At what point are you seeing genuine adult traits?

[chelle]

This post was inspired by another I saw tonight...

My pup is six months old. I realize we have adolescence to go through yet and I expect him to buck the system as adolescents do... but at six months, how many of their true, adult traits are present?

I know my question is kind of vague, but I'm hoping someone can run with it anyway. Basically, at six months, are you seeing a small picture of what you'll have at a year, two years, five years? I'm trying to think back on the raising of my other dogs, and for them, one of mine at six months was what she proved to be... the other did change a lot and became a lot more independent.

My true, deep concern and fear is that Bailey will quit acting like his mom, (the WGSD) and begin to act like his dad (the Husky mix.) What are the odds of a personality switch like that?

[Germanshepherdlova]

My GSD has changed tremendously from the time he was 6 months old to now that he is 2. At six months he used to LOVE strangers, and he no longer pays any attention to strangers that we meet while out in public, he is much better behaved now that what he was at 6 months, he used to be easily startled by things at six months, and now he isn't phased easily.

On the other hand, I got my lab between the age of 6-8 months and he hasn't changed at all. He is still the nice, sweet little guy that he was back then. The lab is also 2 years old now.

[Packen]

Basically the odds of a "personality switch" are zero. If you read it correctly, that is what you have, no switches.

[Josh's mom]

Josh was a big doofy puppy at 6 mo. We were hoping he'd be a working dog, a K9 partner for my husband but apparently he isn't neurotic enough. He loves to track but doesn't go for it like he has to do it or die. He has excellent food drive and tug drive but apparently it's not good enough. He's calmed down some in the past 2 mo or so (he's 14 mo) he is still puppyish but he's also a great big loving beautiful guy. Hoping maybe as he loses more of his puppyness he might be a therapy dog?

Jenna (on the other hand) is his opposite, she came to us as a foster, we ended up keeping her. She was given up because she played "too hard" for their small dog. She came to us with AKC papers (not filed yet). We registered her and got her pedigree, her mother and grandmother are Czech and DDR dogs, her dad is German working line, she has some neurotic drive, she shakes when sitting for her meals she wants her food so bad. She has MASSIVE prey drive, and massive ball drive, she will play fetch until our arms fall off. She's not quite 13 mo yet, she may be a SAR candidate, she's a good height (at the top end for a female) but only weighs about 60 lbs (very skinny at 52lbs when rescued). Don't know if she'll have the power to take someone down as a police K9. Guess time will tell.

I don't think we're really talking about a personality "switch" maybe a mellowing of what they were as puppies.

[Gmthrust]

Our youngest, Trin, turned 10 months on Oct. 11th....and I'm hoping Packen's got it right......paraphrasing (if I understand it correctly), 'what you see is what you get' .....cuz omg I like what I gots!!!!! Trinny Trin Trin

Keek, the one with at least a smidgen of Siberian Husky in her left eye, will be three years old this coming Dec., and maybe that'll be the time we see her "adult" come out..... Keek is maturing into an awesome (crazy) girl. But thru all our trials, tribulations, and crawling over broken glass for her, Keek is our most popular requested one by other people; if they only knew! lol.....

In both these girls, as different as they are.....we kinda knew to keep faith pretty early on. Trin, pretty much the moment she was born....and Keek at about four months. Both have gone thru many stages with Keek being more extreme.

(Our other two girls were adopted as adults.)

[Lilie]

Hondo is 2 yrs. old now. He is still the same basic dog he was when he was 6 months. He just takes things a bit more seriously now.