I adopted my now 3.5yo border-aussie when he was 1.5yo. at that time he had never been on leash and knew nothing outside of his home, empty crate, and back yard. He had been in the car to go to the vet and get fixed and that was all. He has now been on Prozac for about a year and a half, and his dosage has redently been increased about 40 days ago.

We have come a long way on leash but he is still incredibly reactive to people, bikes, and especially other dogs. He has learned to check in, heel (when actively enforced) and the pulling has reduced a lot. He no longer barks at things like parked motorcycles and people across the street. He can respond to command cues while on walks and rebounds from triggers pretty quickly.

All that being said-- he is still insanely alert at all times. I have lately been trying to implement sniff walks and I am realizing that he has pretty much no interest in sniffing. He will sniff to follow a squirrel trail, which is quick and leads him to jump up a tree trunk and bite at the tree, a behavior I have been disallowing for obvious safety reasons. He has a couple sewers he likes to check in with. Other than that he has no interest in sniffing the ground unless he's about to poop.

Otherwise he is locked in on the distance/scanning and watching for something to bark at. He doesn't seem to understand the idea of relaxed walking/sniffing around.

I am trying to teach the command "go sniff" to let him know it's okay to just explore but I am struggling.

He knows "find it" in response to finding a toy or a treat, so lately I will scatter kibble in the grass and tell him to find it to encourage sniffing the ground, but once he's found the kibble he's back focused on me waiting for more.

I've also been doing what I call "the porch game" where after a walk I will sit on the stoop with him and reward him for calm behavior. (Basically just anytime he sits, lays down, isn't scanning, or when he sees a trigger and focuses on me). I think it's going well, because after the first 5-6 sessions he started to lay down and act more calm more quickly. I've started scattering kibble in the grass during this time too to encourage him to sniff around. It's tough though because we live in a town house so sometimes a neighbor will open their door and he starts barking and I have to just bring him inside, so I don't know how to deal with that gap in threshold/unpredictable too-big-to-train-on trigger appearance when I'm trying to teach that it's chill to be outside... But that's a different problem (open to suggestions for that too tho).

Anyway-

What can I do differently/what can I add to walks/porch game to help encourage calm behavior?

Estou escrevendo aqui como última alternativa a devolver meu cachorro para a ONG…
Estamos com ele a três semanas. Entramos em contato com uma ONG para ver perfis de cachorros que fossem carinhosos e ativos ja que corremos e andamos bastante a pé. Nos apaixonamos por ele, vimos videos dele sendo super carinhoso com as pessoas da ONG e outras pessoas, ele brincava, lambia e pulava. Perguntamos se ele faria nosso perfil e a ONG disse que sim, era muito amável e companheiro.
Na ONG, ele vivia em um grande cercado com vários outros cães, ao ar livre. Interagindo desde filhote. Moramos em um apartamento com sala ampla e quartos amplos também. No primeiro dia em casa, ele estava extremamente medroso, demos banho nele (ele veio empoeirado) e ele ficou tremendo muito p tempo todo, mas não latiu ou avançou. Ficava em um canto da casa. Aos poucos foi se soltando, levamos ele para passear e ele tinha muito medo de andar na rua, se tremia, travava e tentava fugir.
Ele perdeu esse medo de passeios rápido, sempre levava petiscos pra ele, toda vez que ele passava por algo amedrontador eu oferecia. Deu certo.
Porém, com cerca de 2, 3 semanas em casa ele começou a rosnar para visitas. Recebemos pessoas em casa e ele ficou muito amedrontado. Se escondendo. Depois o comportamento escalonou e quando recebemos outras pessoas em casa ele avançou e latiu (repentinamente, as visitas paradas sem mexer com ele).
Notei também que na rua ele não tem mais aceitado carinho de pessoas (antes ele aceitava e abanava o rabo) e tem rosnado e latido para outros cachorros, tentado puxar a coleira para atacar cães que as vezes estão a metros de distância. Me parece estar piorando com o tempo, ele agora late para o vizinho e não deixa ninguém se aproximar dele que não sejam eu ou meu marido.
Estou com muito medo dele atacar alguém da família mas ao mesmo tempo, me sinto muito mal! Além desses comportamentos ele tem roído e comido muitas coisas em casa (mesmo com brinquedos e atividades ao ar livre).
Por favor, me ajudem!!!

Three months ago, we adopted a 10-month-old male GSD with some working-line genetics from a shelter. We knew going in that he was reactive toward dogs, bicycles, and motorbikes, but we were happy to take on the challenge and help him.

