Will My Dog Grow Out of It?

Some things, yes. Most of what people are hoping for, no. Puppy biting, chewing, potty accidents, and the frantic energy of a four month old all fade with maturity. Pulling, barking, jumping, reactivity, resource guarding, and door dashing do not, because those get rehearsed daily and practice makes them permanent. The dividing line is whether the behavior is developmental or whether it is being reinforced.

Here is the test I give clients. Ask whether the behavior is getting your dog something he wants. Puppy biting is a developmental stage that fades whether or not it pays. Pulling on the leash pays every single time, because pulling makes the walk go forward. Anything on the paying side of that line will get stronger with age, not weaker.

What dogs genuinely outgrow

• Puppy biting and mouthing. Mostly gone between four and six months as the adult teeth come in, provided you are not wrestling with your hands.
• Indiscriminate chewing. Peaks during teething from about three to seven months, then again briefly in adolescence, then fades. Adults who still destroy things are usually bored or anxious rather than immature.
• Potty accidents. Bladder control matures around four to six months. If a dog over eight months is still having regular accidents, that is a training or medical issue, not an age issue.
• Excitement peeing. Usually gone by twelve months.
• Zoomies and the evening crazies. They get shorter and less frequent from about eighteen months.
• Sleeping through the night. Almost every puppy is there by sixteen weeks.

What they do not outgrow

• Leash pulling. Every walk is a rep. A four year old dog who has pulled for four years is a much harder retraining job than a six month old puppy.
• Jumping on people. It gets worse, because at seven months it is charming and at two years he weighs seventy pounds and has been rewarded a thousand times.
• Barking at windows, doors, and passing dogs. This is self reinforcing. The dog barks, the thing goes away, and the barking gets confirmed. Left alone for two years it becomes a deeply grooved habit.
• Reactivity to dogs or people. This one usually worsens with age, not just holds steady. Fear based reactivity in particular tends to escalate through adolescence and into adulthood.
• Resource guarding. Never wait this one out. It escalates and the consequences involve teeth.
• Counter surfing and food stealing. One success every two weeks is enough to maintain the behavior for life.
• Separation anxiety. Does not fade with maturity and often deepens.

Adolescence is not the same as outgrowing

Between about seven and eighteen months your dog will appear to lose skills he had at five months. Recall stops working, the sit gets slow, he starts noticing other dogs on walks. Owners hear that adolescence is a phase and take that to mean they should wait it out.

Adolescence is a phase. The habits your dog builds during it are not. A dog who spends twelve months practicing ignoring you does not wake up at two years old with a recall. What actually happens is that the owners who keep training through the teenage months come out the other side with a good adult dog, and the ones who waited come out with an eighteen month old who has a year of ignoring you behind him. Same phase, completely different results.

The deadlines worth knowing

• Sixteen weeks. The primary socialization window closes. Anything you have not exposed him to positively by then is harder for the rest of his life. This is the one deadline that is genuinely a deadline.
• Six months. Habits start setting. Leash manners and greeting behavior established here are much easier than corrected later.
• Twelve to eighteen months. Reactivity that has been ignored gets locked in. This is the window where a manageable problem becomes a lifestyle.
• Two years. Physically and mentally mature for most breeds. What you have at two is roughly what you have, unless you do the work.

So how do you tell in your own house

Track it for two weeks. Write down how many times a day the behavior happens. If the number is falling on its own, it is probably developmental and you can support it and wait. If it is flat or climbing, it is being reinforced and it will not resolve without intervention. That is a two week test that will tell you more than any general advice, mine included.

One thing worth saying about severity

There is a subset of behaviors where waiting is not on the table regardless of age, because the cost of being wrong is too high. Any growl or snap over food or space. Any bite that broke skin, on a person or a dog. Any dog who is stiffening and freezing around children. Do not run the two week test on those. Get help now, while the behavior is still small.

For everything else, the encouraging part is that the teenage months are also the most productive training window you will ever get. My free Adolescent Dog blueprint covers what to expect month by month and which drills to prioritize while everything feels like it is falling apart. Download the Adolescent Dog blueprint

Ready to train your dog?

Every drill in this article comes from the WorldWide K9 Academy course library. If you want the full step by step system, start with the $5 intro course.