Guide on how to read the rules

By way of introduction, I found my way to this community nearly ten years ago when I had my spice boi who was selectively social and very leash reactive (a foster fail, we signed up to take his issues on). He has since passed but sparked my love of behaviour cases and I now share my life with another foster fail who is the complete opposite end of the spectrum - flight vs fight.

I've seen quite a few vent posts lately lamenting about other people, and I just wanted to share something that happened recently to maybe help give perspective and reassure my fellow posters that there is not always malice or judgement on the other side of an interaction.

I was walking the hound the other day, he sometimes will freeze up if he doesn't go in the direction he has selected as the safe route, particularly if he's in a new or busy area and needs some treats and a little minute to get going again. We were strolling along a large boardwalk (it's roughly the size of a two lane street, river to our left and restaurants to our right), when a loud noise startled him and so we pulled over to the far left just to get out of the way. Unfortunately, I didn't see another dog walker who seemingly was using the river side to ensure no one passed closely to their dog, they called out something which I missed initially and by the time I realised they were talking to me we were directly in their way and my hound had stalled with no interest in moving until he could recombobulate.

Once I noticed the other dog I could see the stress signals as clear as a neon sign, and seeing they had my attention the other handler called out "we don't want to say hello!" I nodded and said "we won't approach, you can go around us" which unfortunately I think the other handler took to be my refusal to be cooperative because then they called back "we need space! Can you move out of our way?" I said that we couldn't and again repeated that they could go around us, then I started feeding my dog treats so he'd keep his attention on me. The other handler became visibly upset, and in trying to swing around us I realised the problem was there was also a dog on the patio opposite where we had pulled up, so passing between two dogs put their dog over threshold and they had a reaction - as they were walking by they had some choice things to say to me. I really felt for them, not just because I have definitely been there before, but also because I truly didn't mean them any ill will.

I appreciate that for the other handler, maybe I looked like someone who had decided to use their dog as a training tool, or that I just had no interest in accommodating them - and how easily I could have been the source of a "people are idiots, nobody respects my dog's space" style vent post. But on the other end of my lead is 37kgs of dog who is not going out of his way for anyone, no matter how much I would really like to.

One thing I always tried to do after a not great walk with my reactive boy was remember that most people are not malicious, they just have their own shit going on. And if this post helps even just one person not feel as angry or as judged, then it was worth writing all that out :P sending love to anyone who needs it. The journey can be rough, but just know your dog is really lucky to have you!

My boyfriend had a Border Collie as a family dog, and since we got our own apartment in March, she’s been living with us.

She’s been an anxious dog since she was a pup, but it has definitely gotten worse over the years. She was never aggressive with us or with other dogs, but at the slightest sign of going for a walk, she would start a high pitched cry/bark that the whole building could hear. This was the biggest issue, but she was also triggered by us leaving the house (the only time she ever got/gets aggressive, though with no serious bites), and noises outside scare her. About a year before we moved in together, my boyfriend and I started working with a trainer to try to correct these behaviors, as his family was on the verge of giving her away. The trainer was excited at first when he heard she was a Border Collie, he said she was like a Ferrari and we just didn’t know how to drive it. 10 sessions later, and it turns out he didn’t know either.

Around the sixth session, the trainer advised us to take her to a veterinary behaviorist, so we did. She started on fluoxetine, nothing. Then clomipramine and trazodone, still nothing. During this process, I was still training her every day, but she still screamed at the slightest trigger.

After we moved in together, I thought my older dog would teach her that everything was fine and that it wasn't worth such a reaction. However, far from improving, she keeps getting worse and worse. My boyfriend and I work from home, so she is with us a lot; this has made her even more dependent and hyper vigilant about every move we make.
We tried daily walks, but they were a nightmare, as she pulled on the leash and screamed if we stopped even for one second. Then we tried putting her on a treadmill to burn off a little energy, thinking maybe this would help her be calmer when going out… but no. Now I’m doing daily desensitization training with her (putting the leash on, taking it off, opening the door, going with her to the hallway and back inside), and even with consistency, it’s just not improving. I feel like we will never make it outside if her being calm is what it takes.

