Kay Laurence - Learning About Dogs

As much as we would love to be able to let our youngsters enjoy plenty of freedom to explore, learn, run free; the realities of the desires of your adolescent dog means that:

• "Explore" morphs quickly into reverse engineering your sofa, laptop, waste bins; or run the neighbourhood until darkness and hunger drives them home
• "Learn" is discovering of the joyous sensations of digging, chewing, chasing
• "Run free" becomes a license to irritate all local wildlife, other dogs, other people or cats

We can design an adolescence with plenty of selected opportunities to learn without compromising their development or blossoming personalities. This period is very much about learning the future skills of being an adult in your world.