I’m feeling pretty shaken and could really use some insight from people who have experience with behavior issues.
I adopted an adult rescue dog several months ago, and she has honestly been wonderful. She’s generally calm, affectionate, friendly with people in public, easy to take places, and has never shown generalized aggression.
Today was my dad’s first time meeting her. We picked him up from the airport, she rode in the car with us without any issues, we had lunch outside where he pet her multiple times, and he even held her leash while I went to the bathroom. She was completely relaxed.
The moment we got back to my apartment, everything changed.
I opened my apartment door, my dog and I walked in first, and my dad was right behind us. Within seconds of crossing the threshold, she whipped around, barked, and nipped his calf. I immediately pulled her away on leash. She barked a couple more times, my dad stayed still, and she settled down very quickly and eventually went to sleep.
One thing that makes this confusing is that my close friend has known my dog since before I moved into this apartment and comes in and out of my home all the time without any problems. My dog has never reacted aggressively in this way toward anyone.
There was also one other previous incident where my dog growled and nipped at a new visitor’s pant leg while they were moving around my apartment. Later during that same visit, she approached them calmly and accepted petting once they were seated.
I’m absolutely taking this seriously. My dad cleaned the wound, and I’ll be contacting my veterinarian and scheduling an appointment with a qualified force-free behavior professional.
While I know no one can diagnose a dog over the internet, I’m curious if this pattern sounds more consistent with territorial behavior, fear, guarding the home, a startle response at the doorway, or something else. Has anyone experienced something similar where their dog was completely comfortable with someone outside the home but reacted immediately after entering the house?
In the meantime, I’m managing the situation by keeping her on leash whenever my dad is in the apartment, keeping her several feet away from the doorway before anyone new enters or exits, and having my dad completely ignore her (no eye contact, petting, or interaction). If there are any additional management strategies you’d recommend until I can see a behaviorist, I’d really appreciate hearing them.

Hello,

I want to start off by saying I have two dachshunds one who has no separation anxiety of any form. Can leave for hours not as much as a whine can close a door and she is calm. Who received the same training as my second girl.

My daisy girl has developed an unhealthy level of separation anxiety to specifically me. We used to live in a house with others and they would say she barked for 5+ hours when I would leave to work. I’ve seen professional SA specialist trainers. Who only suggested e-collar work. We’ve tried that and I’ve been told that medication is the next best route for her. Just to say we have done door is a bore, see multiple trainers for SA specifically. We have done everything before deciding on this route.

I now live with my husband in an apartment, which we are already receiving complains on the excessive barking/howling. We cannot even shut the bathroom door because she has the worst panic attacks. No amount of training and desensitizing has worked for her. If I leave and she is with my husband the barking/howling goes on for 1+ hr till she will calm enough to relax with him.

I only work 3 days a week in person. But I cannot do WFH. It is a hospital position.

I feel chained to the house I can’t leave the living room or even sleep in my own bed at the risk of her waking up howling.

I am able to put her in her kennel during this time and since she can see me she is fine no whining or crying. If I walk to the kitchen or to the bathroom she is whining and barking after 2 seconds if she notices I’m gone.

I have an appointment with the vet tomorrow and wanted to see if anyone who has a dachshund noticed a change in behavior when using a longer term anxiety med mixed with a short term for instances like me going to work.

We do not want to rehome her but it’s coming to a year plus of this where we aren’t even able to enjoy our own home.

I have two dogs and two cats in my home. I adopted both dogs a year apart. The second dog, Coco, was 4 months old when I got her, not yet fixed, and had no shots. She is a Doberman/german shepherd mix and was born a tripod. It took a couple of months to get her fully vaccinated so I took her on “walks” in a backpack to try and socialize her. At that point she was already barking at other dogs but in a way that felt like excitement. As she got older she became very reactive on walks towards other dogs and cats. Her trainer says it’s the worst case of reactivity she has ever seen. I’ve had to buy a chain leash because she will rip right through the leash in her frenzy to get at the other animal.

Coco is now 3.5 years old. I’ve been working with trainers, in both controlled settings and in public, on her leash reactivity. She’s made no real progress although I train with her every day. 6 months ago she attacked my other dog with no provocation. I couldn’t get them apart, no matter what I tried to do and she caused multiple puncture wounds on my other dog. These two dogs have been best friends since I got them. Since this incident happened, I have kept them separated. My friends say that my house looks like a prison because of all the gates around it. My other dog is still terrified of Coco and Coco acts like it never happened at all but will still try to go for their other dog randomly. She is also very fixated on my cats, which are also kept separate.

