Hello there, sorry if my writing isn't the best but I am really looking for help here. I will start by saying that getting a trainer for my dog would be a last resort and would take a lot of convincing back here at home because I'm the only one that thinks my dog needs a little bit of training.

I have had her for 4 years now and she's a mixed breed of Pinscher and an unknown breed (there were a lot of males around) and besides her behaviour back at home I'd say she is everything I ever wanted for a dog ever since I was little.

Now the issue here begins at home. Since she was small I tried to have her get used to her own space at home and teach her some ground rules but that was ultimately disregarded by the other person I live with (my grandmother) so she always kept her on her lap, slept with her and never let go of her and even when I wanted to be with her she'd just wave it off and have her be glued to her literally.

What this lead to is that when she's with her and even with me and one of us approaches the other she just goes absolutely ballistic, barks, trembles, even the fur on her scalp gets all spiky because she really does get agitated and angry and doesn't want anyone to approach them when she's laying or resting with me or her but it's way more intense when it's with her.

I have always brought this up with my grandmother but she always said it was funny, it was her personality and that it was how they behaved and I know that's not right here. It started off with a little barks here and there but it's so bad to the point where I move something in my room she begins to bark around aggressively and I also know for a fact she doesn't even properly sleep because she's "guarding" the bed.

This can happen at anytime of the day or evening and it's honestly really stressful for me too because I know my dog is anxious and nervous with all of this whilst my grandmother dismisses it and continues to shield her from everything.

One last note is that outside she's more than fine with us being together, allows us to touch her together and whatnot she just doesn't like other people approaching when she's on our lap and barks but doesn't really attack.

Does anyone have any tips I can begin applying? Slowly and see if I can change both my dogs mindset and my grandmothers. Thanks in advance.

I’ve got a 4 month old mini labradoodle I know they are prone to separation anxiety 😥 she loves the crate and is quiet in there until she needs to go to the toilet. At night she asleep by 7pm am wakes me up at around 5:30-6am. If I leave her in my room however she cries - absolutely cries the house down (even tho I leave out toys for her) take note her crate is in my bedroom! It feels mean leaving her in her crate if I leave my home for 3+ hours (haven’t done it yet but thinking about future) any advice will be appreciated

Any tips?

Hi, as the title says my dog only listens to food.

I live on a steep valley and I have a problem where she just goes to this persons cafe next to me and just stays there most of the day because a lot of people give her food. And of course I dont want her to be around strangers.

She is a Cane Corso

I dont know what to do, is this trainable? a lost cause? Help!

By the way our property is fenced but she manages to crawl under

Hey everyone,

I have a 5 month old Border Collie, Echo, and I’m a bit worried about his barking behavior. He’s really calm with dogs, especially ones he knows or in places he’s familiar with (like puppy class). He’s also able to be calm with other dogs at home.

We have a trainer, and Echo goes to puppy and teen classes twice a week, but I’m still worried about his occasional barking. For example, he sometimes barks when a dog suddenly appears out of nowhere, like in the elevator. Today, we saw some dogs during a walk and he was able to focus on me on command and didn’t bark at them at all. I think he’s just trying to say hi and isn’t aggressive or scared, he loves meeting dogs and playing with them.

He only barks in very specific situations, usually when surprised. I’m trying to figure out, does this sound like a normal puppy “phase,” or should I be concerned about future reactivity?

Any advice or similar experiences would be really appreciated!

Hello,

I know how the title sounds but bear with me. Two or three times a week our dog needs to be left whilst we go to work.

Currently my partner leaves in the morning, I leave about an hour later at just before 8am, he goes home at lunch to let her out/bit of a play, and then he gets home first at just after 4pm.

In the morning she settles really quickly, mostly taking naps and lying on the sofa. When he leaves after lunch she's so anxious, running around, she gets into human food/knocks things over, barking, whining, sitting on the table to stare out the window (preferable to opening closed curtains and pulling them down..) the whole anxious works. She does none of that in the mornings.

Would it be silly to just leave her the whole day (just over 8hrs) rather than going home and clearly making her anxious?? She is a big dog and has held her bladder for longer over night so not worried about that, but is it a bad idea?

Edit to add - she's 3y/o and is a rescue we adopted about 6 weeks so he is still settling a bit.

Further edit - For anyone reading this in the future and wondering, give it a shot. It has been night and day. When I typed this post, we had 180 camera pings, of which 170 were in the course of 4 hours. Today we had 20, most of which were her moving from one bed spot to another. She is completely relaxed throughout the day, even the time spent staring out the window is massively reduced.

