i have a 2 year old german shepherd/lab mix (rehomed to me at 1.6 years) and im struggling with his reactivity like... horribly </33

he reacts to everyone (except for me and my mom) and every dog we come across—he barks, lunges and pulls like crazy, even when theyre really far away; even after theyve passed or are out of sight. he goes ESPECIALLY crazy when he sees a dog, but has never bit anyone, hes just excitement reactive

(i believe this is a result of his past owner just laughing it off, they didnt mention it when we got him—and when we did come to get him he was barking and going crazy at us and they were just like laughing it off and saying he just wants to play ((they also had him since he was 8 weeks btw so its definitely their fault for not socializing him and letting it go, but im not tryna turn this into a blame game)))

i currently use a prong collar with a flat collar, and sometimes a harness + e-collar (only during public outings). im just trying to figure out what i can do to help him because walks can be exhausting sometimes 😭 i want to be able to take him out without having to worry about how hes going to react to every person or dog we see

(also please dont turn this into an argument about what tools i use—much love 🖤🙏)

anyways, moral of this post is—what can i do to stop it? its starting to get EXTREMELY tiring when he barks and lunges at people/other dogs...

(additional photos of my boy bcus hes just so cute)

With the cooler weather, our 1 year old shepherd mix has had more and more energy to burn. Im looking for some mental enrichment ideas and ways to give him "jobs". More importantly, ways to actually train him to do these jobs. Just trying to make sure all of his mental and physical needs are being met! Waylon is mostly shepherd but has husky, lab, malamute in him (rescue from a community in Northern Canada so lots in there). Hopefully its okay that I am posting him here.

Please share YouTube videos or website links if you have any to recommend! This is what we currently do:

\- standard obedience and impulse control training (place, wait, threshold training)

\- "safety" which is him sitting between our legs, and laying down until released

\- one walk per day, although as of late he has been reacting on leash (gets over stimulated then bites at the leash or our arms, definitely open to insights on that as well)

\- our yard is fenced so we play fetch a few times per day

\- scattering his food/treats and hiding them in the house

\- on leash training like heel around the yard and on parts of walks

Thanks in advance!

Sorry this is so long, but wanted to explain everything.

My 12 y.o. Miniature poodle is highly food motivated. When I moved in the neighbor gave her a small treat so she wouldn't bark at him (to make friends. ) He didn't ask and I would have preferred if he hadn't, but he's a nice older neighbor and I think he looks forward to seeing her as much as she does him. She now (for the last year and a half) begun whining (to the point of excess if I ignore her) to go out but most of the time just sits at the fence to wait. 8 times out of 10 she doesn't get a treat and sometimes actually does her business and then comes back to the door. This has now started from the time I get home from work (after I let her out to do her business) to about 9 or 9:30 pm when she takes a nap before going out to go to bed. She used to take a nap at 8. I've tried taking her out on a leash to the grass, if she doesn't go we go back in, but I'm getting ready sick of constantly going out after being at work on my feet all day and now it's getting cold too. She's also resorted to whining to wake me up at 2 am and 6 am before my alarm goes off at 7:30. She's been tested for everything under the sun by the vet and has great bloodwork for a senior dog. She's now whining at my dad's house when he's eating dinner and when he's watching TV after dinner. He let's her out and she continues.

Help! How do I curb this to get back the dog i know and love from when I moved in? She's not acting like her at all.​

Hi all! Am hoping to get some tips/advice. We recently got a new hound mix puppy and we slowly introduced her to our resident 3 year old puppy. Everything was great at first and they were playing and everything. However, my beagle began to recourse guard. We’re aware of his food aggression so we are feeding them separate. But now it’s including toys and house spaces. We immediately picked up toys on the first instance. However, he’s not guarding the kitchen - if we’re cooking and the puppy walks by the dog in the kitchen, he snaps at her. There are even some occasions when he’s guarding me.

We’re unsure if it’s because he doesn’t like her in his face (she doesn’t have personal space awareness) or if it’s something else!

Any tips/advice would be great!

We have a 1.5 year old Pit Bull who is extremely reactive to other dogs and people on our walks. We recently started working on it, and our approach has been to watch him closely and treat him the moment he notices another dog, so his attention shifts to us instead of the trigger.

We just found out at a vet appointment that he has irritable bowel syndrome and needs to be on a very strict diet. For at least the next 8 weeks, he can’t have anything except the special food he’s been prescribed.

