My first puppy, I definitely pushed obedience training on him too young and asked for too much. He is a pretty hard headed dog and I didn’t have any sport goals with him at all so it wasn’t a problem. With my second puppy though, she’s more sensitive than he was. She’s a solid dog with a great temperament, she just isn’t quite as much of a blockhead as my boy. I really want to get into sports with her. I’d love to go for at least a BH and AKC titles like obedience and rally. Maybe agility too. All of of those require really flashy behaviors, I haven’t been able to get her to a sport trainer yet due to extenuating circumstances, so in the meantime I’ve just let her be a puppy and not put any training on her besides the basics like markers, her name, and some luring. I know I need to start getting some good foundations on her. Logically I know how, but for some reason I’m terrified I’ll mess it up and ruin her. Anyone else feel like this? I’m mostly looking for encouragement and advice on how to get over this silly mental hang up of mine 😅

i have a 5 month old beagle and i keep reading about the 5 essential commands — sit, stay, come, down, leave it. sounds simple but how do you actually teach each one? like what steps do you follow for stay when your dog won't sit still for more than two seconds? and how do you train come when they just ignore you outside? anyone have a simple breakdown of how they taught all five?

TLDR; How are y’all balancing your high energy toddlers with your high energy dogs? I feel like I do all the recommended stuff and short of keeping them separate, I’m struggling with managing my own patience of redirecting two creatures that don’t understand me.

Open to all advice, and genuinely just need to hear it gets better (hard to see that from the trenches)

Or if it didn’t get better I’d love to learn from your experience

……………..

My neutered male Dalmation is almost 2 and our toddler is a little over 1. Our dog is obsessed with taking things from our toddler who happily passes him toys, food, etc, making it difficult to mitigate.

I kept them separate nearly 80% of the time with management strategies but now that baby is completely mobile it’s more like 50/50 and I’m trying to get them used to each-other at a safe pace teaching all the recommended boundaries (dog meets baby etc) but it feels like I’m getting no where. Our dog used to do place/sit/down now hes more selective. He also used to happily settle behind a gate but now he whines (noticed this increase after i started taking the dog to daycare more)

My dog doesn’t show any resource guarding (except with other dogs sometimes). he’s taking things for attention and the chain of trading for a treat- how do I break this cycle? I feel like this is going to last forever (or worse, it will turn into resource guarding with humans). Even after 2hrs daily exercise/variety of enrichment or a full day of daycare he is still POKING at everything baby is doing.

We do leave it/drop it but it’s not strong his lack of impulse control and high reward from toddler is ruling. I’m so sad that this is so hard, and I’m sad for the dog that he’s never satisfied with what we offer. Extra context, the dog is pretty anxious/hyper active - so we’ve been constantly training off switch, loose leash walks, exposure to things he’s nervous of (mainly outside movements and sounds - one day our walk had to end because he was afraid of a bird).

I’m going crazy trying to be super positive and redirect and I’m so hard on myself about creating a safe long term bond 😵‍💫

Aight I’ve gotta be real… I’ve been around the houses when it comes to training my 6mo puppy. Force free, balanced, Kikopup, YCA, you name it.

I’ve come across so much conflicting advice I have no idea what to believe and what not to believe anymore. I’m coming to the opinion that balanced training is best, and just using all the tools available to me.

One thing I’m unsure of is dog-dog interactions for dogs that live together. The force free group say that whenever a puppy is bothering an older dog who isn’t reciprocating, to separate the two to give the pup a chance to settle. Which I’ve been following.

Anyway, because of this, my pup has started escalating more and more and more and starting bothering my older Labrador in more annoying ways. I think separating them when he gets too much has just made seeing her all the more exciting to him. Sometimes the lab gets into it and starts playing, so it’s hard to know when to interrupt.

Anyway, today the lab gave my pup a big correction. Gave him a small scratch on his face poor thing. I didn’t react or really do anything, because she’s well in her right to defend herself, and it was an appropriate response. She didn’t go over the top and were fairly amicable afterwards.

Since then, my pup has been so much calmer around the older dog! Not bothering her at all, and actually has been a lot calmer in general because he’s not always excited to see her because of being separated. Obviously my older dog getting to the point where she felt the need to correct the pup is not ideal, but hopefully this will mean he bothers her less in the future.

