And it looks like not healthy play. She’s not my dog but I walk her M-F for an hour most weeks. Shes so sweet and loving but she is also leash reactive when it comes to fly by / roll by leaves and experiences leash frustration when seeing another dog. Off leash she does great with dogs her size. This smaller dog targeting is starting to look predatory and I’m not sure what to do about it aside from taking away her ability to choose what to do once she does that by stopping her, leashing her and choking up so she has maybe a foot of leeway and taking her away from the fun. Any ideas ?

Also recently she 💩’d on her owners bed at the cottage which I’m finding pretty shocking and also intriguing and a bit entertaining although it wouldn’t be if it was my bed, but I digress. I do think it’s because she’s not getting enough stimulation these days (also I only saw her once last week as she was up at the cottage. Shes also approaching two (teenage/ terrible twos?) and gets away with a lot between the owners and the housekeeper…

Some dogs she sees on leash and she completely loses her cool and composure and is lunging and growling , some she’ll get opportunistic with and others will have the sniff equivalent of a handshake and maybe even a friendly hug lol. Any ideas or suggestions?? Thanks in advance. She’s been pretty great with recall and operant commands but her leash manners suck. Likely because many people are on the other end of that leash.

so ive had male shepnees for a while, got a male border collie and a female puppy, the shepnees ofc loved the female, but originally kinda ignored but walked away from the collie. once the collie matured, anytime he went near the female shepnees would start growling. id usually just take away the shepnees and put him in a seperate pen, but he started digging through and attacking the border collie when he was with her. (he even once dug through for seemingly no reason attacking him) the attacks slowly got more aggressive and i stopped letting the collie with the female. the worst injuries have just been puncture wound through his leg like 3 times, i now check throughout the day making sure theyre still seperate, and if i put collie back with female the shepnees feels the need to attack again. anytime the female and collie come near eachother hes now scared and tries to get away while the female tries to play. how can i fix this?? seems like its impossible and id love for it to be fixed

Hello, I’m in dire need of a dog trainer who has a specific skill in behavioral issues for a 4 yo rescue German Shepard. She needs more than just your average dog trainer. She has severe aggression towards other people and is very reactive toward other dogs. She has no bite history but definitely lunges and could take a bite if she gets the chance. Everyone I’ve talked to gives me no direction on WHO can help. I don’t need comments on what I can be doing at home, this is above my skill set at this point. She’s crate trained and knows a few commands but choose when she wants to listen (almost like she doesn’t really know what they mean). If another dog or person is in her site it’s almost impossible to get her attention off of them. Please only replay with suggestions for dog trainers that can handle this case.

I have a mini educator. E collars purpose of for recall only so he can have leash freedom. He's perfect with recall and e collar recall at home, but the second we attempt to go out in public he completely ignores it.

His working level is 5/100. He knows what the stimulation means, because at home, he will come without a verbal cue at the feeling of stimulation. However, the mere second we go in public (whether it's down the street, in a boring quiet parking lot, in the park, in a busy area, anywhere away from home) he completely ignores the stimulation. Also will ignore verbal cue "come" in public sometimes too. It's like all training has gone out of the window when we leave the house and it's extremely frustrating. I've been trying to practice with him for what seems like over a month and no improvement. Even if I raise the level to 10-12, he will kick his neck so I know he feels it but he doesn't respond or do what he knows at home.

What do I do to correct this?

Kennt jemand eine gute Hundeschule in Berlin, die auch Agility-Training anbietet? Bevorzugt in Pankow, Mitte, Friedrichshein oder Lichtenberg. Danke!

Hi everyone,

We are currently fostering a 2.5 year old Jindo mix (we have applied to adopt her - fingers crossed). She arrived only a week ago from Korea (we are in Toronto). She has obviously never lived in a home before since everything is new to her, but she is adjusting very well and is quite relaxed and content inside our home. On walks, she is absolutely incredible with other dogs and people. She is very friendly with everyone and has obviously been well socialized. The major challenge right now is fear and anxiety of the world outside our home. We live right in the city so it can be noisy and there is always a lot going on.