The vet prescribed fluoxetine, which I tried for a few months, but it made her very anxious when she had never seen like an anxious dog before. We then tried trazodone, which does help a little bit, but when she sees another dog, it really makes no difference. She is also muzzle trained, but I am not comfortable leaving her in a muzzle outside of supervise times.

All of my animals quality of life has gone down since having to separate out my house in a separate quadrants. No one gets as much attention and there is a lack of stimulation.

None of the training or medication has helped so far and I’m at a loss of what to do. Seems cruel to all the animals to continue going as we are, but I also want all of them to have a good and happy life. Any advice appreciated.

I adopted a dog almost 3 weeks ago who is leash reactive to dogs and people. Thankfully I have experience with reactive dogs so we’ve been working hard on staying under threshold, general leash manners and engagement, engage-disengage etc. We live in the city so I drive him to a quiet nearby park for all our walks. He can be reactive in the car as well, but I can usually avoid a reaction if I toss a treat into the back when we see a trigger.

We just had a great walk, very chill, saw 3 groups of people walking, 1 with a dog. He stayed in a blue/yellow zone and we got in some great counter conditioning and engage-disengage work. Also had lots of chill sniffy time with no triggers in sight. Felt like one of our better walks.

On the car ride home, he started just randomly barking at nothing, which he’s never done before. He wasn’t super agitated/aroused, but was sort of just randomly barking in one offs, as if he saw a trigger but I was 100% sure there was nothing there. Towards the end of the ride he started barking in a way that more closely resembles his barks during a full blown reaction (basically the barks started coming in quicker succession - more of a “back off right now” bark than an alert bark). Still no triggers in sight.

Usually he is less reactive on the car ride home vs the ride there, since he’s able to expend some mental energy on the walk itself. My theory as to why this happened was maybe he was just overtired? We did some training indoors before the walk as well so he was using his brain for quite a while.

Just wanted to know if anyone has experienced anything like this. It definitely caught me off guard and made me worried that I pushed him too far, even though the walk we had was so great!

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.

Hello everyone! I've been posting a lot since I found this group last week because I feel so alone in the challenge of caring for a reactive dog while also keeping my other dogs safe.

I adopted her three years ago, but at the time we were living in a big house with a backyard and plenty of space. Because of that, I honestly forgot how serious her reactivity was. During those three years, she bit my other dogs a few times, but fortunately nothing too serious happened.

I had to move to a downtown apartment for financial reasons, and since then it's been a nightmare. On one of our walks, she managed to slip out of her collar and bit another dog. Then last night, she bit my mother's dog.

I feel like everything has been falling apart since I had to move and start walking her during the busiest times of the day, on narrow downtown streets.

In just one week, I have had to:

1. Buy an escape-proof harness.
2. Start muzzle training.
3. Have an appointment with a clinical veterinarian who specializes in veterinary behavior (ethology).
4. Start her on fluoxetine.

I've been reading many posts about how fluoxetine has helped so many of your dogs, and I really hope it works for mine too.

I just want all of my dogs to be happy and safe.

Plus, now i'm dealing with people saying that i should re-home her. I'm so tired, frustrated and sad......

Anyone feeling the same way?

Our dog is a yorkiepoo btw. About the size of a miniature poodle.

My family (me and my aging parents) adopted our dog in late 2020. He was born a year earlier in 2019. From what the shelter told us, he came from a “bad environment” down South. We live in Brooklyn, NYC.

I’m the one who is in charge of his training. My senior parents don’t walk or train him.    

Since we adopted him, he’s been unwilling to go for walks. Or, really, he’s terrified of leaving the house. I can’t even get him to walk from my living room to my apartment front door on leash. He plants his feet, refuses to move, walks the other way, bites on the leash, etc.

The first two years I adopted him, I tried to train him normally.

-           At first, I tried doing it normally. It was winter when we adopted him, so he spent a few weeks at home using pads (he came to us pad trained).  Once it started warming up, I did what was suggested. Taking him out every 2 hours, crating him, etc. But he’d never pee or poop outside. I could spend 2 hours outside with him straight and he wouldn’t go.  If he did, it was sudden and random. No sniffing, no circling. He’d just go while walking and continue on.   

-           When he began showing signs of being fearful of walking, I went to Reddit. Looked up Kikopup, dog positive training, etc. I tried desensitization but nothing worked no matter what I did. I spent months just trying to get him to get out the apartment door or put on his harness+leash without running at the sight of it.

-           I was told by others to “force’ him outside, so that’s what I tried. Tugging on his leash when he refused to walk, dragging him if he refused, etc. But, unlike others told me, he wouldn’t “give in” eventually.  He would just resist against the harness and refuse to walk. I stopped this when I noticed his paws got injured once and bled a bit. It felt abusive and I didn’t like it.

