# 9 month old male behaving very badly! Advice needed please!



## Lje26 (Jan 22, 2021)

Hi Team,

I am wondering if anyone can offer insight or advice into what seems to be happening to our 9 month old male viz. He is a happy and healthy boy who gets plenty of off leash exercise and daily obedience training - however it seems that since he was 7/8 months old he has been getting naughtier and naughtier.

It has now got to the point where he is spending every moment that he is awake and inside the house doing something destructive and cannot seem to just relax. He will be barking, digging at carpet, kitchen counter surfing, searching for items to destroy and tear apart. When we tell him a firm ‘no’ and put him outside the room he will challenge us back, getting in our faces and barking. He has never been aggressive but we can tell it’s his way of answering us back. He will then resume whatever destruction he was doing with disregard for us telling him off. He’s becoming very hard work, but we love him and are willing to do what we can to get his behaviour under control and make us and him happier. 

He also has started to have zero recall and will run away, ignoring the command to come back and his whistle. This is frightening as he has broken through a fence onto a road before. He has started barking at strangers too. This is all unlike him and seems to be getting worse.

Is an age at which they usually mellow? Or is this likely to continue and worsen? Is this normal puberty? He is now 9 months and wondering how much longer this can get worse for, before we turn a corner? 

He is intact and we are thinking of castrating at around 18 months if there is a need.

thanks for any input


----------



## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

He sounds like a normal teenage Vizsla.
Keep training, do brain games, and make sure he gets plenty of exercise.


----------



## PhilipL (Sep 28, 2018)

100% what Texasred said. Definitely a teenager phase that should pass, our intact 2.5 year old boy Rafa went through this same stage quite quickly, maybe lasting a month from memory. 
Having multiple different toys he can chew on should help with avoiding what he should not chew on. The brain games need to be challenging, Vizslas are very intelligent they might involve hard to get or find treats etc. The top tip is definitely the off leash exercise, a tired Vizsla is a happy Vizsla they say. I understand the difficulty with this due to his recall refusal, need to find an enclosed open space if you can. He will be testing boundaries for a few weeks, but then should return to being a good boy.


----------



## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

It is, as previously stated, expected and almost predictable with male Vizslas. They can be real jerks at certain phases.
Everyone has a different idea of how much "off leash" time a Vizsla needs. My experience is at least an hour a day for a pup your age and even more as they get older. A Vizsla can run for many hours per day.
Finn, my 16 month old, went through the same thing. It was back onto the check cord. the obedience training got bumped up a notch or two, and he was running, with check cord attached, for probably two hours a day, 4-5 days a week. I actually had to hunt him with the check cord attached for the last few weeks of Pheasant season. It is what it is.
If he is out and about in a safe area, keep him on the checkcord and just let him drag it behind him if you can.
You deal with the behaviors in the house almost as if he is still a puppy, and you must always be in a position to enforce a command.
Put his harness back on him in the house so that you can get ahold of him and control him if necessary and you may even need to keep the leash attached if he's being a real jerk. The key is to have a way to get ahold of him, without, trying to over power him, or engage him. That is what he looking for right now, "the challenge".
He wants to play and he wants to play really hard! If you try to manhandle him into submission, you have just engaged in "the game", and he set the rules. The game only escalates if you engage. Diffuse the game.
In a calm, neutral, emotionless manner, get ahold of the harness or the leash, and off you go with a leash session. The living room and kitchen are big enough for a heel session. Ten to fifteen minutes of walking around chairs, tables and furniture.
Work the leash, bring him to his kennel, command him to go into the kennel, and praise him when he does. Disconnect the leash, shut the kennel door, and leave him in there for five minutes, or so. Let him out and make a big fuss over him as if that was the first time you have seen him all day. You will probably repeat this scenario a couple time a day.
Right now he is trying to figure out where he "fits". It's a process he has to go through to understand his place, and be comfortable. He doesn't care where he ends up in the pecking order, he just needs to find it. Be firm, but not physical, or mean about it. You just want to be no nonsense about it. He misbehaves, you get control, you change "the game", a little quiet time out phase, and then all happiness and good things.
Each dog will settle out in their own time, but it takes patience and understanding on your part.
The behavior inside the house will probably start to subside in a few weeks, the behavior outside may take a few months of being kept under control on the checkcord.

To be brutally honest, It is highly doubtful that there are very many Vizslals under the age of two that have 100% recall. It is just something that always has to be worked, and never taken for granted. Those of us that hunt, and train to hunt, will tell you that we have spent many, many hours, and walked many, many, miles, sending the dog out, and bringing him back a zillion times working on their recall. It is not a "one and done" process. 
Good luck with your boy and be patient for the next 6 months or so.


----------



## Lje26 (Jan 22, 2021)

Thank you all for your responses! This has put my mind at ease and it all makes sense when it’s explained, so thank you. I have taken all suggestions on board and we will certainly go back to the long line/check cord. I am looking forward to enjoying him even more than I already do, as he gets older and less teenager-like!


----------



## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

I'll tell you something else I have noticed with "boyz". Once you get them past this point, they become the biggest "Mama's boys" in the world. 
I've spent many thousands of hours training with my male Vizslas from puppies to the two year mark, and each time they to get to about two, they want to spend all of their time inside the house with my wife. She can tell them to do anything, and they just do it!!! Things I have never trained them to do???? I ask her how she trained them and she said she doesn't. She just tells them to do something and they do. I think the wrong person may be training the dogs in our house. 
Four males though the years, and now Finn is starting to do the same thing. Weird.


----------