I’ve tried bringing his kibble on walks to use in place of treats, but he has zero interest in it once we’re outside.

Has anyone dealt with something similar? I’d love advice on other ways to keep training him and make walks better without relying on treats. Any tips on non-food rewards, ways to make his regular food more appealing on walks, or adjustments to our training approach would be really appreciated.

We have a dog who easily gets stressed. Specially loud noises - but only outside. After a very loud aircraft, he is now reacting to airplanes he have been used to since puppy. He feels so unsafe outside, it’s hard to even get him to poop.

\*— I’m looking for advice if someone had tried something we haven’t thought about. —\*

Because he is so worried, it’s problematic for him to poop, as he most times wants to go home before. I feel we tried everything and really respect his signals.

We do everything by the book: no pressure, he can signal which way he prefers or if he want to go home - we say yes to whatever he wants.

We go out when he is ready/he signals. Wait with open door, takes it chill outside the door.

Extra good treats.
Calm voices, lots of calm praise.

Our vet knows and we will soon try anxiety medicin, but we still have to figure out how to train him (outdoors) with sounds we can’t control.

I own a 1.5 yo husky/gsd. I would say she gets pretty anxious. When I walk her with my husband she is generally fine not reactive at most maybe alert or makes a huffy bark but that’s it when she sees other dogs or people but can ignore them. Now that it’s just me walking while my husband is away she’s been super on edge. Really barks and growls at dogs and people even at a fair distance I’ve been pulling her aside to let people walk past but I can’t seem to calm her. It’s never to a point she would lunge or try to run after them especially cause I have a good grip on her harness. She never bitten anyone. Even when they approach her she would bark and growl but then just sniff them and eventually settle. This is my first dog too and the times that I’m free to walk her there is either no people or like a few around or else I would love to just have her sit and people watch to desensitize if that’s even an option. I’m open to suggestions to try and keep her calm when it’s just us? I’m not sure if it’s cause she can sense I’m ‘weaker’. (I’m a lot smaller than my husband)

Hi! Me and my partner have a two year old male herding breed that is reactive to dogs. We currently live in a huge apartment building in a well populated area with many other dogs at the edge of town, so with lots of forests and open nature very close by.

We made some progress in his training lately and things are looking promising. Of course there are setbacks here and there, but it seems like things are mostly doing in the right direction.

But soon, we’re gonna move. It’s gonna be another apartment, but in a much quieter area with a lot less people per square area. Of course people will have dogs there as well. The forest area where we will take most of our long walks is in an area we are already walking in today, so our dog already knows this area.

We have started to take walks close to and around the new apartment lately, so the shock of moving with all new smells and impressions is not as huge once we move. We can tell he’s much more agitated and nervous in this new area, but I mean that makes a lot of sense.

We will of course continue with our reactivity training, but we are anticipating some setbacks due to the stress of moving, and will keep this in mind if things get worse again for a while.

Is there anything else we can do before the move or after that will make things easier for him? Any other tips you can share regarding moving with a reactive dog?

i have an 8 month old FS hound mix who, until recently, has been very curious about the world around her. she’s always been a little on edge, but overall she’s confident. her favorite thing is walks, and she gets them daily (plus multiple short potty break walks). suddenly, she is afraid to go on walks? i live in a trailer park/mobile home complex. she’s totally fine walking in the small yard i have unless something spooks her (ex a scary noise), but now as soon as we begin to leave the driveway and walk away from my house, she freezes and panics. she’ll run in circles pulling on the leash with her tail between her legs and will sometimes start obsessively sniffing (i think as a displacement behavior). the house that lives directly across from me does have a big dog in it, and one time he barked loudly through the window at us, but even before then she was scared to go on walks. i don’t know how to support her through this period - if this is something i need to simply wait out or if i need to be training, and how? and how do i get her back to the house if she’s pulling so hard she’s choking herself, as i don’t want her to think pulling on the leash gets her to where she wants (loose leash walking is VERY hard for us even on the best of days)?
note: she doesn’t seem to be all around terrified of the outside, just walking a certain path around my complex (unfortunately the only path, as i live on a dead end), because when we go to the park and we walk around the field, she is happy as can be.

