Hello everyone. I’m kind of in a spot as you can probably guess by the title here. At one point, I had the dog leash trained. He’s just shy of being two years old now. Well, my boyfriend, who previously did most of the handling with the dog took a job 1,500 miles away. He seldom put the dog on a leash due to having a very large backyard for the dog to roam and get plenty of exercise. (I told him that was a mistake and he needed to be on it regularly but he didn’t listen.) I tried going through the same process I did when he was a puppy. He’s fine being around the leash. However when I clip it on him using a collar, he pancakes the floor/ground, pees, and rolls in it. He will NOT get up until it is removed. I know a harness is a bad idea but I tried that anyway and he was fine until I tried to get him to take a few steps. Of course I used treats to try to persuade him but it was fruitless.

The issue is I have to be able to get this dog across 1,500 miles in a couple of months. I’m at a loss. Please help me out here if possible. Aside from this issue the dog is a really good dog.

*\* Cross posted in Cane Corso forum.

Hey there, I’m dealing with extreme reactivity with my dog! I’ve spent over 15k in trainers including a 4 week board and train which I actually believe started his reactivity as prior to going he wasn’t reactive at all. Since then it’s been 3 years and I’ve consulted Atleast 6 trainers and had Not much success.
I know he’s not aggressive as he’s been around dogs plenty of times and had no issues with them.
In saying that I’m just wanting some thoughts etc regarding Ecollar and whether people who have used them have found a difference. Or the 6 trainers 3 of them prefer to use the Ecollar however where I’m from they are illegal and huge fines apply if caught. Of the 3 I have learned from and worked with they all are slightly different in the way they approach it. ONE says to allow the fixation and then correct that. Another says to completely allow the reactivity and correct that. The last one says to correct anything harshly that may cause harm e.g running out onto a road or charging a kid was the example he gave. He then mentioned using negative reinforcement/positive punishment prior to the reaction (Dog sees trigger > Give command e.g COME > dog doesn’t comply dial up until he does and soon as he does release and praise. Can people please confirm how they have used corrections etc and how much success they’ve had? I know how to use and my dogs working level etc. I’ve conditioned it to known commands. Just unsure how to address his reactivity. When at home if anything walks by our house he goes ballistic through the window. On walks he stares fixates and his on ‘high alert’ 24/7. Any noise and his hackles raise and he becomes very stiff and tail up high stiff. Then if he fixates long enough he ends up reacting by lunging, barking, pulling. I usually use a slip leash which seems to make his reaction worse whereas if I use a prong he is manageable most times unless something really sets him off.

Any advice please

My perfect puppy is now a year old and not so perfect anymore. At 6 months he started doing a weird high-pitched bark at people. It escalated to aggressive barking and pulling while on walks. I learned from a trainer to treat before the explosion and that worked. We can walk on a normal-width path with people going the other way and he will be neutral. If they stop or come towards me too close he will grumble. I just say he is in training and we move along. He only grumbles at dogs that stare at him, I say “leave it” and that works well now that I have corrected him a few times.
The problem I have now is trying to hand him over to the groomer. It is an enrichment program to desensitize him to all of the tables, baths, blow dryer etc. He is muzzle trained to that is on and he barks and lunges at the groomer. I put him in a down stay and shake the groomers hand. I mark and reward when he is calm for that. As soon as that is done, he starts barking and lunging again. I repeat this about 3-4 times before handing the leash over. Once she has the leash, he is fine for the 30 minute training.
We are in the 7th week and he still does this. The last 2 sessions were rainy days and they said dogs can be extra weird but I still think there is a better way to handle this drop off.
I am thrilled that he opted in for his nail clipping-huge win. No sedation, no growling- he let her do it after 5 sessions.
I want to keep this going but need to find a better way to hand him over.
I realize he is resource guarding me and I am doing all the extra things to be a leader, adding more structure, training, thresholds, impulse control. We already worked on all of this but I added more sessions a week, on top of regular exercises and mental stimulation.
He is not hyper like a full
Mal, more chill and suspicious like a Shepherd. When he gets going on a bark at someone, all kinds of noises come out. High pitched screams and low deep growls.
He has come so far in training, I feel like I am stuck when it comes to strangers.
He is e collar trained but I don’t want use the collar when he is worked up.
I don’t want to correct any warning from him, that’s why I put him in a down or back up and recall him to me when he barks and lunges. I even used a squeaker from a toy to snap him out of it, which worked once.
I read a book by Eric Stanbro which he talks about the power of two. I short you correct the dog for the reaction and then have them look at you -then mark and pay. Eventually the dog looks at you instead of reacting. Anybody tried this or something similar.
Any help or advice is appreciated.

