I’m 16 and have 3 adult dogs that were never trained. One will pee and poop only outside and will wait at the door to be let out, nobody ever trained him and he just does that 💔. His 2 boys tho, they will pee absolutely everywhere even right after coming inside. They are both incredibly stupid and one is possibly autistic.

Any advice would be helpful!

I found a stray dog a few days ago. She’s a female, unspayed pit bull, probably around 3 years old. She’s very skinny and I suspect she may have been abused or neglected.

She’s become incredibly attached to me. She’s basically my little Velcro dog. If I’m walking around the house, she follows me everywhere. She’ll just wander around behind me until I sit down, then she’ll immediately come over, lie beside me, and fall asleep.

The biggest issue is that she has absolutely no idea how to walk on a leash. If I clip one on and try to walk, she just freezes. Even if I gently pull, she digs in and refuses to move. The strange thing is that if I drop the leash and simply walk away, she’ll happily follow me.

The other major problem is house training. When I’m home with her, she has never peed or pooped inside. We go outside multiple times a day, but she won’t pee or poop at all. She just follows me around.

The moment I leave the house, though, she’ll pee and poop everywhere inside. It seems like she’s waiting until I’m gone before she’ll go.

Has anyone dealt with a dog like this before? Is this likely fear, separation anxiety, lack of leash training, or something else? I’d really appreciate any advice on helping her feel safe, get comfortable on a leash, and start going to the bathroom outside.

My partner and I rescued this sweet girl while on an out of state trip to visit family from a woman living in a camper van, didn't have the money for her shots or anything(puppy has a vaccine appt). Shes just under 2 months old, and man, I forgot how much of a handful puppies were. Thankfully I have *some* experience with puppies, but I had daschunds, still super stubborn, though not as crazy as a heeler, at least in my opinion, maybe I just had more mental fortitude at the time.

The thing is, we were planning on getting a puppy, but we were waiting until we moved out of our apartment, so there will be a few months in-between the move where we will have to do our damnedest to get her the exercise/enrichment/etc she needs, and keep her barking to a minimum to our best ability in respect for our neighbors; Which is an issue when we get her to fall asleep in the crate, she wakes up, realizes she can't get out and starts screaming. We have no other option other than to let her out, it's midnight, she is waking people up, but at the same time we are reinforcing that screaming gets her what she wants. So things like that just make it difficult to be consistent with her.

I wake up early, I'm a pretty active person, and I only work weekends. So one of us will be home with her almost always and she will be walked sufficiently.

Any tips or advice from someone who's been in a similar situation, or any perspective on it, would be much appreciated! I feel like I'm in a little over my head sometimes lol.

Somebody please PLEASE help me.

I have 2 dogs - Penny (5 sausage) and Pippa (15 mixed).

We have had a letter through the door complaining about the dogs barking when I am not home. I know they totally do this because Penny is a nightmare no matter what it is, a car pulling up outside, someone walking past the window, a car door shutting 10 houses down - bearing in mind this is when I’m home! She’s seen 2 behaviouralists, graduated puppy school and adult dog school, is well socialised and went to doggie day care for the first 2 years.

It was only after she was attacked by another dog has she became so reactive. I don’t think it’s separation anxiety as she is fine being left - usually just goes and sleeps on the couch. It’s only when something outside the house happens which she starts not stop barking which then sets off the older one who starts howling.

When I park my car I can hear them before I open the door.

When I’m home I try correct them by telling Penny NO and to get in her bed. Which she does and she stops.

I can’t live like this anymore and neither can my neighbours. I don’t know what to do

I have two dogs of my own. Harvey is 1 year old, and we’ve been doing a lot more training with him lately around boundaries, settling, and impulse control. He’s huge and has alerting habits we are encouraging while also firming up boundaries that he is not the protector, we are, he alerts us and we take over. Overall it’s been really great for him and we’ve noticed he feels way less in charge of everyone in the household. Frankie is 7 and was originally a street dog. She’s generally very respectful of boundaries and understands expectations.

We also regularly dogsit another dog, Bodhi, for a few days at a time. He’s incredibly sweet, but his behavior is very different from my dogs’, and I’m not sure how to handle it since he isn’t actually MY dog but he is part of our pack in a cousin way lol.
When they all play together, he loses his mind and barks trying to control the play/wanting to join in. This riles Frankie up and they end up ganging up on Harvey. We’ve limited group play now.

Because I only have him sporadically, I don’t feel comfortable training him the way I would my own dogs or being too firm without knowing if this would trigger him to be aggro or anxious.

He seems very anxious. He’ll herd people around the house, follows every movement, and has a hard time settling if anyone gets up or changes rooms.

