Between four and six months, adolescence enters the picture. Somewhere between four and six months, most owners of a large breed puppy have the same experience: the dog that came when called last month now looks at them, considers the offer, and returns to sniffing. Nothing has gone wrong. Adolescence has started, and it starts earlier and lasts longer in big dogs than most people are told.
This part of the course covers the stage where obedience begins to be tested rather than taught. The work is less about new tricks and more about making existing behaviors survive distraction, distance and duration, and about protecting a puppy that may go through a second fear period during these weeks. Handled well, this is the period that decides whether you own a trained adolescent or merely a large one.
Where your puppy is now
Physically, teething finishes with the molars around five to six months and the jaw becomes genuinely strong. Growth plates remain open, so impact work is still off the table: no repetitive jumping, no long runs on pavement, no agility equipment at height. Females of medium and large breeds may have a first season anywhere from six months onward, and males begin producing testosterone in quantity, which changes marking, interest in other dogs and general intensity.
Cognitively the adolescent brain is reorganizing. Connections are being pruned and rebuilt, and one visible consequence is that trained behaviors become inconsistent even though they were solid a month earlier. Research on adolescent dogs has found reduced responsiveness specifically to the primary caregiver, and a temporary increase in what looks like willful ignoring. It is developmental, it is normal, and it passes faster in dogs whose owners keep training and slower in dogs whose owners escalate to force.
Socially, two things happen. The puppy license expires, so adult dogs now expect adult manners and correct rudeness more firmly. And many dogs pass through a second fear period around five to six months, in which something previously accepted, a trash can, a man in a hat, a hallway, suddenly becomes alarming. The response is patience and distance, never forced exposure.
What you have already built
The puppy walks on a loose leash in quiet places using the counting rhythm, checks in voluntarily, backs off from food on cue, holds a sit or a down for a handful of seconds, greets people with four feet on the floor most of the time, trades possessions willingly, settles on a mat and rests calmly in a crate. Recall works enthusiastically at home and moderately well outdoors on a long line. That is a genuinely good foundation, and the next two months are about defending it.
What you are teaching now
Three things. Recall that survives real distraction, built systematically on a long line and never tested beyond its level. Stay, separated into its three components of duration, distance and distraction. And impulse control as a daily habit rather than an exercise, meaning that doors, food bowls, car doors and greetings all require the dog to wait for permission.
Techniques and games
Restrained recall
Have a helper hold the puppy gently by the chest while you walk away, calling nothing. Turn, crouch, and call once with your recall word in a bright tone. The helper releases. Pay with five or six pieces delivered one at a time, which makes arriving last longer than leaving. Do three repetitions and stop. The restraint builds anticipation, and anticipation is what makes a recall fast rather than merely obedient. A fast recall is the only kind worth having when a large dog is thirty yards away and heading for a road.
The long line, used properly
A fifteen to thirty foot line attached to a harness, never to a collar, gives freedom without gambling. The rule is simple: you never call your dog unless you are willing to walk down the line and make the recall happen gently if it does not. Every recall that is called and ignored teaches the dog that the word is optional, and that lesson is expensive to undo. Keep the line on for the next several months, in every environment where a failure would matter.
Premack, or how sniffing pays for attention
The most powerful reward available on a walk is not in your pocket. It is the lamppost. Ask for a check-in or a sit, mark, and then release the dog to go and sniff with a word such as go sniff. Access to what the dog already wants becomes the payment for the behavior you want, and the walk stops being a negotiation between your goals and the dog’s. This single change resolves a surprising proportion of pulling in adolescent dogs.
Stay, taken apart
Train duration, distance and distraction separately and never raise two at once. For duration, stand in front of the dog and count seconds, paying at irregular intervals. For distance, take one step back and immediately return to pay, building to several steps, always returning rather than calling the dog out of the stay. For distraction, start with something trivial, a dropped glove at ten feet, and work up. If the dog breaks, the exercise was too hard; drop to the last level that worked and rebuild. Release with a clear word so the dog knows the difference between finished and abandoned.
Impulse control as a household habit
Doors, stairs, the car and the food bowl are free training opportunities that happen ten times a day. The pattern is identical each time: reach for the handle, and if the dog surges, the hand comes off. When the dog waits, the door opens, and the opening is the reward. Feed the same way, holding the bowl and lowering it only while the rear stays down. In a large dog this is not a party trick; it is what prevents a hundred pounds of enthusiasm from launching into a street or knocking someone down a staircase.
If a fear period arrives
A dog that suddenly finds something frightening should never be dragged toward it. Increase distance until the dog can eat, then feed while the thing exists at that distance, then let the dog choose whether to approach. Keep sessions short and end them while the dog is still curious. Do not flood, do not scold, and do not force greetings with strangers. Most second fear periods resolve in a few weeks with this approach and become permanent with the opposite one.
Common mistakes in this stage
- Giving off-leash freedom because recall worked at four months; adolescence removes reliability temporarily.
- Scolding a dog that finally comes back late, which punishes the return rather than the delay.
- Escalating to a prong or electronic collar because pulling has increased; the pulling is developmental and the equipment adds fear to a brain that is already reorganizing.
- Abandoning training sessions because the dog seems to have forgotten everything; frequency matters more now than at any earlier point.
- Forcing a frightened adolescent to face what scares it.
- High-impact exercise on open growth plates: no repetitive jumping, long runs or stairs as a workout.
When to call a professional or a veterinarian
Ask about the timing of neutering if you have not already, and about diet as growth begins to slow. Call for limping that lasts more than a day or two, since growing pain conditions are common in large breeds at this age, for retained baby teeth still present once the adult teeth are through, and for any sudden change in appetite or energy. On the behavior side, get help early for growling at people or dogs, for lunging on leash, for guarding of food or resting places, or for fear that is worsening rather than improving over two or three weeks. Adolescent behavior problems respond well to early, competent, reward-based help and poorly to waiting.
Previous: Part 4: Three to Four Months · Next: Part 6: Six to Eight Months · Course index: All ten parts
Keep reading: Dog Care Guide · The Daily Dog Walk · Service Dogs Explained
Further reading (external): Best Friends Animal Society — Free pet care resources — training, health and behavior guides from one of the largest no-kill animal foundations in the United States.
This course is educational and does not replace individual professional advice. Sudden changes in behavior can have medical causes, so a veterinary examination is the correct first step before any behavior plan.