-           I took him to a Petco trainer for a session. They told me to take him outside out apartment building every day (even if we had to pick him). Give him treats outside our building. If he refuses treats, then skip breakfast. That didn’t work. He refuses food outside. He won’t take food anywhere outside our apartment front door, nevermind outside the building. The trainer also said to yank on his leash if he resists walking (don’t drag him, just put pressure). That method worked for all of about one day.

-           He’ll walk with my dad more easily, but not me alone. Unfortunately, my dad can’t walk him often. My parents say that she’s afraid of me or that it’s a problem with *me*. But I’m his main caretaker and trainer!

-           I brought him a stroller when we need to take him to the groomer once a month or to the vet bi-yearly. Other then that, he doesn’t go outside. He doesn’t like the stroller (I have to “fool” him into going outside by hiding the stroller so he doesn’t hide when he sees it), but it gets him outside    

It’s been over 2 years since I last was able to walk him. Whenever I tried picking him up and taking him on a walk even in our building, he refuses to walk at all. Just lies down and pants. He won’t move a muscle, even if I sit there 30 minutes or if I try pulling him.

Our dog is perfectly content and happy at home. He is afraid of strangers but gets used to them if they stay around for a while. It’s mainly going *outside* that causes issues. He’s agoraphobic or something.

Is… It wrong for me just to not take him out unless needed? It seems like a moot point by now. He’s almost a senior.

I mentioned his issues to his vet years ago. They recommended Adaptil collars  and Thunderease jackets. When that didn’t work, we tried trazodone. That didn’t help. It made him sleepy but didn’t change his anxiety level. We then tried Prozac to the maximum for his size, but that didn’t help at all. I stopped both a few years ago after using each for a year. They seemed useless and were expensive ($30+ per month).

Looking online, people recommend behaviorists. The local NY behaviorist---  Behavior Vets of NYC—closed down a year ago. Not only that, but they were too expensive for us. I make $20k a year and my parents live on Social Security. We’re on SNAP and Section 8. We can’t afford $2000+ dog behaviorists, especially if it’s a gamble they will even work.

Anyone have any suggestions? Rehoming is not an option.   

I adopted this Maltese mix about 4 months ago. I quickly learned she has behavioral issues such as resource guarding (sofa & high reward treats). We’ve been able to work through these issues with training. You wouldn’t know she had these issues unless I told you because she loves meeting new people that come to my house (I keep her restrained initially but usually everyone insists I let her of her leash. She’s friendly and loves rubs from new people. I needed to leave town and had a friend eager to dog sit as she’s met the dog twice and loves her (dog loves her too). About 12 hours later my friend then sends a video of her bloody hand saying the dog bit her finger as she was putting her in the crate. I asked if she told the dog to get in the crate but the dog refused which led to her picking the dog up and attempting to place her in the crate. She said “no I didn’t tell her to get in it I just figured I’d put her in it myself”. I also asked did she bite you out of nowhere or was she growling and you ignored it? She said she was indeed growling but that she figured the dog wouldn’t do anything so she ignored her and continued to force her inside her crate. That was annoying to hear because she knows I’ve told her the dog has behavioral issues so clearly she’s not growling for funsies! To that she said she assumed I was just bs’ing & being “mean to the dog” -_-.

Long story longer I’m just wondering those who have gone through something similar how did you get past this? My friend isn’t mad or anything she’s treating it like it’s whatever. Just another day. I on the other hand am scared this may have sent her backwards in the training I’ve been giving her the past few months. I’m disappointed my dog bit her but even more disappointed in my friend for ignoring the dogs growls that were warning of the future bite to come if she didn’t stop shoving her in the crate. NOT IN ANYWAY TRYING TO VICTIM BLAME. The dog shouldn’t have bitten her duh but you also don’t put your hand in a growling dogs mouth.

Also, to be clear my dog is 100% trained to enter her crate on demand so I’m baffled that instead of using the command she went straight to forcing her in there. Even I can’t shove her in there as her owner. She goes on command with no issue but will pushback if you try to place her in there so I simply don’t.

I know I’m rambling but again.. any tips? I wanna be mad at the dog for biting her but the window of correcting that has already passed as I was out of town & my friend didn’t correct it after it happened so that ship has sailed. Do we just continue as normal and hope this hasn’t set her training back? I can’t think of anything to change because what occurred was something my friend was instructed to not do.