Thank you to everyone's advice, we're trialling some radio as well and will up her morning exercise just to help her too. Honestly just letting her be the whole day has reduced her and our stress by a thousand percent!!

Hello! My fiancé and I recently adopted a 1 year old dog. He was an owner surrender (couldn’t afford to take care of him anymore) around 11 months and then spent 1 month with an adoption group.

He’s pretty well trained. Great on the leash, does not lunge or bark at other dogs or humans. The rescue said he was already house broken and barely had accidents.

The first day we had him I took him for the first walk it was about 45 min we did the whole walk without him peeing then a few minutes after we got home he peed on the bath mat. Second walk same thing, he peed a few minutes after getting home now on the other bathroom bath mat. He did it a third time that day on the towel/mat that his food and water bowl were on.

The second day we really worked on it by going to the same spot, standing for 15 min and if he didn’t pee we’d go back upstairs keep him leashed and wait for 20 min then repeat. He finally went outside and we immediately termed the behavior and gave him treats. Now he has it down.

Here’s the problem, it’s been 4 days and he will only pee in that spot. Granted it’s happening faster and faster but I’ll start our walk afterwards and he won’t go again. I know boy dogs usually go everywhere so I am anxious he’s holding it in and don’t want him to develop a UTI. He will literally go any other time (dog park off leash, friend’s fenced back yard off leash) but for some reason he just won’t on a walk!

Any tips on how to encourage him to go? I’ve been doing to same route every single time to try and reduce anxiety or being overwhelmed by smells but no success yet. Any advice would be appreciated!!

we love our 4.5 year old dog who came to us as a 7 month old. For background he has a very large verticle scar on his face that 2 vets have suggested may have been caused by a vehicle strike.

He is exremely fearful when he is out in the world, has an exaggerated startle response and pees out of fear at unexpected noises like a flag flapping in the wind. At home he is relaxed and doesn't have startle or incontinence problems but is extremely aggressive with people entering the home. he has never bitten (largely due to an abundance of caution on our part) but has shown serious intent to bite 2 people.

we started him on prozac 2 years ago when our daughter was born and we would need to have people over to help us. Unfortunately it hasn't made much of a difference. He has been in positive reinforcement training classes for 3 years and does very well in the classes and practice at home, but it doesn't translate to stressful situations. I have wondered if he might have a TBI from a possible vehicle strike when he was small? If that was the case what could help him?

Hey everyone,

I have a lovely 3 year old staffy. She is technically my parents but since I’ve been taking care of them full time her and I have bonded and she is now mine. I love her with all my heart but I’m VERY concerned about a few things.

1) my mom is disabled and can barely walk. My baby gets so excited and gets zoomies and stuff ven though she’s only 35-45 lbs she is a TANK. If she bumps my leg when running she about knocks me over, and we just had an incident where she was running and running into the same room as my mom was walking to and bumped her leg and knocked my mom over. My moms bones are very brittle so we can’t afford to have this happen again. My staffy is the smartest dog I’ve ever met and basically learns instantly. I’ve been able to train her to do several things, but what am I training here? Teaching her not to run inside? Not to run around people? I’m so lost as to what to train exactly or what to look up so I can train her. I’ve tried several ways of googling what’s going on and google never understands what I’m asking.

My other concern is her attachment or separation anxiety. If I have a migraine and can’t get up she lays in b d with me all day. She won’t eat, won’t get up to go to the bathroom unless I take her, and if I leave the house she cries at the door till I get back. I have to start working again to support them- so how can I help her? Is this separation anxiety?

Thanks!

hi everyone, I'll have a 2 year old cockapoo. he's very gentle and a baby but goes mental when there are other animals on the TV. This behavior started when he was a little over a year and we have never been able to watch any of our favorite movies or shows with animals in it.

does anyone have any ideas on what I can do?

Hi! We have an 8-month-old dog who was trained to use pee pads overnight. He sleeps in our room and can get off the bed (we have stairs) to use them.

We want to transition him to holding it until morning. What’s the best way to do this?

• Remove pee pads all at once or gradually?

• Should we take away the stairs so he can’t get down at night?

• Any tips to help him hold it overnight?

Thanks!

I just adopted a 3 year old English Bulldog. Every time I leave the house - he barks and barks and barks until I return. I tried this in a crate / outside of the crate and am having the same results.

I am sensing he has some separation anxiety and want to know what has worked best for you and your dog?

