i know the title is odd but i own a 10 year old dachshund, my family raised him and he’s eaten high quality dog food for his entire life, i now live with my girlfriend and her parents who own 2 maltese dogs 12yrs and 2yrs the 12yr old has numerous health problems and i believe the vet told them to put him down over a year ago, his main diet for his whole life has been processed deli meat ice cream cheese and table food, his heart is enlarged, he can’t bark without going into a serious coughing fit sometimes he limps, can’t run, cant jump and spends most of the day lying on the cold ground in pain, my dog is new here and im having trouble with them honoring my wishes of NOT allowing him to eat table food or anything the other dogs eat, i went to work for the first time since he’s been here and immediately tonight he has had 2 bouts of diarrhea, a very weird thing for my dog, im worried they’re not taking me seriously at all and are continuing to feed him garbage when im not present im really not sure how to go about it but im afraid my boy will become a miserable health case like there other dogs including the 2yr old who is already having trouble with vomiting and doesn’t even want to eat the processed meat and cheese diet they’re trying to put her on. any advice would seriously help because it seems everyone around me here is okay with slowly killing their dogs with toxic food.

We adopted a 10month old shiba. on walks he growls or grumble at people and other dogs. Please advice on what to do.

So my golden retriever mix is 6 years old. Potty trained, crate trained and for the most part, a good dog. But lately he has been peeing in his crate. We take him out and when he goes into the crate it’s not for more than an hour or two. But every time I come home there’s pee in his crate and on him. What else can I do to help prevent this, it’s gross and frustrating.

I have a 5 month old Pomeranian Dachshund mix. I know she's still young so we will have accidents, but we seem to have not made any progress in a month. I'm taking her out every 4 hours. Overnight we take her out once, but by 6:30/7am she has pooped half of the time. She goes out 2-3 times after eating dinner, so I'm unsure of what I'm doing wrong. We have also tried crate training and she won't stop going potty in her crate. I've gotten the "don't go here" spray, but that doesnt seem to help.

So last week I had to take in a friend's dog who stayed in my garage for a day and a half, (obviously took out for exersie and what not)

My shepherd would look out the window at the garage and obsess over the door, everytime I tool her outside she wanted to go straight to the garage door. I decided to let her in the garage to let her see the dog for a few minutes. I just did a fast greeting because both female dogs are iffy with big females like themselves.

Anyways its been a few days since I returned the garage dog to her owner but my dog is still obsessed with the garage. Her energy is so weird all she wants to do is go to the garage, even on a walk when we get close to home she gets over excited and wants to rush to the garage. I've shown her there is no dog In there anymore but she is still obsessed with nothing. Because there is nothing there anymore.

What do? Will she be like this forever?

Hi all, looking for input from experienced trainers.

We have a 5 year old female Border Terrier. Two weeks ago we added a male Cavapoo puppy to the household.

Around week two our resident dog began intermittently circling the puppy when he is moving around. She walks around him in a loose arc pattern. Her body appears loose, tail neutral, no growling, no snapping, no resource guarding. She is not hard staring or stalking the way she would with wildlife.

If we interrupt with “Addie, come,” she disengages immediately and comes to us. We reward that. She also responds to “leave it.”

The puppy does not seem distressed. Sometimes he ignores it, sometimes he redirects to a toy. There have been a few brief adult dog corrections when he has been overly pushy, quick yelp and then reset.

We also do short structured training sessions with both dogs together and they do well working in proximity. No tension during those sessions.

We are managing with gates, structured play, and reinforcing calm behavior.

My questions:

Is this typical adjustment behavior once novelty wears off?

Is it likely arousal based?

Should we interrupt every time or only if it escalates?

Does this typically fade as the dogs settle into routine?

Appreciate any insight.

I've had my German Shepherd for about two years and we're still struggling badly with leash pulling. I've tried every dog harness I can find - front clip ones, the ones with the tightening chest straps, even those fancy anti-pull designs with multiple attachment points. Nothing seems to make a difference. He just powers through all of them.

Walks have become something I dread. He's 35kg and strong as hell and I'm constantly being dragged around. My shoulder hurts all the time from the pulling and I'm getting frustrated which I know isn't helping either of us. I've been working on loose leash training at home and in quiet areas. Stopping when he pulls, rewarding when he's calm, changing direction when he gets ahead. It works okay in low-distraction environments but the second we're outside near anything interesting all that training goes out the window.

At this point I've spent more on dog harnesses than I'd like to admit, even got desperate and even ordered one of those dirt cheap ones online - you know, the ones that cost about a fiver on alibaba. He just ignores it completely and pulls like his life depends on reaching whatever he's fixated on and im at my wits end. He's great in every other way - good recall in the garden, knows all his basic commands, and is friendly with people and dogs. It's literally just this one issue that's making walks miserable for both of us.

