Will Ellah EVER grow up?

[danischi24]

My AHT is almost 2 & is more of a puppy than she was at 3 months old

She's fabulously trained & obedient but just such a puppy

It's like having an almost 2 year child in the house & after a hard day of work, I often just don't have the energy to keep up with her but I feel bad for her so I throw the ball, throw the ball, throw the ball until I want to scream

I love her with all my heart so I'm just ranting & wondering if she will ever grow up. Here are some photos for you guys to enjoy:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150358245772783.407568.749597782&type=1
PS. Please comment here, not on Facebook, if you like the photos I must be the only person in the world with a muck boot & shorts tan

 

[Glenmar]

Wait until 3. That is when most dogs settle down.

 

[arabianequine]

Maybe not. I have a dog that is OCD for toys and attention. Same dog. She is a dachshund and is 7. Also my female saint that is 1 1/2 is the same way right now still. I thought saints were calm period but not this one.

Age does not matter every dogs personality is different. If everyone was the same it would be a boring life and world including animals.

 

[E.M. Silkies]

I'm totally jealous of you getting to throw the ball for her! We got a GSD when I was 10 and we had to put him down 2 years ago because of his health. He would bring anything to us to throw. Some of our favorite memories of him are when we were throwing a ball for him. We have gotten a new GSD since then and unfortunately she wont retrieve anything. It makes us miss the old guy even more. He was a fantastic dog and it was his favorite thing to do-chase a ball. That said....cherish that your dog likes to play so much. She'll make you smile and laugh on the worst of days.

She sounds like a really fun dog!!

 

[dainerra]

Don't just throw the ball, throw the ball, throw the ball - make her work her brain.

Hide a toy and teach her to find it. Make her perform a trick/command before you throw the ball again. Be creative and tire out her brain as well.

Most large breed dogs mature between 2 and 3 years old. Believe me, she is just hitting her stride.
I taught my boys that they need to behave in the house, so they settle down nicely. But when they are outside, anything goes!

 

[xchairity_casex]

awww what a cute smile she has!
but it sounds to me like shes in need of some more excersize! when my sister brought home her toy poodle seh was quite mellow untill after a few months of my sister not taking her on walks then her energy levels went up up up!
i know its hard to do after a long day of work to go out for an hour walk but i bet it would calm her down alot also like dainerra said give her more of a challage! dogs adore useing there brains! it would be like you if you were left with nothing but the same activity every single day youd get a little stir crazy too! or imagine little kdids you give them 5 toys how long do you think they are going to get boared of those 5 toys? pretty darn quickly so what do you do? you play with them,make up games,tell stories to keep them occupied!

 

[danischi24]

When I say that she's a puppy, she has no attention span. If I throw the ball & she catches a scent, she just leaves it & goes off on her own thing. I can recall her immediately but not set her on the ball again unless I retrieve it myself. If I hide something, she wont bother with it, even if she knows where it is. Once she has licked the easy to reach cheese or whatever out of a kong type thing, she will just leave it & never work one bit to get the rest. She is totally unmotivated by food, praise or toys so training her to stay focused on something doesn't work. She sits, lays down, comes, stays, heels, fetches, gives a paw, keeps quiet, stops what she's doing, drops something, leaves something, pottys on command, moves away on command, goes to her bed, assumes the spooning position for sleep time in my arms, stops playing with her teeth, takes food gently, relaxes etc etc etc etc all on command so she's trained. She is like a child to me & I raise her very strictly & with love. She gets away with very little. She just needs a bit of run time but with all the big free dogs around here, it's impossible so she's cooped up all day & I don't have the heart to give her the command to settle down because of course she wants to play. I don't have the energy to keep up with her at the moment & rehoming her of course isn't an option & I'm not willing to even go down that path of discussion because the situation that we are in is only because of the job I'm holding now & she got the exercise she needed previously.
How do working people with young kids deal with the attention etc they need after a hard day at work??
I have no energy to be creative, even throwing the ball was too much for me tonight & I sent her back to her bed with it before calling her for a snuggle.

 

[danischi24]

Also, when I say that she is a puppy, I mean more of her playing style than anything else. She's very relaxed indoors & well behaved at all times. But a wink from me is all it takes to have her play bowing & bouncing straight into the air or throwing a pebble for herself & batting it like a cat & then tossing it again. She acts like a little puppy, not an adult dog & she's about 12 pounds so she should be fully mature by now. Even the big breeds are starting to mature by 2 & she's small.

 

[xchairity_casex]

LOL yup sound EXACTLY like my sisters toy poodle we have this running joke that she is like that monkey from the movie cloudy with a chance of meat balls becuase when she runs around its like she has ADD this si how seh sniffs
grass!....rock!.......tree!....rock!...grass!..toy!..grass!...........flower!.......tree!..rock!...toy!
and thats how her off lead time goes!!
kira my sisters toy poodle came from agility lines her mom and dad were agility dogs so im thinking htat has something to do with it!
try having alook around for some other places to allow her some time off leash i have a feeling this would be very helpful as this helped kira ALOT before getting off lead tiem it was
ROCK!...!GRASS!....ROCK!..TREE!..ROCK!..TREE!..TREE!...TOY!..ROCK!..GRASS!
shes not as eunthusiastic as she was and she focuses on each thing alot longer not to mention she is much moe willing to come to a treat then she used to be.
what kind of treats do you use? sometimes dog treats are not as tempting as say chicken or salmon or steak or even hot dogs i used hot dogs cut up into tiny bits in a plastic baggy and toss them into the freezer take them out when we left and only useing hot dog as training treats not as everyday treats perhapes you could try teaching her tricks kira adores doing tricks all kinds of tricks she loves to shake,dance,crawl,retreive specific items like shoes,pencils,socks, anything she has access too. teach her to roll over,teach her todance or to sit up and beg teach ehr the names of specific toys teach her to jump up on furniture and also to jump off teach her jump into your arms,teach her sit at the table like a person,teach her to pray or cover her eyes, anything you can imagine! take atleast 2 weeks between tricks maybe more time depends on how quicklyshe picks it up but never do less then 2 weeks every day per trick before including a new one like as an example
sit (2 weeks) sit,stay(2 weeks) sit,stay,lie down(2 weeks) sit,stay,liedown,dance
so everytime you encorperate a new trick keep practicing the old ones also but never move on untill shes masterd a new one and for her i would reccomend keeping training sessions short and fun like they will usually tell you only 10 minutes once per day well how about asking her to do each trick once have some play time then try again after every session or after every trick get her excited and happy bounce around with her! make it fun!

 

[danischi24]

I think you missed the point.