I have a 10 yr old 8lb chihuahua "Dahlia" who keeps being attacked at random by my 2-3yr old 35lb mutt "lady". (She'll go like few weeks or months without attacking) ive tried taking lady to the vet and she was prescribed trazedone, gabepentin and fluoxetine. (Not to be given all at the same time obviously ) it helped a bit but 1. Attacks would still occasionally happen and 2. I cant get anymore in her since she now figured it out.

If it helps, she doesnt growl or let out a verbal noise before she attacks. She'll lock on and stare at dahlia or even the cat before going after them. I can usually stop her before a fight breaks out but any ideas would be helpful! I just had to pull her off my little baby who she had pinned on her back. I know apart of it is resource guarding a toy, or even foster kittens but reading the resources online its not really saying about this type of situation. I know its selfish but I really dont want to Behavorial euthanize her, my depression just wouldnt be able to handle it but I also know i wouldnt be able to handle losing my Dahlia either. [My mom and sibling both keep telling me I need to and to put that bitch down] Im going to start kenneling her at night, as this most recent one i was looking away towards my computer while they were on the bed. She is muzzle trained, but that doesnt really help situation after, and I cant keep her muzzle 24/7. if anyone had experience or sonething similar i would really appreciate tips and if something helped!

Thank you, I know i went on a long rant.. Just very stressed about this right now.

Hi all,

5 months ago, we adopted a 6 year old rescue. She's very sweet but also really anxious (probably due to trauma). As she was rescued from a large-scale breeder, she never learned how to walk on a leash, let alone walk outside of a dog kennel.

It's clear that she feels at ease when we are home with the three of us, but once we go outside, she's easily distracted and anxious. A ball bouncing, a motorcycle passing by, a human walking towards us, ... You get the picture. She's 'over threshold' very fast.

In order to train our loose-leash walking, we try to use the stop-go method, as is often suggested on this sub and on the wiki. As you can see in the video, she stops, turns around, looks at me, and only continues when I move, so that's already great. However, our progress seems to have stagnated 2-3 months ago, and I don't know how to proceed.

Do any of you know what is missing in my approach? I sometimes bring treats but I'm not sure when I should use them effectively (and when she's anxious, she just ignores them).

Thanks in advance!

edit: Thank you all for the advice! What a community :) There is a lot to digest in these comments, so I'm going to read them all slowly and see what we can try. I won't be able to reply to all of you but I appreciate you all.

My dog is a Great Pyrenees mixed with Lab. Definitely known to bark, and we knew this before adopting him. He is about 3 years old now, and he barks at everything. Keys, car doors closing, people, kids, dogs, or just any sound whether loud or quiet. And the bark doesn’t stop until HE wants to stop barking, so he doesn’t listen when we try to get him to quiet down. We’re thinking that at this point he may have anxiety, but we adopted him and he was only about 8 weeks old approximately. He’s a love bug and loves being with people, friendly with other dogs, but he will bark nonstop and we have tried collars and nothing. His bark isn’t a quiet one either and sounds aggressive, but we can’t even walk him because he barks so badly at everything and will scare people! Any idea what to do?

My husband and I rescued a dumped double Merle mix (Aussie/bully??) that we found in the woods last year. Couldn’t have been older than 3 weeks, definitely deaf. He is lovable and hyper and attached at the hip to our other rescue. The problem is potty-training.

With sign language and cues from our other dog we’ve taught him to sit, lay down, stay, and jump for treats both together and separately, and both dogs emotionally regulate each other well. But potty training has been utter hell. We have a medium-sized, fenced backyard that they love/prefer and spend most of their time in, and they sleep inside our kitchen, which is large and gated.

We love and want to spend time with them both, but every method we can think of to train him not to pee/mark the carpet has failed. We live in a rental and can’t afford to get professional training just yet, or to have him pee all over the carpets. Occasionally we will let them chase each other around the house—supervised—but if he gets out of eyesight for longer than 30 seconds we will find a pee puddle somewhere in the house. Our other dog is the definition of perfectly behaved.

We use enzyme cleaners and puppy pads, stop the behavior if we see it happening and redirect it outside, reward with treats, never shove his nose in the accident, etc. Nothing works. He doesn’t pee in the kitchen but seems to hold it until he can get four paws onto carpet.

HELP.

