An 8-month puppy recheck gives veterinarians a chance to set expectations, normalize adolescent behavior, and guide clients before challenging teenage behaviors lead to frustration or repair work.
Adolescence in dogs is often marked by impulsivity, emotional volatility, and hormonally driven behaviors, much like in humans. Christopher Pachel, DVM, DACVB, CABC (IAABC), explains how an 8-month recheck allows veterinarians to monitor development, normalize adolescent behavior, and guide clients through this challenging stage before frustration sets in.
Related: Training the adolescent dog: Consistency over correction
The following is a transcript of the video, lightly edited for clarity and cohesion:
Pachel: I like to have them before they’re necessary, truthfully. One of the things that I used to do when I was in a general practice, primary caregiver role is that as I was working with those clients through their puppyhood vaccination or wellness series—whatever you call that in your clinic—is that, as we were wrapping that up somewhere in that 4-to-6-month time period, there was often going to be an extended period of time that we weren't going to see those puppies or teenagers again unless something went wrong. You know, meaning they have a medical concern, they have an ear infection, they have a bladder infection, or they injure themselves somehow.
There's often a time period of up to a year before they're "due" to come back in for a booster, for a vaccination, or for some other diagnostic testing. And unfortunately, by the time that puppy gets to be 14, 16, or 18 months of age, they are all very, very much in that teenager phase, and we may now be trying to do repair work on that relationship, rather than being proactively in the driver's seat to help guide and support our clients.
So, what I used to do at that point were two things. One of them was to say, "I would love to see your puppy back for a quick recheck somewhere around 8 months of age." That gives us an opportunity to make sure that physically, they're maturing the way they're supposed to and that they've lost all their baby teeth the way they're supposed to. Let's take a look at those things.
Secretly, then, what I was able to do in that 8-month appointment was say, "Hey, everything looks great." Hopefully it does. "Everything looks great, and you may not know this already, but your dog is about to become a teenager. Things could go off the rails in a way that feels really frustrating or problematic. If that happens—even though I know your dog, your puppy, is an angel and would probably never do these things I'm about to share with you—if they do, please know that a lot of this is actually normal. It's something that we can work with, and I can help match you with a positive reinforcement trainer who can help guide you through that process."
So for me, the answer to the question is proactive expectation setting: letting folks know that that is, in fact, something they're likely to experience, normalizing it as part of that caregiver journey, and making sure that they understand how I, or my team, or the trainers in our community, can be a viable resource for them to help them through it.