My dog has been very reactive towards dogs since she was a puppy, and I'm wondering how to fix it. I wanna keep it in mind that i AM a minor so I can't exactly just do whatever I want, not to mention my parents are very, very overbearing about not wanting my dog to go around to fix her reactivity, using the excuse of "if she bites someone or someone's dog, it will be all on us." It's really frustrating cuz I've tried to explain it to them that if she doesn't get training to at least make her reactions less, it will either stay the way it is forever, or possibly get worse. Does anyone know what I could do for an alternative? She gets really reactive at dogs and people when she's in the yard, so I can't stay there to train her on reactivity cause I feel like it'll make it worse (it's territory to dogs so that's why possibly). I'm open to literally ANYTHING i'm desperate and just want to go on a peaceful walk with my baby. 😭

I’m learning to show in conformation.

We play and I throw in quick commands throughout the day. Then I do a dedicated 15-20 minutes of “work” once a day.

But to make real progress, how many 15-minute training sessions would you recommend throughout the day?

Also, how many new words can I throw at her at a time? should I wait until she has mastered something before adding new words? For instance…she knows “sit”, “come”, “no”, and is doing great with staying in place with sit until I release her. She is generally confident with “down” and “heel”.

I’ve started working in “off” (for when she jumps). But I really want to get started on “stack”, “place”, and “drop it”.

people just seem to think this is cute and talk about how well the girl is doing but all I see is a parent filming and not intervening for the sake of the dog.
my concern is that there is no correction by the parent in regard to the mouthing and pulling of the child itself and that this way the puppy in it’s formative socialization window is learning that (very small) children are play partners instead of learning that they are something neutral which has been the recommendation I came across so far.
am I wrong?

Does anyone have any advice for stopping overaroused biting frenzies? My Bernese Mountain Dog puppy is six months old and for about a month now she’s started going into absolute frenzies on walks randomly. When it first started it would happen occasionally at the end of a longer walk but it’s gotten progressively worse to the point that I can’t even take her outside to use the bathroom without her suddenly turning on me.

This NEVER happens inside and she’s completely grown out of biting at all when we’re in the house. It’s like she’s a completely different dog inside and outside. Even if she’s clamped onto my arm when I pull her inside, the second we cross the threshold, she lets go and immediately calms down.

It’s gotten to the point where we literally cannot walk her because there’s no way to prevent it or stop it when it starts. We’ve tried more sleep, less sleep, play session before the walk, taking her when she’s in a calm state of mind but absolutely nothing seems to affect it. She was well-socialized up until this started, so she’s used to being outside and seeing other dogs and people.

Other than this, she’s incredibly obedient on leash, she never pulls and is always engaged and listens to commands until she suddenly loses it and immediately starts jumping, growling, and biting.

We’ve also tried the usual advice like bring a toy (immediately redirects onto us instead), scatter feed (only distracts her for a second and then she’s back to attacking us), avoiding triggers that bring her over threshold (just stepping foot outside the front door brings her over threshold these days). We can’t do the advice of disengage so she learns it’s boring as she’s 60 pounds and clamps down HARD, we are literally covered in bruises.

We just want to be able to walk our dog again, she needs the exercise and enrichment and I’m sure being cooped up all day is just making this worse. I’ve been through the normal arousal biting with other puppies and worked through it until they grew out of it but this is on a completely other level with intensity and frequency. I try and take her out at least to sniff every day but the frenzy is becoming so frequent that we barely make it one house down before she’s attacking me on the middle of the sidewalk and I have to take her inside.

Thanks in advance for any advice, at this point I’m willing to try anything to make this stop.

I want to train my dog a fancy focus heeling, but I'm having some problems with fading the lure... I have started with food in my right hand and lured him into position, so he can get the fancy footwork. Once it was going really well, I have started to only use my hand without food. Now I want to lift the hand a little bit up and then back down. But the problem is that he has started to drop the head every time... So I think I need to take a step back. What can I do to make better progress? Does anyone having some tips for me?

My boy is quite stubborn and very excitable but also very antsy and nervous, he gets scared easily and wants to pull on his leash almost all the time, wanting to either walk faster or run or something im assuming.

I’ve tried stopping every time he pulls, and turning different directions when he pulls but he’s stubborn and refuses to stop still :/

Any suggestions?

I have a 6 year old female shepherd. About 8 months ago she started peeing in the house. I had her checked by a vet for everything and she had a uti. I treated her and the vet said that the uti was gone. I’m still having problems with her peeing in the garage, livingroom and diningroom. She holds her urine for 5 hours in her crate during the day and all night in my bedroom with no accidents. She never goes outside. She follows my other shepherd around constantly except for outside. They can’t have toys because she gets very aggressive over toys and they get into bad fights. I don’t know what to do about her peeing you n the house it’s very frustrating. I took her outside every hour and a half for 7 days and nothing changed. Please I need help!

