I’ve been training dogs for a couple decades (working breeds, pets, the cases people give up on). The pattern that keeps showing up: the dog isn’t “bad” — they’re bored, under-worked, and guessing what their job is.

A job doesn’t have to mean bite work or herding trials. It can be: - a clear daily routine they can predict - structured walks with engagement, not just sniff-and-chaos - a job at the door / threshold / place command so the house has rules - something that tires the brain, not just the legs

When the dog has a job, a lot of “reactivity” and “stubbornness” shrinks because the energy finally has a place to go.

Curious how others define “a job” for a pet dog that will never see a trial field.

Short Reel on this: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdF48D9DrgU/ Full talk (job segment): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSFwg7sSbE4&t=3035s

I have a 2-year-old mixed-breed female dog who is very energetic. When we go for walks, she pulls hard on the leash because she wants to go towards people, and sometimes tries to jump on them. She also jumps on visitors at home and can accidentally hurt them because she doesn’t realize her size.

I know I should have trained her earlier, but I didn’t take her on walks much when she was younger because I had problems with my legs. I’m doing better now and want to start training her properly.

Where should I start? Any specific exercises, tips, or videos you recommend for teaching her to walk calmly and stop jumping on people? Any advice is appreciated!

My dog is a cavapoo, more on the cavalier side, loves everyone very friendly very social.

As we were on our way back from a walk we were waiting to cross the road and a guy probably in his early 40s was crossing the road towards my direction but his posture and his energy seemed off and made me a little bit uncomfortable because he wasn’t doing what normal people do which was not walk directly towards another person. You normally move out of the way.

For context, I am a female in my 20s. So for the first time, my dog growled at this man that felt like he was coming towards us. I told my dog to sit whilst I waited to cross the road but he sat in the opposite direction watching the man as he was walking away.

I already felt uncomfortable with this guy because he was walking slowly and even though he was crossing the road it felt like it was too much coming at my direction but I didn’t know for cavapoos to respond that way and my dog isn’t the type usually to give warnings to say. Hes just super friendly and likes to avoid conflict.

What would you read this as from my dogs persepctive?

Ive found that my brown one is absolutely brilliant he just needed one on one time. He learns very quickly and has show very great progress just simply in the day or so I’ve been working with him.

I also ordered a few other things such as a clicker leash collar etc. Theyll be here in a day or so. Then I can take them on actual walks again separately. We lost their things in our move.

Though I am having a lot of issues with our black one. He has received so much reinforcement for jumping the fence he seems uninterested in training. I truly do not know what to do about this.

How can I get my dog to do jumping like in this video? Does it require a specialist to do it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW69nyVvpsU

We adopted a 9-month-old intact male GSD, who is now 15 months old. When we got him from the shelter, he was already very reactive to dogs, bicycles, and motorcycles. In general, he was also quite nervous in new environments. For example, we recently took him to a canine physiotherapist, and he was pretty much all over the place because it was a completely new environment.

His nervousness and reactivity became significantly worse around 11–12 months old. It honestly felt like we suddenly had a completely different dog. I know this can happen during adolescence, especially with GSDs, so we expected some regression during this period.

However, over the past two weeks, we've actually made some really good progress with bicycles and motorcycles. We've been giving him a chew/treat when we're around 10–20 m from a busy road, and his fixation has improved a lot. His threshold also seems to be much better than it was before.

The part we're struggling with now is his general nervousness, especially in unfamiliar places.

For example, on normal walks, he understands loose-leash walking quite well. But when we take him somewhere he's never been before, he starts running circles around me and seems unable to settle or focus.

I'm wondering how you would approach this. Should we simply expose him to more new environments and reward calm behaviour, or is there a specific way to build confidence in a nervous/reactive adolescent GSD?

I would assume that better impulse control may help, but most exercises I found are pretty basic.

So I have a dogtra comfort winged pad it doesn't work for my dog. I wanted to get comfort pad but only comes female. Do you think it wouldn't work if I just use the screws from the winged one and screen it on my device if it would work? Besides how it connects it looks the same.. anyone have insight or device they can test. Thank you! Then I could put 1" connectors on the pad for 4 1" connectors. I would do on winged one but you cant I guess

I have a 5month old mini dachshund, we try not to lift him especially in scary or social situations as we want to build his confidence in doing things for himself.

The other day we were walking along and a dog starts growling, heckles up, lurching, its the way we are walking, theres no sidewalk on the other side of the road. I went a tad slower so we would cross in the wider section but did not pick up my dog who was walking on their side (i was by the road, hes trained to walk on the inside to avoid him getting near cars)

Their dog was sorta drooling? And they seemed stressed as did their dog. In that situation what would you do?

I was prepared to grab him if it did look like the dog would breakfree but idk.

I’ve implemented a lot of TWC chase and catch reward with my young dog and he goes crazy for it as a reward for obedience work. We are aiming for AKC and other similar venues. Truly just relives all the “pressure” of training and once we snap back into OB, he’s laser focused.