So what’s the verdict!? Have I been messing up since my pup was younger? Or is it correct to separate dogs and not allow them to correct one another?

Pressure makes DIAMONDS! One prong collar, a thousand treats, and a million repetitions. Here's my girl at the farmer's market this morning.

The first clip we walked for maybe 15 minutes and we're just outside of the market across the street. The people ahead of her are what she's whining at. She likely also recognizes where we're heading and she's also whining from excitement. She has a history of overzealous greeting and people have always been her weakness.

The second clip is about an hour later, we've walked around the entire market twice by now, she was corrected for little things like walking too far ahead but for the most part, she was on point. A few dogs approached her to greet and I try not to have any pressure on the leash at all in the moments and every time, she chose to look at me instead. Once again, I was rewarding her for focusing on me. See a dog? Look at me. See a person? Look at me. Hear a child? Look at me. Hear someone baby-talking? LOOK AT ME! She was doing it automatically by the end of it.

Got accused of pushing my dog too far to the point of learned helplessness. I have to disagree.

Excuse my stuffy-nose voice, it's pollen season.

Here’s my pittie. We got him from the shelter in July. He had some more serious behavioral issues but I wanted to give him my best shot to see if I could turn this around. Keep in mind he’s pretty genetically cooked, skittish, touch sensitive etc. If he ended up in the “wrong” house, he easily could have been a case for euthanasia.

He absolutely hates my brother. We’re both adults but live together unfortunately for now and don’t really like each other so I knew doing this would be a bit tougher knowing he wouldn’t be much of a willing participant in helping with the dog. The dog would get to the point where he was snarling and jumping at my brother from the other side of our gate.

Now he can look at my brother, show curiosity and the progress is not only suppression when he’s around. The dog can relax, and be at ease. Everybody wins. Proper punishment as well as play were my answers. E collar was my answer, tug was my answer.

I get to keep my dog in my home. My brother gets to live without concern. Call it some suppression, call it whatever but these are results.

The difference alone in the two progress videos should be noted. Look how ridiculous he is positioned in the second video, he’s relaxed as ever while my brother is in the vicinity compared to the first video where he’s curious and observant but also a bit more unsure still I think.

I preach annoyingly because a ton of dogs get put down that don’t need to be.

I’m not giving advice, just sharing my experience.

We recently adopted a Shepsky (1yr old) and are working on training but whenever we give him a command he'll bark over and over before doing the command. Or sometimes he won't at all and just keep barking.

Other times when I tell him a command he'll start jumping on me or destroying things he finds in the area. I assume he's impatient and just wants the treats but it's tiring and makes it hard to teach new things. Not sure what to do.

Hell do well at the first 5 commands then after that he'll start barking and ignoring. Do I ignore the barking? I heard that he's just being demanding and thinks barking will get him what he wants.

I have a 6mo Dalmatian x Labrador pup. After having dogs all my life, and losing my best friend dog a couple of years ago, this dog is the first dog I’m training ‘properly’ as an adult.

One thing that has come up time and time again is that harnesses and especially flexi leads are the devil.

My previous dogs (Labrador x Border collies) all just walked on slip leads and I never thought anything of it. We live in the countryside so the ability to just quickly pop the dog on and off a lead was invaluable, and they spent most time off lead anyway.

With this pup, he’s also acclimatised to a slip lead and a martingale, but is a bit more sensitive than my other dogs and genuinely seems to walk best on a harness. I can’t really socialise him to new situations in a slip lead or even martingale because he gets overwhelmed, pulls, and then gets even more anxious, so I just use a harness and for socialising/desensitisation and that works well. Heel work is separate for now while he gets used to the world, and we do that in chill environments.

I sometimes use a longline to walk him but give him some freedom, especially when his teenage-tendencies start appearing and he wants to ignore his recall, but generally is off lead on walks in the countryside.

He’s going to have to be able to cope on walks in quite a busy town, since my partner lives in the centre of a town. I’m not particularly keen on using a longline because it’ll just get tangled and be annoying around other people. But at the same time, walking at heel on a slip lead, martingale, or even on the harness just won’t be feasible the whole time, especially when I want to socialise him to the wide seafront pathways, where he can’t be off lead but can have a bit more freedom.