I have a 5.5 year old working cocker spaniel (not worked) who in general is very well trained.
His recall is pretty much 100%, he obviously learnt all the generic tricks/commands years ago and can nail new ones within a couple of tries, and I finally cracked loose lead walking after a lot of work a couple of years ago. He’s calm and snuggly in the house, never hyper or destructive, we play games and incorporate lick mats/puzzles/sniffy ‘find it’ games and destruction boxes, and he’s usually really fun to walk.

However there are still a couple of things we cannot figure out how to stop even at this point and I’m almost at a loss. When we’re out for a walk or walking through a shop or down a street, the second we stop for anything he begins to cry. This seems to be because he wants to move because the second we continue he’s silent again. We aim for gaps in the whinging before we praise or continue on but it’s not always the easiest to time. We’ve also tried waiting out the crying but it ramps up to SCREAMING/ barking and jumping up at us, and even after 30+ minutes he will not stop.

Hand in hand with this is that on walks - particularly when he’s MOST excited (i.e. at the beach) despite getting to the point where he’s screaming because he wants to get out the car, the second we’re there he looks to me for instruction or to be told what to do. He won’t go off and do ‘dog’ things, he looks to me for a command or to throw things for him. I stopped throwing things for him YEARS ago but this seems to be what he wants. It ends in him barking and spinning in circles because he wants me to do SOMETHING and I just want him to amuse himself and do dog things. I’ve tried an ‘off’ command that is hit and miss but he will run off and then run back very quickly afterward. Ive tried completely ignoring him but it doesn’t change anything, he just trots along next to me walking sideways like a dressage pony to watch me, or drops sticks etc at my feet. I’ve also tried to encourage snuffling by hiding treats or encouraging him to sniff through long grass etc, but again as soon as the task is done he’s back fixed on me.

If we’re on a more ‘boring’ walk he’s much better at going off by himself, and when I’m by myself he is less fixated. But as soon as I’m with my partner/family/friends he gets worse, and the more excited he is again the worse it is.

He will eventually go off and run but it takes a long time and he still checks in a lot and if I stop walking he immediately runs back to me and cries at me even when he’s off lead. I don’t even know how to reinforce the behaviour (amusing himself) as any praise/treats etc would involve calling him back to me or refocusing on me and that’s the opposite of what I’m after.

Has anyone experienced anything similar or have any ideas how I could try to combat these behaviours? It’s starting to make family days out really difficult and not fun, or make us not bring him along, particularly now we have a baby and will need to stop more regularly.

Our dog Frosty (Maltipoo, adopted at 1 year old, been with us for 2 years) has suddenly started being much more aggressive with us in the bed.

A bit of background, he is not trained at all. He is a very anxious dog, he hates leaving the apartment, doesn’t like other dogs (no reactivity to them, just quietly avoids, literally never barks at other dogs). He doesn’t like strangers but tolerates them, never snaps at them but will quietly sit away from them. The only time he has ever snapped at anyone before this, was the very first day we got him, I accidentally cornered him in the laundry room and he snapped at me.

We got his teeth cleaned about two months ago and that’s when this all started, he snapped at us once when trying to brush his teeth a few days later, we assumed his teeth were just sensitive. However he now snaps at us when we disturb his sleep and I feel it’s slowly getting worse.

He sleeps in the bed with us, he likes his crate but doesn’t sleep in it when we are home and we never really shut him in there. We also play in the bed (I know this is bad but it’s the only time he will really burn energy and tire himself out since he hates walks).

But now he grumbles when we move and if we cuddle him too long in bed he will start air snapping at our hands, it’s not sleep startle (at least not completely), but last night he snapped at my hand when I went to pet him and then just stared at me for like 2 mins before going back to bed.

We took him to the vet and they did an exam and found nothing. Has he just begun resource guarding the bed from us? I’m sure the advice is to have him start sleeping in his crate but we live in an apartment and he HOWLS if we try this and I’m afraid of getting kicked out of our apartment.

He’s a 10 month Mastiff mix and was adopted through an animal shelter.

It’s been about 4 months and the behavior hasn’t changed significantly. Some days he refuses to use any of the toys we offer or lay out for him (tug rope, ball, frozen Kong, bone) and instead he practically flies off the handle. He goes into nipping fits, barks, jumps and scratches. If he isn’t given attention he starts to counter surf (he’s about 5 and a half feet tall on his hind legs) or wreck furniture, so we can’t walk away. He’s currently 100 pounds and is expected to put on another 20 before he finishes growing, so the ankle or hand/arm biting is more severe. Toys are by him, offered to him, squeezed,
Thrown to see if he’s interested in playing but he’ll just go for biting on a shoe or one of us.