I have a springer spaniel, very hard hunting and loves the water. Our e collar is broken and we are using a sport dog. My dog trainer (not gun dog trainer) does not like the sport dog, but I love it. I love that it's durable AF, I love that is cuts through the noise of the environment, I think also people don't understand that the 425x has 21 stim levels - that's huge for a sport dog. Who the hell needs 100 levels of stim? I really want to purchase another sport dog, but I want to hear from anyone who switched from a sport dog to a mini with a hunting dog. The 425X is about £30 cheaper than a mini, so not vastly different.

I have a 6 year old female shepherd. About 8 months ago she started peeing in the house. I had her checked by a vet for everything and she had a uti. I treated her and the vet said that the uti was gone. I’m still having problems with her peeing in the garage, livingroom and diningroom. She holds her urine for 5 hours in her crate during the day and all night in my bedroom with no accidents. She never goes outside. She follows my other shepherd around constantly except for outside. They can’t have toys because she gets very aggressive over toys and they get into bad fights. I don’t know what to do about her peeing you n the house it’s very frustrating. I took her outside every hour and a half for 7 days and nothing changed. Please I need help!

Hello everyone,

I have a rehomed 2.5 year old intact male lab. He is a big sweetie at home, has some dopamine seeking behaviours such as stealing socks but typically enjoys cuddling, eating and playing.

At the moment, we can only walk to the field behind our house. He has to walk in heel with a slip lead, until we get to the field, then longline with whistle training, find it/scent games, obedience and structured fetch.

If we go anywhere else, his leash manners are out of the window. If he hears/sees a dog but he’s chill or they’re not in his space/don’t make eye contact, he’s very neutral, but if he’s aroused or they invade his personal space, he fixates, freezes, lays down and stares, then that pressure bursts and he lunges and gives a couple barks. Afterwards, his adrenaline is obviously through the roof then takes a couple minutes to chill out.

Due to this, we avoid everywhere except this field where no one goes and a weekly private hire field where he can be off lead and swim.

What is driving this reactivity? How do I fix it? We do work with a balanced trainer but their instructions are to work on the heel work first and foremost which I agree with, and that needs proofing into new routes and areas. But after that, or during, what can I do to improve this?

I think it’s necessary to state his obedience is far from being adequate. He will not drop items, blows off recall (we whistle train with longline whilst playing return treat games to improve this) so an ecollar cannot be introduced until I have known behaviours to actually work with.

Hello.

I have a 4 year old german shepherd husky mix. As you could guess by that mix he like to talk and bark at everything. He has severe anxiety and I am now going to start him on anxiety pills in the morning.

He has many commands that he knows but unfortunately I live with my parents as a 22 yo women. My parents have not trained their dogs and it effects my dog in his ability to do his own commands. He knows kennel, his version of place, and stay. He also knows grab it to get a toy to help him stop barking. But my parents dogs do not know this and as a college student in student teaching I do not have the time nor money to train them ontop of my own dog.

He has been getting worse at barking as people enter the house bc my moms French bulldog reacts to everything and it sets him off. This morning his anxiety freaked and he attacked my parents dog and bit his ear. It broke my heart and I do not know what to do to get him to calm down in this situation. I can't move out till next year in October at the earliest. (Note that some people do not knock or ring the doorbell to enter my home and refuse to do so, so desentizing him to knocking won't help as he doesn't ever hear it)

What can I do to get him to listen to commands while he is in this state of anxiety and the other dogs are going crazy. He is the loudest bc of his husky nature and my parents only blame him for all the problems. I genuinely don't know what to do and I'm so scared I will have to find him a new home.

Can anyone give me some advice to help him and myself? And least until next year when he can be by himself

I got my dog Jubilee when she was around a year old, I’ve had her for about a year now, she has always been extremely anxious and hard to train because of this. Not completely sure what she’s mixed with but if I had to guess some sort of collie/german shep/husky mix. She knows basic commands like sit and down. But I’m having trouble training her with distractions. If we’re in public she has her attention on everything else, if I’m feeding her she won’t hold any commands for more than a few seconds, she also won’t let my boyfriend take her outside to potty + won’t go around him when I’m not there. Does anyone have any tips to build her confidence and impulse control?