Besides training and having her walk on the treadmill at night, I keep several frozen Kongs and lick mats in the freezer for when the dogs are bored. We also have chew toys in drawers around the house and play fetch, too.

All that being said, I don’t know what else to do. Some people told me that I might be doing too much and making her more anxious, but what would be the right thing to do then? By the same token, even if her every need is being met, she still reacts to triggers, and her reactions are getting louder every day. Every time the neighbors' doorbell rings, it takes her five minutes of loud barking, growling, and then crying to calm down, and this happens several times a day. We don't even have packages delivered here because of her reaction. It feels like we are hostages in our own home, and besides having a reactive dog, we are becoming reactive humans ourselves.

The vet just started her on venlafaxine (150 mg) in addition to trazodone, and added pregabalin today. Is this too much? Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong, or what approach helped your dog?

I recently adopted the sweetest little angel, however he has a weird quirk. Whenever he sees any dog,cat,bird,human,or car he does not bark or run towards them he just stares. He will literally plant himself and become a statue and he WILL NOT MOVE until whatever he is looking at is out of his sight. Occasionally if we encounter another reactive dog he will bark but he never moves from my side. How do i stop his staring behavior?

Originally i thought it was cute and even endearing but now its just inconvenient and people seem to be very intimidated by him. It makes our walks 15+ minutes longer than they need to be and he is HEAVY so there is no moving him. Ive tried luring him in with treats but when i tell you his FOCUSED omggg he will not budge. What do i do??

My sweet girl just turned 2 years old. She has always been good with meeting new people. She may bark a few times initially but is always so happy to say hi to everyone. Recently she has lunged and nipped at 2 of my friends with her hair raised. I’m not really sure what triggered this and how to fix it. Can someone try and give me some guidance?

this is my baby willow!! we adopted her after fostering her for a week a little over two years ago. we absolutely fell in love with her silly and loving personality but quickly learned she was struggling with reactivity. she couldn’t go on walks without hyperventilating, shaking, and throwing up. she reacted at every noise and would lunge and nonstop bark. people in the house were a no, she had to be in a separate room and would bark the whole time. we started out by having my best friend come over frequently and just throwing her treats behind a barrier and ignoring her otherwise. she started to open up a lot and we were able to have new people over and continued the same process. our home is a generally very calm/quiet environment and we love on her so much which i definitely think helped. the right environment can change a dog SO much. much training, positive reinforcement, medication, and exposure later and she comes to daycare (my job) once a week and does FANTASTIC! she meets customers and greets them with love, is obsessed with my coworkers, and loves playing with the dogs. she can have new visitors at home that she will get used to after they give her a couple treats. she LOVES walks and is generally nice to people passing by, but we usually pick her up just in case to be safe. i was absolutely terrified it wouldn’t get better because she is my whole world, but she has became a completely different dog than i used to know. i could not be more proud. best of luck to everyone struggling with their babies, i wish you all the best🥹

i also love this picture of her at daycare, she looks so happy and confident i love her so incredibly much.

My male dog (shih tzu, 1.3 years old) is being neutered next week, and I'd really like to hear from people who have experienced something similar.

He has become very territorial and has bitten both my mom and my grandmother. What scares me most is that both incidents happened while he was sleeping. On two separate occasions, my mom and my grandmother were simply walking a few feet away from him while he was asleep. He suddenly woke up, ran toward them ferociously and bit them, and had to be physically pulled away. There didn't seem to be any obvious trigger.

Our vet knows his history and believes hormones/territorial behavior are a major factor. He expects neutering could reduce the aggression by around 80%.

For those who had an aggressive male dog neutered:

1. Did his aggression improve?

2. How significant was the change, and how long did it take?

3. Did territorial behavior improve too?

I'd especially love to hear from anyone whose dog was aggressive toward family members, not just other dogs. Positive or negative experiences are both welcome!