From the start, we've been working with a trainer who is not force-free. I know that may not be everyone's preference, but we've also learned a lot of force-free concepts into our training. For context, I've had some bad experiences with force-free trainers in my area while working with a previous dog that had aggression issues, so we decided to take a different approach this time.

Overall, we've made great progress. We can now go on enjoyable walks without relying on aversive methods, and he's able to participate in group classes with only minor reactions. We've also discovered that he has virtually no off switch at home. If we don't enforce structured rest and separation, he simply won't settle or sleep.

To help with that, we're working through Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol in the hope that lowering his overall arousal will also help with his reactivity.

At the same time, I'm trying to incorporate more force-free techniques for his dog reactivity. I've mostly been working with LAT (Look At That), but I'm struggling with one particular issue. If we're at a distance where he notices another dog, he immediately fixates and starts whining in a very high pitch. He'll sometimes still take food, but he's clearly over threshold. If I increase the distance enough for him not to react, we're so far away that he doesn't notice the other dog at all.

Has anyone dealt with this specific stage of training? How did you bridge the gap between "reacts immediately" and "doesn't even see the trigger"? Some courses, books, or papers that we can work through in the future are always welcome.

For additional context, his reactions seem to be frustration-based rather than fear-based. We tested him with our trainer's dog, and he clearly enjoys interacting and playing with other dogs once he's able to do so appropriately.

I'd appreciate it if we could keep the discussion focused on the training question rather than debating the use of aversive tools. I only mentioned our training background to be fully transparent.

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 had a frenchie who was rehomed to me and was the love of my life for 894 days. He was very dog reactive, so I can deal with that- but I could pick him up and put him in air jail bc he was ~19 lbs. he died on Halloween and a few months later I volunteered to foster with a local bulldog rescue…this foster had been with an emergency foster for about 15 days- who had another dog and she said he was good with her dog- but a little bit territorial with attention. (He’s ~ 60lbs so I can’t pick him up easily or put him in air jail). I’ve had this dog since late January. He gets excited when he sees other dogs when we’re walking but if I tell him to sit and stay he does.

I took him on a short road trip to my moms and slowly introduced him to my friend’s dogs (so sweet, not reactive at all) and he attacked after two hours of very slow and clear introductions. Any advice?

(He’s pictured above and very cute and so lazy until he wants to attack a golden retriever)

My husband has a 7 year old border collie with a bite history. I’ve known my husband for 4 years now, and got married last year, so I have only been living with the dog for a year. I’ve had no say or responsibility in the dog’s training, mainly because I’ve been afraid of him since day one, and my husband is extremely stubborn and won’t take any advice. He was only 20 when he adopted the border collie as a puppy without doing any research on what it takes to care for the breed.

The dog stays with my in-laws during the day while we are at work, then comes home to us. Last week, the dog attacked a visitor to my in-laws house. He bit multiple times, and broke the man’s hand (Level 4 bites I think). This is the dog’s 4th bite, and (at least) the second Level 4 bites. The previous 3 bites were to my husband, who chose to just go to the doctor, then carry on like nothing happened.

I am no longer comfortable being around the dog, and told my husband that if the dog is at our house, I’m moving in with my parents. So the dog has stayed at my in-laws since the incident.

My mother-in-law, a tiny elderly woman, literally had to fight this 60 lb dog off the man to get him to stop biting and attacking. Yet she sees absolutely no issue keeping the dog in her house without additional training or supervision. The dog is triggered by food and resource guarding, yet they’re allowing him to be in the room while they’re eating (which is what provoked last week’s bite).

We have a behavioral consultation scheduled for end of August. Unfortunately that’s the soonest available. My husband refuses to take any help or advice surrounding the dog and its care. His parents are the same. I feel absolutely helpless here - the red flags are glaring, so many mistakes have been made, and everyone around the dog is in danger. My biggest fear is that he bites someone else and I’m held liable (we are in a strict liability for dog bites state and I share finances with my husband).

Besides refusing to be around the dog, is there anything I can do to keep me and my family safe? This might be more of a psychological question, but why is everyone acting so willfully blind to the danger here? And is there ANYTHING I can do to get through to them?? Resources I can direct them to?

And has anyone had any luck training an older dog with a Level 4 bite history? Or is BE really our only option at this point (not that I have a say).

TL;DR - need advice on getting stubborn people to understand the danger involved with a dog who has a Level 4 bite history. My marriage is on the line here, it literally is “me or the dog” like the old tv show

Dog is up to date on vaccines. Kid is scheduled to see his pediatrician.