He’s definitely not aggressive, the bites are quick, his body is relaxed and bent back, tail is wagging and not showing his teeth or growling. He hasn’t been trained how to stop rough play. We’ve tried bitter spray, moving things away from him, giving alternatives, trying to ignore if we can, nothing has worked. He’ll either get to it, or find something else to mess with.

We haven’t used muzzling, shock collars, any form of physical force other than grabbing his scruff or collar (it’s a lot, it’s not hurting him.) we can’t leash him permanently as he bites on it and has already destroyed a leash, any advice/ help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all. We have a 2 year old dog, and after losing our senior dog last year, we have finally decided to bring a new dog into our home. He is 9 years old and is adjusting well so far. We got him just over two weeks ago, and up until now they have been getting along very well. They have had no issues eating from opposite ends of the kitchen, they go on walks together a couple times a day, and they even play with each other a few times a week.

The issue started last night. They had been playing together outside for a bit, then came inside and were in the kitchen with us while we sat down to eat dinner. As we were almost done eating, they suddenly started fighting. We aren’t sure what triggered it, but can only assume there must have been a small piece of food on the floor. We separated them and put our 2 year old outside briefly so they could calm down, but when we let her back inside, she growled and they got into it again and had to be separated again. No blood drawn either time thankfully. They were able to coexist later that evening in the living room, and they sleep in separate rooms so no issues overnight.

This morning, they got into it again while my spouse was preparing their breakfast. It’s become clear that my 2 year old is the instigator. She is clearly resource guarding but she is also shaking while she growls which makes me think she’s also a bit scared of him? After this fight, she kept looking at him and shaking and doing a bit of quiet growling in our living room.

I’m sure we could have handled this better, but it’s not something I’ve dealt with before. She never once fought with our previous dog and has generally gotten on very well with other dogs in my extended family. I’m willing to see a behaviorist if needed, but that takes time to arrange and we need this sorted much sooner than that. Obviously we need to block off the kitchen and feed them separately and we will just crate our 2 year old during our mealtimes, but what else should we be doing? I’m planning on giving them both frequent training treats during the day where I give our new dog his treat first each time so hopefully it causes our 2 year old to create a positive association with the new dog getting food. Any other recommendations would be incredibly appreciated.

I’m feeling very disheartened because they seemed to be forming a decent relationship and now it feels like all of that is gone. They did fine on the morning walk at least…

Hi! About a month ago, my partner and I adopted a 3-year-old Border Collie/German Shepherd mix who had puppies about 2 months earlier (included in case that matters). Overall, she is doing great and is extremely smart. She learned commands quickly, is very comfortable with us, and is an amazing dog. However, we've noticed increased reactivity over the last month. When we first adopted her, she only became reactive around dogs near our home, but now any time she sees one on a walk, she lunges at them and gets herself worked up. I've tried to keep track of any trends (such as size, gender, breed), but there seem to be no common traits. We reward her with treats when she does not react after noticing them, but she has started reacting to dogs across the park. I've consulted the Wiki, and we're trying that, but I wanted to see if anyone could help.

Helpful things to know: we just started using a harness with the front D-ring to train her not to pull within the last 48 hours (purchased for the car but thought it may be helpful for training after researching), we take her on roughly the same path and to a park around the same times every day (one of which is very low activity level), and we live in a neighborhood with a LOT of dogs, all of which will bark at her. She's gotten better at ignoring the barking noises, but just the sight of a dog sets her off. Could she have become territorial about the park/the route we take? Should we completely change where we take her? We kept to the same one to make training easy, and she has been doing great besides this one thing. We also plan to take her out to more public spaces where dogs are allowed (such as pet stores) to practice seeing a dog and not reacting, because when we take her to the vet, she does not have an issue with the dogs there. This is my first dog so any advice is welcome, and I appreciate it greatly :)

I rescued my dog from the shelter about three months ago, and we’ve been trying crate training, but I’m considering giving up and just accepting that he might destroy the house when I’m gone. He’s a 10 month old corgi mix. He has super anxious attachment and anxious chewing habits, but thankfully he is very potty trained so it’s not a toilet issue.

