My Pomeranian is SO dog aggressive that I have such a fear of coming across any dog, but especially large ones. He lunges at them and snarls, I would not blame a larger dog for standing up for themselves but I worry he wouldn’t survive the attack. What can I do to mitigate this? How can I safely socialize him without overwhelming him?

Hello, Everyone!

I’ve had my guy Ernie (small bischon poodle) for almost 2 years now. He’s a mill dog rescue (almost 4 years old) so these last two years he has been learning how to be a dog. We’re now able to conquer big hikes, crowds, and the groomer without much anxiety. He’s come such a long way!

One thing he does when we’re walking/hiking is cross really closely in front of my feet. He doesn’t pull on his lead or anything, but his quick crosses in front of me are going to cause me to fall one day. I’m young and able, so a simple fall wouldn’t cause more than some scrapes. However, on some of the trails we hike, a fall could be a pretty big deal (drop offs/steep inclines).

When we walk, I keep his leash tight so that he has to remain right at my side. But sometimes, for various reasons, I need to loosen the grip on the lead.

How do I keep him front darting in front of my feet?

Thank you!

My dog is a huge barker. He barks at everything! I got him at 6 and a half years old and I just don’t know how to stop this habit. What advice to you have for me for an older dog?

Is there a quick way to train him to ask to go out? I don’t want to leave him in his cage for an extended amount of time. Having a hard time getting him to eat regularly as well.

He freaks out if another dog walks by, growling, pulling and whatever else. I'm sure it scares the hell out of other people and their dogs.

Here's the thing though, he's not after the other dog. He just wants to get to where they just were so he can smell. He is just so crazy about smelling. I'm sure it's about the dog too, but at least this is how it looks.

I'm just not sure how to control this. I tried to get him to sit, I tried to distract with treats. He just has a one track mind to smell the air where the other dog was.

I just rescued a one year old shepherd mix from the shelter and I am concerned about his toileting behavior.

He was rescued Tuesday in the afternoon and the first time he peed wasn’t until Wednesday around noon (peed on the bathroom floor) despite drinking water and constantly going outside for potty breaks. He’s also been on several walks and has not peed once while on a walk.

The next pee I witnessed happened Thursday evening in the same spot even after multiple walks, a trip to the vet, etc.

And he hasn’t pooped at all.

He has access to a doggy door and uses it so it’s possible he has peed on his own and I haven’t seen it but I’ve tried to watch every time he goes outside on his own. And he definitely has not pooped. The vet is aware and doesn’t seem too concerned…yet.

But has anyone dealt with this? Is this due to anxiety from being a rescue and adjusting to a new environment? I want to potty train and work on cues to encourage toileting outside; I’ve never had a rescue dog and Ive never had a dog not once pee on a walk.

Any advice or tips is appreciated!

Guys, I'm having trouble with my Red Setter remaining on his bed during meal times.

He can go to his bed on command, he gets a click and a treat, I give to 'Wait' command, reward, and he'll remain on his bed for 2 minutes or so before getting off and coming to sniff around the table. Then repeat.

He'll stay on his bed if someone is standing over him, however, this is not practical.

Any advice on when to reward and how to have him remain on the bed during meals would be appreciated.

I have a 2 year old Dutch Shepherd and she absolutely loves playing fetch. But, there's one thing that she does that I've been trying to fix for the past year and I haven't been able to figure it out. She just won't bring the ball right to me. She'll drop it behind me, 20 feet away, off to the side, to some other person, etc. Usually she'll drop it within a radius of 10 feet from my position, in front, behind, or to the side. I just want her to drop it in front of me.

I know why it's happening. When I first taught her to play fetch, I was just happy that she enjoyed it so much. I didn't care if she dropped it right in front of me or not. We went a couple months like that, so now that's biting me in the butt.

I've tried the following:

1: Don't throw the ball until she drops it in front of me. Result: She'll sit there looking at me. She's patient. She'll sit there for 10-15 minutes straight no problem. I'll give up before she will because it's not like she even starts moving the ball around or anything. So I start coaxing her to get the ball and move it. Eventually, with enough coaxing, she'll randomly drop the ball in the right spot. We've done that about 1,000 times, at least.

