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Permalink Reply by Beth on April 25, 2011 at 3:10pm

Welcome to the "teen-age" months!  This is normal and common;  somewhere between around 6 and 14 months most dogs wake up and realize they don't have to be good all the time.  This too shall pass. 

 

Short anwer is he has too much freedom too soon.  Virtually no dog under one year old should be trusted loose in the house unsupervised, and many aren't reliable til closer to 2.  Back to the crate/pen etc and when he hits around 12 to 16 months you can start giving him test-periods of a couple hours unsupervised to see how he does.    I think the single most common mistake people make with raising pups is giving them too much freedom too soon.   :-)

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Permalink Reply by Lori Odishoo on April 25, 2011 at 4:46pm

Ditto what Beth said.  Emme is just turning 8 months and is hitting those teen-age months now too.  She was being allowed to stay loose in the kitchen and tv room while we were gone with the other 2 dogs and then we came home the other night to find the rug pushed back and the rubbber nonslip mat underneath ripped up.  She is back in her crate when no one is home until we get past the next month or two.

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Permalink Reply by Tori on April 25, 2011 at 4:53pm

I suppose this is to be expected then. Winston will just have to go back to the crate for the time being I guess. I'm glad he loves it in there. I doubt he'll notice a big change. Thanks for the help!

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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on April 25, 2011 at 5:27pm

I usually crate until age 2 but I relented to pressure from my husband and only crated Izzy until one year. We no longer have the coasters, couch, can coolers and rugs etc we used to have but my theory for age two has been proven.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Markley on April 25, 2011 at 6:30pm

Ahhhh... the good 'ol teenage years.  I'll trade you my 16 year old female for your corgi.

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on April 25, 2011 at 7:39pm

Ah yes, those teen years...Sage is finally growing out of hers at 15 months! I would go back to crating.

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Permalink Reply by Lucy & Ricky (Wendy/Jack ) on April 28, 2011 at 10:49pm

Awww, so many great comments. This is why I lose so many hours to this site. I agree with all said about the teenage months. Lucy was a tough little puppy to train. She was often referred to as Lucifer. But once trained, she was perfect, UNTIL one day she wasn't. She tore into our living room couch with a vengeance. Then, never was destructive again. Ricky/Rafa is still crated at night and he's a year. We wouldn't dream of giving him the run of the house! Anyone who's seen some of his "work" will readily understand. But, the most moving was the comment by Jennifer Markley, fondly remembering the teenage years of her corgi who is now 16. Brava Jennifer and Brava to your 16 yr old. That's a long Corgi life & reflects on the great care given by her owners. Here's to all the corgi owners on mycorgi. You've inspired and supported me and made me LOL constantly. I've learned from all of you. Lastly, thank you Beth for reminding me that herding dogs often bark while herding, and I just need to get used to Lucy barking at RR whenever they frap, which is all the time (or at least until a neighbor reports us!). Enjoy the weekend and the royal wedding. I've been invited to a lot of sleepovers to watch the nuptials, but I suspect it's because my friends want to watch with royal dogs!

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Permalink Reply by Stephanie Raphaela Ho on April 29, 2011 at 4:24am

I too gave my 7 month old puppy freedom to roam the house too soon. 

But only when there are people home. He is confined in the kitchen at night when we sleep and when nobody is home. 

When he is out he would occasionally sneak away to chew on papers or our wooden coffee table leg :(
We had to keep distracting him with his own toys and correct him but he seems to have low attention span.. He would sneak off to find something else interesting to chew again or even steal our stuffs to make us 'chase' after him. 
I guess they are pretty rebellious at their teenage years haha

Barney occasionally pee and poo wrongly too. After our boy had a 'taste of freedom' running around the house, it was hard to retrain him with a Crate again because he would throw tantrums, jump around and bark non stop every time we confine him. =\ I don't think Winston would want to be crates again too. 
All I do now is ask Barney if he wants to go potty and direct him to the location and give him a treat when he did it right. 
My last resort would be to keep him on a leash indoors and make sure he is by my side under supervision all the time. 
Hope this helps :)

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Permalink Reply by Tori on April 29, 2011 at 2:41pm

Winston is pretty mild-mannered which is why this surprised me so much. He's been doing really well with his crating again. The only real issue I have with him is when we have company. He cannot chill out. We put him in the crate and he whines and whines and whines. We let him out and jumps all over our guests. It's hard too since they always want him in their laps, licking and loving all over them. 

 

For now, we're going to keep him confined in his crate when we aren't home. He doesn't seem to love his crate as much as he used to, but he certainly doesn't seem unhappy with it. I was really lucky to get Winston with such a care-free attitude! He really is a good doggy for 98% of the time.

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Permalink Reply by Parker on April 29, 2011 at 4:19pm

I think maybe the response to guests will get better too! Grover is 3 years old now and he is much better than he was with guests!! For the first 1 and a half it was a fiasco when we had company!! They wanted him to jump up and love on them and he definitely wanted to! But we had to do constant reminding to get him to stay down. He's loads better now! All the hard work we put in in that first 2 years definitely paid off!

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