Strange Behavior Suddenly

[Sara Hallahan]

Hello, my 9 month female doodle has been acting strange lately.  She doesn't listen very well and ran away from home the other day.  She's very restless and acting weird around the house.  I have never had a female dog before this.  Could this be signs of her going into heat soon?  We've been meaning to get her spayed and it just hasn't happened yet.  Any advice out there??

[Adina P]

Time to make that spay appointment. Or else the next time she escapes she may come back pregnant. And if she does, you'll have your work cut out for you raising a litter and finding them homes. Worse she could get hurt. But dogs don't typically 'run away from home' -- but they are curious so if they find a way out, they'll probably give exploring a shot. Did she escape out of the yard, or an open door, or something else?

As far as her 'listening well' I'm assuming you mean she's not 'obeying' well. Obedience is directly proportional to the amount of training a dog has had. She may just be testing boundaries and if she hasn't had a lot of obedience training and practice then she'll have more room for testing.

You've got two great solutions: A) Schedule her spay ASAP... and B) Train her and work on training every single day--any local obedience classes?

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

I don't have any advice but it seems that in the last few weeks many of the DK members have posted similar stories. All of them have pups that are around 9 months old. I think it is just the stage they are in and they are "testing" you. I do remember my sweet baby basically "flipping me off" at times and it was very frustrating. They get to the point they think they are in charge and become very independent. Just means you have to pull in the leash a bit tighter and work harder with the obedience and training.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

This is exactly how Daisy acted when she was 9 months....teenage behavior. She stopped listening, never ran off, she is much too fearful for that, but at home we too got the "flipping off" (loved that analogy Nanci) as well.

Hurry and get her spayed, I have heard the longer you wait the harder it will be on the dog, not to mention the litter factor.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

It's definitely time for her to be spayed....and nine months is that age when they are testing all the time. This is when training is so critical.

[Sara Hallahan]

Thank you for the advice guys!
Adina - She has been just wandering away from the yard when we have her out. She made her merry way down the side of a very busy street as my husband was trying to catch her. Pretty scary! Now we only take her out on a leash. But I will be getting her spayed as soon as the next appt is available and talking to my husband about the obedience classes at Petsmart. She is just like a teenage girl!

[Adina P]

LOL on the teenage girl :)
Before using PetSmart see if you can get some recommendations from others.  PetSmart trainers aren't always great.  Some are, but others are useless and lack extensive experience.  Ask around to find out if the local PetSmart classes have been truly effective for others.  Of course 'effective' involves the dog owner doing the work but if the teacher isn't very good or the method isn't very good...the work won't matter.  Good luck!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

And, if you need to use PetSmart for a training class, make sure the class has enough dogs in the right stage of development to make the class beneficial. Ned's class had one other dog - an untrained pit that the grown son foisted on his mom who had her own pit. There was NO practice with this dog and the dog was so wild. The trainer cut the class short every time rather than spending MORE time and teaching us MORE. What a waste of our money.