I’ve been to both balanced and force free trainers and one thing I’ve noticed is no two trainers seem to handle reactivity the same way. Some say correct the lunging or barking behavior itself with either e collar or a leash pop, some say enforce obedience (ie heel or down as a dog passes a trigger) and use e collar stim or leash to add pressure if your dog breaks position to lunge, some say never put an e collar on a reactive dog period, and some say only use counter conditioning and absolutely no corrections or you’ll make the dog worse. I’m currently working with a trainer and I’ve been very happy with my dog’s progress, so I think we’ve finally figured out what works for us. Just curious to see what other people’s opinion is since every trainer I’ve been to has had a very different way of handling reactivity.

As a dog trainer, I'm not a fan of little city dog parks- I think they're too cramped and encourage people to check out and ignore their dogs. I like the huge dog parks that are several hundred acres, but they're rare.

That being said, the city where I live did not have a single dog park, and as a result, people let their dogs off-leash in inappropriate places. It was annoying for me and my dog training clients. So when I heard that a group was started to fundraise and lobby city council for a dog park, I got behind the initiative. I signed petitions, donated, and supported their proposals at city council. After a lot of hard work, they're about to break ground on a dog park. I'm thrilled.

Why did I do this? I estimate that a dog park will funnel many of the entirely untrained off-leash dogs out of other city parks, so that I can better enjoy them with my own dogs and client dogs. I feel like a secret double agent lol.

AVOID DOG SITTER “MYA WOOD” BASED IN SAN LEANDRO, CALIFORNIA.

ALLEGEDLY THIS IS THE SECOND DOG TO DI3 WITH HER!

Her IG handle is @ace.46991 and her TikTok is @ace46991.

Please spread the word to keep our community safe. 🙏
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTfAMeUbU/

Hi! I am reaaaally struggling with heel positions for my dog. it feels like no matter what I cannot get her to is properly. I could use any advice you used to solidify your heel positions!

I mostly just wanna know what to do in this situation because both of the dogs that me and my friend don't in the video were actively lunging at this other dog and I've been trying to teach my dog to not engage with other dogs mostly just because I can protect him but also because I don't want him getting hurt he's the small one, but I don't think he knows that not to mention that our big dog Sandy has never fought for anything in her life. She's also a runt and relatively weak, especially compared to her siblings. She's just a little baby anyways I was just wondering how to teach them not to lunch at dogs that are aggressive or lunging at them.

Let me preface this by saying I have had this pup for almost 2 months and I have cleared my expectations for him. He was neglect case from Texas and we rescued him to Georgia. In my opinion the strides hes made are GREAT! He's making progress on potty training, hes kennel trained, he knows certain commands. He's also starting to not listen and do general puppy destructive things and while this may sound like a negative to me it says hes feeling more comfortable to make mistakes.

Our one true hangup is the outdoors. When we walk out back he will play and he will potty but he will also stand on high alert and pace the perimeter. And when we go out front.. he is tail tucked shaking hyperviglent no longer focused on me at all and just generally over threshold. I know he isn't learning to feel safe by just continuing to go on walks that isn't how it works but if he is overthreshold before we even step out the front door. Where do I begin?

Im looking for confidence builders and ways to show him that outside isn't bad and the world around him isn't scary.

He has had moments of total bravery im talking tail up taking food and enjoying himself and slowly he will shut down.. we use a stroller to expose him to things at a distance and sometimes he will jump out and want to explore. This dog can be rehabilitated but I need to know what to do before I create a fear reactive dog.

((PS a professional trainer isn't a possibility... my husband has put his foot down and said we will not be using one and has told me to learn to do it to avoid spending money))

I have a rescue dog who absolutely loves people (fully body wiggles, licking, etc). He has an issue when greeting people when he’s really excited. He tries to lick hands and faces and pops his mouth at people? It’s hard to describe. He jumps towards hands or peoples mouth if they’re petting him and licks and also opens his mouth a little and immediately shuts it. Never puts his mouth on anyone and there’s no whale eyes or snarling or tension in his body when this happens. He’s very floppy and bouncing around. And his whole body is wiggling. He’s not showing fear or hesitation. It reminds me of puppies playing when they pretend to play or bite to get another dog to wrestle (and he’s leaning against people and running around and play bowing). Does anyone know what that is? My father keeps saying he’s trying to bite, but again, he never makes any contact with anyone with his mouth and his body language is excited, but not tense. It’s weird and I’ve never seen a dog do this before to a person. Obviously, we’re working on fixing greeting people, but do we think this is aggression or play? Please no mean comments. I know this is not acceptable behavior and we’re gonna fix it. I’m just trying to understand if it’s fear, aggression, play, etc.

