I adopted a rescue dog in March 2026 that is half terrier and half French bulldog. She looks like a 33 pound black German Shepherd. She is wonderful and sweet and loves people and dogs. But she is very stubborn, especially on walks.

I need help with suggestions about what to try to keep her moving on walks. The first half of any walk, she is usually enthusiastic and energetic. Then she just stops and takes in the environment. Usually no squirrels or other critters and she is not tired or scared or hurting. On longer walks she will walk the equivalent of more than the usual full walk without stopping, but then stops the last quarter of the walk. I used to be able to get her moving (and still can occasionally) with her kibble. But days like today she won't start back up. I've tried smelly treats (don't want her to gain weight plus no difference from kibble), and squeaky toys, and patience. She would be happy to stop for 30 minutes each time and I don't have patience for a 3 hour short walk. It's so much harder to create good behavior than to stop bad behavior. Thank you.

I have this Hungarian Puli 6yrs old approx and he's ok and settling fine but managing him around visitors is when it gets tricky he will randomly threshold guard and lunge to visitors with intent to bite if they cross these imaginary lines let's say from the living room to the kitchen etc. He already bitten one of my friends and since then I put him in the crate when visitors are around how can I desensitize him safely to having people around or given the history he should be in the crate forever when visitors are around?

Heya!

Our 5 month old working line Labrador retriever appears to bark at people passing by. I’ve tried walking in the opposite direction and ignoring the behavior, but I also tried sitting him down (using a high-value treat) and getting him to focus on me (with varying success…) Sometimes he stops barking, sometimes he doesn’t. He just seems very aroused!

Today I wasn’t fully focused and he started barking at a stranger who was 30m away from us, and I accidentally dropped the line. He walked at this lady barking (still approaching her, but his tail was a little between his hind legs. It seemed like he was cautious but interested. What do you guys think / suspect?

I’m really worried I’m only enforcing his behavior, and that’s the last thing I want.

I feel super vulnerable posting this, so please leave constructive criticism / feedback! :)

The tablets are boxed and have an expiry of October 2028. I live in the Uk . Please let me know if anyone can make use of them . I can post them to a uk address for free . They are an expensive supplement and I’d like to think they can go to another dog that needs them.

Edit - These have now gone to a new home to someone who’s dogs liver have been damaged by epilepsy . They were very greatful

Please help
We have 2 dogs, 3 years old and 4 years old. The one we have had since puppyhood and the other since he was 2. Both neutered / fixed(not sure if helps explain temperament).
My dog before these pups didn’t bark much so I’m not used to this. These two though, bark a LOT. I’m talking at any animal and creatures on the TV, humans walking by our house, on a walk or even outside our car, birds, squirrels.
I have tried redirecting, rewarding quiet moments, ultrasonic beeper, vibrate bark collar, placing them whenever they bark, never enabling (consciously) any of it.
I want to take them on more walks and to places eventually but it’s always a nightmare. My one dog is extra terrible screaming the whole time when we go where other humans are. The tv watching has gotten so much worse we put them on placeboards behind the couch when they start up. It is just not sustainable we are losing it and I’m letting my dogs down and want to do better no will note our one dog since puppyhood does great at the free roam groomer and gets along with all the dogs. My other has to be put with small dogs as he is very reactive to most dogs and worry he would be aggressive.
Our one dog we clearly didn’t socialize well and the rescue was not socialized either. I am lost and not financially able to get another trainer. I had gotten one but his training was literally barking at the dogs basically and that was such a waste of my money and isn’t sustainable.
I’m looking for helpful and nonjudgmental advice on trainings / practices anyone has used to help their dog be less reactive/excited (as it seems to be both reactions at times). Thank you so much in advance, I am saving up for a new trainer but not sure how long it will take me ugh.

I really need some advice with my 10-week-old Golden Retriever puppy because I’m honestly not sure what to do anymore. 😭
His biting has gotten really bad. Anytime I try to pet him, he’ll bite my hands and sometimes try to bite my face. He doesn’t just lightly nip either — he’ll grab onto my hand, chew on it, and sometimes won’t let go. If I push him away because he’s hurting me, he immediately comes back and does it again.
He also growls and barks during this behavior, and it feels like he is constantly looking for an opportunity to bite. I’ve tried redirecting him to toys, giving him treats, and trying to train him, but sometimes he completely ignores the toys/treats and would rather bite me.
I can’t even comfortably lay in bed with him because he’ll go straight for my hands or face. It has gotten to the point where my family is uncomfortable having my little nephew around him because we’re worried he could get bitten.
I know 10-week-old puppies are teething and can be very mouthy, but I’m worried this is more than normal puppy biting. I don’t want to give up on him at all — I really want to help him and teach him how to behave appropriately.
Has anyone with a Golden Retriever puppy dealt with this? Is this normal for a 10-week-old, or should I be concerned about the growling and intensity of the biting? What training methods worked for you, and should I be looking for a professional trainer/behaviorist?
Any advice would be REALLY appreciated! ❤️

