Dogs go through 'teenage' phase when they hit puberty, study claims

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Is your dog acting like a moody teenager?

A new study from a group of U.K. universities suggests that dogs do act similarly to human teenagers when they reach puberty.

Although none of the dogs were caught breaking curfew, cursing or smoking in the bathroom, they were more likely to ignore their owners and they became harder to train, according to the research.

The researchers examined 69 dogs before adolescence, at 5 months old and then again during puberty, at 8 months old.

However, the dogs only acted this way around their owners and were more well-behaved with strangers, researchers found.

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It turns out that dogs and teenagers share some traits. (iStock)

That's the dog version of "taking it out on your mum," Naomi Harvey, a zoologist who worked on the research told BBC News.

"What we found is evidence that dogs do show a period of reduced obedience towards their owners and this is specific to their owners not to other people," she added.

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"It is associated with all of the issues going on inside the dog during puberty. The hormonal fluctuations and the remodeling of the brain to become an adult brain cause a lot of issues," Harvey said.

The disobedience does not last forever, according to the findings. Once the dogs hit puberty, they tended to respond better to commands from owners.

"We would suggest people remain consistent and use rewards rather than punishing their dog. It's important to remember it's not the dog deliberately behaving badly it's just their biology," Lucy Asher, the animal behavior scientist who led the study, told BBC News. "In general we'd ask owners to be kind to their dog during this time and understand it's just a passing phase."