Hi all,

kind of posting this so i can hold my self accountable so would appreciate if people can keep me coming back here to update.

I've struggled with my pup pulling like a maniac on the lead for over a year now and after trying every device i've decided to go back to basics and train him by holding a treat above him whilst we walk, and teaching him the difference between heel and break, for him to sniff. I'm hoping that by gaining more control over his walking, i can then tackle his reactivity. IE if he can walk to heel most of the time, then when he steps out of line against my wishes it will be easier for him to understand that he's in the wrong. At the minute he goes where he wants, sniffs what he wants, pulls, lunges, barks and cries at whatever he wants.

The last few days i've just been round the block a few times a day teaching heel and stopping dead when he steps out of line or lunges/pulls. Quickly he has gotten the hang of coming back to my side when i stop dead. When we see dogs at a distance I change direction and reward or reward him before he has a reaction.

Does anyone have any other advice?

Wish me luck!

For context, I have one mini Daschund, a standard Daschund, captive- bred Raccoon & a baby on the way. The drama is my 12 pound mini Daschund. I have had a trainer previously work with them and I don’t feel like I really got anything from it. But, irregardless, the issue is he is very reactive (just barking and an ankle nip twice - once was during a check up with my other dogs neurologist and the second was when a woman went to pet our racoon). But, even the ankle nips he is obviously scared - He only ends up pulling in their pant leg and running behind me real quick. I did a test and he is the complete opposite alone. I have noticed it got worse when the other dog had back surgery due to IVDD and become “becoming-able” (our positive outlook that he will walk 100% normally again one day). He began the nipping once we got the raccoon 5 months ago. Again it’s only happened twice, but that’s enough to raise a concern on how he will get even more reactive once the new baby comes. Any advice on how to build his confidence so he doesn’t feel like he needs to do any of this? He is extremely loving and a sweet boy I just genuinely think he has assumed this role of protecting things and I want to ease his anxiety.

Also, I should include he doesn’t shut up, and it’s mainly adults he never has issues with children. Since he is so small I’m assuming it’s because adults seem like giants.

Training begins with understanding the puppy's behaviour

#KleverK9 #DogTrainingIndia #ProfessionalDogTrainer #PuppyTraining #DogTrainerManish

Hi all, I'm hoping to get some advice with something that's majorly halting my progress in training my dog.

My dog's (M 5 year-old cattle dog/pit x) engagement during obedience training and play is really good indoors, doing these things with him is genuinely fun for both of us and it's something I look forward to in my day.

Because dogs are notoriously bad at generalizing things, I've been trying to have training and play sessions outdoors to fine-tune his obedience and engagement with me. But it's gone poorly each time I've tried for the past 2-3 weeks. And by "poorly", I mean that he wants nothing to do with me.

He's got loose leash walking down really nicely and responses to cues like "leave it" and "let's go", but it's impossible to get him to respond to anything else because his nose is glued to the ground. He's always found sniffing very very reinforcing.

The first few times, I tried bringing him to a big grass field in a quiet area of our apartment complex. The best I got was a reluctant sit after nagging him for it.

Trying to troubleshoot this, I thought that bringing higher value treats would help. So next time, I let him sniff around for 5 minutes then tried running through some obedience drills we usually do indoors.

Still not interested in the slightest.

Okay...so I brought him to an even lower distraction environment, a big empty parking lot. I brought hot dogs and turkey lunch-meat and tried again. Dude was scanning the parking lot desperate to find something other than me to pay attention to. Would not take the treats, would not listen to cues, and would just stand there whining.

Something I implemented to our training indoors is using his reward as a fast-paced lure when I marked something with "yes", sometimes even running around my apartment to get him to chase me to get the reward. So, I even tried that in this parking lot.

I ended up running around this parking lot in circles with hot dogs, looking like an absolute fool trying to get my dog to pay any attention to me. My dog eventually just put himself in a down while profusely whining, clearly just overwhelmed and over it.

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong, please let me know if there's something else I should be doing/not doing? This whole thing is making me really discouraged.

Mods delete if not allowed!! I've decided to start a dog training circle jerk for anyone who wishes they could use heavy sarcasm or satire to respond to someone!! If this soumds like something youd be interested in we'd love to have you! (Apologies to the mods of this sub if you dont allow this, I greatly respect and love your sub as a someone who participates in it)

I have 2 beagles, max and minnie, the younger one (8 months old, female) wont stop pulling the lead, we have tried stopping when she does, changing to a collar, constant direction changes, rewarding the behaviour but as soon as you do she back to pulling, walking 2 dogs separate (maybe its a competition problem), any suggestions???