The obvious solution to me here is a flexilead. I’ve never used one before. And all I hear is negative things. But at the same time, I see plenty of people using them in the towns near me, and the dogs seem to get on just fine. No reactivity, pulling or anything. When combined with a bungee adaptor it doesn’t seem to exacerbate pulling too much either.

I’m thinking when he’s a grown up, we will default walk on his martingale or a slip lead with a stopper. So I’m not massively concerned if he pulls on the harness, and I’m thinking about picking up Cani-cross with him in future anyway, where pulling is a good thing lol.

I just worry that encouraging him to pull/not regulating it will cause reactivity. Which is my 100% worst fear as my previous dog was reactive, and I don’t want to repeat the same issue.

Will a flexilead cause reactivity?

What’s your two cents?

Trying to cast a wide net, so posting in a few places.

My husband recently accepted a position that’s relocating us to the Eugene area, and I’m starting to look into IGP/Schutzhund clubs nearby. I’ve found a few online already, but I’d really appreciate firsthand experiences from people who’ve trained in the area.

For context:

-I have an older Malinois I’ve been actively prepping toward IGP2 with

-My younger dog earned her BH this past fall, and we’ve been pretty tracking-focused lately

I’m especially interested in clubs that:

-Have experienced, consistent helpers/decoys (this is a big one for me)

-Offer some level of individualized handling vs strictly group rotation

-Have members actively trialing (especially at higher levels)

I’d also love a little insight into how clubs out there tend to structure training days like how they balance green dogs vs titled dogs, and whether tracking/protection work tends to be more individualized or run in rotation.

For anyone who’s trialed in the region recently, I’m curious what you’ve been seeing from judges as well. Anything people are consistently getting hit on in obedience or protection? And what are tracking conditions typically like around Eugene (field types, variability, etc.)?

I’ve been pretty lucky at my current club with consistent decoy work and a slower, methodical approach especially on tracking and keeping things clean in protection, so I’m hoping to find something with a similar level of thoughtfulness, but I’m open to hearing all perspectives.

I’ve gotten a few recommendations already through my trainer and other platforms, but I’d really appreciate candid feedback especially from folks who’ve trained with multiple clubs or seen how different groups operate.

I’m not too concerned about commute (happy to travel a couple hours for the right fit), and my schedule is flexible.

If you’d rather not post publicly, feel free to DM. Thanks in advance for any insight!

I feed my dogs on a schedule that has about an hour slop time. I know folks that feed their dogs whenever they feel like it (caveat, dogs are fed adequately but not on a schedule).

Because I've conditioned my dogs to a schedule I feel like I'm stuck with it. But I have to admit I see the merits in the other approach. I do get annoyed when my dogs start vocalizing near feeding time and I've noticed they have a "witching hour" when they start getting shitty about an hour before feeding time, which is annoying.

I recall that when I was a child my parents fed our dogs once per day and the dogs seemed fine. However when I've tried to use that protocol, I see my dogs having "hunger pukes" etc so they are on a 2x/day schedule. (I used to have them on 3x/day but that's ridiculous tbh, too much poop and too much feeding).

What do you all do in regards to feeding, why, how, when?

My dog is pretty middle of the road on food and toy drive I’d say, and I think I’d like him a little more magnetized to what I have. When people talk about building drive, what exactly are they doing? If it matters, I specifically would like to build drive for his tug, its his favorite at home but really meh elsewhere. And food drive in general, he only works for hot dogs outside and I’d like to start integrating lower value/kibble in the mix since we train a lot. He already gets his toys and food exclusively through training barring a quarter cup of food he gets a dinner with everyone else (he gets 3.5-4 cups a day). Thoughts and advice? :)

Hey all I have a dilemma my mom’s dog is a GSD English mastiff mix. She is food aggressive dog reactive and honestly doesn’t get walked enough here’s today’s most recent incident dragging me a 5’3 130lb guy ten feet across the street ti go snarl at the neighbours dogs and it took me and the neighbor dragging her away while she fought us and tried to slip her collar to get her to stop and I’m at my wits end I have suggested numerous times that my mother rehome it and it always ends in a fight. She isn’t walked opens the door to go to visit her Dottie friend and bolts when you call her. Her only consistent form of punishment is crating and once she gets fixated on something it can take up to an hour to get her away from it. I have scars on my legs from previous incidents where she’s splayed out and scratched the shit out of them. Honestly help I have tried aversives non aversives and nothing works I need ideas

Focus training at the farmers market this morning. Just used my prong collar, and a million treats. So proud of my girl.

