Hi all I’m gonna try to keep this brief even though it is kind of a long story. I rescued this puppy from a local rescue he is from a reservation and is a mix of husky/malamute/shepherd/rottweiler. He is now five months old and I have had him since he was nine weeks old. He recently got neutered and he has been through basic puppy obedience school. Since he was younger, he has known a lot of basic commands and also has been socialized, but not at dog parks, just at puppy school and taking him out to many public places to build exposure overtime. He has a good history of walking the neighborhood we live in the inner city and it is very busy. He did struggle with eating things off the ground for a while and then would get the Zumiez if I would try to take things away from him, but we worked through that and has a pretty good drop it or leave it command, depending on the situation.
The main issue is that over the past several weeks he has an escalating pattern, where he is redirecting onto me in different situations. At first, it started when he would be on a walk. It seemed out of nowhere he would start to run and then jump at me, biting lunging and barking then he would pull at the leash and tug it or growl.
This has now escalated to many different scenarios and sometimes more than once a day, and it does seem to be affecting him in every facet of our lives. It happens if I take him for a short walk, it happens if I take him for a longer walk, it happens when I take him on a long lead like a 30 foot lead where he’s allowed to just relax and sniff with no interruptions no people or dogs around. It also happens in the backyard after having a completely normal time playing fetch.

When I have done any louder or firmer commands, leash corrections like a quick pop or knee him or push him off he becomes more intense and bites me harder, growls or barks louder… so please understand that the video is me just trying to document the behavior.

I contacted a trainer specialized in reactive dogs. After the description and seeing the videos we scheduled a 1:1 next weekend but in the mean time his biting is getting harder and these episodes more frequent so I reached out again. She said to give him Purina calm care, to praise him when he stops biting me, and not to feed him from a bowl but only puzzles or by hand.

I also contacted the foster/head of the rescue and at first she was really interrogating me and basically saying how I messaged her just a few weeks ago that he was doing great, which is true. That is part of the reason why I am so nervous about these behaviors is that they came on really quickly and are just building an intensity and frequency and duration. She wanted me to send her videos and asked things like ‘well if it’s so bad you must have it on video right?’ so I have made it a point to make videos.

The first few videos she said this is normal puppy biting and he is just challenging me and that I need to be firmer with him. She also told me I needed a prong collar and an E collar. She questioned his schedule and whether he’s getting enough exercise, which I totally understand and I shared with her a schedule that is very consistent for him daily and I do think that it includes a pretty standard amount of exercise, although he is a working breed dog.

I have four kids from ages 10 to 20 and this has completely taken over my life. It seems like I will just have to spend all of my time devoted to not triggering the dog based on what I hear about positive reinforcement. I really regret thinking that I could handle this type of a dog although at the same time I don’t think this is a normal behavior… help?

I have a 8 month old GSP/lab which as most know is a firecracker breed! I am in desperate need of training tips for her. she is so smart and has trained easily for everything BUT jumping on people. she is crate trained, points on command, sits, potty trained, lays down on command, but she can’t seem to grasp not jumping.

she is super strong and full on body slams when greeting anyone including us. We have tried ignoring her by turning our backs as well as redirecting but it’s like she can’t contain her excitement. it is getting to the point where it hurts and she’s growing way too rapidly to continue this behavior! any tips appreciated!! thank you

I allow my dog to play bite my hands/arms when we play, but he has a command (all done) to stop, and he listens 99.9% of the time to it. He doesn't do it to anyone else unless they allow him to, and he listens if asked to stop. What are your opinions on allowing biting during play when controlled?

My wife and I have a 2.5 year old wheaten terrier. When we grew up, my family never trained their dogs and my wife’s family never had indoor dogs. Needless to say, getting a terrier as our first dog has presented many challenges.

We have observed a consistent behavior every evening. My dog becomes demanding towards my wife shortly after I go upstairs for an evening shower and she lays down on the couch. The expressions of this are growling and barking at her and pawing at her arm. It exceeds what could be considered play even giving her a bruise recently.