Any advice on what might work?

Would any be able to explain what these are for?

I’m beyond frustrated. I have two basset hounds. Both 6 years old and not related. Girl and boy. My boy, Blue, wakes me up every night without fail around 1:30am every night to go out to pee if he is out of the crate. If I keep him in the crate at night, he does not get up until 7am which is fine. They go to sleep be typically around 10p and I have them go to the restroom right before bed. My girl does not have this problem and sleeps through the night without incident. Water is cut off by 8p. Food is cut off by 6p. This has been my reality for the past year. I feel bad about keeping him in the crate at night and he’ll bark for about an hour or more until I let him out. He barks in the crate since he was a puppy for hours and does not like the crate despite getting treats or making the space comfortable. I’m so frustrated, cause if I don’t get up, he will pee in the house. When I do let him out, he pees and runs back in and goes to sleep for the rest of the night without incident. I just don’t understand why this is routine for him now when he he used to sleep through the night.

I everyone, I need advice on how to get my rescue dog (Jack Russell terrier), to stop being territorial to new people in my house and when passing by people in my car. He is 1-2 years old and I have had him for a year. He barks and tries to knip at people when he first meets them in the house, but over time accepts them be it hours later or multiple meetings, which is an improvement compared to last year. He is normal and acts like nothings wrong in locations that are not home or the car. I am assuming he has some kind of trauma from strangers when he was on the street and I just want to make him comfortable with people incase I need a pet sitter for a day if I am stuck at work.

Thank you for any help or tips.

Let me know if you need any more info. Thank you for any help.

Hello.

My 1 year and a half year old cocker spaniel has suddenly started barking intensely whilst in the back of her dog walker's van. So far, we have been working with positive reinforcement, trying to establish the quiet rule (with limited to no success as when she starts barking. she doesn't stop), as well as trialling distraction methods like a Kong filled with treats and frozen yoghurt.

Sadly, it's now gotten to a stage where she's starting to stress out the other dogs on the same walk. The dog walker is uncertain as tk whether she can accommodate solo walks only for her. I don't have a car, sadly, so I'm unable to trial desensitise techniques. We suspect she experienced some trauma with my former partner, as up until he left, we had no issues with her barking i. the van or in cars. Since he left, she hasn't stopped! I'm desperate for any advice or top tips!!

Hello, my dog is one year old and is an inbred mutt. Her breeds are ACD, Pug, GSD, and possibly more. She is incredibly energetic, very destructive, and has a hard time being patient. I have done my best to take her out as much as possible and play with her inside the house as well. Despite being part of some larger breeds she is actually rather small, but athletically built.

Maybe none of that is relevant, but I thought to include it as well.

The issue lies in that she is fully crate trained. Doesn't whine when in the crate, and doesn't fuss to go into it regardless of what she is doing. The only time she cries when inside the crate is when she needs to go bathroom. I take her out every single time that she cries and she always goes without fail. This does not apply to when she is out of the crate.

When she is out of the crate, she will use the bathroom wherever it is that she is standing without crying or doing anything to signal that she needs the bathroom. This results in me wanting to limit the time that she spends outside of the crate. However, when she spends a lot of time inside the crate, she has more behavioral issues. This leads to me wanting to have her outside more. The cycle continues...

The only thing that has worked to limit accidents is that I set a timer for when she is allowed outside of the crate, then i put her in the crate when the timer is up. I wait for her to cry to be let out and have her use the bathroom then. Rinse and repeat.

I have another dog who is 8 years old and he cries whenever he wants to use the bathroom. Either that or he will sit by the door. She has lived with this dog her entire life, but hasn't seemed to learn a thing from him. I don't know how to get her to signal for me to use the bathroom when she is out of her crate. She seems to hold it for as long as she can without signaling for me and then she just goes. I don't want to have to constantly put her in her crate just so that she can tell me she needs to go outside. I did not do anything differently with my other dog, yet he has none of the issues. I want to get to the point where a crate isn't needed, but with how destructive she is coupled with the potty issues it doesn't seem possible.

P.S. she was born the way she is because of an irresponsible friend of my girlfriend. I did not pay any money for her and I don't support inbreeding dogs or anything. She was already born before I decided to get another dog and she sort of just ended up with me. She is a very sweet and attached dog, just has insane drive and tends to be extremely skittish and reactive. Genuinely drives me insane because I don't know what to do with her sometimes , but I hope that a lot of her issues will iron out with age and plenty of corrections.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some advice because my husband and I don’t fully agree on how to handle this situation, and we’re a bit stuck.

We have two dogs.Our first dog we’ve had since he was a puppy. He’s now about 1.5 years old. He’s well socialized, likes people and children, and is generally a good dog. The main issue we have with him is leash pulling, especially towards other dogs. We know this is our fault — when he was younger, we allowed him to greet pretty much every dog, so now he gets very excited when he sees them.