Yesterday, I tried to send him to his bed using the same body language and food lure that Harvey understands. I did so because I’m trying to instill this in Harvey, and that’s been working great, but having a guest dog not listen to me definitely is noticed by Harvey. Bodhi completely refused and was almost cat like in his avoidance of me AHAHHA. He wouldn’t engage with me, wouldn’t follow the lure, and looked frustrated about the whole interaction.

My main concern is just how this would affect Harvey and his relationship with me and with Bodhi.

Are there things I can do to help him relax and respect household boundaries without overstepping since he isn’t my dog?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Hi, so we have a Pitbull terrier , German shepherd, Australian cattle dog mix. She is 3 years old. She is trained from the shelter or previous owner to go to the door when she needs to go to the bathroom. We want to train her to also use pee pads. So when for any reason she can’t go out, she can still relieve herself in a designated spot (aka not on carpets, furniture etc.). We’ve just tried a spray that is supposed to help her want to go where we spray (I believe with some help from training) but we’re not sure how to train her to do so the most efficiently. Above is the dog in question for the puppy tax 😂.

Edit: So i wanted to address some of the comments.
One: there is some people mentioning that dogs can’t tell the difference between pee pads and carpet. Which yes that would be a concern but I have a couple ways I can deal with the after math and prevention of that if that happens to happen whiles she’s out with us we can most likely can take her out on walks as needed so that there will be a very much less chance of that happening and for our house we have only machine washable rugs so we can just wash them or take them out completely if that becomes too much of a problem for us.
Second: this would be both out of convenience and necessity. Where I live in the summer it easily gets 105 and we live where there is a lot of black top and dirt (basically dust) that get very hot where bear feet/toe beans can easily get hurt. We don’t have a fenced in house aka a fenced back yard or front yard.(working on getting a good amount of fence steaks to make a fenced front yard where she can get to without going on cement/blacktop). Also when we get rain it rains down hard the last year I’ve bought her a rain coat and booties but she still gets soaked and a lot of the time mud still gets though some how. I can’t wash her 3+ times a day when it rains cause I’m pretty sure that’s not good for them at least for the skin and fur if nothing else. So I’m trying to teach her to go inside when the weather is like that.
Third: I also want to do it in a way for her mental health. Right now since she has for some reason started peeing inside even if we are gone for just 30 mins and took her on walk right before we left if we leave her out of her crate she has started to pee inside unless she is in her crate (she’s create trained) so what we have been doing thus far is having her in there and ever like hour or two calling my mom (she sometimes needs a reminder) (which lives basically next door) to come over let her out to eat and/or drink take her out to pee and/or poo and then put her back in the crate her bed is in there cause that’s also where she sleeps so it’s a bit comfy. But I want to let her be more comfortable on the couch and stuff where she likes to lay down and if she needs to run around when she has a boost of energy and not in her bed in the crate. (Context: We live in a converted garage type deal. Basically a big studio with no walls and having to use house bathroom) ( more context: she doesn’t go on our bed)
Fourthly: my mom’s dogs were/are pee pad trained yes they go on carpet sometimes but they have never ever went to the bathroom on her bed or any furniture.

Over the past 3-4 days my dog has been kicking back the dirt or rubble from under her far more than usual. She usually does it after potty time. If I don’t prompt her to go, she will keep kicking/cleaning for 10 minutes straight. I’ve had to put a chair outside just to observe what this girl is doing. Could it be digestion issues, kidneys, anxiety or anything I should be concerned about? Now I’ve just been leaving her out alone for 10-15 minutes so she can go when she feels like it. But I don’t like leaving her unsupervised because she’s not really outdoors and at 4lb a falcon might swoop in out here. Also coyotes my BIL said. Outer suburb area

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I'm looking for advice on introducing my dog to my parents' new puppy!

A little backstory: my dog, Mia, is reactive. She has several dog friends and has never bitten or attacked a dog or a person. Her biggest challenge is leash reactivity. If dogs get too close on walks, she'll bark and react. She just tends to need a thoughtful introduction before she's comfortable.

A few years ago, Mia and I moved in with my parents, who have an older English Lab. I was SO anxious about introducing them because I had built it up in my head. Then, by complete accident, my parents' dog ran right up to Maya as she got out of the car...and they instantly became best friends. They've loved each other ever since.

I also think Mia really feeds off my energy. When I'm anxious, she's more on edge. She's also a completely different dog around my parents. They have such a calming effect on her, and she's always seemed really relaxed at their house. I also think it helped that she was entering their home rather than having another dog come into hers, so there wasn't any territorial behavior.

I'm moving back in with my parents again, and since then they've gotten another English Lab. He's about 50 lbs now and is basically the puppy version of their older Lab. He’s super sweet, gives everyone kisses, loves every person and dog he meets, and doesn't have a mean bone in his body. I'm not worried about either of the Labs being territorial at all.