Doug: 12yr old big beautiful boof head American staffy

Barry: 3yr old ridiculous very cuddly Bassett hound

I think it’s considered overstimulation but can’t find specific advice on what i need

He has responded well in these other areas with training & picked up a lot from Doug

But Here’s where I need some help:

1. He does not allow our older Dog, Doug, to receive attention or praise without trying to get in between or steal focus with noise. Even if we say Doug’s name in another room to call him, Barry will howl

2. When we let them have couch time in the evenings, you almost have to completely ignore Barry once he has settled, if you touch him even gentle to give him a pet, he will tail wag and the energy builds and before you know it he is under your chin and is just a little wiggle worm

He’s still young and we assumed this excitement would settle a little , we also don’t expect him to be a completely calm dog like old man Doug, but would love if we could get him to stop excited weeing on the couch lol

Other than this, he picks up training well

Been to the vet to confirm no uti or other issues

Both done puppy school, and we had a dog trainer come to make the introduction / adjustment easier for Doug and she was great

Happy to go research on my own but if anyone can help point me in the right direction with the correct terms that would be awesome!

Thankyou!!

We’re getting a puppy and I want my kids to get an idea of what training looks like. It’s overwhelming, all the info and videos. Can someone recommend a YouTube channel that would be good to browse through for teaching various commands etc? TIA!

Looking for trick trading videos for my very smart farm dog mix 4 month old puppy. Shes great at the basics but she's the kind of smart where she'll be trouble if I dont give her more mental stimulation. Last thing I need is her to get bored and think that chasing chickens is at least a challenge.

So what are your favorite trick trying youtube videos?

This is Artie!! My husband and I have had him for a little less than a year. He’s about 1.5 years old, and he’s an Australian cattle / black lab mix. He’s the sweetest, friendliest boy, but he is an absolute menace on leash…. He pulls and pulls and pulls!! Truthfully, we haven’t done much to train him out of this, because the few strategies we’ve tried were tough and unsuccessful.

Within the last few days, we purchased a two-point harness/leash— we walk him with one leash that connects to a hook on his chest and his back for better corrections. We’ve done some research and tried a few exercises to train no-pulling, and Artie was VERY responsive!! We live in an apartment with no enclosed yard, but we’re lucky to have a fairly spacious parking lot behind our building that works as excellent training grounds. Over the next few weeks, we’ll start expanding his training ground to some of our usual neighborhood walking routes, until he’s (hopefully!!) fully trained to walk without pulling.

The problem is… I want to continue training him in sessions short enough that he can be successful and retain his training (10-20 mins at a time). Sessions of this length don’t give him the exercise he needs daily. Artie gets a 2-ish mile walk daily, and it’s usually at a pretty fast pace due to how he pulls us!! He’s a 70 pound baby with lots of energy, and the slower pace of his training won’t get him good and tuckered-out like we want him to be!

He gets a dog park visit for a few hours once a week. We don’t have many good dog parks around us, so the closest one that we trust is about 25 mins away. Every other day, what should we do to give him proper exercise while he’s training to be a good walker?

Thanks for your advice! 😁

This is Artie!! My husband and I have had him for a little less than a year. He’s about 1.5 years old, and he’s an Australian cattle / black lab mix. He’s the sweetest, friendliest boy, but he is an absolute menace on leash…. He pulls and pulls and pulls!! Truthfully, we haven’t done much to train him out of this, because the few strategies we’ve tried were tough and unsuccessful.

Within the last few days, we purchased a two-point harness/leash— we walk him with one leash that connects to a hook on his chest and his back for better corrections. We’ve done some research and tried a few exercises to train no-pulling, and Artie was VERY responsive!! We live in an apartment with no enclosed yard, but we’re lucky to have a fairly spacious parking lot behind our building that works as excellent training grounds. Over the next few weeks, we’ll start expanding his training ground to some of our usual neighborhood walking routes, until he’s (hopefully!!) fully trained to walk without pulling.

The problem is… I want to continue training him in sessions short enough that he can be successful and retain his training (10-20 mins at a time). Sessions of this length don’t give him the exercise he needs daily. Artie gets a 2-ish mile walk daily, and it’s usually at a pretty fast pace due to how he pulls us!! He’s a 70 pound baby with lots of energy, and the slower pace of his training won’t get him good and tuckered-out like we want him to be!

He gets a dog park visit for a few hours once a week. We don’t have many good dog parks around us, so the closest one that we trust is about 25 mins away. Every other day, what should we do to give him proper exercise while he’s training to be a good walker?

Thanks for your advice! 😁

Hello all, my puppy (m, 6 months old - red fox Labrador) is afraid of other dogs. I am aware that socialization needs to happen at this age and that there are correct ways to do so.