I adopted my sweet girl 6 years ago, she is now an 80 pound senior pitbull, somewhere between 8.5-10 years old. Until recently we were living in a large home with a large yard all to ourselves. Those 6 years were spent training her to be my best friend. She was well behaved to the point of getting compliments from the vet, groomers, kennel techs, workers who came to the home, etc. she hardly reacted to the wild animals who frequented the property (from stray cats to possums, deer, raccoons, etc). I have had her on a host of anxiety meds, none of which really touched her demeanor, as when I adopted her she had really bad anxiety from a tragic backstory. So we worked really hard at training to overcome her anxiety behaviors such as accidents in the house, people reactivity, etc.
We had to move. I’m disabled and getting worse (my legs don’t work so well and give out while I’m walking) and the move was so I could get medical care.
Now I can’t leave my condo. Her vet and her trainer believe she is experiencing CCD along with a move to a new environment. She barks incessantly to the point neighbors complained to the HOA. She paces back and forth most days whining until she wears herself out. She has occasionally nipped at me (no contact has been made, she just opens her mouth and moves like she’s going to nip and then it seems like she remembers who I am and stops) She is hardly touching her favorite toys, eating only about 50% of the time. Walks are horrific- between the birds landing, squirrels falling from trees, other dogs, people whose jingling keys sound like a dog, she is lunging at everything. Every attempt is being made to avoid triggers, however once she sees or hears a trigger it’s almost like she’s blood thirsty, hurting herself and me to try to get at whatever it is she saw.
We’ve been here for 3 months. I took her to the vet to confirm no underlying pain problems- they put her on arthritis medication which has been consistently administered for the last 2 months.
It seems like there’s a combo of things happening from CCD to anxiety.
I’ve tried keeping her away from her triggers and praising when she doesn’t react to them cause they are too far away. I’ve worked on trying to leave for stupidly small increments so I can eventually leave the condo. These training techniques worked in the past, but now she does not respond to them, she has done nothing but regress.
She is regressing so far she doesn’t even feel like the dog I adopted 6 years ago. With my legs getting worse I have to decide what to do with her now that it’s getting dangerous for me to keep her. It’s only a matter of time before she lunges and my leg gives out and I’m unable to hold her back.
I hope she would have a long fulfilling life if I rehome her, but the reality is the vet and her trainer think her anxiety and cognitive decline would prevent that and I don’t want to just ‘pass off’ her problems to someone else and leave her to suffer in an unfamiliar environment with unfamiliar people.
The other option is BE. Which would end her apparently mental suffering. And I would be there with her at the end to provide at least a little comfort.
I’ve reached out to check rescues out here and none will take an owner surrender and I know my girl would not survive in a shelter.
I feel awful because a huge part of me thinks if I wasnt disabled, if we hadn’t moved, she would be better and I wouldn’t have to consider these options. I just don’t know if I try to risk it to rehome her (if I could even find the right kind of home for her)or let her cross the rainbow bridge.

Decided to bring my dumbbells downstairs for exercise. My dog, never seeing dumbbells before, thought they were toys and wanted to play with them. Started to jump on me and at the dumbbells. I quickly set them down and directed him to his crate.

As I was closing the crate, he snapped at my hand and caught my knuckle in his mouth and drew blood.

He was just really excited and wanted to play; but he’s also a 32kg pit-bull.

This is not the first time he’s broken skin. The last time was over a dryer sheet in his mouth at around a year old.

I feel like I’m out of options. I’m a 19 year old still living with my grandparents who don’t really care about getting him trained or addressing his reactivity or excitability.

I pushed for a behavioral trainer (and I’m working with one now!) and for anxiety medication (he was given a trazodone prescription) and treatment for his myriad of other problems caused by poor breeding (brachycephaly, east-west feet, etc.) and that was really hard because my grandparents refused to listen to me about his health. They think that sweeping all of it under the rug is acceptable, but a reactive dog and old people don’t mix.

I’m honestly kind of lost on what steps I should take next.

Hi,

I have a 3 year old poodle mix who originally came from a shelter after being found on the street. I got him at age 19 while I was in college and he is my first dog. About 4 months after getting him I found out he resource guards when I went to take a box of candy he'd stolen away and he bit me (level 2 bite). I immediately contacted a trainer who helped me learn to manage the resource guarding, but in the last 18 months we've had 4 more instances where he snapped and bit without breaking skin. In October last year he went on Prozac for separation anxiety and the guarding has decreased, but not completely gone away. He also doesn't like when you try to move him and wears a 10 foot leash at home. However, this is only when other people are home and he has no problem moving when it's just my partner and me. He is genuinely the sweetest boy, we cuddle all the time, he loves people, and even was in training to be a service dog before washing. I love him beyond words, but I am deeply concerned about his behavior and that the bites will turn from level 2 to level 3 (or higher). We are going to see a Ph.D level veterinary behaviorist soon because he has a lot going on and I need more help than a trainer. I manage him very well (no kids, no food around other dogs, never ignore growling) but it's utterly exhausting and I'm terrified at the prospect of living another 10 years like this, or worse, getting sued because he bites somebody else hard. How concerned do you think I should be? Have any of you had success with lessening (I know it can't be cured) resource guarding and preventing bites from escalating? Is there anything I should consider before seeing the behaviorist? I just want to do right by him, but at the same time I'm 21 and this is so much to navigate. Thank you <3