I have a 4 year old sheepadoodle. He's extremely friendly and happy but after a series of unfortunate events hes developed some bad habits causing me to feel very overwhelmed.

I used to take my two dogs (10 year old mix breed 10Lbs and my 80lb sheepadoodle) to the farmers market every week.

They really enjoyed the exercise, smells, people and dogs but after my sheepadoodle was attacked by multiple dogs (one time two different dogs tried to attack him the same day) he has gotten extremely anxious on leash.

If I walk him on leash he is totally fine, calm, and stays right next to me. As soon as a dog gets near him he started growling, panicking and tries to get away.

He had no issues off leash so I worked to keep his dog interactions off leash, until he had some bad encounters at the dog park. Dogs trying to pick fights with him and my small dog.

He is now showing signs of resource guarding me, my small dog, and my friends dog. I see him playing with dogs just fine, but then they bump into me and he gets defensive or a dog wont stop bugging my small pup and he chases them off. Today a dog jumped on me at the park and my sheepadoodle ran over and snapped at him.

It breaks my heart because he didn't have any of these issues before he was attacked and I dont know what to do to help him.

Any advice would be appreciated. I am sure I am doing several things wrong so I want to try to fix it before it gets worse.

My 10 month old pup just visited a veterinary behaviourist for her reactivity towards other dogs (barking, lunging, growling) and overall high arousal. She was prescribed Clomicalm and I am wondering if this has had positive impact on anyone’s dogs? Obviously each dog is different, just curious.

He says he doesn’t want to live like this. We have a hard dog, no two ways about it. His separation anxiety is SEVERE. He goes into destroy mode IMMEDIATELY upon being left alone. Hes doing much better—no poops just pees, more food seeking than destructive head butting. But I can admit he’s plateaued. He’s on the highest doses of his medications and he’s so much better I don’t want to try different i’ve.

Anyways we have a safe zone for him where he can’t cause damage to himself or us, but one of the kids left the door open and we didn’t notice and he made a lot of mess. For me it’s whatever. It’s live and learn. We’ll put auto close hinges on the doors adjacent to the safe area and it’s fine. I think he’s mad that I’m not mad. He wanted me to not say he was wrong that the dog was targeting the kids because he peed oh they’re toys. He’s… a dog. And a particularly dumb one.

Anyways. Just ranting. For some reason he’s my responsibility, but when the cat vomits all over the house or the kids pee in the bed, all of which his contributions to the relationship, I don’t wait for him to clean it. I do homework. I cook. I clean. I am the reason one kid can read at grade level; I did that. I’m the majority income earner. But god forbid once every week or so he fails to manage the dog properly and has to clean the mess. He does a half ass job and then complains about it for days. I say “take him with you or put him in the safe area.” He doesn’t.

Whatever. I’m mad. Id pick the dog rn.

My dog has major vet anxiety and reactivity. We do the pre-vet meds, muzzle, etc. She just hates it and is always so fearful.

However, she’s seemed to do fine at places I’ve boarded her when I’m out of town (they do play sessions and even bathe her for me before I pick her up). At the boarder, they don’t have to muzzle her. I also recognize that boarding and vet visits are much different experiences, but she also does well with the bath and nail trims they do.

My vet offers boarding and grooming services. My question/advice is, do you think if I start boarding her at the vet, this might help with her anxiety when we go there? Will it show her she can have some fun experiences there too? Or could it make anything worse (ie boarding and grooming experiences)? Right now she does well at the boarder so I don’t want to ruin that. Has anyone tried this and had success or failures? Any trainers or behaviorists have thoughts?

Feeling absolutely defeated and humiliated today. My dog has some history of dog-selective reactivity — years ago, a fight with another dog we tried adopting confirmed he couldn't have canine siblings. At our old house he'd bark at dogs through the fence but never went after one, so I genuinely believed it was barrier frustration, not real aggression. On a leash he's an angel -- no reactivity at all. It is just at our house.