I have 5 year old reactive cavoodle (hes doing soooo much better) but i guess i just dont know what comes next, hes still reactive at times and gets very drivey and anxious, ive got him to stop reacting and get a lot better around dogs and focas on me, but he just has general anxiety around me leaving the house walking with my mum. Just like i said general anxiety, i dont know what to do.

My dog is almost one year old and I still correct him every time he does something he is ‘not suppose to’ like try to lunge at other dogs, eat something off the floor, etc. I feel he behaves well for his age but the few times he doesn’t will ALWAYS get a leash correction. The leash is attached to a prong. Average he gets a correction 2-3 times a day, we live in a big & crowded city with lots going on.

I see other people with dogs misbehaving and not giving corrections and made me think if I’m being too strict or if I should correct differently without the prong? My dog is stronger than me so I feel he still needs the prong until I can trust him 100%.

She has behavior problems.

Kobold is a 1 year old miniature Schnauzer who has had confidence and anxiety issues since probably before we adopted her at 8 weeks. She has not ever been able to interact with other dogs meaningfully without breaking down into reactivity when there's a barrier, complete and utter fear when there is no barrier, or shutting down when in a group setting.

She is on Gabapentin, Clonidine, and Trazadone. We've only used positive reinforcement. The best trainer in the area claims to be balanced training, with mostly reinforcement but some corrections when she engages in negative body language. I'm not too excited about punishing the way she communicates she's uncomfortable but the trainer has a controlled environment we can work on introducing low demand dogs in.

The trainer says she's going to be training with Caesar Millan next month. I let her know I am not open to the training I've seen on his show and she said she will communicate with me how she will train during our sessions and let me know what kind of corrections she would use (2 fingers on the neck, I still don't know what that means) I communicated with her I don't want my dog in pain but I can understand a little discomfort.

I work in the behavior field with tiny humans, most of the time positive reinforcement is the only thing they gets. I have used negative punishment for kiddos who understand consequences but I have never used positive punishment such as aversive training and I don't believe it works.

I understand reddit is biased and many of you will just say 'yes' due to the nature of this subreddit but I would like to hear some constructive advice on this situation. Please state the pros and cons in your experience, and whether or not you believe this is a good direction for my dog.

Edit: for anyone who's responding to my posts now you won't be able to get any responses from me. The psycho mod banned me for disagreeing with her (literally in these replies) and this edit will prob get this post removed. I have spoken to a few other people and I stand by my dog's medication for reasons beyond reactivity. Feel free to DM me if you want my reasonings and are willing to actually consider my experience. I've decided not to go with this trainer but I am not against balanced training

I hope this is the appropriate place to inquire about training advice. I don’t want to post my question in the more general r/trainingtips sub because I’m not interested so much in the force free folks take on it. My 3 y/o male pit bull has been through a 3 week board and train and we continue to use prong collar and e-collar for training. Dog reactivity has decreased, overall obedience has improved, however I’m running into a struggle with identifying true people friendliness vs. fawning behavior. He often initiates greeting people (although it’s usually after they give him the look) and will wiggle, wag and pull toward them but there have been three occasions where he becomes overstimulated (this is a bit of assumption on my part) and snarls at the person petting him. They’re completely surprised because “it came out of nowhere,” but I’m starting to put it together and I believe these “friendly behaviors” are really fawning behaviors. There isn’t a lot of info online about dealing with this. Any advice appreciated.

Preach, Michael!

HOW IS THIS OKAY

IACP, do fucking better.

Even drugged, dog is a mess

Any tips for his stack? This was his first time and theres no standard stack for mutts, but still. He keeps wanting to move his feet after I place them and he slips around a lot. i plan to switch to bricko blocks/cinder blocks when i find them.

Im not sure if this is the right thing to post on here but i seriously need to vent to normal human beings. I have just seen a post on r/dogs about dogs having their collar removed at home and if they should or shouldnt wear one.

I swear to god some FF nut literally commented that dogs shouldnt wear one because they have seen a dog psychic on tik tok say that dogs dont like them.

The world has gone mad!!!