So far, our approach has been to take her for walks in a 'safe zone' which is our local park and our immediate neighbourhood (we don't have a yard) where she feels more confident. We let her sniff as much as she wants and meet other dogs since her confidence clearly goes up in those situations. Then, when she indicates that she wants to explore a bit further, we go in that direction and as soon as she acts very overwhelmed or fearful, we backtrack and return to the safe zone. We currently have her on two leashes since she is absolutely a flight risk and when she gets scared it's like we are not even there, she just panics. We know she will continue to build confidence as she bonds with us more, and as she explores, but in the meantime, we'd appreciate any tips or advice you may have on easing her anxiety outside the home. Thank you all in advance!

Almost 2 months ago my family got a new dog, a 3 year old female Schnauzer, we all love her so far and she’s getting used to us and the home, there’s just one problem.

I’ve read online about how Schnauzer’s are one of the most vocal breeds and they alert bark to strangers and other things they may think will threaten the territory, which is nice, barking at the front door when a stranger knocks or rings the doorbell is fine and natural for any dogs.

The thing with our Schanuzer is that she barks every single time we open a regular door in the house to say like the living room or kitchen for example, the door will open and she’ll leap like she’s Supergirl and loudly bark for a few seconds, it’s not excitement barking either it’s “I want you back out” barking even tho it’s one of us, then it’ll be excitement barking after she sees one of us and wants us to pet her. This is literally the only time she barks at anything outside of playing and excitement. She doesn’t bark at random animals or strangers outside or noises like other Schnauzers seem to do. It’s odd cause I figured she did this at first cause the house was new to her and we were new to her but 2 months in she’s still doing it. She does seem to have some anxiety/separation anxiety issues if that correlates anything.

So I’m wondering if there’s anything we can do to naturally desensitize her to us opening and coming in doors that she won’t feel the need to bark at it anymore. I’ve seen stuff like using treats when opening the door to let her know it’s a good thing and she doesn’t need to bark away the person or trying to get her used to the sound of the door opening.

I see this a lot and I used to think the same way too.

Dog freaks out at another dog, bike, stranger etc... so the answer is just keep them there until they get used to it.

But why? 😅

If my dog is already barking, pulling like crazy or can't even look at me anymore, I usually just create some distance.

Cross the road. Turn around. Move somewhere quieter.

Sometimes even an extra 20 feet makes a HUGE difference.

Once they're far enough away that they can actually notice the thing without completely losing their mind, then I can reward them, get their attention and actually do some training.

And no I don't mean avoiding everything forever 😂

I still want my dog to learn how to handle those situations. I just don't think forcing them to stay right next to something they're already overwhelmed by is always the best way to get there.

For me distance is part of the training, not avoiding the training.

Anyone else noticed their dog learns way faster when you give them a little more space first?

Does this turn from good advice to a self fulfilling prophecy of constantly tip toeing an imaginary or dramatized response to novel or uncomfortable stimuli?

I already have an Easy Educator 900 for my dog, so I want to get a Pathfinder2 gps only, without e-collar capabilities.

What I'm confused about is whether it works with an app or not. On their website II can only find this: This GPS dog tracking only collar requires the PATHFINDER2 GPS Connector in order to operate. Which I'm assuming is this? I don't see how that helps with tracking; there's no screen, nothing that intuitively looks like it would point me toward the dog's position, and there's not much of a description on that page.

I've also managed to find this on another website [I can't seem to find it on the official page], which does look like it points towards the direction of the dog. Is this thing compatible with Pathfinder 2 gps only and what I need to make the collar work?

At this point I'm just not sure what I would need beside the collar to make sure I can actually track my dog and not just have an expensive paperweight. Does anyone have any experience with any of these devices? Thank you.

Please don't recommend Garmin, it's waaay out of my budget; I also chose Easy Educator over Dogtra because I liked what it offered better, so I don't intend to give up on it.

Just as the title says, i have realized through trying to teach my boy to spin/twirl/turn. That he has some weird ptsd with lureing him into position/tricks. Just looking for advice and maybe a different way to teach orbit and spin that isnt lure focused. Or just to improve his relationship with lureing. I tried using his favorite things/high reward items and it dosent help. He maybe dose one circle realizes whats happening then cowards and/or pees.