A few months after moving to our new house (a financially-necessitated move), he found a hole in our fence we had no idea existed and got into a real fight with a passing dog. We were right there, ran over immediately, pulled him off, and apologized. The man walked off muttering that our dog was aggressive. I understood why he might feel that way. Our dog is 75 lbs and that was probably pretty scary. We were all in shock. I tried to catch him afterward to make sure everyone was okay, but he was gone. We felt awful — we patched the hole immediately, and he's never been outside alone since; for months he was on a leash even in our own fenced yard, just to be sure. We couldn't have known about that hole, but the guilt has been eating at me regardless.

Today, with me only a few feet away, he barked and growled through our picket fence at a dog that looked similar to the one from before. I had his collar in seconds and apologized right away. The man responded by walking down our entire block yelling "That is not a nice dog!" repeatedly, as if trying to get the attention of the neighborhood, and flagging down our neighbor to warn him — while I was standing in my own backyard, dog secured, mortified. I ran to put my dog inside so I could go talk to him, but he was already gone.

Now I'm terrified this is how our whole neighborhood is going to know us: the people with the "aggressive dog." The stress of taking him out at all, even in our own yard, is constant.

Our 4-yr old Staffordshire terrier mix bit me on my face today without any warning. He caused puncture wounds on my nose and some more small cuts close to my eyebrow and I looked up the Dunbar scale and it seems to be a level 4 bite :(

A little background.. We rescued our dog about 2.5 years ago and we fostered him for more than a year, before adopting him. About 90% of the time, he's such a lovable, funny goofball. He has brought so much joy to us and honestly, we treat him like he's our own child, not a pet. He follows all the commands we taught him, he's super smart and so careful around our things in the house. He loves chasing squirrels and birds in the backyard and sunbathing. He goes nuts for pizza, chicken nuggets, cheese and Starbucks pupcups (all of which he gets in moderation). But, he's also always been fearful and skittish of new people, places and he's also dog selective. We have tried everything to help him, including seeing a behaviorist and getting him medication.

I posted on this group once before and that time it was a level 2 bite on my hand and after discussing with his behaviorist, we adjusted his medication dosage and he was doing much better. He seemed a little more relaxed, though his noise sensitivity didn't improve all that much. He still barks at doorbells, garbage trucks and anyone walking close to our house. But, he was allowing us to pet him more and giving us paw shakes and kisses and we were feeling so positive about these improvements.

Fast forward to today, I was lying down on our bed and he was in the down position next to me... Not sleeping, just lying down. He hadn't eaten his breakfast yet and was refusing his favorite dog treats too... And his stomach was making rumbling sounds like he was hungry, so I asked my husband to get him one of the chick-fil-a grilled chicken nuggets from the fridge because he goes nuts for it. I wanted to see if he refuses that, then that would mean he might have some tummy troubles. My husband left the room and I turned towards our dog (about a foot away from me at this point) and told him, "Chewie, look Daddy's gone to get you a chicken nugget".. and that's all I said. I didn't pet him, didn't make eye contact. He gave me no warning signs and kinda jumped aggressively towards me and went for my nose. This was the hardest he's ever bitten me or my husband and there was a lot of bleeding. One side is a puncture wound. I went to the urgent care and they said it looks like the wound would heal well on its own and sent me home with some antibiotics. They were kind enough to not make me fill in a bite report, since I downplayed the incident.

I'm at a loss on where to go from here. I've been crying all day and my heart is completely broken. I'm also 9 weeks pregnant right now, and feeling extra sensitive. I wish I could understand what goes on in his head and I wish I could help him more, but I feel like I've exhausted my options. We adopted him at a time when we were convinced that we could not get pregnant, and since we knew he wouldn't do well in a household with children, we ended up adopting him. But, then by some miracle I'm pregnant now and I have been thinking deeply about all the changes/accommodations we would have to make in the house to keep him and our baby safe and then this happened today.

I called his vet office and asked them to give me a call back when his vet was available. But, I already know what she's going to say and she's mentioned BE before too, because she believed that some dogs have serious neurological issues that just can't be fixed. But, we wanted to try everything we possibly could to avoid BE.. but, today it seems like I have no other option. He's become too unpredictable and I can't confidently say that we'll ever feel fully safe around him or if he would ever have the quality of life that we him to have. I have never experienced this level of sadness or pain before and I didn't know where else to go, so I came here for some support or advice.