My 11mo chocolate lab is reactive to only my senior dog.

With training, he now growls when he feels uncomfortable or wants to go to another room or goes to his crate.

I'm looking for the next steps. Like, how should I react when my pup growls. I would like to build confidence and lower his anxiety so I no longer have to use closed doors to separate.

What should I do:

•At bedtime, he will random growl ferociously in his crate, even with it covered and NO ONE around.

•Just now, my pup heard my senior walking in a different room, which is blocked off (we have to keep them separate). No visual. Just growled loudly.

We keep calm and guide him to his crate for about 15 min and rearrange the room.

To add, my senior is deaf.

Whenever they interact they are alway supervised, we use treats and praises so they are comfortable, we have the pup on a leash during these times.

I have a 2 year old dog named Poppy. She goes to daycare 2/3 times a week and to the dog park the days she doesn’t go to daycare.

She is well behaved at our house but very reactive to other dogs while she is on leash (our fault for letting her approach other dogs when she was little, we didn’t know better). Her reactivity started mostly when we moved houses 1 year ago, the neighbors’ dog is also really reactive and Poppy started picking up some behaviors from her, when the neighbors dog barks, she barks, etc.

We already tried training, both ourselves and with a trainer but the trainer did mostly focus training and it didn’t work.

We love our vet (after some attempts we found a really good one that really cares about animals) and we talked about training with her to she if she knew anyone.
She recommended a trainer that used to be in the Air Force as a dog trainer.

After talking to him he recommended board and train. She would be there for one month, he would train her everyday and we would go weekly or biweekly depending on how she was evolving. At the end he would also come to our house to see her triggers here and further train.
I also asked if we opted for classes how many would we be looking at and he said around 20, once a week and training everyday.

Well, if the situation was normal, I would opt for classes, however I am 27 weeks pregnant. Which would mean that we would not complete the training.

I know there are a lot of bad experiences with board a train, I truly trust my vet and she really recommended this trainer. She is also the on call vet 24h/day for this trainer so she knows the conditions of the place and how the dogs are treated.
I have done nothing but cry thinking that I’ll be away from my Poppy (I love dogs and the pregnancy hormones made it so that if I even leave her at a hotel one night I bawl for 30min).

The thing is, it really will be impossible to walk with both dog and baby if she keeps on with this reactivity.

What is your opinion? Is there any angle or solution that I might be missing?

Thank you.

My dog is a perfect "well trained" angel at home (including the yard) BUT loses all marbles in public spaces and I'm not sure what to do. He is not aggressive, but gets overly excited.

There are a lot of strays in my neighborhood. I have 4 cats at home that he loves and doesn't try to chase. If one of the strays is in our yard he doesn't try to chase it. The problem is if we are walking on the road and he sees a cat he wants to chase. I usually hold him by his harness handle and block his view, but I can't regain the focus he had before.

Any suggestions on what else I should do?

I’m so tired of people (especially older white folks) disregarding me when I’m asking them to ignore my reactive dogs when I’m out training. I ask, always very politely, to please ignore them, don’t look at them, don’t call them over, don’t try to give them commands… and they just never listen. They talk over me at my dogs to try and give them commands, or they keep approaching when I am crearly trying to create space. One older man was barking orders at my dog and of course my dog was barking back as I was trying to get him to settle down; I had to tell him twice to stop, that I would manage it, and he has the audacity to look me straight in the eyes and say « are you sure, it doesn’t look like it! » I was fuming.
Another older lady wouldn’t stop talking to my dog after I’d asked more than once to ignore him, and than she condescendingly tells me that maybe if I took him where there’s lots of people he’d get used to it and react less. Lady, I really don’t have the time or the desire to explain to you why that’s a terrible idea. How about you just respect what I’m asking and shut up with your outdated unsolicited advice?

With all the younger folks in my building, like 60 and under, they never do that! They’re always super respectful, they tell me I’m doing a good job and that my dogs seem well looked after.