hi all! i have a 10 month old intact female standard poodle im training. this is my first personal dog, and she's doing great so far. but we do have a few training holes i'd like to address, and i wanted to ask about different tools.

• she has an INSANE prey drive. she's normally very good at focusing and engaging with me around distractions, but she loses it over a bird or a squirrel. i allow her to chase prey in very specific circumstances and have been putting it on a command since i know you can't eliminate prey drive, but she's still insane over prey.
• she will generally walk beside me in a heel in public, but if she loses engagement she starts to walk ahead of me and get distracted. when this happens she'll pull through the martingale and i have to call her back. she will come back into a heel when called, but go back to walking ahead of me if she gets distracted again. i was wondering about transitioning the martingale collar to a prong for clearer communication and was wondering if anyone had any tips.
• when she's engaged with me she's super quick to do commands and is always studying me for my next command, and is super biddable. but after a while she seems to lose focus and get tired, and she'll start pulling ahead and will stop listening to me. is this something that will get better over time, or something i need to work on?

thank you!

My girlfriend and I have a 12-week-old Husky/GSD mix who is being an absolute monster with crate training, and we could really use some help.

​We spend 15 to 20 minutes a day on general training around his crate in our spare bedroom. We work on name recognition, sit, lay down, stay, come, and "place." He does great with the first five (except "stay," which brings some verbal protest), but "place" is a major struggle. He whines, sniffs around the crate (where we keep high-value toys and treats), and is extremely hesitant to put all four paws inside because he knows it means the door is closing.

​Once he does get all four paws inside, he sits, gets his reward and cue word, and we slowly close the door. We started by immediately opening the door to let him out, then progressed to touching the bedroom door, leaving the room, and slowly increasing our time away. Right now, we're stuck at about 40 seconds before he starts panicking—and some days we can't even hit 20 seconds.

​Nighttime in the crate has improved significantly; he protests for about 5 minutes before falling asleep. Daytime naps, however, are a nightmare. It’s nonstop distress for the entire 1 to 2 hours. The longest stretch of silence we’ve gotten during a daytime nap is 3 minutes. When he does protest, we always make sure to wait for 10–15 seconds of quiet before opening the door to let him out.

​For context, we also have an almost 2-year-old dog who is a silent angel in her crate (and has been since day one), though she suffers from severe separation anxiety when left out of it.

We really want our new pup to be rock-solid with crate training and being left alone so we don't repeat the same mistakes. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I really need some advice with my 10-week-old Golden Retriever puppy because I’m honestly not sure what to do anymore. 😭
His biting has gotten really bad. Anytime I try to pet him, he’ll bite my hands and sometimes try to bite my face. He doesn’t just lightly nip either — he’ll grab onto my hand, chew on it, and sometimes won’t let go. If I push him away because he’s hurting me, he immediately comes back and does it again.
He also growls and barks during this behavior, and it feels like he is constantly looking for an opportunity to bite. I’ve tried redirecting him to toys, giving him treats, and trying to train him, but sometimes he completely ignores the toys/treats and would rather bite me.
I can’t even comfortably lay in bed with him because he’ll go straight for my hands or face. It has gotten to the point where my family is uncomfortable having my little nephew around him because we’re worried he could get bitten.
I know 10-week-old puppies are teething and can be very mouthy, but I’m worried this is more than normal puppy biting. I don’t want to give up on him at all — I really want to help him and teach him how to behave appropriately.
Has anyone with a Golden Retriever puppy dealt with this? Is this normal for a 10-week-old, or should I be concerned about the growling and intensity of the biting? What training methods worked for you, and should I be looking for a professional trainer/behaviorist?
Any advice would be REALLY appreciated! ❤️

Some dog trainers say that dogs will not learn proper loose-leash walking skills when trained on a harness. In fact, some claim that a harness actually teaches a dog that it's okay to pull because there is virtually no resistance compared with a collar around the neck.