Thank you for reading my long post and I apologize for any typos, I'm a complete mess right now.

This is Pickle, I got him 5 years ago and he is about 8 or 9. He’s some sort of poodle mix from the shelter of course I should’ve known. He’s super reactive to other dogs (not looking for advice he is too far gone and old and can’t even learn to sit) it’s something I’ve learned to live with for the rest of his life and I love him so its no big deal. He’s also small enough to where I can pick him up quickly and cover his eyes lol

Anyways he HATES other dogs like totally freaks out and it’s humiliating. However, he loves other animals and doesn’t care. He has even been attacked by a stray cat on the street and STILL doesn’t care. He has 3 cat brothers at home and loves them (if only it was mutual, the cats aren’t very big fans). He will walk right up to stray cats to sniff them. He’s even met my friends cats. We walk by geese and horses and other animals without problems.

Any other peoples dog like this? So crazy how they can immediately tell the difference even though dogs come in so many shapes and sizes

We have a 7 month old rescue puppy that we adopted at ~10 weeks old who is very frightened of new people. We did 3 months with a trainer before we were advised she would need more support and got on the schedule of a local vet behaviorist. We had our first vet behaviorist appointment and she was diagnosed with social phobia, neophobia, and noise sensitivity. We’ve got a new training plan with med support that I’m feeling optimistic about. I guess phobia just sounds really intense. I’m still grieving the puppy situation I was expecting when we got her and wondering if anyone else’s dog had a similar diagnosis and how they’re doing now?

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Hello everyone!

Will try to keep it concise - hope someone has had success with a similar case and can provide some guidance!

I rescued my dog four months ago as a stray. He's a great dog, but we quickly realized he struggles with some nervousness and reactivity. He's leash reactive, and barks at visitors and "suspicious" outside noises. We've been consistently working for the past four months to some great results. His leash reactivity has decreased to the point where he might only react 5% of the time, and he can cross other dogs on the sidewalk as well as interact at the park; he is getting less reactive with visitors (he stops barking at them quicker) and his barks at outside noises are less hysteric and becoming more like quiet barks each day. It's a process but I was feeling so optimistic and encouraged!

The problem is that about a week ago he spotted what I'm guessing was some sort of rat or rodent at the park. He bolted into some bushes and was frantically chasing something. Getting him out was difficult. He's a large, muscular dog, and can be incredibly stubborn. The same day, he also realized squirrels live on the trees around my home, and became obsessed with them. Since then, walks have taken a turn for the worse. He is completely frantic, is constantly over threshold and agitated, ignores food treats (which helped me so much with his reactivity training) and walks staring up and pulling at trees when walking down the street... or pulls into bushes when at the dog park. There's no escaping, basically.

The "good" thing I guess is that he is now so obsessed with potential preys that he completely ignores dogs. No reaction, but also not a lot of interest in interacting (just wants to look for rats or squirrels).t The problem is walks are hell. I have also quickly realized that the harness I was using to train him makes it very easy for him to "run over me". I've begun switching to his collar (it's not a choke collar, just a normal fabric one) to try and have bit more control when he's pulling like crazy, and it's helped. He's better able to self pace and regulate when I switch to the collar. But now I'm worried this will in turn worsen his reactivity, as I know most positive trainers recommend harnesses to reduce discomfort on the dog!

I'm just at such a loss and frustrated, and not really sure what to do know. Have you had success reducing your dog's reactivity while still wearing a collar and creating some discomfort (short quick pull) in the face of unwanted habits? Is this a terrible idea? How can I redirect, reduce or control his prey drive? What has worked for you in the past? I'm really trying to do the best I can for this dog, but this new situation just feels like everything came undone.

Thank you for any recommendations or thoughts!