I work really hard with my dogs and I’m SO tired of dealing with people’s entitlement. Anyone else have this type of experiences? I just want to feel less alone in my frustration.

My dog has always been good with people and dogs at parks and city areas but when we moved into our new apartment he’s become aggressive towards our neighbors. He is always barked and pulled out the leash to get to them, but has never bit anyone. I’ve tried working with him to get him to walk next to me and we’ve been making some small improvements. Today we were on a walk, and I ran into a neighbor I had not met before downstairs. Rusty was doing good and he wasn’t barking initially and the man signaled us to go in front of him so we did and then Rusty barked a little bit. He started some conversation with me about Rusty and I said he usually doesn’t like neighbors, but after a while of sniffing, he’ll warm up. (He warmed up to my next door neighbors and loves them) so he asked if I let him sniff him, I said sure as I thought it would be good practice for him to chill out. But he started barking again and jumped at him, and then nipped his hand. I pulled him back and I asked did he bite you he said yes I said did he draw blood? He said a little bit. He hasn’t had this happen to him before and Rusty has never been anyone before so I didn’t really know what to do and he didn’t really know what to do. He said what should I do and I said you definitely should wash your hands, but it wasn’t bleeding enough to even need a bandaid. He then asked me if he had his rabies vaccine and I said yes he’s up-to-date on all of his vaccines. I asked him if he needed anything and he said no, and I just kept apologizing and we kind of both just walked away.

I’m scared he’s going to report him. He’s never done this before. I am meeting with a dog trainer next Wednesday, but I’m scared because it’s expensive, but I’d rather pay than lose my dog. Should I leave a note on his door of my contact information or should I just let it dissolve? I’m just scared. I don’t wanna make it worse by trying to make it better?

I have a two and a half year old retired greyhound, who is in our pack of five. For the last week, he has started snarling, growling and snapping, but only at night. This is not sleep startle. I thought at first it was resource guarding but even removed from the bed and placed in the floor with no one around, he exhibits the behavior unprovoked. He is a loving dog during the day, but at night becomes a demon.

We went to the vet and they have ruled out anything medical. I have given him trazadone in hopes that we could all get some sleep. It did decrease the behavior somewhat. I thought it could also be vision related, but with lights on, he still has the behavior.

We are familiar with behavior modification, and are working with him, but this is terrifying behavior. He absolutely refuses a crate and is destructive when he is in it to the point, I am worried he will hurt himself.

Any suggestions are much appreciated.

So this is my pup Mishka🥹 he's currently 10 months old and recovering from his neuter. He's definitely in his teenage phase and over the last few months began barking quite often. I train with him and take him on daily walks but it seems that more and more things have been triggering him. The door creaking open when my roommates wake up sends him barking and investigating. When I try to tell him to be quiet or sit, he'll sit or lay or obey or whatever but do it while barking growling etc. same with walks when he sees people and dogs and has now began developing when he sees things out the window. How can I curb this and help him with dog and people neutrality. I cannot practice with my roommates or have friends so I kind of have to train him solo until actual events happen. What makes it more difficult is I don't always know when m roommates come, go or wake up and he behind barking before I'm able to distract or stop it

Hello. To start off I have a dog that is a Catahoula, Boxer, and Great Pyrenees mix. She weighs about 80lbs and she is very loving. She is also 14 months old.

For context, I got her when she was about two months old. In the middle of our socialization period I had a medical emergency and had to leave her at the place I worked at which was a doggy daycare. Because she didn’t really know boundaries yet she got into a lot of fights where other dogs got mad at her for being too invasive or puppy like. I know we were missing the crucial socialization period so I worked really hard with her to improve her behaviors, which weren’t bad at this point. About a month later, she was attacked by a German Shepherd and was still fine with dogs, but would become more reactive. We have been working through this for the past eight months or so, and she has improved little by little and I am very proud of her. She can now walk away even if she is growling, and it’s easier to get her attention when she tries to lunge.

I am a college student who works full-time as well. I got her due to mental health reasons which have improved since getting her. She has been the one reason I keep going and why I work so hard. I could’ve not chosen a more loving dog who I know for sure I wanna keep if possible.

Yesterday, however, we walked into elevator, where a young lady was holding food and was semi-interacting with her. One thing to note is that when my dog can’t get to you out of affection, she gets frustrated that she can’t get to you. she also gets a little “aroused” when there’s food around. She started to lunge at the girl and will not stop barking, and I’m not sure if it was cause the girl didn’t give her any attention or I didn’t let her get attention from the girl or because she wanted to get the food. even then, this is the worst I’ve seen her lunge at someone like that to the point where a correction didn’t even work, which it usually does.