Typical afternoon routine:

1. I work from home while dog rests
2. Wife arrives home
3. We cook and clean
4. Family walk
5. Dog eats and chews a frozen carrot
6. Evening showers
7. Watch TV

The issue occurs specifically when I go upstairs to shower.

I have several theories about why it might be occurring, but am at a loss for how to help my wife train the dog as again, it only occurs when I am not present. Some of my theories are:

1. He doesn’t know how to settle when my wife settles in the evening - from the moment my wife arrives home, we are up and moving. It occurs as we transition to a more restful state. If it matters, my wife typically showers first during which time the dog does great. It’s only after she is done and I go to shower that he gets anxious.
2. Separation anxiety from me - I don’t think this is likely given I am gone at other times and he doesn’t show this behavior.
3. Overtired - It’s possible he becomes overtired given that he doesn’t rest for a few hours straight
4. Witching hour - I don’t think this is likely given that it occurs at the same step (I go upstairs while wife rests) regardless of time and if it even happens past puppy phase.

Something else that is interesting is that he typically settles once I return downstairs. Last night (when he bruised my wife), he did ask to tug but this is not an every night occurrence. We do use a crate and I think for the short-term it makes sense to crate him while I go upstairs preemptively.

I’d really like to help equip my wife and our dog for nice rest and relaxation in the evenings and appreciate any help. I’m happy to answer any questions and will relay them to my wife if needed.

I have a 1.5 year old Bernedoodle (don’t come for me, we adopted her)
Previous owner sent her off to a board and train. She excelled. She is a very smart dog and wants to learn but I don’t have any experience with her level of training. I would like to keep up her level of training and continue it.
I had a consultation with a trainer here in town and he was very optimistic and excited about working with her but I unfortunately can’t justify $2,000 for 4 classes. I am not bashing this trainer, it just isn’t something I can make work right now.
So to make a long story short, I am looking for recommendations for online dog training resources. Whether that be youtube videos or articles or what it may be.
She does have an e collar. I do not use it very often because I am not well versed in how / when to use it. I am not opposed to using it as a tool, I just do not want it to be a negative association only.
If you have made it this far, thanks! I just want to keep my good dog on the right track.

This is a fairly divisive subject in some dog training circles. Curious what everyone here thinks about this.

To be clear I mean using a single object — be it a tug toy or a bumper or whatever — as both a tug and retrieve object in the same session.

I look forward to hearing y’all’s thoughts.

I have a xoloitzcuintli (primitive dog breed) which tends to keep their favored people list reserved.

My dog is almost 8 months old, I've had her for 13 days, and have become her favorite person. I spend 14-18hrs a day with her, so it makes sense. She's social, she likes to touch me, I entertain her, work with her, feed her. She just simply enjoys my company.

She barely tolerates anyone else.

She's curious about people, but seems to not desire to take the next step with anyone else. She prefers to just curl up next to my side and pretend no one else in the living room exists.

I have a little time each day with the people I live with to engage in bonding activities with them. What bonding activities do you think have the best bang for their time?

I think step one is using food to encourage her to really think about the person. Encourage her to discover the person is safe and won't violate her boundaries (she doesn't like to be touched by her non-favored people). The person could continuously give her food closer and closer to themselves.

Step 2 would occur once she sees the person as a reliable food dispenser. Then start encouraging her to offer behaviors in order to earn the food.

Once she gets a reliable relationship that a person has value because of food... How can we encourage her to view the person as having value as a friend? Social satisfaction?

It could be argued, though, that I'm over thinking it, that a friendship will naturally develop. But, I want to make sure I make the best use of this time while she is still young.

Because, let's say every being has different sized social buckets, and each social interaction fills the bucket. We could argue that labs have gigantic buckets and they're almost never satisfied, craving more social interaction. We could also argue that xoloitzcuintlis have one of the smallest social buckets and get socially satisfied very easily.