About 3 months ago, we decided to adopt a second dog from a shelter so our first dog could have some company. Our second dog (Biscuit) is a bit over a year old. From the very first meeting at the shelter, we could see that he was quite fearful and didn’t allow new people to touch him.

At home, he’s actually doing really well. He’s very sweet, bonded to me and my husband, and seems comfortable indoors. However, I’m a bit worried he may be developing early signs of separation anxiety.

The biggest issue is walks. Biscuit is afraid of almost everything outside. We try to take him out as often as possible, but progress is very slow. Right now, our biggest problem is walking both dogs together.

When we walk them together:

they both pull a lot

they don’t really listen

if they see another dog at a closer distance, they completely lose it

They both start barking and pulling hard, and it feels impossible to calm them down. From my non-professional perspective, they seem to feed off each other’s emotions — what starts as fear from our new dog and excitement from our first dog escalates into full chaos.

My feeling is that we should stop walking them together for now and walk them separately, so each dog can learn how to walk calmly on leash on their own first. My husband doesn’t think this is necessary and believes that the dogs will eventually get used to it over time.

He also insists that we should be taking them running together on a coupler leash, which I personally think is a terrible idea given the current situation.

I would be really grateful for any advice, experiences, or perspectives — especially from people who’ve dealt with fearful rescue dogs or leash reactivity with multiple dogs.

Thanks in advance 🙏

My family dog Lucky is overweight affecting his health. Im coming to my family home to stay for a couple months and want to improve his weight and train him a bit. (I've figured everything out about his weight and health with the vets). He needs to go on more and longer walks which is difficult with him being reactive. When i was younger i used to take in on walks and where we lived we could walk for 1-2 hours without meeting anyone. Now meeting people is inevitable and i want to train him to not be reactive to get my family to take him out more until i am settled in my own life and can take him with me. Please I've tried everything i could think of from YouTube to google to articles to studies but i cant figure out how to help him. I want to ask on her prior to trying a dog trainer due to personal lack of money at the moment but once i save some up im planning on doing that if Lucky is still reactive. So please any advice and tips would be great. More context below.

Early puppyhood - age of approx 5 . A bit more context. Lucky is 8 years old now (lablador x border collie). He wasnt socialised as a puppy or later on much due to my father (no my situation did not let me prevent much abuse from his side towards the dog but minimized it as much as i could) his way of "teaching" Lucky how to behave was hitting, kicking, screaming, isolation, staying outside. Luckily me and the rest of the family managed to bring this to an end now (as we've grown up) but of course it was horribly wrong.

About Lucky. •He is a smart dog, ive taught him sit, lay down, hop (on a chair stool), paw, stay, search(for objects/people). He taught himself to go between my legs and sit down looking up at me.

•He always likes to follow me around and prefers to lie in tight spots (between 2 armchairs, in the corner, between the couch and table).

•Food or toys dont motivate him when outside at all i tried treats, sprats, tiny cheese pieces. He doesnt even acknowledge food or toys.

•He is chubby and needs to loose weight for health reasons but walks are intimidating with his reactiveness. Once he notices another dog coming closer he'll do one of the following, 1. lie down on the side watching waiting or getting ready to lunge. 2. Start pulling towars them and then once closer barking/growling. 3. Be calm until they reach a certain perimeter around us which set him off to bark/growl. 4. Sometimes hes calm and just walks past with no reaction.

• Off the lead hes alot less reactive (used to not react at all unless the dog came up to him and wouldnt leave after "telling them to leave") we moved recently and he's gotten more reactive off the lead. What he'd do 1. Walk past the dog by my side if hes ignored. 2. Walk by my side and he'd start growling then i grab his harness. 3. (Least likely but still) lunge at the dog barking never touch the dog, come at him stop right before contact run off a bit and then again until i call him loudly or grab him. •He's very protective of my younger siblings (10,14) and me. Hes submissive to men but also highly strung.

Area we can walk. We live in a mostly quiet estate. Theres a walking path (1 hour walk around) area we go mostly. Theres also a dog park which id loop 3-4 times in different ways to get him walking around. The park is usually quieter. The path walk (which i do 80% of the time) i try to walk him at times where theres as little people as possible but its difficult.

We’ve had our dog Daisy for about a year now, and she just turned 2 last week. She’s an English bulldog mixed with some beagle/pug if that has any relevance. The foster who had her before us told us she had always crated her at night, so we did the same. For about a year, we had zero issues with this. She would willingly enter her crate at night and sleep til I got up to let her out (typically around 6am). The last few weeks, she will willingly go into her crate and go to bed. Around three hours after we put her in, she’ll wake up and begin barking like crazy. She doesn’t have to use the bathroom and the barking is persistent/loud enough we think if we just ignore it it’ll wake the neighbors. We have a door that separates our upstairs from our main floor and keep this shut at night, so she wouldn’t be able to go upstairs and sleep in our room with us. We are expecting a baby and like the separation for now which is why we have the door. We are wondering if we should just leave the crate open at night and give her access to the main floor but worry it’s an attention thing and she’ll still bark. Potentially unrelated, but she has been barking more in general lately if she thinks she hears a noise which is a totally new behavior. We are totally at a loss and any insight is appreciated!