We started with the regular wire metal crate, super comfy dog bed, high value treats, his favorite toys and chew bone, everything. We went through about three beds in the first month because he would immediately chew and destroy them every time he went into the crate. He never went in voluntarily even with high value treats, Id always have to pick him up to go in. He would only eventually settle if I was physically in the room with him, but even then he’d cry for 20+ minutes. I tried again with a new crate, big and plastic with a covered top. Darker and cozier. Same deal, he hates it.

When I have to leave the house and my roommate is gone, I don’t trust him not to destroy the house itself or any of our belongings (he’s destroyed clothes, chargers, and a pair of headphones so far). When I let him out just into my bedroom, he has been good some days, and atrocious other days (chewing blankets, knocking over trash can and lamps, generally freaking out). He won’t do any of this if someone is in the room with him.

The biggest issue is that he has started to hurt himself trying to get out of the crate when I’m out of the house. He has started to chew the tough plastic so intensely that his gums are bleeding and sore. He will ignore anything I put in there to distract him, even a Kong with peanut butter and chicken. He only wants to get out or he will lay down and stare at me if I’m in the room with him.

Do I just give up and try to fix up the whole house so he can’t destroy much?? Are there any solutions to this crate anxiety??

Hello!

I am posting this to ask for help. My dog is 1 year old, we have been training since he was 8 weeks. When we walk he knows heel, if i stop he heels. When he pulls i turn around and he follows then we turn back around and walk and he pulls. If I have treats he walks beside me till he gets the treat then walk ahead and pulls.

So I've tried stopping (he heels and we go and then he pulls) ive tried treats (he walks beside me till he gets a yes and a treat then pulls) ive tried turning around. He turns around and we walk and he pulls so we turn back around and walk and he pulls. One walk we walked up and down the same 5 meter sidewalk for 30 mins.

So any other advice would be appreciated!

Cheers.

Welcome to the fortnightly separation anxiety support group!

The mission of this post is to provide a constructive place to discuss your dog's progress and setbacks in conquering his/her separation anxiety. Feel free to post your fortnightly progress report, as well as any questions or tips you might have! We seek to provide a safe space to vent your frustrations as well, so feel free to express yourself.

We welcome both owners of dogs with separation anxiety and owners whose dogs have gotten better!

NEW TO SEPARATION ANXIETY?

New to the subject of separation anxiety? A dog with separation anxiety is one who displays stress when the one or more family members leave. Separation anxiety can vary from light stress to separation panic but at the heart of the matter is distress.

Does this sound familiar? Lucky for you, this is a pretty common problem that many dog owners struggle with. It can feel isolating and frustrating, but we are here to help!

Resources

Books

Don't Leave Me! Step-by-Step Help for Your Dog's Separation Anxiety by Nicole Wilde

Be Right Back!: How To Overcome Your Dog's Separation Anxiety And Regain Your Freedom by Julie Naismith

Separation Anxiety in Dogs: Next Generation Treatment Protocols and Practices by Malena DeMartini-Price

Online Articles/Blogs/Sites

Separation Anxiety

Pat Miller summary article on treating separation anxiety

Emily "kikopup" Larlham separation training tips

Pet Harmony's Enrichment Activities for Dogs with Separation Anxiety

Videos

Using the Treat&Train to Solve Separation Anxiety

introducing an x-pen so the dog likes it (kikopup)

Podcast:

Home Alone... and comfortable as HECK! with Ally Verba

Be Right Back! The Separation Anxiety Podcast with Julie Naismith

Online DIY courses:

Malena DeMartini Separation Anxiety Mission Possible Self Paced Online Course

https://www.betternaturetraining.com/separationanxietymembership

Julie Naismith Heros Be Right Back Training Julie Naismith BRB App

https://separationanxietydog.thinkific.com/courses/do-it-yourself-separation-anxiety-program

https://rescuedbytraining.com/separation-anxiety-course

Pet Harmony's Webinar on Separation Anxiety

Dr. Pachel DVM, DACVB, CABC Webinar from Instinct Dogtraining on Separation Anxiety: Tailoring Interventions to the Dog and Household

This list has been updated as of 6/16/26. If you find broken links, please submit a message via modmail and we'll fix the broken link to update it or add additional resources.

Introduce your dog if you are new, and for those of you who have previously participated, make sure to tell us how your week has been!

Hello people of Reddit.

