The Hachi Way

Help with ยท ANCHOR and balance

Teenage dog stopped listening? Why, and what to do

The training that worked on your puppy stopped working. Your dog did not regress. They grew up.

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Murphy the Labrador bounding over rocks, full of young energy

Adolescence is when a dog who only ever learned to wait for commands starts testing what happens when they do not. If the good behaviour was always built on cues and rewards, this is the stage where it gets thin.

The way through is not more obedience. It is teaching the dog to make good decisions on their own, which is the heart of ANCHOR, and checking that all four modes are in balance across the week. A teenager short on real play or genuine rest will show it as defiance.

This stage is the methodology at its most useful. A dog who can think with you, rather than wait to be told, comes out the other side of adolescence steadier than one who was only ever commanded.

Try this week. Walk through a typical week for your dog and tally roughly how much PLAY, ANCHOR, CALM and EXPLORE they actually get. The mode that is missing is usually the one driving the behaviour you are fighting.

Part of the full guide: Adolescent dogs: the full guide

Keep reading: Read about the four modes .

New puppy? The Good Puppy Blueprint is the online program for puppies under twelve weeks. For a dog over twelve weeks, private training works it through one-on-one.

Case notes

From a real session: the one year old who was bored out of his mind

A one year old dog arrived having been, in his owners' words, super easy to train. Puppy class, level one, level two, engaged and quick. Then at seven months he blew up at one dog in class and never came back. The school answered with lead pops, the word no and a treat when he was good. Four private sessions followed: walking lines past the trainer's dog at reducing distance, look at me, and the instruction to stop walking him. So they had. He now stood on the couch like a coast guard, barking at roofers, and the home cameras showed him sleeping less every month.

What I saw when I walked in was not a reactive dog. I ignored him for the whole intake, which is how I read a dog, and he offered me a sit, then immediately demanded to know what was next. What is next, what is next. A bored busy-body whose world had shrunk to a driveway, with no outlet and a pouch of treats revving him higher every time someone reached for it.

Teenagers do not take bribes. A small child will walk the neighbourhood for two hours on Halloween for a bag of lollies. A teenager will not, unless their friends are going. If the training was built on lollies, adolescence is when the lease runs out. This dog did not need more drills against distractions. He needed a relationship and a life.

So we took him out onto his own street on a long line and played. He played. The owners had told me he would not play outside the property. Who says he does not play outside? You are just not interesting enough. Then we went into ANCHOR with two rules only: pressure up means bottom down, and stay seated until let's go. A trigger never adds a rule. He could bark. All I was looking for was quick recovery, and I got it.

Homework was outings, not walks. Drive one street over, run a cycle in the supermarket car park while the other person shops, same rules in every new place. Four cycles a day around two full time jobs. He was at grade zero and I wanted him at grade one, a bit stretched, not panicking, and that is exactly where an adolescent learns. He is a good dog. He was just wired, and we untangled his wires.

Questions

Frequently asked

Will my adolescent dog grow out of this?

They grow through it, not out of it. What they come out as depends on what you build now. Dogs taught to make their own good decisions settle into steady adults.

In their words

Owners who came in with the same problem

Real reviews of Diona's work. Not the nice-trainer ones, the ones that describe the shift: owners who learned to read their dog, and dogs who got calmer once their needs were met.

  • Behaviour without commands

    My 22 month old stubborn Samoyed is now a dream to deal with. No longer reactive to other dogs and people, no longer pulls on the lead, no more incessant barking, no more pacing. I now have a settled, calm and non reactive Samoyed who responds to my body language before a command is uttered.

    Foodie G. · 2023

  • Bonding over obedience

    Diona's care and understanding of dog behaviour took us from being pulled down the road, with Peanut crying and shrieking at any dog he saw, to walking beside us and choosing us over other dogs. She helped us with bonding and trust, transforming our relationship.

    Lily C. · 2025

  • The household, not just the dog

    Diona was my third trainer I resorted to for my over reactive dog. Diona quickly realised there was much more going on at home than I had truthfully opened up about. Now I have a dog that is absolutely a pleasure to have inside the home. Walks have become more fun and less stressful, reactivity has diminished.

    Ozlem G. · 2023

240+ five-star reviews of Diona's practice as Diona The Trainer. Read more reviews

Work it through

This is fixable, with the right read.

The free assessment names where to begin. A Hachi Way trainer works it through with you, in your home where the behaviour happens, or online anywhere in the world.

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