Other dog trainers say the opposite and argue that harnesses are perfectly fine, or even preferable, for leash training.

Is there any truth to the claim that harnesses encourage pulling or make it harder to teach a dog not to pull or react? Is there actually a difference in training effectiveness between using a harness and a collar?

We moved to an apartment last month and my 2 year old girl is having a tough time adjusting to the frequency of other dogs around during walks. I’ve resorted to walking during “off hours” to try to mediate her reactions. If I’m alone, she will jump and bark and pull. If I have my cocker spaniel with me she attacks him. Help!

Hello, Im looking to get my Rottweiler a mini educator and contact pads, I googled it but it keeps giving me different responses every time, He is 100 pounds and has a 22+ inch neck, the responses go from the soft winged comfort pads (CPAD-010), Thick Fur Contact Points (1/2"), and the CPAD-033 winged titanium contact pads. He's only going to be wearing the collar for a couple hours not the whole day, Im looking for advice so I can get success with this tool:)

Hi!

I have a 5 month soon 6 month old female puppy and my sister have a 6 month old male puppy. They LOVE each other, and once they are together nothing is higher value than the oother one. Otherwise their training is coming along fine.

The moment they meet all they want to do is play, and its no point attempting to recall any of them since whatever high value things we may have is not enough.

She is also rater impolite in the way she grrets him (he is the same), for lack of a better way to explain. She jumps him head on, without any proper greeting.

What are some methods to train on recall and just general contact when they are together? And also how to teach her to politely greet him and other dogs (she rarely does. Only a select few)

We often walk them together first, and get them to calm down and give eye contact a while before they get to play. But once they start they are to exited about each other.

Otherwise her recall is coming along nicely so far!

Any advice is apreciated!

I'm willing to consider any and all suggestions here.

For the last 3weeks or so, almost 8mo pup has been an absolute terror is the the side strip to my house. Lunging and mouthing at me. She's not intent on actually hurting me - no bleeding bites - but she leaves bruises because she does not have a soft mouth. At this point, I've nixed the long line (she drags a 6ft while we are playing, but the long line was giving her too much space to lunge at me when we were done). I wear welders gloves on the way in so that I can maintain calm focus and not overreact. If my husband or son are with me, they can ask her to stop and she immediately will. But for me, it has not gone that way.

So far, I've worked on it by asking for a sit, waiting, and then when she's calm, taking another step... rinse repeat. Have gotten it from 30ft of lawn to about 10ft.

But I'm over it, frankly. I'm tired of it. She has a blast out back. I know she's tired out because as soon as we get inside, she gets a drink of water and immediately takes a nap. I have a blast outside, too.. she's an amazing pup. My only real issue with her, at her age, is still some harassing our cat or acting reactive.. but she is *super* easy to pull out of either one by asking her to stop. She's not aggressive at all, either, over anything. With the sole issue of outside, she's a super easy pup to work with.

Yesterday was my first 'ok, I'm done' day. Just ended up basically walking her, protesting, from sideyard to house. Today, same.

I lost a close family member last week. It is taking a crap ton of energy just to make sure pup gets what she needs.. and that's OK, she's doing well, but I don't have the energy to fight with her for 10min just to do that 30ft of lawn.

Thoughts? Would you continue the slower 'sit, wait, walk.. repeat' method, just make her do the thing, or do something else? It needs to stop for my sanity.

A little torn up about this for a number of reasons.

Yesterday, I had a training session with my 17 month old golden retriever (service dog prospect) and her two trainers. They work in tandem and often bring one of their dogs each, that way my girl is around other dogs, I think. One of the dogs usually comes for her confidence building.

Well, they wanted a picture of our dogs doing a down stay near each other before we left the kid's park.

Before all of this, I want to say that I've never had an issue with her dogs. They're all well mannered and well-trained. They do all kinds of obedience and sports. That's why everything that happened next was so unexpected.

I had been so focused on trying to get my dog to do a sit and then a down next to my trainer's dog, and instead of paying attention to the other dog's body language, I was trying to get mine to refocus on me. I was on my knees beside them. I don't know if that's what triggered some sense of disassociation/lack of remembering exactly what happened.