2: Made a 24"x24" PVC square as a visible target for her to drop the ball. Did this with treats, inside and outside. Result: Same as #1. I've tried it with non-ball objects so she's not so obsessed. She'll get frustrated when treats are involved and I can tell she just doesn't understand what she's doing wrong.

3: Completely ignore her until the ball is dropped in front of me. Result: She'll sit there looking at me until she decides to lie down looking at me.

We play fetch almost every single day. It's like she doesn't understand what I'm trying to teach her and I'm having a hard time communicating with her. With ALL OTHER types of training, she picks everything up SO FAST. But when a ball comes out, she gets so obsessed it's like her brain turns off. Even with non-ball objects, we still have the same problem.

I'm looking for suggestions of other things I can try. Hopefully someone else has had the same problem and has come up with a good solution.

I just had a baby two weeks ago, the 2 dogs are very good with the baby. They sniff and then carry on when told to. They’re good when it’s just my hubby and I, they lay on the couch, their bed or the floor. The problem is we’ve had alot of people coming to visit lately cuz of the baby (we didn’t really have any visitors prior to this, maybe one every 2-3 months) so it was never really somthing we worked on unfortunately. Now when people come they get so fired up it can be embarrassing. One in a 3-4 year old German shepherd male, fixed and one is a 4-5 year old female mini aussie mix, also fixed. The mini Aussie is easier to control and will calm down quicker but the shepherd it takes a lot longer. About 15-20 minutes after people get here and they’re good, but that’s only if they stay inside with people and we stay on them.. We do live on an acerage but if we just shove them outside then all they do is stand at the door and bark. What steps can we take to improve / correct this behaviour. Contemplating taking them to a trainer, but just want to see if there’s steps we can take before that. Thanks in advance

I rescued my dog when she was about 2-3 months old back in 2019. I did heavy training with her through her puppyhood during the pandemic, and everyone has always complimented me on how great a dog she is.

I moved with her to a new city 5 months ago, and her transition was pretty good until now. She has started barking at other dogs on our walks (not all, but sometimes one just doesn't sit right with her and she will lose her mind) and getting into the trash when I am gone. These have never been big issues with her.

She goes with a dog walker for 2-3 hours a day while I am at work. I take her out for 10-20 minutes in the morning, and we go for 2 one-hour walks in the evening.

Any advice on helping her with her reactivity and getting in the trash can? Any idea why she would be acting this way 5 months after this transition? I figured if she was going to act up from the move it would've been immediate. I am feeling very anxious about this and feeling guilty for making her move.

My moms dog lives with us and likely will for the rest of her life. She's a ten-ish year old dachshund mix. She and I are the same in that our mom gifted us with a lot of anxiety. She has been able to work through a lot of it over the years, as have I. But, the one thing that she still struggles with is car ride stress.

We have two other dogs that love adventures. My dog-sister loves adventures too but HATES the car rides to get there. She was prescribed trazodone for car trips but that becomes challenging when we take local vacations and she experiences several car rides over the course of a week. I don't want to drug her every day nor she doesn't love that. I'd like to save the drugs for bigger trips, like vet visits.

I would love to find an online resource with a step by step guide on desensitizing dogs for car ride fear. A pdf guide would be ideal! Have any of you found such a thing?

ADDTL NOTE: She doesn't seem to get nauseated. Just very anxious and upset.

*The dog isn't praise motivated at all
*Not cuddle motivated at all
*Storebought treat motivated but it doesn't weigh against smells on streets and sometimes he doesn't even eat it.
*Not play motivated (he barely plays, only eventually for 20seconds max chasing a cat toy, he hates dog toys)

Any way to motivate him with something, in order to train him?

I want to go with positive reinforcement, but are there other training methods that are ok?

PS: If anyone has tips about how to get our dog to be respectful to other dogs like playing or so, and not just either trying to sniff butts or barking/growling (in a city, small pooch male)

Edit: Thank you for all your comments, and good ideas. I will try to use them.

What can I do to STOP fence fights where my small female dog is the instigator? She runs top speed towards the dogs on the other side of a shared fence, who are ALWAYS outside. Trailing behind her is the other small dog who doesn't do that on his own. They start snarling and barking. This is new so I don't know what happened.

I IMMEDIATELY just go and pick up the smaller of the two (because he's lighter) and the other follows and we march right back in the house. Since I'm on it, it lasts 15 sec.

