Have you heard this before? Dogs and puberty
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Anonymous
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We brought home a rescue dog about a year ago. We think he’s around 2-3 years old. He’s skittish around strangers but has been good with our family until now. Our 12 year old son is going through puberty and the dog has recently become grouchy with him. He doesn’t want DS to pet him without me or my husband sitting close by. He will growl and snap if DS persists. He doesn’t have this issue with our 10 yo daughter.
We had a couple sessions with a dog behavioralist right after we brought him home to smooth the transition and she did warn us about this when she met our son and realized how old he was (11 at the time). She said when he goes through puberty and his hormones change, he will smell different to the dog and it might cause the dog to become more aggressive towards him. Have you heard this before? Do you think there is merit in it? Is there anything we should do or just wait it out? |
Anonymous
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THere's a great Facebook group, Animal Sense: Basic Training And Behavior Problems. ONLY approved contributors (approved experts) and vets are allowed to comment, so you don't get all that random anecdata.
You might want to do a search there and post your question there as well- I'd better trust responses from vets and vetted contributors. |
Anonymous
| Yes this is a thing. Just make sure your son doesn't lay down on the floor anywhere with the dog around. It can instigate aggressive behavior in the pet. |
Anonymous
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I'm female so maybe it is different, but I've had dogs my whole life including multiple male dogs while I went through puberty, and have never experienced this. I never noticed it with my brother either.
My first thought is that your son did something that caused your dog to no longer trust him and act defensive and wary towards him. This could be your son acting abusive towards the dog, or the dog witnessing upsetting behaviors from your son that has caused him to be nervous around him. |
Anonymous
| Maybe your DS is mean to him when no one else is around. |
Anonymous
| I thought this was going to be about dog's 'teenage' behavior, when they get over 7 months and start acting out. I've also had dogs my whole life and never noticed or heard anything like this. |
Anonymous
Yeah it's because he's a boy with testes and the dog can smell them. You don't have testes, I assume, so it's never been an issue. 
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Anonymous
I would guess her brother has testes and it wasn't a problem with him. I had dogs my whole life including while my son went through puberty - never a problem in our experience. |
Anonymous
| OP, is your dog not neutered? What breed is he? I've never heard of this but am curious. |
Anonymous
It doesn't happen with every dog. But it does happen. It seems there are not very many experienced dog owners on this thread. |
Anonymous
| It’s possible that this phenomenon exists, but it’s not high on the list of likely causes. There’s a lot of other things to eliminate. |
Anonymous
The kid is abusing the dog or yanking on the leash when walking him etc. |
Anonymous
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My dog has two very distinct sets of behavior. He isn't aggressive with anyone, but he is very cautious and gentle around children. If they approach him he sits down, whereas if an adult approaches him he'll run up, and rub against their legs and try and get them to pet him. If an adult pats their legs, he'll put his paws up so that he can get his ears scratched, but no matter how much a child encourages him he won't put his paws on them. He'll also try and herd kids away from traffic, something he doesn't do with adults. It's like he sees them as needing his protection.
When my oldest kid was about 6 - 11 he was annoyed. He wanted his dog to jump on him and rush to the door to greet him. His best friend hit puberty about a year earlier than he did, and there was a pretty sudden change in the dog from treating him like a kid to treating him like an adult. My son was jealous that the dog treated the friend one way and hm another. Then when he hit puberty he suddenly became an adult. Given that, I totally believe that a dog can sense puberty. If you watch dogs at the park, they treat puppies under about 9 months entirely differently than they treat dogs who have hit their own puberty. With the former they are often very passive, and then when the puppies get to a certain developmental point they will suddenly start asserting more boundaries. So, I guess they treat human children the same. Having said that, I would involve a trainer with any dog that's snapping at a child. That is behavior that can quickly escalate out of control. |
Anonymous
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It didn’t happen with my golden retriever but the smell does change entirely so I can see it being an issue with some dogs—the same way some dogs are triggered to aggression by the smell of puppies goin through puberty. I’ve also heard of some dogs who don’t like old people smell.
Personally, I don’t think it’s a great sign in a dog. Dogs should be fine with all types of humans. |
Anonymous
| This happened when I was pregnant. My dog picked up on the changing hormones and became super protective and aggressive to anyone near me. |