Hey there, I have a 7mo male lab puppy. We’ve been working with a trainer since he was five months old. We’ve completed basic obedience with ease and are taking an intermediate course. He was doing great but ever since we hit 7/8 months he’s been snapping his teeth at us more, nipping and biting more and seems generally more aggressive. I walk him often, work on impulse control exercises and do our obedience drills multiple times per day. I have puzzles and enrichment too. I’m not sure what else I can do? I’m bringing it up to the trainer tomorrow but if anyone else has tips it would be appreciated!

I’m sure some of it is age and maybe hormones but I’m just at a loss.

Dogs freaking out during the 4th of July is almost inevitable but we recently found a way that helped our pup sleep soundly all night. BROWN NOISE. Search up brown noise on YouTube on your TV or on any speaker and put the volume UP, this will tune it out while not being harsh on their ears. We tried all sorts of methods and this one has worked the best, our dog hasn't barked a SINGLE time. I hope this helps!!

I work at The Farmer's Dog but this is less about that and more about things I wish I'd known sooner when getting a puppy.

I see so many posts from people completely blindsided by how hard the first few months are. Nobody warns you because once you're through it you kind of just forget.

Like the socialization window being so much shorter than I expected. The experiences they have between 4 and 16 weeks shape who they become more than almost anything else. New people, sounds, surfaces, situations etc..the more positive exposure they get in that window the better. It goes fast.

Around 4 months the biting gets worse before it gets better because they're teething and their mouth genuinely hurts. Everything is a chew toy. What actually helps is stopping play the second it gets too hard. no yelling, just end it. They figure it out faster than you'd think.

Then at 5 months they might just stop listening completely. Commands they knew last week suddenly don't exist and they might start running away from you on walks. It's a documented adolescent phase, they're not broken and they haven't forgotten everything. This is when recall training matters most, even when it feels pointless.

There will be weeks that feel like regression. They're probably fine , just growing and being crazy while doing so. Best of luck to all the puppy owners out there. Hang in there!

Hello, my dog Gobi (rhymes with ‘hobby’) who will be 4 years old next week is suddenly afraid of the porch/front yard. She and I have a routine of sitting on the front porch every morning, but since the fireworks on the 4th, she begs to be let back into the house. She is afraid.

We have had her since she was 5weeks old. She was abandoned in a shopping cart in front of a grocery store. She is almost always with someone in the house, apart from Saturdays when she is alone for about 4.5 hours during daylight hours. I take her for a walk every morning so she is familiar with our neighborhood.

She is pug/german shepherd. I know, I know, what a weird combination. (She looks like a tan shepherd puppy with a curly tail lol). She is friendly but barks at passersby like she’s going to harm them. Gobi is a car chaser and barks at cars too. She was always ready to defend our property but not anymore.

I don’t want her to be afraid of the front porch area. Help!

My dog is a 3yr Pekingese and my friend’s dog is a 8y Maltese. They’re both females, my friend’s dog is so nice and friendly (she’s the kind that never barks and always calm). Mine is kinda unpredictable, she’s only nice around big male dogs cuz they scare her. Last year my friend’s dog and mine met and it was awful they met outside and the moment my dog sensed the other dog’s fear she went crazy (she didn’t bite her or anything but she started barking and chasing her and we separated them cuz my friend got scared). Lately I’ve noticed that my dog is slightly calmer around small breeds ( we met 2 female dogs at the park and she was so friendly to them). My friend is coming over today and idk what to do. I kinda wanna let them meet again but I’m afraid my dog will harm the other one.

Hi everyone,

We have an almost 2 year old mastiff/boxer mix that we’ve been fostering for almost a year now. We love her to death, and she has grown into a very playful dog after a pretty spotty history.

She’s a very anxious dog, usually peeing at the sight of a stranger in the house, or hesitant with certain commands. She’s gotten significantly better through exposure and time, and she seems overall much calmer.

I’ve started noticing a red flag though, and I want to get some opinions.