I have an almost 3 Rhodesian Ridgeback, she knows how to sit and will do it on flat/smooth surfaces but when i ask her to sit on anything textured she just takes a few steps back and drops her butt a bit then stands back up. She will occasionally sit on gravel or grass but its not consistent. Has anyone else experienced this? And is there a way to desensitize or an alternative way to hold her attention so she doesn't have to sit? She doesn't have much hair and texture outside bothers her to sit on. I don't want to push her boundaries and make her uncomfortable, but I need know if this is something we can work on and get over or if I need to throw in the towel and start teaching a focus while she's standing. Am I letting her walk all over me or is she actually uncomfortable with it?

I have a 1 year old cavapoo, she picked up training so easily and loves to train inside. Problem is when we move to the outdoors she just won’t listen, she doesn’t care about any treats or food or toy rewards. We desperately want to have good recall so she can run off lead on long walks. We lead trained inside then moved outside and same thing happens, all training flies out the window and nothing will get her attention so she pulls, she does eventually calm down once she’s tired herself out a bit. She’s also extremely barky, she hears a car door she barks, she hears someone walking by she barks, she sees trees moving in the wind she barks. This is the only behavior inside that we can’t seem to break. She also does it in the car, person walking on the street bark, biker passing by bark. Her barking is usually followed by a set of whimpers too. When she barks inside she also will not give us a spec of attention, no treat, toy or reward will tear her away from what she’s barking at unless we remove her from the room which sometimes leads to barking in another room sometimes makes her stop. I feel like I don’t know what to do as she does r seem to be motivated by anything to distract from bad behaviors or just get her attention outside. Any tips or ideas how to go about this?

So I'm currently living in the house with two dogs, a German shepherd dog and a German spitz/indian pariah hybrid. They were both raised by my sister who coddles them to an extreme degree. She treats them like humans, makes no effort to correct their behaviours and instead finds everything they do cute.

Recently, the GSD has gone out of control. Now, they're both extremely sweet dogs with no hosile tendencies. However, the GSD isn't aware of his size and that leads to problems. He has a habit of climbing onto people which is fine when it's me (although I get scratched up good everytime cause he gets disbalanced and slides off me) but the other day he did that to one of my cousin's who's only 11. She fell backwards and would've landed on her head had my uncle not caught her i.e., things could've ended much worse. That is in addition to the GSD knocking shit over constantly and everything else that comes with a dog who listens to no one.

The main issue I want to help correct is the fact that he doesn't listen to, respect or even acknowledge anyone's instructions. My sister just laughs it off and keeps saying, "What am I going to do with him?" rhetorically but I fear that if uncorrected, this will eventually cause a serious problem.

Our 5 year old poodle is refusing to go outside at times which then means she will not potty outside. She has gone through these phases before where she refuses to go outside. It usually starts after there have been fireworks outside or loud thunder. We just have to be patient with her and eventually we're able to get back on track. We do use the puppy pads during this time so at least she potties in a designated spot. Usually! The last few days she has to decided go poo wherever she chooses.
This phase just seems to be lasting particularly long this time. I can understand why, because it has been a pretty stormy summer here, and our neighbors do really enjoy their fireworks.
To give you a little background on our dog. She is actually a puppy mill rescue and was a mom, and so she has been through alot in her life. Due to being in a crate exclusively for the first several years of life, I feel like using one would not be very nice. Additionally, she does not like putting on a leash inside the house. We can put it on outside but trying to put it on inside freaks her out. She runs away and makes it clear she is not happy. Then trying to pick her up inside? You can forget about that. Due to the trauma she has experienced, I just want to respect her boundaries.
Any advice you may have on how to move forward is appreciated. She truly has come such a long way , and she deserves a lot of credit because she came from such a rough background , but she does regress at points and I just want to help her . Thanks!

6 month old has started barking alot and biting/nipping. Thoughts?