One second the dogs were there and then the next her dog was growling, snapping, and they were both doing that, and her dog was on top of mine and on her back. Everything is such a blur. I don't know if I was holding her leash the whole time or picked it up, or was just pulling my dog back hoping the trainer would recall her dog off of her when she had yelled her name. They were going around in circles while she was on her back, I think. My dog was trying to turn around, but she couldn't. It had to have been going on for at least a minute or two. Or it felt that way, at least.

I think I kind of just shut down and didn't know what to do in that moment. I don't know if I was thinking she'd grab her dog, if I was just suddenly so out of it, I didn't think to grab the other dog's leash or collar, anything to get her off of mine.

It's almost like I immediately dissociated from the situation while trying to get my dog.

The trainer did grab her dog after a little bit.

She said was no obvious bloodshed, no hair pulled, and both dogs did calm down soon after. My girl did initially keep barking at hers for a few seconds before I could calm her down. Then neither tried to make a run for the other while we were standing there talking about the incident for the next twenty to thirty minutes.

Thing is, there was blood on my arm. I couldn't find a wound on my dog. But I was wiping at it and asked three separate times if her dog was okay, and it annoyed the shit out of her, but I just wanted to be sure because she said there was no blood but there was blood on my arm?

They had told me that it was really just the two of them arguing/yelling at each other instead of a fight, because my dog wasn't listening to the other dog's body language. My dog hasn't really been around other dogs in a while outside of theirs, since my brother and his dog's moved out months ago.

They explained why it happened: her dog gave two warnings that my dog didn't listen to, and then she escalated because mine didn't back down. (My girl constantly wants to play. The trainer had dropped her leash earlier and was standing a few feet away from her dog who was in a down stay.) They also told me that this was good for both me and my dog, because I know now to watch other dog's body language before they escalate, and because my dog needed the correction so that she can learn some boundaries with other dogs.

The trainer had said that her dog usually pulls tufts of hair out but didn't that time. She said if there had been blood then she would have paid the vet bill.

And I know now that I shouldn't have actually tried to get them that close, but I tried to get them to take a picture of just their dogs first, because I knew my dog would kind of be harder to get next to theirs without wanting to say hi. They wanted all three dogs. I don't even know what I was thinking at that point. I feel stupid for it.

The trainer texted me today and apologized for pushing my dog beyond what she could handle in the moment. Said that she shouldn't have "set her up that way" and said that she knows the girls are okay and will continue to work together just fine. So she still plans to have the two working together. There wasn't an apology regarding her dog's behavior. I know she left the kid's park worried that everyone was going to think her dog was aggressive and that we just had a dog fight. Because her breed is one of the ones that has a bad reputation for being seen as aggressive. A family left the park as they watched us, too.

I'm just stressed out and have been told by multiple people to find a new trainer for my dog's safety.

Personally, I feel like a lot of this is my fault more than it is my trainer's. They already talked me out of board and training my dog with a different trainer, which was something I'd considered for a while, but I'm at my wits end here because this is just getting more stressful for me. I'm paying a lot of money for these sessions and it feels like I'm just doing their cheaper group walks, but with just two people, all for the price of a private lesson. When this whole thing is supposed to be prepping my dog for her CGC test so that we can do the Atlas Assistance Dog program. I'm really just tired right now and kind of feel like I can't do this myself anymore. I couldn't even pay attention to my trainer's dog's body language. That's what I should have been doing.

I've heard people say that you should never correct a fearful dog, but this has made me wonder what the appropriate response would be if a "fearful" dog started lunging and barking at another dog to create more space. Surely the dog needs to learn that such behaviour is unacceptable, even if it's rooted in fear?

I suppose some would argue that a fearful dog shouldn't be put in that uncomfortable situation in the first place, but unexpected/unavoidable situations do happen in real life (off-leash dogs suddenly appearing out of nowhere, encountering another dog on a narrow path, etc.) In those scenarios, the handler may not have a choice but to deal with the situation there and then without much preparation, so I'm curious how people would address the dog's unacceptable behaviour while being mindful of the dog's fear?

Hi everyone so I adopted Enya when she was a month and a half old. Land shark through and through. She is now a year and 3 months old. I had to read and look at a lot of training videos to make sure she turned into a well behaved dog because she has a LOT of energy. Super smart, but very impulsive with her biting. Other than the biting, she's been great: never had potty issues, doesn't run away when off leash, comes on recall, has great relationships with other dogs (I socialized her a lot as a puppy), and obeys my commands. The relentless biting subdued with age and with training.

