狗也和人一样有青春期烦恼

Perhaps you've had to put up with a moody, uncooperative teenager. You may well have been one yourself. A new study suggests that dogs go through a similar phase of stubbornness and disobedience when they hit puberty at about eight months old.

你身边情绪化、叛逆的青少年可能够你受的，你自己曾经可能也是其中一员。一项新的研究显示，狗狗在8个月大的时候会经历相似的倔强叛逆的阶段。

Looking at the behaviour of a total of 378 canines, researchers found that the animals were more obedient and more responsive either side of that eight-month mark – but only when it came to their owners, not to less familiar trainers.

研究人员观察了378只犬的行为，发现这些狗狗在8个月前后都更听话、反应更快，但只对主人这样，对不太熟悉的训导员就不会这样。

So not only do dogs appear to have a difficult adolescence just like we do, they also share the frustration that we often feel towards our parents or caregivers when we hit our teenage years. That has big implications for long-term canine care and sheltering.

所以狗狗不仅会像我们一样有一个麻烦的青春期，而且也和我们十多岁时一样，对父母或者照顾我们的人很失望。这对长期犬类护理和保护意义重大。

"This is a very important time in a dog's life," says animal behaviour researcher Lucy Asher, from Newcastle University in the UK. "This is when dogs are often rehomed because they are no longer a cute little puppy and suddenly, their owners find they are more challenging and they can no longer control them or train them."

来自英国纽卡斯尔大学的动物行为研究员Lucy Asher说：“这是狗狗生命中很重要的时期，通常都是在这时给它们找新主人，因为它们不再是小狗崽了，主人突然发现它们很让人伤脑筋，不好进行控制或训练。”

"But as with human teenage children, owners need to be aware that their dog is going through a phase and it will pass."

“但是就像对待青春期的小孩一样，主人需要知道这只是暂时的，这种情况会过去的。”

In one experiment with 93 Labrador retrievers, golden retrievers and their cross breeds, the pooches at eight months old were found to take longer and be more reluctant to respond to a 'sit' command given by their caregiver than they were when just five months old. The eight-month-olds didn't show the same obstinance when the command was given by a stranger, though.

在对93只拉布拉多、金毛和它们杂交繁殖出的狗狗进行试验时发现，与5个月大的狗狗相比，8个月大的狗狗要花更多时间、也更不愿意对主人给出的“坐”的指令做出反应。但是在陌生人发生指令时，8个月大的狗狗并没有表现出相同的固执。

The researchers found further evidence of this effect in survey data gathered on 285 Labradors, golden retrievers, German shepherds and their cross breeds. Dog owners and trainers less familiar with the dogs were asked to evaluate the animals' 'trainability' by answering questions on obedience and how quickly commands were responded to.

研究人员从285只拉布拉多、金毛、德国牧羊犬和它们杂交繁殖出的狗狗身上收集到了调查数据，从中发现了能进一步证明这种反应的证据。他们让狗主人和对狗不太熟悉的训导员通过回答问题来评价这些狗狗的“可训练性”，问题涉及狗的服从性，以及对指令的反应速度。

Again, the caregivers ranked their dogs as less obedient at eight months old compared with five months old or 12 months old. The trainers reported that obedience increased between the ages of five months and eight months.

他们再次发现照顾狗的人认为，与5个月或12个月大的狗狗相比，8个月大的狗狗服从性更差。训导员报告说在5个月至8个月之间，狗的服从性呈上升趋势。