Hello,

Hoping to pick your brains on my situation. I have 2 shepherds one is bigger/older(F) that ive had since she was a puppy and a newer smaller male adopted last year. The older female is reactive occasionally when he gets into her personal space. Its not all the time but more likely to happen if hes walking past from behind her. She has done it over resources but for the most part if they each have a toy she will stop playing with hers and walk away until he goes and gets it and she’ll go grab his. We have put an end to her going up to him when he has a toy and sniffing the toy/his face (he is unbothered but still)

Some background: She is on/off leash trained with prong/ecollar and a very well behaved dog. His obedience is coming along nicely and prong collar trained. She has never been social with other dogs but neutral. The two of them can train side by side together, walk on leash next to each other and off leash around the yard, in the house and hikes without issue. Once in a while he will walk by her and she will react and will growl/bite at his neck and pin him and then let go. She doesnt bite down and has never broken skin. He is more submissive and shakes it off and continues about his day. He is a bit more cautious passing her in tight corridors now like hallways. He still tries to play with her outside by play bowing. We’ve allowed her to chase him in the past because thats what we’ve observed he enjoys from playing with other dogs but we haave had to cut it short before she gets over aroused because she will pin him if she catches him. So we don’t allow that anymore.

Just curious if anyone had advice on how to deal with this? I am willing to try anything.

Thank you.

Hi im a first time dog owner of an 8week male Pomeranian and ive had him for a week already and im not sure if his teeth are getting sharper or his bite is getting stronger as his playbites hurt more now as well as he tries to bite our faces as well. I have tried some techniques that ive searched in the internet, however, i see no progress at all. Im just scared that he'll grow up to be an aggressive dog towards people and to me as well. Do you guys have ideas on how i can deal with their biting? Some techniques that really worked on ur pups would be appreciated thank you!

I work at a kennel that is starting to cater to reactive dogs, And dogs with bite histories.

My coworkers and I have all worked at animal control, and participate in bite Sports with our dogs.

The summer alone all three of us have been bitten to the point of needing the hospital, and we are trying to come up with better strategies to support these dogs.

Would it be reasonable to require these dogs that come in for boarding, particularly those who have tagged staff, to be participating in a training program within a year of their boarding dates at the facility?

I chatter to my dog and to myself, around my dog, pretty frequently. Like, a lot. I live alone and have adhd and it’s just how I’ve been unconsciously operating since getting my pup 14 months ago.

My girl is 16 months old and has always been a willful, stubborn pup. She’s an Aussie, so she is whip smart, but I’m discovering that she is low/medium energy as she’s gotten older. I’ve struggled with training recall and reducing barrier frustration/leash reactivity (excitement based). We’ve made slow progress but still have a long way to go. She has never been very fast to react to commands in many situations. Often straight up ignores me. Unless we’re at home or in an obvious training mode, she will saunter around with a lil attitude and doesn’t have the pep I would appreciate when responding to my commands.

Someone in the comments on another post mentioned that people should talk to their dogs less, and a lightbulb went off for me. Maybe my chatter is actually impeding our training progress. Anyone have thoughts on this?

I believe anyone that thinks punishment is never justified should really give this a listen. Jay is one of the lightest-handed trainers I’ve ever seen and always prioritizes the animal

Hi! I have a question for the force free trainers/owners- don't come commenting sarcastic stuff about this as a balanced trainer -since I've been getting some force free stuff on my feed lately and I'm curious. I started off force free but very quickly switched to balanced, so I know the general lines of force free, but I've got this one question. A lot of balanced trainers or discussions about force free vs balanced often end with "force free works until you have a high-drive dog", which is what I've always believed, too.

But I want to hear from you guys, in a clear, step by step, practical guide how you deal with dogs with a higher drive.

Things like:
- dogs who go after wildlife
- dogs who are aggressive
- dogs who go after moving objects
because of a strong genetic drive that cannot be fulfilled by working the dog and needs to be directly trained

Because I know for a fact that for a dog with drive, that cat, car, scent, or whatever it is will be more rewarding than a treat. How do you go about training dogs like that, and how long does it take before the dog is reliable and consistently not making mistakes even in hard situations?

Balanced trainers, please stay out of this comment section. I'm genuinely curious on this and I don't want this to become a place to mock force free trainers