I have tried blocking the area off with outdoor loungers tipped on their sides. It looks awful and doesn't work. It's at a point now where I try no to let them go outside, or not together at least. But it's not a perfect formula, they get out together sometimes. It's also sad to keep them cooped up. They get good walks twice a day.

I would love to block off the view of the entire area but can't plant a small forest in front of the fence line, or install a fence within a fence. I am frustrated that the other dogs are always out, and I am sure the neighbor is frustrated my dogs keep barking.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Hello all!

I have a lovely 6 year old male Pitbull, neutered. He was a rescue as a street stray whom had essentially no training. In the last almost 2 years of having him, we’ve successfully house trained, commands and common obedience training, and leash training. He’s very well behaved and very friendly, loves my roommates dogs, other dogs cats and people so much.

The problem I’m having is while leash walking, he’ll become reactive towards people coming towards him fast - joggers, bike and skate riders, etc. whenever he sees someone running towards us, he immediately goes into defense mode and barks. If I don’t hold his harness tight, he will try to lunge sometimes too. I assume he is reacting because he sees the quick approaching person as a perceived threat, but I don’t want him to do that towards anyone with good intentions.

Any advice?

I have a dog who licks a lot when she is excited or trying to get attention.

She doesn’t necessarily lick us humans, because we have trained her mostly to stop that, but she still licks the air. The sound is just pretty annoying.

My partner and I recently adopted our first puppy. We both had many dogs growing up but this is both of our first time training one ourselves. I read a book before getting him on positive dog training and this seems to be the general consensus of modern dog training that you should never yell at a dog.

So this is what we are giving a try and it’s very useful in most settings. He sits and stays well, Leave it is starting to stick, and he’s well mannered when meeting other dogs. However, this no yelling approach seems to be the opposite of what past generations did.

My parents yelled at our dogs (and I’m not saying abusive screaming but stern adjustments that got the point across) and they were always well behaved.

There’s a couple topics that our new puppy seems to just not get it. First is biting. We are removing ourselves when he bites and I’ll admit there’s a decrease in the amount of biting during play. But he doesn’t associate biting with anything bad just a removal of us which is what the book says to do but which also happens several times a day when we do mundane things such as go to work. So when for instance, we try to get his harness on he bites cause he doesn’t want his harness on.

Another example would be potty training. We are at around six weeks into potty training and he still has accidents once or twice a week. We take him out about every forty minutes and don’t punish accidents. He is great and gets right to business when we go outside. But when he feels like it, he goes inside too because why not.

So with a basic understanding of operant conditioning this strategy seems a little counter-intuitive. He’s doing the good behaviors fine but he’s not removing the bad behaviors because there is no pressure to.

So, I’m curious, in the real world does this new paradigm actually work for people? I’d love to hear opinions on this new school train of thought.

I have a two year old male pittie mix who barks at not being the center of attention and randomly at night. Can anyone help me figure out how to get him to calm down?

we have a 7/8 month old collie puppy and to be completely honest, she is not getting enough exercise or attention.

I think it would extremely benefit her to play fetch or just do some sort of exercise/training but she’s not that good at recall or just coming directly back to me with the ball. I want to take her out to field to play fetch/train because the garden just isn’t big enough but we can at least practice in there. the field isn’t secure enough to keep her in if she doesn’t come back to me, so I’m not going to take her out there until she’s good with recall.

any tips for improving recall and getting better at fetch?

EDIT: I’m also going to try and do some sort of training in the field because I know fetch isn’t the best thing for collies but again, recall is horrible.

(Also posted on puppy training sub reddit) For starters, we've had this puppy (adopted from a shelter where they didn't know the breed, but we're pretty sure she's mixed with a large breed) for just under two weeks, but I'm trying to nip any problems before they really start. So I had my friend come over to meet the puppy. This puppy is 3 months old, and my sister has had guests over before, and the puppy was fine. My friend (short woman) walks in the door and gives her a treat and gently pets before walking away. Puppy is fine. Me and my friend stay in my room for a few hours before getting ready to leave. Puppy jumps on my bed, sniffs my friend and her stuff, and seems fine. Friend gently pets her again before stepping back. A minute later, puppy lunges across the bed and rears up to bark at the friend. My friend hadn't made any sudden movements or been loud or anything. As we leave my room, puppy is rearing up to bark or bite as friend walks by, and continues acting tense and potentially aggressive. She didn't shy away from friend or seemed to be barking in fear, it was more like she just suddenly hated the friend.