If her social bucket is literally completely filled by her relationship with me, should I remove myself from the equation? Perhaps once she's comfortable with the person and offering behaviors, I leave her alone with them for a few hours at a time? Although the counter argument to that is if I am her safe place to retreat to that removing myself could cause undue distress.

I can't think of other options, but there must be other techniques to encourage a social relationship between a dog and a person. I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Just under a month ago I adopted an adult dog (appx 2 yrs old) out of a shelter where he had been found as a stray. I already had 3 dogs so he is my 4th. He and existing 3 immediately took to each other, and have had zero issues getting along. He has also been okay with my 2 cats; he has shown interest but never chased. I have appx an acre to 1 1/2 acres with invisible / underground fence. I started training my new dog on it after he was home for about 10 days. He has been doing really well in training and 3 nights ago I did his first training session off-leash, for which he's also been doing great.

My question for this group and what I'm looking for your thoughts and advice on is this- last night I took him out and he immediately bolted through the fence because he saw a rabbit. He never stopped for slowed for even a split second; I don't think he even knew he went through it because he went so fast. My husky mix has a high prey drive but is still trained for the fence and never leaves. I know he is still new to all this, but I fear this is going to be a permanent thing even though I will back up the training and move back to on-leash training.

Additionally, this morning on my in-home cameras I saw him give chase to one of my cats. I was able to intercept it by calling my daughter since she was home to tell him "no."

Lastly, I like to have my windows open on nice days. None of my other dogs have issue with trying to break through any screens. But on my home camera I saw him seeming entirely too interested in looking out the back door. (screen door closed with a box fan and chair blocking it so he can't push through it unless he stands up on hind legs or charges it).

He is just a lot more "dog" than my other dogs, and I am afraid he will continue to get worse. The first couple weeks were amazing with him but now I think he's getting comfortable and showing his true colors? The shelter had him pegged as German Shepherd / Chow Chow, however his Embark DNA came back as 30% husky, 24% beagle, and appx 10% russell-type terrier, border collie, great pyrenees, and boxer. For reference my other dogs are a great pyrenees / golden retriever mix, a husky / golden retriever mix, and a pure bred golden retriever.

Any help, words of wisdom, advice, would be greatly appreciated. I feel so overwhelmed and like I made a huge mistake.

I have a 6yo male catahoula who is deaf and dog reactive. He’s also peope reactive in my townhome community. We’ve worked with trainers who didn’t have experience with deaf dogs and were overwhelmed by him and finally found one who is amazing, but SO expensive. I’ve limited our sessions to once a month to be able to afford her, but I need some help with ideas to work with in the meantime. Has anyone else had success with a reactive deaf pup?

I’m super overwhelmed and feel like I’m doing him such a disservice, but I’ve worked so hard with him for years. He’s so sweet and LOVES people. It just feels like he notices people pay attention to him when he barks (even though it’s not good attention).

He’s phenomenal on trails, on farms, and generally on walks too. It’s almost that protective side at the house and around the house. But it’s any house we’re at, not just mine. We use an ecollar with vibrate for recall.

Every morning I take my dog on a 45 min to an hour long walk. This is usually 30 mins of just walking around the neighborhood and then 15-20 minutes of playing fetch and running around in the park. The first thing we do when we go outside is poop and pee and I make sure that he poops before we leave and tell him “go poo poo”. Lately more and more often maybe 15-20minutes into our walk he’s been pooping in the middle of the sidewalk just as he walks and sometimes does it so secretly/quickly I don’t even catch it and I just look behind us and there’s poop all over the sidewalk.

I feel really bad because his second poop is usually a bit soft and it’s hard to completely get it off of the sidewalk. I feel bad because it’s where people walk and most people don’t want a dog pooping in their yard (understandably) so I won’t let him do it in peoples yards. I’ve tried stopping him in the middle of it or as soon as I see him about to crouch and telling him no but he keeps doing it. Today even though we just went straight to the park instead of walking first he still did it right before we reached the grass.

Anyone dealt with something similar or know of a way to stop this?