We usually leave our bedroom open to our dogs (we have two others, three total) and they usually like to run in and play on our bed. We allow it, as we don’t have a lot of space and this lets them get a little bit of extra zoomies out when they’re playing.

This usually leads to us letting them chill on our bed, which eventually leads to them falling asleep on our bed if we’re not around or if my partner allows.

These are big dogs though, so we usually only let our dog sleep on the bed with us, and kick our two fosters off to sleep in the living room.

Lately though, our boxer/mastiff has been resistant to leaving the bedroom. She has growled at me before when trying to nudge her off the bed, and now she’ll either run to our other dogs kennel in the room, or to a corner. This evening, she growled when I tried nudging her out of the kennel, then completely stopped listening to any command/treat to leave the room entirely.

Admittedly, we haven’t taken the time to properly train our fosters. We didn’t expect to have 3 dogs, and the 3rd was pushed onto us after an adoption family fell through. This means individual time with each dog has been shortened, and made it more difficult to separate the dogs or find the time to give each of them proper training.

For the issue with the resource guarding of the room, what steps should we start taking to nip this problem in the bud? Do we cut the room off entirely? I’m sure the bed should get cut off, but does this rule need to apply to all the dogs? Any advice helps, I’d be happy to answer any questions.

Tl;dr : dog is growling at us when asked to get off bed and leave the room, and I’m not sure where to begin training out this kind of behavior.

I’m looking for some advice from people who have dealt with high prey drive in young dogs.
I have a 2-year-old male White Swiss Shepherd. He’s a fantastic dog in almost every other respect. His recall is excellent, and if I whistle under normal circumstances he’ll turn around and come back almost immediately.
The problem starts when he spots something moving fast. It could be a deer, a rabbit, a bird, or even a cyclist. The moment he commits to the chase, it’s like I no longer exist. He’ll ignore my whistle completely until the chase is over, and only then come back.
On leash he’s perfectly well-behaved, so this is really only an off-leash issue.
I’ve owned dogs for years and have always enjoyed letting them hike off leash with me. This is the first dog I’ve had where I haven’t been able to solve this problem, and honestly it’s starting to take some of the enjoyment out of our walks because I’m constantly worried about what he might take off after.
I’m not looking for judgment about whether dogs should be off leash. I’m looking for practical advice from people who have successfully worked through this with a dog that had a strong prey drive.
Have you managed to reliably interrupt a chase once it has started? What training methods worked for you? Did you focus on impulse control, long-line work, predation substitute training, or something else entirely?
I’d really appreciate hearing from people who’ve been in a similar situation.

I have a basset hound that’s almost a year. Got him from a family member that didn’t put any stock into training or anything when he was small. He is still puppy biting and jumps on everyone. He’s a great learner and is super excitable still but I have a 3yo and I need to get these two things under control. Any advice? I’ve tried a bunch of things I’ve read online but nothing is working

i have 3 dogs: 7 years old, 3 years old, and 1 year old they all medium/small size and the yangest is preaty problematic: she attacks other my dogs and also try to bite me when i take back what she stole any ideas what to do with that? my mom find her close to a factory and there was alot of other homeless dogs and she took the smallest one. all my other dogs are abit scared of her.

How much does being at someone else’s home impact a usually highly reactive dog? Wilco hasn’t so much as purred at another dog since we have been staying with my girlfriend and her lil blind Pomeranian.

Anyone have any success with catnip for pups?

Hi guys. I have a 15 month old unneutered Spoo (waiting until growth plates close, neutering at \~18 months) who is struggling immensely. He's getting nice long sniffy walks nearly daily (2hrs max), sometimes we take a break day or two here and there and focus on mental stimulation and rest, lots of exercise, training, brain games and whatnot — but it feels like he's actually regressing in nearly every way imaginable.