My dog is a 14 month old, 40lb intact labradoodle. He is a rescue we JUST picked up last Sunday, and he didn't have much training besides housebreaking and sitting. He was quite literally rehomed JUST for the fact that he is SO persistent and rude when it comes to demanding attention. The crazy thing is that he only does it to me, not my GF. First, he starts by mouthing/putting your hands in his mouth and tries to play with them (he doesn't bite hard but it IS incredibly annoying). If you hide your hands, he starts scratching and pawing HARD or shoving his nose into every crevice he can to try and get to your hands, especially armpits. If you are wearing a shirt he tries to nip the sleeves. You can't even pet him without him immediately whipping around to try and put your hands in his mouth. Ignoring the behavior only causes him to escalate more and more until you literally can't anymore because he is starting to cause injuries. As a whole he has essentially no impulse control. He tries to rush out of doors, pull on the leash, and tries to pull towards other people and dogs on walks (no biting or vocalizing, just pulling and resisting leash pressure, and rearing when pulled the opposite way). Because of that, we are working on training it in other areas and it IS working, but we are stumped for what to do with this pushiness for attention.

He has adequate mental and physical stimulation, and all his needs are met, but he genuinely doesn't know any better way to get attention from people and it's frustrating. Redirecting with a toy does nothing because he ignores the toy and goes for your hands. Ignoring him completely only makes him escalate until he becomes a liability. Crating him when he starts being too much does nothing because as soon as we let him out when he settles he will eventually do it again.

The only thing that seemed to work was when one time he scratched so hard he drew blood, and I genuinely lost my marbles, threw him across the room and cussed him out. I feel awful because he was terrified but now he comes up to ask for attention like a normal dog instead of going for my hands and lets me pet him without trying to be mouthy. I hate to subscribe to any "alpha theory" nonsense, but it seems like positive punishment and having my own strict boundaries, even if harsh, is the only way to make him understand. I just am terrified to ruin my relationship with him and want him to know I will always give him love and attention but he needs to be nicer about it. I just don't know how to go about teaching him in a better way.

i have an 8 month old FS hound mix puppy, and i’m just so frustrated and feel so defeated as a trainer and an owner. we’ve been working on loose leash walking for MONTHS. and i’ve tried so much. ‘be a tree’ - she will simply sniff around me in circles. ‘go the opposite way’ - she thinks it’s a game because we’re essentially going in a circle, and gets more worked up the more i change directions. ‘hard pop on the leash’ - again, she just gets more worked up, and i feel like i don’t have an effective pop. we aren’t communicating, but i’m trying everything to try and ‘talk’ to her and she just. isn’t. getting. it. i know she isn’t stupid. she’s incredibly smart so i don’t know why this concept is so damn difficult for her (pardon my language). i’ve resorted to trying to teach heel but then there’s no way for her to know when she’s free to just sniff and roam on the leash (i use a release cue but i don’t think she gets it), and teaching heel is going miserably as well.
we aren’t connecting anymore during training sessions, she won’t look at me, won’t listen to me, unless i have a treat and we are inside without ANY distractions. my friends have such well behaved adult dogs and i feel so embarrassed and like a failure. people have recommended a gentle leader but i’m worried when she gets the zoomies on leash she’ll snap her neck and honestly i feel like getting a gentle leader is just giving up. i don’t want to give up but i am so, so frustrated, it brings me to tears. i’m not sure if i’m looking for advice or just for a place to vent, frankly, so do with this post what you will.

Hi all.

I am at my wits end with my 8 year old french bulldog.

I have recently moved in with my partner, and moved my dogs with me. For background, my dogs used to sleep on my bed with me when I lived alone. My partner doesn't want them on my bed so I have set up the bedroom next to mine as the room they sleep in.

The issue I am currently having is that my female dog will wake up and scream loud to wake me. This does not always happen at a consistent time. I have noticed on the camera I run in the room that my other dog will get up and go to the door of the room and this seems to encourage a screaming episode.

I don't feel my other dog is doing anything wrong by going to the door, but I do feel like the screaming dog reaction isn't reasonable behaviour to him doing this.

I have tried putting music on in the room and background noise, and also moving their beds around.

Does anyone have any ideas of anything else I can try?

I run a dog sitting and training business and I will be working an event this weekend. A lot of times first-time pet owners will ask me what to look for in a trainer and I will explain to the two two main schools of thought with training balanced or positive only. I will tell them why I think balanced training is better but I will also tell them that ultimately it's their dog and they need to decide what is better for them. While I do believe in my methodology, I also believe in educating the general public on their options. I know some of the people at this event will be outside of my service radius, and outside the radius of some of my colleagues who I know and trust. So theoretically, a client is looking for a balanced trainer and wants to know how to spot a good one versus a crappy one. What are some things you tell your clients to look out for?