Teen Angst?

The other day, I consulted Doc Marose about Odie's tendency to go into a "down" position whenever I tried doing a sit with 10-second duration. When we were doing training at home, I observed that Odie's focus was all over the place and would hardly direct his focus to me. I did name recall exercises, tapped whatever surface I could find in hopes of getting his attention, brought out the best treats I could find, which made him respond to me for two minutes tops.

I felt like I was hit on the head with what Doc told me. She said that I might be progressing the exercises a bit too fast that Odie was having a hard time keeping up. Oh no. Am I becoming a tiger mom? Is the amount of play after training not evening out, and is he becoming stressed with the things we've been trying to film?

We tackled a lot of exercises in school today and they were all very interesting, except maybe the puppies weren't in the zone this morning. Odie wasn't his usual happy bibo kid self, he became distracted very easily, he didn't learn and follow as quickly as he did in the previous sessions. I don't know about the other puppies and humans, but I got really concerned with what I saw. There was a time when teacher was checking on the other puppies, and Odie just wouldn't follow, so I sat down and talked to him.

I KNOW, RIGHT?

It was a very human thing to do, but I was getting frustrated and I didn't know how else to deal with it. I told him that I know he knows better than that. I also told him that I know he's an achiever, so we can't do a mediocre job. The whole time, he was just staring at me, so I couldn't help but tell him all I wanted to say. Now, I don't know if talking to him helped him, but it did help me. After that, we moved on like we should. We tried doing the rest of the exercises and he showed a bit of improvement, but we still have a lot of work to do. I'm positive we can do better.

Doc Marose also noticed that the puppies (and adult dog) were restless in spite of the breaks and play times that we were given, so she decided to let the puppies play freely. The dogs LOVED that move, except an adult collie and three golden retrievers were too big to play with their little beagle classmate. Odie cried for help when Bernard started getting on top of him and humping him. That prompted Doc Marose to give Bernard a time out, so we tried letting Odie play with the goldens. Odie kept trying to play with his bigger classmates (and Doc said he's very confident in trying to keep up with them), but we were really running the risk of him getting crushed. I ended up just carrying him and playing with him. Boo!

We both went straight to sleep upon getting home. I was hoping he'd be rejuvenated enough when he wakes up, but he was still just not up to doing school stuff. I read something about beagles having their equivalent of human adolescence where they just go into a frenzy and test the limits of their humans when they reach this age. The past few days, he's been suddenly charging towards my shirt (and my skin!), especially when I tell him it's time for bathroom. This merits him a time out, I come back after half an hour or so to check on him, he becomes all sweet, but begins charging again after a few minutes. Doc also mentioned that Odie's bite is a bit hard lately, and I've been a victim of that a couple of times. In fact, I'm typing this entry with bruised hands! If this is his version of teenage angst, then I'm having a hard time dealing with it. Sigh. I'm just taking comfort in having found Pet Centrics because Doc Marose has been very accommodating of my questions, woes, and worries about Odie. I'm definitely going to need lots of help in reaching out to an adolescent dog.

I'm not one to give up. Before tucking him in bed tonight, I told Odie that we're going to do better tomorrow. We're pressed for time, having missed last week's session, but what's good with having tomorrow is that it's always a chance to do better. I think we just both need to sleep it off first. He had a long day at school today and had play time with Louie (the neighbor's beagle) in the afternoon. He might be growing up fast, but he's still a baby and he needs his rest.