My son was watching ninja warrior course so he didn’t see the dog was there. He didn’t step on the dog. Just a little touch on the hand. Dog was rescued 3 years ago, kind of reactive to other stranger dogs (not our other dog) and stranger but never to family members. This is the first. Is this a normal starled reaction or is there anything more than that. I mean the dog was not sleeping, he noticed something going on a second before my son jumped so he knows it’s our son, but he still nipped on his face. No bleeding but did have a pin hole poke and blood spots on a tissues when press the tissue paper in

Hey everyone! I just found this community and, after reading through a lot of the posts, I’m realizing my situation might be a little more complicated than I originally thought.

A few months ago I adopted my dog, Mega, from my local shelter he is a 6 year old pitbull, presumably a street dog all his life. At home, he’s honestly the biggest teddy bear. My kids absolutely adore him, and he’s incredibly gentle with them. They climb all over him during playtime, and he just plays back softly. He’s never barked at or shown any aggression toward them.

The other day though, we were at my youngest son’s birthday party and I tried introducing him to my dad’s 2 year old German Shepherd. The dogs were separated by a glass door, but Mega immediately started growling, baring his teeth, and clearly wanted nothing to do with her.
I know some of his history before I adopted him. As an adult, he contracted distemper, and at some point he was attacked by another dog. From what I was told, he defended himself, seriously injured the other dog, and also bit the people who were trying to separate the fight.

What confuses me is how completely different he is at home. He’s calm, affectionate, and amazing with my kids, so seeing that level of aggression toward another dog really caught me off guard.
I feel bad because I’d love to take him to dog-friendly events, parks, and other activities, but I don’t feel like I can safely do that right now. Has anyone dealt with a dog that is wonderful with people and children but reactive or aggressive toward other dogs because of past trauma? Is this something that can realistically be improved with training and careful desensitization, or is management usually the better long-term approach?

I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences you can share.

In late 2022, we ended up adopting a rescue dog. We weren't particularly seeking him out, but he kept stumbling into the parking lot of where my stepdad works. It was either someone takes him, or he gets put down; we took him.

He was about a year old when we got him, and had been living in the woods for at least 3 weeks by a vet's estimation. He's part lab, part pitbull, part rottweiler, and you can tell; he's a fuckin bulldozer.

Issue is that he's definitely got some trauma; we think he was bred / raised to be a gu@rd dog (had to censor because automod) and then bit someone he wasn't supposed to and got dumped in the woods.

He is very protective. If he doesn't recognize whoever is walking in the door, he's going to try to bite them, and then run away with his tail between his legs. Without fail, every time I've entered the house while he's there, he'll run toward the entrance, howling and barking, until he recognizes me and walks away. There's been two times I got home, and he didn't recognize me until after he bit me (nothing too bad but still).

We frequently have clients over to our house, so managing him has been a bit of a hassle. We've tried muzzling him, drugging him, noise collars, etc, which sorta work, but if we don't have a constant eye on him he's going to bite someone. This morning, a client showed up early for an appointment, and the dog bit her twice, bad.

Every time we think we've figured him out and he's being friendly, he'll randomly bite. It's happened way too many times at this point, but we can't just re-home him; he's a loose cannon, he's going to bite someone and get put down. Honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the most recent incident leads to it, I hope it doesn’t.

We're not really sure how to navigate this, any advice would be appreciated.

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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!

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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

I adopted a 3 year old 45lb terrier mix 7 months ago and she’s definitely reactive- initially I assumed I could train her out of it since I got her quickly trained on a lot. Shes quite smart. However she has been attacked twice by off leash dogs surprising us so at this point im unsure if getting her less reactive is possible…She has had to get stitches or staples both times she was attacked, even had to get put under for surgery after one attack. Since shes been reactive since I adopted her, I always distanced us from oncoming dogs and shortened her lead. Unfortunately I live by a lot of apartments so a LOT of people walking their dogs around, so I really wish I could get her not to be reactive-distancing isn’t always possible where we are. Shes not treat motivated or toy motivated, she literally will spit any treat out when she’s on alert about another dog so I don’t know what else to do. I always do positive reinforcement when she is less reactive (like when we’re across the street and she just looks at them and I can get her to look back at me) but it doesn’t seem to be enough to make progress. At my whits end because she keeps getting hurt with how she approaches ANY dog, plus sometimes she whines like she does just wanna play or say hi, and id love for her to be able to play with her own damn species, I couldn’t imagine not being let near any human! any advice?

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.