Q: My dog used to follow me around everywhere and come as soon as I called. Now she acts like she can’t hear me. She’s only 5 months old, and I know she knows what to do because she used to respond to come when she was little. She’s just being stubborn and spiteful. I yell “Come Here” and she walks further away. What can I do to get her to listen to me?

A: It sounds like your little pup is spreading her wings. When puppies are very young, they know not to wander far from their source of food and protection…you. As they start to explore the world, they realize that you are not necessarily the center of their universe as once thought. Their world expands further and further away from you. This is where training is so very important. Whether you took puppy classes or not, you will probably experience this problem with your dog. Those who took the time to teach some skills in those beginning months will have the tools to overcome the problem. Those who didn’t need to start working on training now!

Dogs go through a variety of stages, just as our human children do. At around 5 months, dogs go through what I equate to the human “terrible 2s.” They stop listening, test the waters and see what they can get away with before you stop them. This is where the leash needs to go back on the pup, and you need to use lots of treats to make you the most important thing in your dog’s world once again. Those smells may be interesting, but you hold the key to their survival…food. Use it to your benefit. Once the dog starts listening again, you can start to slowly eliminate the food from training, but right now you are competing with a world of wonderful smells and you need to make yourself far more fascinating than those smells. Yelling “Come here,” doesn’t really give the dog any incentive to want to come to you. Running the other opposite way, falling down to the ground, and looking at something interesting on the ground will more likely catch the attention of your dog and bring her over to investigate what you found. At this point, reward the dog and hook on a leash. Walk the dog around to investigate more, but periodically ask the dog to stop and look at you. Reward the look and then allow the dog to sniff more. The dog needs to learn that coming to you does not end the fun.

Once you get through this stage, your dog is likely to go through an “adolescent” phase around 8 to 9 months of age. Again, this is when your dog may stop listening. Even a well-trained dog is likely to test you at this stage. The good news is adolescence in dogs does not last as long as it does in humans. If you continue your training and using the skills your dog has already learned, your dog will learn that she can’t get away with certain things and that you do require the dog to listen. If you have not done any training up to this point, you have your work cut out for you. It is much harder to train a dog to do new skills during this stubborn phase than to reinforce ones previously learned.

There does seem to be one more stage that many dogs go through, this is the “adulthood” stage. It’s the equivalent of our children turning 18 and saying, “You aren’t the boss of me anymore.” Dogs hit this stage anywhere from 1 to 2 years of age. This is the timeframe that I get the most calls about aggression problems. Dogs who got along with each other in the house up to this point often start to fight as they work out their adult position in the household. If your dog has not received any guidance from you up to this point, you may really struggle to get control now. Your dog has spent the first year of her life watching to see who is in control in the household. If it appears that no human is in control, then the dog may decide to take it upon herself to take control. This is not what you want. Training is so crucial BEFORE this stage arrives. Get your dog into classes as early as possible and keep taking classes through at least the first two years of life. This will prepare your dog to be in the human world and have an understanding of our language and expectations. Dogs want to know what the rules are and to please you, so take the time to train and bond with your dog.