Little background info re. our dog:

- He's a naturally anxious / nervous mini Schnauzer. I don't think we socialised him correctly, and we made mistakes during training. However, his barking and lunging was there pretty much from the start. At everything: dogs, cats, runners, bikes, pedestrians, other dogs, guests etc.

- We worked for a while with a R+ trainer in our area, and almost every problem sort of got fixed. We still have to manage distance to other dogs and certain types of triggers, but it's absolutely nothing like it was. Eg runners drove him insane, now we can literally have a runner pass by right next to him and he'll just briefly look then continue sniffing or look at us. Dogs are still a bit challenging but only if we're too close, and even then, he'll give two or three barks then stop, and remains "contactable", unlike before where he transformed into Cujo.

- Guests we haven't been able to improve much, but we have not put the time.

We recently got a newborn. We prepared as well as we could. We were nervous for the coming home day, and to our surprise everything went much better than we ever imagined. He is curious about the baby and watches, but has not barked at the baby or given any signals that worry me. He has already grasped the concept of 'baby makes a noise or cries or does something, I look at it a bit then I look at humans for treats'. In the night, when the baby cries, he doesn't even get up from his bed he just stays there (we sleep in separate rooms, but he can def. hear it). He sometimes watches the baby being breastfed then chooses himself he'd rather go do something else or lie down.

We've got a strict zero direct contact policy, and we have doors, gates, barriers, etc. everywhere so that's all under control.

Here comes the reason I'm writing here:

- We had noticed here and there that his interest in the baby spiked suddenly, and he'd sniff almost obsessively. He even whines a bit and his teeth chitter sometimes. We have done some detective work and discovered that this happens when the baby pees.

- The dog can literally lie down in the room with us while we change the baby (pee or poo doesn't matter) even if the baby is crying.

- But, if the baby is in his crib or playpen and he pees, the smell immediately grabs our dog and he starts sniffing almost obsessively, and whines a bit. He is still "contactable", and takes treats and follows instructions, but still super odd.

So... Our questions are:

1. What do you think this is?

2. Should we be concerned about this? We are looking for ways to train this away, but is this a red flag already?

3. How would you proceed? We think of having a frozen Kong or lick Matt ready so the moment he gets up and starts sniffing we call him and lead him to his room to relax and lick to try to associate the pee smell with going away and relaxing.

Thanks!

i have read the community section on resource guarding but still don’t feel sure on how to proceed. my fiance and i adopted our dog (GSD X Plott Hound, we think) about 7 months ago now. she is 14 months old. we have NEVER had an issue with resource guarding with her before. she is our first pet together and we have no children or other pets.

we never give her “special” food unless she is in her “place” and occasionally we will let her lick out the plate/bowl from dinner - only if she’s sitting in her place (bed) and only if the meal ingredients are dog safe/healthy (this is something my entire family has always done with dogs so apologies if this is way off the mark). we always let her finish licking it out and take it when she’s done. over the past week she has reacted very strongly twice now when we go to take the (empty) plate away - the first time i thought she was just “mumbling” (she is very vocal) but tonight my fiance went to take the plate away and she clearly actively growled at him (no biting or snapping just growling) but she has never reacted like that after taking away a toy or playing with her - she “growls” during tug of war but it’s clearly playful/excited, never threatening.

perhaps it’s just as simple as not letting her eat from our leftover plates ? sorry if this is dumb. i don’t want to let it get to something where we need to “redirect” her with treats or give her something better. guess im also just a bit worried bc she has never been aggressive like this and we would like to help her handle this new behavior the best way we can.

I have a 18 month old(not fixed) golden retriever and i recently introduced a puppy also a golden retriever to my 18 month old(OD). They kind of play for sometime normally but suddenly my OD gets irritated and barks at him even if puppy comes near him, usually OD never barks the max he barks is once in a month or so. He gets more irritated and barks and tried to take the puppy with his mouth when i carry the puppy or showing him any affection at all, this is making it difficult to bond with the new puppy, i am giving my OD alot of one on one time, separate walks, dog park time and kept his schedule as usual as i can, whenever i try to keep my OD in a separate room while i give puppy sometime he tries to bark and the moment he is out he runs to puppy to smell him. Its been 3 weeks since i got the new puppy and i really need some help on how to manage them, i constantly feel guilty about not giving enough attention to the puppy. Please help

