Teenage Hormones

Hi Everyone, just wanted to seek some advice regarding Heston's recent changes...

...Heston is now approx 8 months old and has started cocking his leg this week (30% of his unrination and increasing daily). He is definately 'saving' his urine to mark and I am already identifying certain places out on our regular walks and in our garden that he is re-marking regularly. He is particularly infactuated with any Female markings and (sorry for the details!) laps it up before walking away chomping in arousal. We have also witnessed him having a 'wet' dream and you really don't need the details even though i heard it is rare! Lastly he has roamed off twice this week when we have been working outside to investigate the farmers fields next door, which is completely unlike him as he normally likes to be able to check where we are regularly.

Obviously he is having an absolute testosterone surge at the moment, which we want to support him through and keep an eye on. We are keeping him on a longline when we are working outside from now on, as we do not want the roaming behaviour to continue. However, I am not sure whether any other of his behaviours he is exhibiting are the beginnings of something more that I need to curb now? Every time I go to look things up/talk to the vets regarding these topics they all end up being all about castrating and it is very confusing

You're right, it's all perfectly normal and yes, the vets will only tell you to castrate him. If you don't want to go down that route, then just being firm with him & making sure he knows that when you tell him to do something he has to do it, will see him through it.

Dempsey (and all males, neutered or not) will sniff at urine & if it's particularly interesting, lick it! That's to get more information on the scent. Even females will do that!

The wandering off is more a case of growing up & becoming more confident. A long line will keep him from getting himself injured or lost, and as long as you keep on top of his training you'll come through it with a calmer, more confident adult dog.

A word of warning, though. Dempsey has only recently calmed down, and he's now 3 years old!

Oh boy, you're in for it now! The 'teenage' phase can be awful. My sweet little angel turned into a devil at about 7 months old. He started calming down again at about 12-14 months and now, at 19 months old, he's absolutely fantastic. Hang in there with various naughty or strange behaviours that might start around now, he'll grow out of it soon (unless you have a Dempsey in which case you'll be waiting for a while!)

Thank you for the re-assurance both of you, I realise that we are on the rocky path of adolesence and could be on it for a while!!! Me & the OH have have just being having a wobbly week in terms of making the right decisions for Heston...

...when we got him from the rescue centre we were told to get him neutered as soon as he hit 6 months, which at the time we fully intended to go ahead with. Then after doing research and looking at opinions (particularly on this forum), we decided to postpone it until he was fully grown. At KC our friend and resident dog behaviourist has recently told us in her opinion that the time is right for him and our local vets (rural farmer's vets) just looks at us as if we're crazy for not having him done. Its just so hard to make an informed decision and stick to it, but we keep saying to eachother "there was no point postponing it if we didn't intend on allowing him to reach full maturity".

I know what you are going through! Buster is almost 8 months now and the naughty behaviour has started. He has started jumping up everybody really badly. When out on walks he is kept on a long line to try to get him to listen to me when other dogs are around so I can keep a bit more control of him. Sometimes I ask him to sit and he stands there looking at me as if to say "No, I dont want to" even though he normally sits perfect every time. I dont give in as easily as he does though so he always ends up doing what I want! Lol.

We have also decided not to get Buster done untill he has matured. Our last staffy was done at 6/7 months and then he started getting a bit dog aggressive. I dont know if it was from him being neutered or not, but I am not risking it yet. I was talking to a lady this morning and she was saying she had her collie done at 6 months and she wished now she had left him for longer as he seems very nervous of other dogs and things, almost as if he is stuck with a puppy mind. Our vets say to us about it every time we go in, but I am not getting him done untill he is at least two unless there is a reason we need to get it done sooner.