Naughty stafford

Hi all, Harley is approaching 6 months and I feel like im back at square one with him. Today at the park he found a hole in the fence and ran down a banking where there was a very fast flowing river, thankfully I was very quick of the mark and got him but his recall has gone out the window when is is normally very good in fairness. Also when he gets in from walks he has a mad zoomie usually 15-20 mins and he is very nippy and growly especially when he's wet and I have to towel dry him. I take his collar off to dry and its like he knows he can be naughty lol jumping up nipping, trying to hump me lol (was funny at first but not so when you have boiling hot tea in your hands) time outs seem to be doing the trick but I was just wondering if anyone thinks this is the start of the teenage phase? Thanks

hopefully someone can help you with some advice i would say with the towel drying tho if he starts to nip/bite just stand up and completely ignore him.

mmm does sound like he's heading towards the teenage phase,back to basics for you Harley

Recall is probably that he's out of the clingy phase and gaining more confidence to explore - long line attached to a harness would be your best bet for a while. Towel drying may be overstimulating for him - try short treat/trick training sessions when you return from walks to tire him out mentally and redirect onto a toy but have a clear settle down time. The fact that you were finding it funny initially may have reinforced it a little but nothing that can't be fixed

I think Rachel has It pretty much spot on. He may be approaching the naughty teens also so reinforcing the training with back to basic s won't hurt. Infact, it's never a bad thing at any age just to go over the basics Beth

Django is almost 7 and a half months and has definitely hit his teenage period! His recall is generally good but sometimes he becomes so excited I have to shout like a loon ball for a while before he takes notice

He loves water but is exactly the same when it comes to drying, I leave his collar on or change it to dry one and keep a grip of it, anytime he starts his nonsense I give a sharp no, or other noise we use as part of training and a light tug on his collar, and he usually stops...for a minute anyway!

aww brilliant thank you all for the advice