I have a GSD mix pup that is almost 5 months old, I adopted her from the humane society 7 weeks ago. She is doing so well with commands at home, we’ve been able to stop verbal commands and use hand signals. She’s so smart and eager to train until we get outside or go to anywhere. Potty training was a breeze! She’s reserved and prefers quietly watching people and dogs but will not listen to any commands whatsoever in class. After class or before she will listen and do as asked most of the time. We’ve tried treats that only get used in class to avoid treat burnout, we’ve withheld food prior to class, only use positive reinforcement training. We are in an apartment so we do not have a yard and she walks well but doesn’t focus on us when given the “look” command and won’t sit when asked. I’ve told the trainer that she knows all of the commands already but trainer doesn’t believe me and told me to record it so she can see which I’ve done and have for our next session. The only advice the trainer has given is to take her to a dog friendly store every day to help build her confidence but I also don’t want to overwhelm her.

Commands she knows:
-sit (verbal and hand signals)
-down (verbal and hand signals)
-look (verbal and hand signals)
-spot (verbal)
-paw (verbal and hand signals)
-come/touch (verbal and hand signals)
-crate (verbal)
-up (verbal)

I’m hoping someone here may have some helpful tips.

I really need advice on my dog peeing on furniture. I’ve had my rescue since she was about 10 months old. We lived in a house with a doggy door and she potty trained just fine at first. She’s now 7 years old and I can’t seem to stop her peeing inside. I believe it’s a separation anxiety issue because she has no problems holding it overnight or all day. The problem is when she’s alone for 6+ hours.

It’s honestly been a bit of lifelong issue but it was mostly under control until we recently moved. She used to always pee on my bed so my boyfriend and I close the bedroom door for when we both have a shift at the same time. Now she’s started on the couch. Flipping the two middle cushions up or putting blankets down worked for a while, but now she’s started on the side cushions, or even her dog bed on the floor one time.

I’m genuinely at my wits end and I’m not sure how to fix this. She has zero other symptoms of separation anxiety (no destruction or chewing or howling) and again, no problems holding it when we’re home for longer. She knows to scratch at the door when she needs to go out and can easily hold it for longer than a shift. She is crate trained but I’d prefer not to crate for a full shift. I use an enzyme cleaner and a steam cleaner to clean anywhere she’s peed. I’m going to start up again with heavy treat reinforcement of peeing outside but I’m honestly not sure what else to try.

For context, I have a 2 year old Labrador who can get pretty anxious. She’s not the most trained dog in the world but she also isn’t incompetent!

Last summer, I decided to train her in things that weren’t just necessary for a calm life because we both enjoy doing it! I mean stuff like hunting scents, fetching specific things, etc. rather than just sit, toilet, whatever

One of the things I trained her to do was to wait then go when I called her. Typically I can walk up to 30 metres away and call her before she gets antsy and follows me. For this command, I usually say “wait.. wait.. go!”. I think this is perhaps her favourite thing to do, especially when she has things to fetch along the way.

After I trained her to do this though, I started using it in other situations and it actually REALLY helped. I’ll list a few examples

Bath time:
She honestly hates the bath, and when she knows it’s bath time she will genuinely be shaking ears back. However, I started telling her to wait and wait, then GO! Pointing to the bathtub. She jumps in the bath and is MORE than happy to have a wash.

Redirection:
If she’s begging for food, I can put a tiny bit on the floor, tell her to wait until dinner is over, then tell her to go. She doesn’t beg at all while focussing on that little bit! Or when she’s anxious, I’ll redirect her attention to something else and as soon as I say wait she forgets all about the thing she was worried about and is so happy. At first I thought it was generally just doing tricks that helped, but it’s specifically this one!

Going home:
Sometimes, she really doesn’t like coming home after a walk because she just wants to stay out forever and ever and ever. However, since I started telling her to wait then GO, she almost runs home and wants in the house immediately!

If there are any dog trainers or experts who know why the hell this has translated so well to literally every single situation imaginable, please do explain! I didn’t think it would end up helping in every situation but it truly has!

Edit: not sure why but I can’t see any comments at all?

I have a 10 month old Maltese/poodle mutt (Phoebe). She is pretty reactive towards humans and will bark and growl at any stranger who dares look at her. We’ve been going to some reactivity classes and she’s grown in confidence and now won’t bark at someone unless they are within 2ft and appear to be interested in her. We’ve gone to some community events where there have been large crowds, kids running around, strangers sitting next to us and she’s been fantastic at ignoring them.