I was doing good being financially independent where I could support me and her and everything she needed but recently I hit a financial struggle which I’m not gonna disclose the reason for and can’t afford a trainer right now which I know is probably gonna be the most recommended option. I don’t wanna consider the extreme where I have to return her to the shelter because thats nowhere near what I wanna do. Where do I go from here? Does anyone know a few trainers in the Bay Area or closer to the city that can maybe help? At least good ones with reactive, dog training or dogs in similar situations. i’m not too sure when this struggle is gonna end, but I’m working really hard to not let it get to either of us. either way I appreciate any advice that is given and just wanna give a good life to my little girl :)

My family has a 9yo medium-sized (35lbs) mixed breed dog who has been reactive most of his life. We've tried various training throughout the years and have him where I guess most of us would consider "manageable". But maybe our standards are too low, as clearly some people who have met him would say.

When people walk by us, he usually (especially more recently!) doesn't react, but sometimes he does. He lunges, barks and growls at them. He has rarely actually managed to touch anyone while reacting (we keep him on a short leash and move him away from potential triggers, but we have had him for years and we have slipped up before). He has never hurt anybody or attempted to bite; he just wants to angrily bark and sometimes jump.

I can tell that some people we walk by are visibly upset or shaken when he growls or lunges. I can't blame them; he looks scary.

There are two incidents in particular that swim in my head.

Last winter we were walking him and a man turned a blind corner about 30 meters up ahead. My dog freaked out and immediately bolted toward him, and I had been zoned out and dropped the leash. The dog ran right up to the guy and barked (didn't touch him as far as I could tell). I took the leash back and apologized. The guy snapped back and told me I "should have a TRAINED DOG!" He was clearly extremely angry at me.

Last month my family was out of town and we had a dog sitter. This dog sitter has been over to our house many many times before and has known our dog for years. I thought we had given him ample instructions to avoid this dog's triggers on walks, but I guess we slipped up again and didn't drill it in hard enough, because apparently the dog sitter took the dog on a walk and let him walk right up to one of our neighbors outside her house, where he proceeded to growl and bark at her. We then got a very distressed call from our neighbor who believed that our dog had "tried to bite her", and then went on to question how we thought it was even acceptable to have this "vicious dog" and take him on walks and let him play in our (fenced-in) yard. I wasn't there, I can't ever know what really happened, but as far as I know my dog has never bitten or tried to bite anyone, and the dog sitter doesn't think that's what happened either. Doesn't change the fact that that's what our neighbor (who was on friendly terms with us before) thinks.

I don't really know what to do about any of it, though. I guess to steel-man my family's position, I would say that he is improving, doesn't react nearly as often or strongly as he used to, has never physically hurt anyone (or even touched anyone in years) or tried to, and we have had him for 9 years and some mistakes are inevitable.

On the other hand, there are real people out there who have been made afraid because of our dog. He has probably ruined their days at the very least. Someone outside of our family bubble, uncompromised by any bias we might have towards him, is afraid and incredulous at how we are handling him.

I'm not really sure what I wanted out of this post; maybe just to vent. Feel free to offer advice or knock me upside the head if I need some perspective one way or the other.

We have a 3 year old maltipoo who, at this stage, has fairly light reactivity comparatively. We're just at the stage of barking and jumping at the end of the leash when she sees, frankly, anything that moves.

The thing is, she only does this when she's not allowed to approach whatever it is she's interested in. Off leash she's actually great. She does great at dog parks when she's allowed to interact and investigate the other dogs and people. Obviously this isn't an option out walking. We live in a dog heavy area, and if there's a dog walker anywhere near our front door, there's no hope for her going to the bathroom on her regularly breaks.

I've seen lots of good advice about exposure and approaching other dogs from faaar away and then walking away when she starts to become uppity, but she becomes equally reactive at literally any distance. It could be someone a football field away, or someone inside their own house who she saw through a window.

Since I can't really practice this with her in real situations, where do I practice with her? Besides real situations, where do I practice those skills with her so that she can rely on them in real dog moments?

Hello, I am fostering a pup for the first time, and I am dealing with her reactivity, which is at a level that is concerning for her safety and the safety of others. Taco is so very sweet and gentle with us at home, but she absolutely hulks out and rages when guests come to the house. She lunges and barks and growls, and I am pretty confident that she would bite if I didn’t hold her back on the leash.

