狗也和人一樣有青春期煩惱大綱

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.

你身邊情緒化、叛逆的青少年可能夠你受的，你自己曾經可能也是其中一員。一項新的研究顯示，狗狗在8個月大的時候會經歷相似的倔強叛逆的階段。

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.

研究人員觀察了378只犬的行爲，發現這些狗狗在8個月前後都更聽話、反應更快，但只對主人這樣，對不太熟悉的訓導員就不會這樣。

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.

所以狗狗不僅會像我們一樣有一個麻煩的青春期，而且也和我們十多歲時一樣，對父母或者照顧我們的人很失望。這對長期犬類護理和保護意義重大。

"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."

來自英國紐卡斯爾大學的動物行爲研究員Lucy Asher說：“這是狗狗生命中很重要的時期，通常都是在這時給它們找新主人，因爲它們不再是小狗崽了，主人突然發現它們很讓人傷腦筋，不好進行控制或訓練。”

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

“但是就像對待青春期的小孩一樣，主人需要知道這只是暫時的，這種情況會過去的。”

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.

在對93只拉布拉多、金毛和它們雜交繁殖出的狗狗進行試驗時發現，與5個月大的狗狗相比，8個月大的狗狗要花更多時間、也更不願意對主人給出的“坐”的指令做出反應。但是在陌生人發生指令時，8個月大的狗狗並沒有表現出相同的固執。

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.

研究人員從285只拉布拉多、金毛、德國牧羊犬和它們雜交繁殖出的狗狗身上收集到了調查數據，從中發現了能進一步證明這種反應的證據。他們讓狗主人和對狗不太熟悉的訓導員通過回答問題來評價這些狗狗的“可訓練性”，問題涉及狗的服從性，以及對指令的反應速度。

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.

他們再次發現照顧狗的人認爲，與5個月或12個月大的狗狗相比，8個月大的狗狗服從性更差。訓導員報告說在5個月至8個月之間，狗的服從性呈上升趨勢。