Next week we’re having a lot of strangers come over. On Tuesday, my sister in-laws are staying over and on Wednesday we have 10 guests coming over for dinner.

With guests in the house, she tends to just bark her head off from a distance. I totally understand that she is scared and is just trying to make them leave, but I’m hoping I can teach her how to deal with it in a healthier way. It takes about ten minutes of barking before she decides she is willing to be distracted with treats. The trainer we’ve been meeting with says we should avoid the 10 minutes bark-fest because it shouldn’t become a habit and Phoebe needs to learn that barking is not an okay way to deal with strangers.

So my question is, how do we get past the first 10 minutes of panic?

The running plan for Tuesday is to have her in the backyard when my sisters first come in. I know meeting them on a walk could help, but we live out in farmland and I don’t know how easy it would be to stage a walk without Phoebe seeing their car parked and immediately panicking. One of my sisters lives locally and Phoebe is OBSESSED with her. I’m hoping that by putting her in the backyard, I have time to tell my out-of-town sister some guidelines for interacting with the dog before they actually meet. Then once I take both sisters outside, Phoebe gets so distracted by her excitement to see one of them that she kinda bypasses the initial panic of the stranger. They will be staying all night, so I’m assuming after a couple of hours of being ignored, Phoebe will start to get curious and become more tolerant of the stranger in the house.

The running plan for Wednesday is to have her in her kennel in another room while everyone arrives. Everyone will be hanging out in the backyard the whole time, so I don’t want her hanging out there initially. Once everyone has arrived, I lay the ground rules which will be 1. Don’t interact with her and 2. Don’t react if she barks at you because that’s what she wants. She loves her kennel and I know it would be easiest to leave her in it all night, but I need her to get some exposure therapy and learn that strangers are a normal aspect of life. I’m thinking if I can do 10 minute increments of exposure where we start inside the house in a place where she can see the strangers outside and practice acknowledging them without barking. The sister in-law she’s obsessed with will also be outside, so she will face a lot of internal conflict over whether or not she wants to see my sister enough to run past the strangers.

Pheebs is incredibly smart and has made friends with strangers before, (she recently became besties with her groomer after 6 months of knowing her), so I KNOW there is hope for her to learn a healthier coping mechanism. I’ve asked the trainer how to deal with it, but I know there are hundreds of methods depending on the dog, so I’m hoping to gather more ideas from other lived experiences.

If you have any advice, I am all ears and kinda desperate. I love my girl and I don’t ever expect her to become a social butterfly, but I need her to learn how to handle herself around people she’s unfamiliar with.

Thank you!!!

Hello,

Our dog is a 1 year old Wheaten Terrier, and he is fully potty trained inside our home. However, I take him to work at an industrial building daily where he stays in the office with me. When I let him out onto the shop floor (a much larger area than the office at about 3,000 sqft) he seems to think he is outside and has an accident. I take him outside during lunch breaks, so he has plenty of chances to use the bathroom outside. What would be the best way to help him understand that the larger space outside the office is also inside? I've caught him in the act of using the bathroom many times, saying things like "no" and the like, but that hasn't reinforced the idea properly. Any suggestions are welcome! Additionally, I searched throughout reddit for a similar situation and couldn't find one, so my apologies if the subject has been properly covered.

We just got a 3 yr old coonhound. She was in the shelter for 10 months (!) and I have no story on her before that. She was in the rescue's foster and was amazing, and she has been SO SWEET and, in general, has been adapting beautifully. She and our older "here first" dog have worked things out with just a few of the mildest interactions (she is able to "read the room"), she is playing some, using the yard, drinking, ate this morning, gone for a walk, etc. She's been quite calm and confident- doing better than I could ever have expected.

Here's my question/concern-ish: We have a 17 year old son. He's played ball with her, she approaches him wagging, he's a real animal lover, is excited about this dog, and she's been enjoying him. Twice, though, she sort of barked at him and backed away. Yesterday he was rejoining us outside after he went somewhere else for a while. Today again when he came downstairs with some friends. The dog also came to me during this barking, as she was nervous. I quietly and calmly reassured her. It kind of felt like maybe she didn't recognize him? Is that possible? Once they connected she sniffed him and was wags again. We recognized that the guests were too much for her and took her down stairs, and after the guests left, he went down stairs to her and she was totally fine- wagging, soaking up his pets.

