It should come as no surprise to dog owners, that when your puppy reaches the mid first year everything seems to change in dog behavior. Your once adorable pup that use to follow you everywhere now seems to focus his or her attention elsewhere, begins to shed leaving behind hair all over the place, and may even mount or nip at you.

This is not abnormal dog behavior but rather your pup is beginning to experience life most likely reaching their adolescent age. Generally, this happens around six-months old and like their human counterparts, hormones are raging, hair and skin begin to change, and defiance seems to be the attitude of the day. Commends they knew yesterday seem lost on them giving rise to frustration and impatience on the part of the dog owner.

Understanding where your pup is at mentally and physically at this age is the best remedy for relieving aggravation. The old adage of one dog year equally seven human years applies only when your dog reaches four years old. However, during the adolescent years when your pup is say six-months old think of them at age 10 in human years, at 12 months it is more like a 15-year-old, 18 months is more like 20. By the time they reach two years old, they are more like a 23-year-old; still young but starting to act like an adult. The old adage begins to work at age four when they act more like a 28-year-old.

The thing to remember is that although at 9-months old your dog is physically grown-up, mentally they are undeveloped. Depending on your dog breed, their maturity may not be reached until three years old. The good news for dog owners is that the adolescent years last only months and not years like those in humans.

While dog obedience training should continue through these adolescent years, it will test your patience to its limit. If you feel yourself becoming overwhelmed with frustration then it is time to end the training lesson and start back up again later. Like the first time you taught your pup a new command, use the same line of thinking here.

Move your dog to a small room in the house with little to no distractions, have them in their dog training collar, and have your dog training leash at the ready. Start by saying the command you are reinforcing, when your dog does not listen slowly walk over, attach the dog training leash to his or her collar, and move away. Repeat the command giving a tug on the training leash. Repeat this until your dog learns the command but, remember to exercise patience.

The key to obedience training success is repetition, repetition, and more repetition.  Short sessions repeated a couple of times a day until the command is learned and then reinforced daily is the best way to teach. With some understanding and a heavy dose of patience, you will get through the seemingly uncontrollable adolescent months and enjoy a long life together.