Teenager years at the age of 2?

[Rottnlove]

Just curious, did any of you experience the "teenager years" at the age of 2?

Don't get me wrong, my girl is a good dog and especially loves everyone, but I swear, she's worse than my toddler is about minding sometimes. (I can't expect her to be absolutely perfect all the time. She's a dog.) She likes to see what she can get away with even though she's corrected each and every single time. She usually only challenges me with the small stuff. Sometimes she'll do mischevious things while I'm not watching or distracted. On a rare occasion, instead of begging to go out to potty, she'll sneak in a room and just do it.

She can be quite the character though! If I'm not looking for even a second - it's like she thinking to herself "What kind of trouble can I get into without mom knowing?"

Anyone else ever deal with this, especially at the age of 2?

[frontierrots]

LOL have you ever read my webpage on what a Rottweiler is like? teenage horrors yes!

[damp]

I would name it something like adult/mature stage... but anyway, the age from +/- 17 - 22 months can still be a “critical” period all depending of your dog’s temperament and training.

The dog the will try it’s strength against you if the leadership is not sat and a dog with high dominance will challenge the leadership and yet an other dog will just grow adult without any problems.

[Judi W]

I will say that using your home as a toilet is a really clear message of "P*** on you" so time to tighten up on the formal training and to start requiring more of her.

[Rottnlove]

Another thing - just curious, am I alone with these types of occurances once in a while? I know I shouldn't expect her to be perfect ALL the time. Just like I don't expect my kids to be perfect all the time. I wouldn't really call what she does a big problem, just a phase. She seems to get in one once in a while, and doesn't last long very at all. But I'll agree, training can help in many cases. Another thing, I think I'm going to up the positive reinforcement a notch or two.

I really enjoy the challenges of having her, it makes it more interesting. She is extremely loving to everyone - too loving, but she likes to test some of the basic house rules once in a while. The potty thing the other day was poop, and that has very, very rarely happened. I'm thinking maybe one other time a long time ago. I'm also wonder if that was my fault for not watching for signs that she needed to go outside that night. I was upstairs, and my dh was involved with tv downstairs, so she might have tried to let him know, but the tv was on and he didn't notice. But I was still a little upset to see the poop since it really never happens. I think it's part of having a dog, too. I think humans sometimes expect them to be human, and they can't communicate like humans do. So it makes it a bit more challenging and interesting in many ways.

Thanks for all your views and advice.

[I Love KAOS]

KAOS is 20 months, and has been in the "naughty teenage boy" stage for a while!
Lots of fun, though.

[Patty1231]

Rocco started testing me with different behaviors at around 13 months of age and still tries again from time to time (he's 2-1/2). He NEVER peed in the house, though, or anything like that. Mostly what I got was attitude. I just let him know that if anyone was going to have attitude in the house it would be ME. He gets the message.