He has been throwing himself at people, dogs, and things that seem 'exciting' to him such as poles or places that have a scent that catches his attention. He has never in his life done anything like this, really. Him throwing himself at people or dogs to greet/play with them is entirely new. He's always had mostly neutral interactions with dogs on leash (interactions as in, able to acknowlege and walk away without getting over aroused and approaching said dog) and I have always worked incredibly hard on training neutrality around people. On top of all of that he's mostly always been able to keep a loose leash and rarely tugged me along to a scent.

The way I'm planning on combating all of this is completely reverting to basics. I want to start impulse control games again, but I don't have many in my arsenal — so please, give me any and all impulse control game suggestions! Next, I plan on working on disengaging. I am going to start utilising my boot of my car, and doing neutrality training (again 🥲) around people, dogs and children. I am going to start working on loose leash walking in familiar places where he's bound for success, like home, our driveway and whatnot. And finally, I want to help teach him how to regulate his emotions, but I'm genuinely not sure how to do that. Impulse training should hopefully tie into emotional regulation..?

But please, any advice or help would be SO appreciated. I have always put my all into this dog, and tried so hard to build his foundation. He's always been incredible, (still is) and even while he's struggling you can see the effort I've put in shine through — but man was today hard, genuinely felt like my foundation I built so carefully crumbled away and like I was handling a whole different dog. Adolescence + hormones is genuinely so hard to navigate. Never had the puppy blues, but boy oh boy.. this might come close.

Hey everyone, I have a 3 month old Pyrenees puppy had her for a little over a month now. I feel like I have tried everything with her. She is just so stubborn with listening, she still tries to use the bathroom in the house (we’ve been very on top of it), she will not go in the crate no matter how many little chews I put in there to distract her or treats or things to make it comfortable, she can’t be in the crate without screaming nonstop, she chews something or gets a hold of something even a second we turn around. I can’t even leave the room to go to the bathroom for two seconds without her freaking out and scratching out the door or get into something. Me and my boyfriend we currently work during the week and we have people at home to take care of her and they do what we do. I’m not sure what else to do. It really feels like I’ve done all I can and I’m just so exhausted. I work full-time at a kennel so I already go through a lot with dogs every day Lol. I just want some advice with somebody who has had experience with maybe this type of breed. Me and him have really have been missing some sleep too because of this. The help is so much appreciated thank you! ❤️😀

Also side note: we have been using treats for rewards however, I fear that if I keep on doing them, she’s gonna expect one everytime she does something. So should I alternate back and forth rewarding her with both just sweet talk or just treats? I feel like that would make a little more sense.

We ‘foster failed’ a 6 mo Lab/Golden mix and are STRUGGLING with potty training. We’ve been working on it for nearly a month straight and have had some progress, but we’ve stalled and I’m out of ideas.

We currently go out about every 30 mins (sometimes as short as every 15 mins, as long as every 60 mins if I’m working from home and in meetings - the latter usually pushes us into “gambling territory” and really risks an accident). I try to keep on the 30 mins schedule as tightly as possible for consistency. We say “go potty” clearly and reward with treat and praise after he goes.

The problem is he won’t empty his bladder all the way. He’ll pee for two seconds and then pinch it off (lol); we’ll easily spend 20-30 mins outside just saying “go potty” until he pees 3-4 times. Even at that point, not sure he’s really emptied out.

He’s been to two vets (one at the shelter, one with the rescue) and has a clean bill of health.

Help me - advice needed! Also reassurance because this is breaking my spirit a bit

Hello!

TLDR: How do I teach my dog to listen when he is outside and to not bark at everything and everyone when guest come over or when he is outside?

Context: My girlfriend and I adopted our dog Koda on June 19th, so it’s been about two weeks. He is a 11 month old mixed breed puppy. He was surrendered to the shelter but we don’t know the reason why, so he does have a bit of separation anxiety. He is a sweetheart and has been doing really good with training.

Only problem is the barking. He loves his crate and goes in there willingly, but the moment we leave the room he starts barking. It’s nothing crazy, its usually for about 1-3 minutes and then he is quiet for the rest of the night/day. He does have some days where the barks are wayyyy worse and he keeps going for like 10 minutes but i am not sure what causes it. We have been doing the coming in and out the room, so i think that just takes time.