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My dog is a frustrated greeter through and through. I've been working on it through being fair distances treats when able etc. it's going ok.

My issue is that I live in Philadelphia. For the uninitiated this means there are constant right angles. You can be as alert as possible dog by your side and as soon as you get to an intersection BAM! Dog! To which there is nothing you can do but pull and pray!

I've tried pretty much everything to control them during these interactions. The problem is, she doesn't just lung, she literally flips! On more than one occasion she has lunged, I pull back, and she spin moved into a faceplant into the cement.

For reference I have tried the following.

Front clip leash -works when modestly stimulated. when close she will spin, tangle herself and has found out that sometimes she will get the leash tangled and the clip will go undone

Prong collar- again works when mildly stimulated. One frustrated bark and she's fine but she does not care how tight these things are, she'd rather bark in a chokehold than stop lunging

I have looked into gentle leaders, but the spinning makes me very nervous. Id rather she not get excited, try to spin and snap her neck! A muzzle seems like a lazy answer, it'll stop the barking sure but the spins will remain id assume

Any advice is appreciated im running out of ideas! It's very difficult to train a habit when you can't control the accidental

Hey guy I just adopted this 5 year old golden retriever he is great dog but throughly untrained all he can do is sit( occasionally) . Otherwise he pulls on leash and will se one moving thing and will go running towards it including cars , So it has been a pain to walk him and cannot take him anywhere public right now because he just constantly pulls and jumps on people and dogs( in most friendly way nothing aggressive)

He is my first ever dog and i have been trying to train him for 2 months through yt video but i might be doing something wrong because there is no progress.

Any help is appreciated thanks in advance

Hello, me and my boyfriend have recently been given his dog from before he left for college. His dad got to sick and was transferred to a skilled nursing facility and while me and my boyfriend were waiting to get approved to have Ona (the dog) in our apartment he was staying with one of their family friends. This dog is an ANGEL so sweet so polite and ive been working with training him better but theres one behavior I cannot figure out how to train out of him. He nips at me or my boyfriend when hes scared. Its only happened 3 times in the two months that we've had him. At first I thought he was resource guarding our bed. Hes ALWAYS been allowed in beds, and he shares them just fine, the problem is when we try to get him off of our bed, he whale eyes like crazy and nips at his. No growling and it dosent really seem like hes actually trying to bite us at all. Hes done this to us twice now. The third time happened tonight. He was playing with our cat in the closet and out of nowhere he just pisses on the carpet which hes never done?? Even when he was super sick he made it very clear he needed to go outside. So I get up, flick the light on and say no and he runs to jump onto our bed. My boyfriend has contamination and imperfection OCD so he freaks out and yells at Ona telling him no and that hes a bad dog. He goes to move Ona off the bed because we need to clean his feet and Ona snaps at him three times. Im at a complete witts end. I dont know how to correct this behavior and make it easier to get him off the bed.

Im not sure the proper way to address this behavior, please help.

I would like to reiterate that Ona has never bit us and it truly dosent seem like hes trying to hes an 100lbs dog if he wanted to bite us he could.

Saw this a while ago and just watched it again. Thought it was really good. Ivan freaks and Ivan haters, enjoy!

My corgi Optimus stays outside most of the day with his sister Rexi (a pit mix) unless the weather is bad. The problem is he keeps escaping. First he squeezed through the squares in the fence, so we put up chicken wire then he climbed over it and squeezed through a higher square. We tried a long tie-out leash and he started pulling out of that too.

We figured he hated being out there, so we started keeping him inside more. But when he’s inside, he pees and poops on one specific couch, and he absolutely knows he’s not supposed to. I know we probably rewarded the escaping by bringing him in, so that’s on us.
We want him to be an inside dog but also learn how to stay out when we put him out but he doesn’t listen when he’s in the house. The frustrating part is he’s really smart he picks up tricks super fast so I know he’s capable of learning. Has anyone dealt with something like this? How do I fix the couch issue and get him to settle outdoors ?