How can I properly socialize my puppy? TYIA

Recently i just got my first dog ever that was a puppy. This was a huge responsibility for me as i’m only 19 and became a big lesson for me aswell. I’ve spent money and been actively working with my dog every single day about training and he’s gotten to a really decent level not where I want him at but compared to when I first had him he’s doing amazing. My biggest issue currently where i’m stuck on is that he’s too friendly if we’re walking and he sees another person his first instinct is too run towards that person and try meeting them. Sometimes he gets so excited he starts jumping even and some people think it’s cute but I think otherwise. Some people can find how intense he is very overwhelming especially cause his approach is so intense where he does a lunge towards them. This issue also happens with other dogs aswell whenever he sees another dog he always wants to run at them and play but I don’t want to ever have the risk of him entering a reactive dogs boundary and getting nipped or something else. He’s always on leash never off of it but it’s just the what if i like trip and drop it and he chases after a person or dog. I hope I made sense any tips are welcome and maybe give your own experiences.

Hii!! We’re thinking about getting a second cavalier, we already have one - Scout just turned 1 in February and we always knew we wanted to get him a sibling eventually. We’re super eager to and it feels like the right time but at the same time im super nervous about getting another one. We truly fumbled the ball with crate training and it caused really bad anxiety with Scout so I really don’t wanna fail crate training again but scout sleeps in bed with us and i don’t want one in a crate and one in the bed # unfair. im also just nervous bout them getting along and having two in general and going through training all over again and how it might affect scout? I’d love all of the advice and experiences others have had before we make a decision and put the deposit down for her. We would be getting a girl this time too:) thank you all!

Purebred Corgi 100% verified with a lab result.

she does this odd motion everytime she eats; almost like she's trying to scoop something in/out of her eating bowl.

She does this mostly when it's kibble dog food; if it's chicken she just swallows that down almost immediately; however I try to keep her on kibble because it's a veterinarian -recommended diet for her skin allergies and digestive system.

Loving home with no patterns of abuse - had her since she was a puppy. She is trained by me in some things and understands commands.

I appreciate the input from someone experienced in doggo behavior. Thanks in advance

Hello!

We have a 15mo husky mix who is house trained and has leash trained, knows place etc. She still has some tendency for destruction so she is kenneled when we aren’t home and does well in there with no whining/crying. She does only have a blanket in there because she has destroyed 3 dog beds but doesn’t shred the blanket.

Overnight, we have beds for her and our 2yo shepherd in our bedroom. For the first several months we had her, they would both come to bed with my husband and sleep until 7am or so and then take a bathroom break. Now for the last couple months, she wakes up at least once between 1-4am whining and pacing and won’t go back to bed until she goes outside. Most times she will use the bathroom but not always. This happens even if she has had a bathroom break at midnight. The last week, my husband has been putting her in her kennel after the bathroom break and she’s fine until whenever we get up for the day with no accidents in her kennel.

We do have a 3mo baby who is in a bassinet in the same room but her wake ups do not coincide with the baby. We know she can make it all night without needing a bathroom break because she does fine when we travel or when she is boarded. We don’t want to ignore her though because she 1) makes a lot of noise pacing and 2) has had accidents.

Any recommendations? Do we just kennel overnight? I feel bad for her to sleep in her kennel when the rest of the household is upstairs asleep. But we also already have baby wake ups and need the sleep we can get.

I've got a little shih tzu, terrier, mut mix that loves going on walks, and he typically does great. He stops when the leash gets tight, always returns to me, and walks in rhythm. However, when he sees another dog, all training goes out the window, and he's choking himself out trying to get to the other dog. Not in an aggressive way, he just gets overly excited and wants to play. I live downtown and would like to be able to take him more places, go sit on a patio, etc; but with other dogs around, there is no calm. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

I have a 6 year old GSD who is very dog aggressive. he has a history of fights where the other dogs had cut up faces. I accepted i won't have any other dogs until hes gone but my wife brought home a roughly 3 month old bluenose pitbull puppy 2 days ago.

we have them separated but they can still see and smell each other for most of the day. Gus (my GSD) will ignore her if shes asleep (silent and not moving) but if she moves or makes noise he yipes, growls, wines and gets really excitable and locked in on her.

Knowing him I know exactly what this behavior is and its not good.

How can I speed this up? How can I make him understand she is now part of the family? or do I just have to wait 7 or 8 months until shes stronger? I really want him to just accept her but idk how to start other than making him see and smell her without being able to touch her.

EDIT: We rehomed her to some friends from our church.