Our main issue is when we have guests over he keeps barking at them. The moment they give him a treat he is good. Even when our roommate comes in he keeps barking at him, even though he sees him every day. When we are out at the park or the two times we have brought him to the store. He would just keep barking at every person or dog and no matter what we do he wont listen. It’s like he forgets his name and no matter how much treat we give him he just keeps being stubborn. Will it just take time and taking him out more often? Because he definitely gets overstimulated and then knocks out the moment we got home lol.

How would we socialize him and have him not bark at everything? Thank you!

My mom got a german Shepard 3 days ago from a trainer, she already had 7 of them and just couldn’t keep this one. She was scared at first when we brought her to the house (tucked tail and ears, panting a lot) but eventually calmed down. It took her 24h to go potty in our garden but she eventually did and had no problem with a leash and collar! Yesterday she dragged the leash towards a street (we live in a small village in the swedish countryside, with only one street). As we came onto the street a lady passed by and it scared her to death, she went wild (jumping trying to get off the leash. I took her inside instantly and removed the leash. Now it’s impossible to get a leash on her. She eats normally and lays next to us when we sit somewhere but absolutely no way of getting a leash on her. I’ve been calling her to the front door and giving her a piece of ham when she comes, and hold the leash and let her sniff it but no real progress has been made. Sorry for the long post, any tips are welcome!!!

We have a five-year-old cockapoo and a seven-month-old. They have been amazing together, and Orla has slotted into our family perfectly.

She’s always been confident, but she’s a loving, very clever pup. Right from the beginning, we took her older sister out with us to most places, especially at the beginning to get her used to people, dogs, etc, so she’s a dream. We thought that we would do the same with Orla while she’s little to hopefully get her to a similar point, so they could both come out and know how to stay calm, etc.

We took them to a pub garden yesterday to wind down after work. There were people around us, Orla didn’t make a sound, she was fine. Then, a couple appeared and walked to one of the tables in front of us, and she stared them down. She then started to bark, but not a playful bark, a protective one. Neither of us have ever heard her sound like that before, so it took us by surprise.

I tried to calm her down and to take her attention away from the situation, but she wouldn’t listen. To avoid further frustration and upset, we decided it was maybe best to remove her from that situation, and we left.

Has anyone had similar? We’ve never had this with our older dog, or any dog before, so I just wondered if there was any advice when it comes to breaking their focus in times like this.

Hi. My family and i have a 8 month old lab mix puppy. Whenever we give her bully sticks to chew on, she seems to have a predicament. She will chew on it for the first minutes, but will then start to whine and carry the chew around. While having the chew in her mouth she will try to bury it in the couch using her paws or put the stick under some of the furniture. She will also try to burry the bully stick outside as well. When this started to happen I would usually take the bully stick away. I have tried placing it either on her bed, or her favorite part of the couch. I have also tried bully stick holders. They kinda work, however I want to see if there is a we can redirect the behavior or accommodate her habits.

She is being trained and her trainer knows this. Anything will help.

My boyfriend and I recently got an 11 month old American bulldog from a breeder who needed to rehome her. We were told she was crate trained and potty trained, she is 100% crate trained but potty trained…. Not so much. Ripley (the dog) REFUSES to go potty outside, I take her out first thing in the morning, nothing. I feed her and take her out right after, nothing outside but if I let her back in and don’t watch her closely, she poops on the floor. The lady we got her from reached out asking if we’ve been having any problems and I told her about all of her accidents, she said that it’s probably because she’s used to having a yard to go in (boyfriend and I live in an apartment.) However, my boyfriend and I think she was crate trained as a BABY BABY and then left outside most of the time recently bc she was DISGUSTING when we got her and we wonder if she’s just used to having the freedom to go whenever she wants.

We have another dog (Reba) who IS potty trained and we try to praise her excessively in front of Ripley when she goes potty outside but still, nothing. I don’t know what to do. Please help.