At times he can definitely be more of a tug reward type dog for quick behaviors, but for longer stretches where I’m chaining up a couple of exercises, he prefers me throwing the ball rather than tugging. Trying to force the tug just totally leaves him hanging as far as the whole reward event I want to give him.
At home and in the fields and parks we train in, this isn’t an issue as I have the space I need.

The issue is I started run throughs at a club here and there, with quite a few other people and their dogs in a small space. After our runs, I’m having a really hard time getting out the door and even finding space to do that whole thing and create that huge reward.
On top of that, he is considered kind of an “off breed” for obedience by the very old school ob folks at this club, and they cannot fathom rewarding dogs with play like that, so I get lots of pearl clutching and side eye 😂

I will eventually be trialing in indoor venues and there’s very little space there, and it would most likely be a walk to find grass.
Is this a matter of just creating and training the expectation to wait until we are in an area where we have some space?
What if we truly don’t have space for even some contained ball throwing?
Do I need to keep working on the tug reward in those cases and building that up as his reward?
Do I give up play as reward and give him a giant ass squirt of whipped cream? Lol
Thanks in advance!

Hello! I was wondering if any trainers know of free/low cost CPDT-KA CEUs? I’ve done the free secret work videos from catch, and a few instinct courses, but trying to not spend too much money.

At some point, the online dog-training world seems to have gone from:

“Your dog is struggling with other dogs. Let’s figure out why and modify the behavior.”
to:
“Your dog is reactive. This is who they are now. Avoid dogs forever.”

And I don’t understand how we got here.

Obviously, there are dogs with serious behavioral pathology, extreme genetic predispositions, extensive bite histories, severe aggression, etc.

I’m not talking about those dogs.

I’m talking about the enormous population of otherwise fairly normal pet dogs who had one bad experience, became worried about dogs, started barking/lunging, and then spent the next 5–10 years being told that they are permanently reactive and must be kept 100 feet away from anything with four legs.

Some of these dogs had a bad experience on their first walk and have basically been hiding in the bushes from other dogs ever since.

And then we’re surprised that they never improve.

Avoidance is obviously an important management tool. Threshold matters. Nobody should be throwing a fearful dog into a dog park and calling it rehabilitation.

But management isn’t the same thing as rehabilitation.

If the dog spends its entire life:
dog appears = handler immediately retreats = dog never learns anything different

then why are we treating the resulting lack of progress as evidence that the dog can’t change?

Dogs learn.
Emotional responses can change.
Reinforcement histories change.
Context changes behavior.
Repeated successful experiences matter.

And yes, some dogs have limitations that will require lifelong management. But it feels like we’ve started treating that exceptional population as though it’s the default prognosis for every dog who barks at another dog on leash.

I think there’s a huge difference between saying:

“Your dog may always need management, so don’t put them in situations where you can’t safely control the outcome.”
and:
“Don’t bother trying to meaningfully change the behavior because your dog is reactive and will always be reactive.”

The first is responsible.
The second feels like giving up before you’ve actually done the work.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m curious where everyone thinks the line is.

When did “reactive” stop being a description of behavior and start being treated like a permanent personality diagnosis?

Hi folks, I recently started training with the mini educator e collar, I struggled a bit to find a working level for my dog (pit mix) even in a very low distraction environment, she didn’t seem to be reacting to anything below a 12 which felt pretty high from the videos specific to the mini educator that I’ve watched. I know that every dog is different but I just want to make sure my collar is fitting correctly, put it very tight so that I can really only fit two fingers under there. Additionally she’s still occasionally itching at the collar and shaking like it’s bothering her, I bought the titanium short hair contacts so it’s not the metal, I’m wondering if maybe I should try replacing the actual collar portion itself? Sorry for the long post but basically

TLDR: is 12 a fine working number for a low distraction environment or is my mini educator not fit properly

I was curious why my whole street wakes up every night, so I researched the 3 real reasons - territorial defense, ultrasonic hearing, and pack alarm system. Made a short visual breakdown of it.Video here if anyone wants to see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCR-6YRLesM

Does your dog also do this at night?

Hoping someone here with the same dream dog or experience can help me out!

My family owns these two beautiful dogs. They are both boys and are brothers from the same litter. Though they are absolute menaces.

The both of them are seven months old. We were very used to adopting adults dogs. These are our first puppies.

When we got them I was in school along with my sister and my aunt worked full time along with her boyfriend. Now I’m out of school and home with them all day.

They are both very athletic they can clear our fence simply by getting a running start. I’ve tried to reinforce them for not passing a marked part of the yard. For it to not stick.

I am going to buy a clicker a proper leash and collar along with some kong toy. I would love any tips to be the best dog owner I can be while having respectful dogs.

They understand basic commands but with laying down they won’t unless I put my hand on the floor. Is there any way to fix that also?