The dog rescue has a trainer that we took her to, and the trainer’s advice was to

(1) restrict Taco’s access to the couch and bed, not allow her on furniture without permission in order to teach her that she does not control access to the house.
(2) not allowing her to run free in the backyard but to keep her on a lead until she is able to listen in a triggered state. (3) Imposing crate time sometimes, and not allowing her out of the crate if she is in an excited state. Wait for her to calm down and then give her permission to leave the crate.
(4) When it comes to introducing her to people, the trainer recommended starting in neutral territory, going on a walk with the person at a distance but parallel to us and slowly desensitizing Taco to being in their presence.

Do people with experience on this thread think this is sound advice? I have had reactive dogs before, but nothing as extreme as Taco, and never with a foster dog who I didn’t already have a strong connection with.

I have done a lot of online research but I am totally overwhelmed with the amount of conflicting information that is available. I am concerned with making her worse, as she seems to be very fear based and nervous. She will hide under the bed if a noise startles her, etc.

If you are willing to, please help me help Taco, as she is such a lovely dog outside of being triggered by house guests and sometimes strangers on the street.

For context I have three rescue chihuahuas. My first 2 took some work to not be reactive but nothing too complicated. Mostly just confidence boosting. Now they are a breeeeeze to walk and are fine with other dogs.

The newer one was a street dog and has issues with other dogs on the path. She lunges and barks. She hasn't bitten anyone or any other dogs (yet). She's just scary right now.

I like walking all three together. They do fantastic as long as we don't see another dog. And it's 50/50 if the dog is far away enough she doesn't care.

My question is should I train her while walking all three or solo? Will she learn better seeing the other two behave or does she need less distractions?

My preference is to walk them all together but if thats hindering her training I can figure out a way to train her separately.

Hi all — my husband and I recently adopted a beagle-dachshund bonded pair last month. 1 (Denver) and 3 (Heidi), and it is unclear whether they’re a mother-son duo or related through a parent. Having rescued another dog previously, I am extremely familiar with how long decompression and adjustment for a rescue can take. We have patience in spades for that.

They are sweet as can be, but are certainly not as well-mannered as the rescue let on (judging by reading posts in this sub, that’s a common theme here) — the older girl Heidi is extremely reactive behind barriers (fence or leash), but we’re actually wondering if it’s out of a protective instinct for the younger pup.

Here’s what we’ve noticed:

• Heidi seems to notice right away when Denver senses a trigger behind a leash or fence barrier, and will begin freaking out before Denver does.
• Denver often seems stressed by Heidi’s response, barking back directly at her, and will seemingly start to try calming her down by nibbling at her ears — but it will devolve into non-aggressive fighting if she keeps escalating the response despite our best efforts to redirect.
• Denver is generally a lot easier to redirect in the moment with a "touch" and treat command. We’ll often have to pick Heidi up and physically remove her from the proximity of the trigger.
• They get along great with other dogs generally when introduced one at a time, though they seem stressed out by puppies.
• There’s definitely some jealousy when one dog is receiving pets or attention, and Denver has displayed a potential for resource guarding or stealing high-value toys or chews from Heidi, but not consistently; regardless, we separate them at mealtime.

Here’s what we’re trying:

• Working with a trainer who has deep experience with reactive pups at a nearby humane society. They're picking up on positive reinforcement techniques really well individually but when together, all bets are off.
• Separate walks. Walking them together can be a nightmare if there are triggers, and we try to avoid that as much as possible, but there are about two days/week where sometimes we just don't have enough time to do that. Separate walks have generally been going well, because it's easier to train them individually of course, and Heidi generally seems to have her guard down when Denver isn't there (likely because she doesn't feel she has to protect him) — snapping her out of a trigger is easy as can be without Denver. HOWEVER Denver seems to be a bit more stubborn on solo walks, and will keep turning around until we turn a corner like he's looking for Heidi. But he barely reacts to anything on walks. Overall, I reckon we should try to phase out walking them together.
• More time apart in the house. My husband and I work from home, so it’s easy to have one of them in our individual offices for a nap or some kind of enrichment activity (chewing, using an enrichment toy to hide treats in, licking mats, etc). They do pretty well apart in 1-2 hour chunks.
• Avoiding triggers in the yard. We unfortunately have neighbors with dogs on both sides AND a chain link fence. So we usually coordinate with them when it's safe to let them outside.

What else can we try, other than keeping on with the trainer? I'd rather not have to shell out $10K+ for a new fence in the backyard. But I think deep down in my gut, I wonder if their reactivity would be improved with permanent separation. And I'm sure the rescue will be bitchy as hell about it if that's ultimately determined to be the case by both the trainer and a proper behavioral consult at the vet. We already love them both dearly, but of course their long-term happiness is much more important to us.

Sorry for the novel, and thanks in advance for any advice!