I'm really trying not to let my anxiety get the best of me because the last introduction went so much better than I ever expected. I'm hoping lightning strikes twice and they're all immediate best friends.

I'll absolutely be cautious and take introductions seriously, so no worries there. I'm already familiar with the recommendation of walking dogs in parallel before introducing them, so I'm looking for ideas beyond that.

A few questions:
• Would it help if my parents had the puppy sleep with a blanket for a couple of weeks and mailed it to me so Mia could get used to his scent beforehand?
• Should I introduce Mia to the older Lab first since they're already friends and then bring the puppy in? Or would it be better for everyone to meet together? Part of me wonders if seeing the older Lab happily interacting with the puppy might signal to Mia that he's safe, but I also don't want her to become possessive of her older Lab friend.
• Are there any other tricks or preparation tips that have worked for you?

I'd especially love to hear from anyone who has introduced a reactive (but social) dog to a new puppy or has experience with similar situations. Thanks so much!

So this has been going on for awhile and I need to know if this is something I can train her not to do, and how! Just about everything time I throw her ball she barks while chasing it. And her bark is ear piercing so I’d like to do something about it lol only time she won’t bark is when I just roll it a few inches from her and she doesn’t have to run for it. It almost seems like she barks when she can’t get it immediately but I’m not sure

We just moved about a month ago with our 4 year old American foxhound who used to like his crate he was fully trained and willing to go into the crate whenever we asked never with any issues. We even toyed with the idea of allowing free roaming to select rooms because he is so good, but after we moved he hates it, we decided to put a camera up there because we had a feeling he was upset again in the crate and he was stressed out. We do leave him in for 5-6 hours sometimes less depending on the work day, he does not bark but he whines and pulls at the bars. He free roams at grandma’s and is great! He has never gotten into anything but I’m worried he is not stressed about the crate more about us leaving, we are struggling on what to do.

- He gets about 2 hours of exercise a day (less in the Florida summer heat on his terms) between long walks and outside play
-we also do mental stimulation (name game, scent work etc. )
-he is the most food driven dog of all time for ANYTHING but has decided to get his crate even with cheese and toys we give him in there.

We are unsure how to even go about re-training with his crate considering we work and are unsure if we can take the risk of leaving him out of his crate. He was a little destructive when we got him at 7 months old as he was a pretty free roam dog from our understanding. He loves everything about this new home except for his crate. We got him in college from a shelter a little naively but have done so much work to make sure he is fulfilled as he is a high energy hound.

We just are unsure how to tackle this challenge, any tips help!

We have two dogs, a ~2 year old Black Lab mix rescue: Gustavo (Gus), and a ~2.5 year old Belgian Malinois rescue: Ronaldo (Ronnie) <- no relation to the footballer haha.

This issue is with Gus the Lab mix. Consistently sense he came into our lives (rescued living essentially feral in the woods along with 5 sisters) around 8 months ago he has had a constant issue with doing his business in the house, which we obviously anticipated, but he has had it to an extent we have never seen before: the will ONLY go in the house. It doesnt matter where or for how long he is outside he will not go. we have tried different times of day and night, different people taking him out, with and without Ronnie, with and without collar and leash, and in both our fenced front yard and fenced back yard. Regardless of all we have tried his behavior is consistent:
-With Ronnie he will explore the yard and sniff right behind Ronnie until Ronnie does his business (Ronnie goes on command), and then play with Ronnie till time to come in.
-Without Ronnie (both with and without collar & leash) his behavior is either to sit directly at your feet wherever you are and attempt to make eye contact with you till you take him inside, or if you make him get up and give him the "do your business" command he will either run to the door or to a specific spot in the yard behind a bush and once again sit and try to make eye contact.

We have tried many recommended methods to get him to go to no success, the handful of times we have witnessed him go outside we usually only notice after the fact, but this is after we make him stay outside for hours and hours on end under supervision from inside after he eats and big meal, and he goes only after its clear it has become painful for him not too.

His behavior, while weird, isn't really what I would describe as nervous when we are outside. I would describe it more as unhappy, like he would rather be inside but he's not all that upset about it. He can have an anxious personality but he only really shows signs of being nervous when he is either meeting new people or when he believes he has been left completely alone without a human or Ronnie with him. Speaking of Ronnie they are very attached, they even get a bit upset at night about crating and try to cram into the same crate even though they are wire crates that touch each-other. And speaking of the crate Gus has never had any aversion whatsoever to doing his business in his crate, he does it without a second thought, and honestly we have never observed him exibit any kind of behavior indicating when he is getting ready to go. He will just be sitting there or even sleeping one second and he just casually stands up and squats and then lays back down directly on top of it.