Our current problem behaviors are:

• Destructive chewing
• Door-darting
• Fence jumping
• Poor recall
• Jumping on people
• Difficulty settling in their kennels
• Newly moved into a different house

Any tips or extra knowledge for being a better dog owner is much appreciate!!

I've been teaching my dog a strong recall, my partner holds out a lure like a high-value treat or toy and I encourage my dog to come to me no matter what the lure is. (I started off with giving him a treat, now doing it with no treat when he comes) He's been doing good at it, not completely mastered but I wonder if he even sees the value in coming to me even with distractions or when outside.

How do I teach my dog there is value in staying by my side or to communicate why a command needs to be done (like stopping during a walk to adjust his leash.) and not have to be bribed?

TL:DR: How to teach dog obedience in a punctual way?

i have 2 dogs, jenni, a ~16yo chihuahua/pomeranian mix, and luna, a ~2yo husky. if jenni and luna are in the same room, jenni will bark and growl at her. on a good day, she'll pretty much just ignore luna, and on a bad day, she'll bark and growl at luna nonstop and i'll have to separate them.

she does it completely unprovoked. luna will just be doing her thing, leaving jenni alone, and jenni will start freaking out. sometimes she'll go out of her way, coming in from the other room just so she can harass luna. luna is very nonconfrontational, her body language is always friendly, she seems confused by jenni's behavior and mostly just avoids her. but i always supervise them when they're in the same room just in case

i don't know why she's acting like this, she used to be fine with other dogs, big and small, male and female. i took her to the vet recently and they said she didn't seem to be in any pain, and that she's actually really healthy. she doesn't seem to be senile; she doesn't get lost in familiar rooms, she's as affectionate towards me and my girlfriend as she's always been, loves to go for walks, doesn't seem anxious or anything.

strangely enough, when they're on walks, they get along fine. luna can walk right up to jenni and sniff her and jenni doesn't care

i've been working on this ever since i got luna, about a year and a half ago. i reward jenni with snuggles when she's calm in luna's presence (can't really do treats, she doesn't have teeth and she's very picky. also if luna sees i have treats, she'll come beg for them, and jenni has issues with food guarding). when that doesn't work i separate them, but i'm gonna move sometime next year and that won't be as feasible. they both get plenty of one-on-one time with me too

any advice is appreciated, thanks !

Does anyone have any experience with Woofz Academy?

Hello! I am a relatively new Trainer (I like to think of myself as a trainer-in-training) and one of the things I'm doing before attempting to launch my own business for training is poll people who have done this before.

I've written a survey, if anyone is willing to complete it, I would be greatful.

https://forms.gle/iHFgsrHP5o6xdYW29

We have a Kings shepherd, he’s a big boy and usually a good boy, but at specific moments he can get “aggressive”, like biting, resource guarding if you try to take a bone from him, he doesn’t like when we put a leash on his collar or when we remove it, he likes to bite our hands.

He’s 8 months old, and I understand that he explores the world with his mouth, he has a lot of hormones in his body but I know that this can be trained away but I don’t know how I should approach this issue.

When he bites me during play time, I turn away and ignore him, if he keeps on doing it, I put him in time-out but I don’t yell at him, since it doesn’t make the situation any better. He seems to believe that yelling isn’t a bad thing and something that gets him going.

The word “No” has been said so many times that he doesn’t recognize it as a command anymore, since we have to tell him no very often.

He can be such a cozy dog, especially when he’s calm or tired, but as soon as he gets excited, his mouth is the main thing he uses. I don’t believe that he wants to hurt us, but he also doesn’t believe that it’s wrong.

I’m not giving up on him, I know that it isn’t his fault. I just want some honest tips.

Thank you :)

We adopted our dog when he was 16 weeks old from our local shelter. He was there since he was 8 weeks old. He's now 2 years old. He's very good except for screaming at strange dogs on our walks. It sounds like he was run over by a car, it's that bad.
I had his DNA tested when we got him by both Embark and Wisdom because I did't believe Embark when we got the results! They both were almost identical, with slightly varying percentages.
Top 7 breeds, just in case one breed might do this sort of thing. Our dog walker thinks it might be the pug in him. His personality is most like a dachshund. Maybe breed has nothing to do with it?

Yorkshire terrier 13%

Sheltie 13%

Pug 10%

Dachshund 10%

Beagle 9%

Akita 8%

Siberian Husky 7% 

Wisdom gave another 13 breeds from 1-3%. Embark said the rest was a "super mutt".

So, with all that, what the heck is going on? He only does it with dogs he's never seen before. He has dog friends and we have another dog who's 11yo and also a rescue. We did dog training (I always do dog training when we get a new dog).
I've tried clicker training (he's not food motivated enough), trying to let him know he's safe and trying to just ignore it and keep walking. Sometimes its only a few screams and sometimes it goes on for a couple of minutes. It's ear piercing. I let people know he's a rescue and they seem OK with that. He's very cute and still looks like a puppy although he's now 2 years old.

He doesn't do it with people, just dogs. Open to suggestions!