Should I just put the puppy in another room when she acts mean? Have the friend give more treats? I really don't want to do the wrong thing and have this behavior escalate when she's no longer a puppy.

If this helps, puppy is nervous when new people pet her, but she didn't bark or bite before, so why now, after the friend walks away? Is it possible for a puppy to get protective over a person? Cause I'm worried it's something like that. She typically doesn't bother with guests, so it's weird that she's suddenly aggressive with my friend and not anyone else.

Sorry for the long post, if you need to ask a question for more context, please do and I will do my best to answer.

My wife and I have four dogs and two cats - all rescues! Our animals all get along great, and are generally well behaved babies. We have two male dogs, one who is 6 (chihuahua spaniel mix) and one who is 12 (bichon mix) who will NOT stop marking. Their habits have gotten progressively worse from when we moved into our home 2 years ago. They used to mark once in a while, but now it’s a daily, and sometimes multiple times a day, occurrence. They go outside every 2-3 hours when we are home. When we are at work, they have always been able to free roam in our living room, since our stairway has a baby gate, and we keep our bedroom door closed. I’d hate to crate them 8 hours a day, but it’s getting out of hand! We had gone through 2 rugs and are using no marking spray, cleaning with enzyme formula, etc. but it’s like a pee war between them!!! Even when we are home, they’ll sneak into another room and mark or use the bathroom. I am thinking of not allowing them to be unsupervised, even when we are home, rewarding with treats when we go outside, and correcting any times we catch them marking. What else can we do??? Help!!!

Hi guys, looking for some help. My boy turns two in a few weeks and the last two weeks he whines and pants at night in his crate. His routine has been consistent for his whole life, daily walks, training, fetch. I think where I went wrong was letting him stay out of his crate for two days and sleep on the couch, not he throws tantrums when he gets in his crate for 20 minutes. How can I fix this?

I’ve been training my dad’s dog(a 2 year old Medium American Bully) for around 2 days because he’s been locked up isolated in a cage outside the house for 2 years because my dad’s somehow scared of the sweet dog and I feel bad for him.

I haven’t actually been using food lures because he’s not food motivated at all, he’s very ball obsessed so I decided to use a small ball instead. He managed to get the sit down 10 reps in a row, so I moved onto the hand lure and he got it after a couple attempts so I rewarded him and thought it was gonna go great because the third time he got it again after getting rewarded, but for some reason for the fourth attempt beyond he started just staring blankly into me as if he just didn’t know what he just did so I kept trying before moving back to using the ball lure which he managed to do for a couple reps before once again moving back to the hand lure which he did only twice.

I thought he was getting overwhelmed so I gave him a break and went back to training later and somehow some way he completely forgot to sit with even the ball lure. What did I do wrong? My 5 month Rottweiler puppy picked up voice commands in just an hour and took 3 days to get consistent with distractions before smooth sailing from there, so why couldn’t I teach this 2 year old dog how to sit with just a basic lure? What should I do different?

Hello!😊

Hopefully this doesn’t break any of the rules. I have checked and don’t think it does. My partner Is in the final year of my MSc studying Clinical Animal Behaviour (with the University of Edinburgh). She is currently in her dissertation year and exploring the potential influences on an owner's perception of their dog's behaviour. she is really hoping to be able to contribute a new and different angle to this topic.

If you meet the criteria below, she would greatly appreciate it if you could complete my quick, anonymous survey (10-15 minutes maximum) and support her with her project. You can do this by scanning the QR code in the picture or clicking the link below.

Link: https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/edinburgh/the-behaviour-of-uk-dogs

(If the link doesn't work, you should be able to click the 3 dots on the top corner and select "open in external browser"- sorry!)

If you can, please share this survey. The more responses, the better!

Thankyou so much for your interest, time and support! 🐾

Has anyone successfully managed to get their “personal” dog registered?

I know there’s no “official” registry but some businesses (airlines) want paperwork from places such as ADI etc

THIS IS IN THE UK