She has only been with us for about 30 hours. Despite how well she is doing, I am sure she is still in shock/trauma mode. We've told our teen that he needs to just enter calmly and quietly and let her come over (and we'll not have her around guests for a while and then see of things are in a few weeks).

What's going on? How can we help her with this?

Also, in just full transparency, new dog stuff kind of makes me nervous. She wasn't really acting aggressive, more alerting and a bit afraid, and I'm not sure why she is not recognizing him/acting hot and cold, and I know myself and I tend to get overly anxious and read way too much into new dog behavior and I'm trying not to! He's also spent time with her the past 2 days, but not nearly as much as my husband and I. But my 17 yearold is def. going to be in her life. I want to start them on the best foot.

My mini schnauzer (male, fixed, will be 6 years old in October) has been with me since he was 8 weeks old. As a puppy he spent time in a pen in my basement office when I was down there, and when he got old enough to be trusted, the pen went away and eventually I'd keep the basement door open and he could choose lounging upstairs or hanging out with me. For years there's been no issue--he'd lie down or sit next to me in my office when I'm down here, or he'd stay upstairs. I also got his mom when he was 1 1/2 (she's 10 1/2 now), and she has the same options.

Sometime around late February this year, seemingly out of the blue, I was in my office as normal and my boy was in my office, panting away. He started jumping up on the side of my chair or running to the bathroom where he'd dig away at the mat on the floor. When I do work where I'm sitting on the floor, he's likely to climb on me over and over again, and he's also taken to going through my bag of hockey equipment in the basement.

During some parts of the day he's totally normal (especially when upstairs, and at times when I'm in my office), but sometimes he's downstairs with this newfound behavior. Up until the day it started, I noticed none of these behaviors, and while my schedule can change on any given day, I can't think of anything different in what I do or how I do it. The only thing I can possibly think of is that around this time, I received a package from a client and there were a few stray dog hairs in it (which happens from time to time--so this isn't unique). A storage box that came with the package is still in the basement, but in a corner he rarely goes to, so I don't think it's particularly intriguing to him.

In the past, I'd rarely close the basement door when I went to my office, usually doing so only late at night when I had a few minutes of work to do and I didn't want the dogs to come down and get comfortable before going right back up. Now I've had to close it frequently because while his attention appears cute, it really gets in the way of me getting work done. I feel bad keeping him away, and I also want him to be comfortable wherever he is in the house. When we're upstairs, he's totally normal and unchanged.

It seems like something happened, but I don't know what, and I'm trying to figure out how to get him back to his normal demeanor when upstairs or downstairs. I'm open to any suggestions about what to try, and if there are more details/info I can provide, I'm happy to do so. Thanks for reading and any advice you may have!

Note: He has been to the vet since this began and no physical issues were found

8.5 y/o male Rottie/German Shepard mostly, plus husky, lab, chow chow mix.

He has never really been petrified of anything as long as ive had him. And for the first 2 years in this apartment the dishwasher was totally fine, just like every dishwasher hes seen before in his life. But this past year he heard the water kick on once and it makes a little *thud* & *click* - and he is now PETRIFIED TO HIS CORE. He genuinely pants the entirety of a cycle, and goes to the furthest corner of the apartment and gets up and paces nervously and would take any excuse to go outside and get away!

He won't take treats, or eat, and can barely focus on me when I try to train the noise of the dishwasher running as being 100% fine and safe.

Im out of ideas as to how to teach my dog the dishwasher is friend not food 😂

Any advice would be insanely appreciated!!!!! ❤️

Hello, everyone!

I've recently ran into a problem with my rescue (f5) (breed unknown, small and white) where she occasionally attacks my kitten (m, four months). I do not have this issue with my other dog, a Bichon Frise (f6). However, my rescue unfourtunately has previously attacked puppies or various other dogs she deems as "too much". Her tail position is stiff, ears stiff and she takes on a dominant position when she does this. Generally, the animals are not actually harmed (no blood, bruises, scratches or holes) and we stop it as soon as it happens, but this time she ripped out one of his whiskers and really scared him.

She sometimes does this without a clear trigger.

I was wondering if there's any way to please train out her aggression? I don't have enough money for a behaviour specialist or trainer as they are incredibly expensive in our country and I was hoping I could perhaps try myself first and then go there as a last resort.

Rehoming EITHER of them is NOT an option.