that he found a person walking their dog in the woods and walked back to the field with them, and went home with our neighbor.

 

I read a book once called "Juvenile Delinquent Dogs" and it might be useful for when you inevitably hit the "my dog is a wacky teenager and I want to cry" portion of their life. You will come out the other side, but adolescent dogs are tough.

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I think the biggest struggle, as said will be the 'teen' period. This is when the dog will test its boundaries and it is very important you don't let bad behavior slide during this time or the dog will decide it's always OK or at the very least decide it's ok some times. Basically just be very consistent with your rules, if it's not ok to jump on people right now it's never ok to jump on them ever.

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