Course Details
Building Regulation, Focus, and Real-Life Skills for Teenage Dogs
Adolescence is the stage where dogs have big bodies and big emotions, but brains that are still very much under construction. Between roughly 6 and 24 months, it’s common for previously well-trained youngsters to seem inconsistent, impulsive, or become a founding member of the "We Do Not Care" club.... — especially when excitement, movement, or real-world distractions are involved.
This isn’t stubbornness or training failure. It’s a normal developmental phase marked by rapid brain reorganization, hormonal influence, and the emergence of breed-typical behaviors. Skills don’t disappear — they become harder to access under pressure.
This class is designed to help adolescent dogs learn how to regulate arousal, transition between states, and make better choices in everyday situations. Instead of asking for more control than the teenage brain can reliably give, we focus on recognizing the best ways to support our youngsters when they are having a hard time, and working within their limits to build and retain good habit forming skills.
Using the LEGS model (Learning, Environment, Genetics, and Self) as a framework, you’ll learn why adolescent behavior changes occur — and how to respond with strategies and lifestyle considerations that make things easier for both of you- even beyond training.
Each week builds on the last, layering skills that help dogs:
- Turn excitement on and off
- Pause, reset, and re-engage during training and daily life
- Maintain focus around movement, people, and environmental triggers
- Navigate leash work, greetings, and proximity with more thought and less impulse
Across six weeks, we’ll work on:
- Engagement and marker cue clarity
- Off-switch skills, pause buttons, and interval brain training
- Games to build arousal up and bring it back down
- Movement puzzles that support body awareness and emotional regulation
- Stationing and consent-based skills for safer handling and greetings
- Leash skills, thresholds, and long-line strategies for real-world success
- Prevention strategies for common adolescent challenges like jumping and mouthing
- Understanding the role of hormones and breed-specific tendencies during adolescence
This class is a good fit for:
- Dogs in the adolescent stage (approximately 6–24 months)
- Dogs who have some training history but struggle with consistency, impulse control, or focus
- Sport or active dogs who need better regulation around movement and excitement
- Owners looking for proactive, skill-based strategies, not quick fixes
This class is not intended for:
- Dogs with severe aggression or extreme fearful behaviors.
TEACHING APPROACH
Lectures are released in clusters at the beginning of each week so that students can budget their time in accordance with the amount of reading and training required. Lectures are split into Learning Topics which introduce ideas or concepts which can be helpful for families of adolescent dogs, and Key Skills which provide written descriptions of training exercises, along with short video demonstrations. Videos do not contain any additional voice-over or instructions not already provided in the written portion of the lecture.
*** We have a brilliant Training Assistant in the class facebook study group to ensure students at all registration levels stay motivated and have help with exercises. ***
Instructor: Erin LynesErin (she/her) is a lifelong dog enthusiast from Quesnel, British Columbia, Canada. Erin is certified as a Karen Pryor Academy Training Partner, a Certified Professional Canine Fitness Trainer, a Licensed Family Dog Mediator, and as a Cani-Fit Leader, ...(Click here for full bio and to view Erin's upcoming courses)