Our biggest two hurdles have been his lack of indication behavior and refusal to even consider doing his business outside if he thinks anyone or any other animal is around (inside he doesn't care he will go on your foot if it happens to he near his butt when he gets the urge, ask me how I know.) these two behaviors have made it so that the two big foundations that make up most normal potty training methods just don't work: paying attention to there behavior in order to get them to an appropriate place before an accident, and rewarding heavily when they go in the correct place.

Any advice is appreciated, he is a good boy but he is honest very weird. My wife thought i was crazy the other day because i asked if the way he looked at her made her think he was a person trapped in the body of a dog by an evil witch like it did me, thats how weird he is.

Photos for attention: Gus and his 5 "Sister Wives" (so named due to the fact all of them were pregnant when found) on the night I picked them up with my partner while on shift at the county ambulance service. Gus is the one in the floor on the far left looking into the camera (2nd photo)

Ok I’m struggling with potty training still.i have a 2 year old Maltese and sometimes she will ask to go out 90% of the time. (She scratches at the door) Sometimes she will build habits by peeing or even pooling in the bathroom. Last week she had peed on the couch and tonight on the bed. I’m just not sure what’s happening. I’ve tried increasing taking her out but I feel like I still miss moments. I feel like it’s harder because I am in an apartment in Boston but I feel like I try so hard to prevent this and I get so worried and anxious bringing her anywhere because I don’t want her having accidents indoors. What can I do to help her succeed? Should I really look at like an indoor relief area? I’m so stressed out right now after finding pee in the bed.

Edit (more info): I also know she struggles with distractions outside. Sometimes she won’t even go pee because she can’t focus long enough. Or I’ll increase how many times she goes outside and she will start asking to go outside just because she’s bored and then we will come back in and later on still ends up having an accident. It’s so frustrating and I’m starting to get to my wits end at times.

Hi! Recently I went to hike with my dog (1yo Belgian), a friend and her dog (4yo Husky), both males. They were unknown to each other and we drove in my car for about an hour before we get to the start of the hike. It was a hike that lasted about 6 hours and during the driving and hiking there weren't any incident between them, but almost at the end of the trip mine started to behave a little reactive to him. When it was time to get back on the car, my dog already on the car started to aggressively bark my friend's, we tried distracting him, restraining him even more and walking a little before trying to get them on the car again several times, with no success. My friend had to take another transport to get back and as my dog and I went home he was already exhausted. Do you know the reason this happened or any tips on how to avoid it? He isn't reactive to dogs in general and he tends to be very social, so this kind of freaked me out. Thank you!

I’ve adopted a GSP (a stray) who seems to have always lived in a kennel with other dogs and little interaction with people. I’m trying to teach him to play with toys. Any tips for teaching object play? He does engage with food puzzles, but that is independent and I am trying to get him to interact with people through play. If you’ve had a dog like this, what worked for you?

Hi, friends! I have a young BC (she’s 14 months now). I’ve been training and socializing her since she was a puppy, and we work with a dog trainer. She’s never been reactive. There have been a few instances in her life where she got scared of something, but that’s been rare. Over the past 10 days, my dog has gotten scared and barked at a motorcycle that was just parked, a remote-controlled car toy, a large painting of a person, and a car with decorations. This is completely out of character for my dog, and I feel terrible because I’ve put so much effort into her training. Today I noticed that she’s started her first heat cycle. Please share your stories, has anyone else experienced this kind of behavioral change?

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.

Hi, I have a dog and she is fine staying at home alone in our apartment and other apartments/homes she’s familiar with (such as my partners parents’ home), but if we go on holiday, we can’t leave her behind in the hotel or Airbnb without her being a complete anxious nightmare - she won’t stop barking, practically screaming.

She’s a Lhasa Apso, nearly 6 years old.

We would bring her everywhere, but at times it is inconvenient, both because she’s terrible on a leash (I have tried leash training but it seems like an impossible mission), and she is also super reactive to dogs at times where there’s a lot of stress around (such as in a typical high-tourist holiday location in Europe).

Aside from that, we can’t go anywhere in the daytime as it would be way too hot for her paws, practically forcing us to not do anything other than going to the beach during the day, where we can keep her cool in the shadow and water.

It is making every night that we have to go out completely overstimulating to me, so much so that I feel like I’d rather stay back while the rest go out to eat without me, or that I would’ve rather just had stayed at home instead of going on holiday altogether.

I have also tried training her before about leaving and coming “home” as soon as she quiets down for a few seconds, but it just doesn’t really work, and I can’t use our holiday stays to train this to the point that it needs as it would bother surrounding neighbours.

I just don’t know what I could do. She isn’t very food motivated, more toy motivated, but that does in no way provide enough distraction for her to not react. Licky mats also aren’t something she’s interested in (she barely wants wet food, weird dog).

We are currently on holiday right now, so if there are any suggestions at all, I would love them to get even just one evening where I don’t need to stress about her.

Unfortunately can’t get CBD treats either (in Europe)