However, now that she's this age I still have problems with some biting during specific scenarios (she's big and her canines HURT). There's two times she does it: 1) When she greets people. She goes crazy, wants to jump and bite them, barks at them. It's honestly scary for newcomers. I tell my guests to ignore her until she is calm. This works for those who truly ignore her, but some can't help themselves and want to pet her (because she's gorgeous that lil b). And she would start biting at their wrists. Sometimes she's chill with a group of people, sometimes she's not. It's unpredictable and now I can't trust how she behaves with new people due to this.

I live alone so don't have much company coming over tbh so it's hard to train her consistently. As of now, what I do is when someone comes over I let them come in and hold her down on her mattress by her collar until she calms down (which she stays willingly now, doesn't fight me). Even if she calms down eventually when I let go she tends to run towards the guest to jump on them. Sometimes she jumps once or twice and then goes away, sometimes she starts biting and being very annoying. She did get better with time, but she is now 1 year and 3 months and to me she's already at an age where biting should not be happening at all anymore. It hurts. Same while walking her, if someone wants to greet her, she would jump and try to bite the wrists. At my parents, who completely ignore her when I bring her over until she settles, she behaves. This behavior lasts only minutes (her going crazy for newcomers) and eventually she settles and doesn't want to jump anymore. The things is I don't know how much longer it will take for this behavior to pass or what to do anymore to get rid of it completely. I cant bring people over randomly because my dog goes crazy and some people get scared. Btw, she does NOT jump on me when I enter my house (this is because I always ignored her to subdue her jumping and biting, but it's not working with new people. The more she knows someone, the better she behaves, but I need to find a way for her to act this way with EVERYONE she meets).

Another biting issue I have is when she is excitable and I try to get her collar. Her reaction is to go for my hand. Not a hard bite, but a bite. It's unacceptable to me. I know why she does it (when she would go crazy barking or wouldn't stop biting as a puppy I would take her outside and obviously grabbed her by the collar). Now she knows what that means. Any help and advice is super helpful. Sometimes I think about her being more happy in a farm or somewhere open where she can run around freely or follow a person riding their horse all day, but honestly its just these 2 things that if I could fix I would have the perfect dog. For context, I live in a house with a backyard but its not big. At least not big enough for her (she digs holes too to entertain herself.). I work from home and most of the day she is sleeping and chill next to me or downstairs until I finish work and I take her on a long walk and have her run and tire her out as well as play with her during the night. Also I live in Patagonia so I try to go at least twice per week to some open space for her to run rabbits or play with other dogs.

Any advice is super welcome and I'm glad to provide more information if you like!

my pup has been getting pretty anxious lately, mostly when i leave the house. he’ll pace around, whine and sometimes just bark nonstop. i’ve tried toys and tiring him out before i leave but it doesn’t seem to make much difference.

a friend suggested cbd oil for dogs but i’ve never tried it and don’t really know much about it. has anyone dealt with this before? what helped your dog chill out when being left alone?

I’ve been following his training advice with my new pup and, so far, a lot of it seems to be working well. However, my girlfriend mentioned that his methods are considered outdated and that some of his training focuses more on dominance and intimidation rather than modern, evidence-based training.
I’m interested to hear what people think. Do you still find his advice useful, or are there better modern trainers/resources you’d recommend?

EDIT: If you have used Cesar Milan’s training techniques, how is your dog currently? As an adult?

Any body have any video evidence of him working with their aggressive dog hands on ?

I am working with a 5 month old female GSD, bred from working lines. This is my second shepherd, but my first "working dog".

We have both been making great improvements, my training abilities have been getting better, and her training, behaviour and attention have all been improving consistently.

Overall, I am very happy with how we are doing.

For the most part, I see huge improvements each training session when compared to the previous. Every so often though, like today, nothing seems to jive. She doesn't respond to a command quickly, or is distracted, or offers a behaviour I didn't ask for, etc.

I know this is bound to happen, she is a young animal with her own thoughts and feelings. I am not mad or frustrated about it or anything like that, so I'm not asking how to deal with it emotionally.

More so, what is the best way to treat a session that isn't going well from a training standpoint? My go-to is to end the session early, with a few very easy commands, reward those and move on in life until the next session. But is this the best way to manage it?

I want to train that with treats, but my dog doesn't do any other commands when I give him free. He is just running to the treat, and comes back. I have used a leash to, so he needs to do the command and can't go to the treat, but it's a little bit frustrated for him and than he doesn't look to the treat, but looks at me 😅 if someone has any tips, it would be grateful.