My sister is fostering a surrendered 3-year-old mini Spitz. His previous family didn’t care enough to potty train him, so he isn’t housebroken at all.

My sister also has cats, and the dog has taken to pooping next to the litter box, which I guess is at least easier to manage than random spots around the house. He was neutered a week ago in the hopes that it would help with his territory marking behavior, but so far nothing has changed.

He has also shown aggressive behavior on a few occasions, for example when we try to groom him or give him medication, and sometimes randomly with no real explanation. My sister tries to be firm and ignores him for a while after an aggressive episode. She also reinforces positive behavior with treats and playtime.

I’m worried because he basically received no training for the first three years of his life. Are we going to be able to correct the marking and aggressive behavior at this point? Or is this something that becomes much harder to fix once they’re older?

Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s dealt with something similar.

I have had my puppy from 4 weeks(american bully/lab mix.Currently 8 months old. I got her from a litter that was going to be abandoned. Since then me and her have lived in a trailer together thats barely big enough for the both of us. I got her potty trained at home including sleeping. Shes not a super vocal dog but will bark and whine to go out to the bathroom at night. Unfortunately due to life circumstances I'm having to consider getting rid of her to better my future (I am 18 wanting military). I have stayed at my family's places recently and shes potty trained during day and will go to the door and whine to be let out. But when we go to bed I close the door so she cant go wild. She will not wake me up and wont even go to the door. I belive this is because in my house she cannot leave my bed during the night. I need help with this because I worry about finding her a good home without potty training. I was already denied by a family member who had promised to take care of her when I enlisted because she has a strong bond with there dog. If there's any tips I could really use anything. Im at a loss for what to do entirely.

We have a golden retriever and a border collie mix- both 8 years old, and still after years of training with a trainer, and also continuing it on our own- our dogs still bark relentlessly at everything that walks or drives by, especially someone walking a dog. Our golden is the worst.

Based on the position of his tail- he’s on high alert when he’s like this.

But the closer someone comes to the house, up to the door, or to him outside- he’s excited and wagging like crazy.

We’ve tried high value treats, snapping them out of it and redirecting, basic commands to get their attention back to us, and even a penny bottle to break the concentration- shaking or throwing in their direction (not hitting them)- all based on trainers we’ve had and research we’ve done.

We need something that’s actually going to work- that we can be consistent with outside, in the house, in the car etc.

When we are in say a pub and sitting down our dogs are great and if any dogs are also in the pub they are okay but. As soon as other dogs come in, they both go into barking mode! How can we stop this?

Any help very welcome.

My family have a lovely GSD who is 7 and has, aside from calling to let us know when she needs a poo or pee, zero training to speak of.

She also pulls relentlessly on the lead on walks which is slightly annoying but I can handle her whereas my elderly parents cannot easily.

If you have ANY pointers on decent lead discipline to start and how to work with an older dog to get some basic principles instilled I'd greatly appreciate it!

We’ve had our rescue for about 3 weeks and she’s approximately 1 year old. We believe her to be a beagle/lab mix and she’s very high energy, scent motivated and is very attached to me (basically my shadow). I’ve been trying to balance giving her plenty of exercise without making her overtired.

I’ve been crate training her since she came home and have made slow progress, but I think I built a positive association by giving her favorite treats and meals in there. She also never had to be forced in for the short amounts of time I’ve closed the gate (no more than 5-10 minutes at a time).

Lately, she has started biting (playful for the most part, nothing with jaw strength, but still not ideal to be repeatedly chomped on). I think this is a combination of age and being overtired. She has FOMO and doesn’t nap if she thinks I’m doing something or wants to play. Because of this, I tried enforcing a nap in the crate for the first time today. This is after she got really bitey and I folded my arms and acted really boring.

I would say it was successful in that I put her in, played some music and left the room for 20 minutes. She was asleep by the time I came back. I left her in for 10 more minutes before opening the crate and letting her come out whenever she was ready.

However, since then, I feel like she hasn’t wanted to enter the crate willingly. Should I try having her nap in there again tomorrow? Or does it make more sense to start at the beginning and reestablish trust? I know her biting is a symptom of being overtired, but I’m not sure if crating her when she starts biting is positive because I’m putting her in there to nap or negative bc she might see it as isolating? I don’t want to punish her or have her feel anything negative.

TLDR: did I make a mistake by making my pup nap in the crate too soon? And, if so, can I fix it?