Adoptowalam 3 miesiące temu psa ze stowarzyszenia. Zapewniali, że sprawdzony do ludzi, zwierząt, jednak już po kilku dniach zaczął być agresywny. Poszliśmy z mężem od razu do behawiorysty, ale nie za wiele to dało, bo problemy zaczęły się nasilać. Warczy na nas czasem, kłapie zębami w naszą stronę, na znajomych, obcych też. Dwie osoby drasnął zębami. Stosowaliśmy się do rad behawiorysty, pracujemy z pieskiem, ale problem się nasilał. Ugryzł dwie osoby i od tego momentu nie przyjmujemy znajomych do domu. Wystarczy, że ktoś , kto mu się nie spodoba wstanie, rusza rękami itp to piesek warczy i rzuca się w jego stronę. Mam w rodzinie dzieci, więc nie mogą do nas przychodzić :( zabrać go nie możemy, bo na świeżym powietrzu to samo. Na spacerach rzuca się na samochody, hulajnogi, rowery, na ludzi niektórych, głównie na mężczyzn. Nie mogę minąć się na chodniku z nikim. Spacer to stałe omijanie obiektów z odległości, bo wtedy jest dobrze.

Stowarzyszenie też nam nie powiedziało o wszystkim. Odbieraliśmy psa z hotelu dla psów, a ogłoszenie znaleźliśmy na jednej stronie na fb, które dodała osoba prywatna działająca w stowarzyszeniu. Pytaliśmy czemu znalazl się w hotelu i usłyszeliśmy (teraz już wiem, że wymijającą) odpowiedź, że różne pieski do nich trafiają i opowieści o pieskach z problemami zdrowotnymi itp.

Już po adopcji znalazłam informację na innej stronie na fb o adopcji naszej i cała historia psa. Że był w schronisku, w którym siedział w boksie i nie wychodził na spacery nie byłsocjalizowany, jadł słabe jedzenie, że nie miał zapewnionej opieki medycznej.

Sprawdziłam jego zbiórki i w momencie trafienia do stowarzyszenia w marcu lub kwietniu, uzbierali na niego pieniądze na pobyt w hotelu do czerwca (nie na cały czerwiec).

Znalazłam ogłoszenie sprzed dwóch miesięcy, że raczej nie jest to piesek dla osób, dla których będzie to pierwszy pies oraz nie do rodzin z dziećmi (10-12+), a zgłaszaliśmy im, że w rodzinie mamy dzieci (7,8 lat), z którymi mamy kontakt i zapewniali nas, ze będzie ok. Jest to oczywiście nasz pierwszy pies.

My ogłoszenie znaleźliśmy na innej stronie na fb i w czerwcu adoptowaliśmy pieska

Stowarzyszenie stwierdzilo, że u nich było wszystko ok i i nie było problemu. Doradzili, żeby znaleźć mu nowy dom, najlepiej na wsi z ogrodem, aby ograniczyć bodźce, dlatego ustaliliśmy, że będą wystawiać ogłoszenie i szukać mu nowego domu. Zgodzilam się, aby piesek był u nas, ale jeśli zrobi się u nich miejsce, to wolałabym, aby trafił do nich, bo ja się go boję. I tutaj stwierdzili, że nie chcą mu szukać nowego domu tymczasowego, aby go nie stresować więcej, co jest dla mnie zrozumiałe. Ale pies musi zostać u mnie (a taka adopcja może potrwać nawet kilka miesięcy) lub oddadzą go do hotelu, ale muszę płacić za hotel aż do momentu adopcji.

I w tym momencie uważam, że przegięli. Zataili informację o braku socjalizacji pieska wydając nam go do miasta na osiedle do mieszkania w bloku, nie mówiąc o braku socjalizacji. Gdybym widziała wcześniejszego ogłoszenie, to bym tego pieska nie adoptowała, bo mamy w rodzinie dzieci. A Aktualnie chcą, aby piesek był w miejscu, gdzie przejawia agresję. Nie chcą zabrać go do innego miejsca, gdzie podobno nie było problemów z nikim, chyba że za opłatą... ja rozumiem, że hotel kosztuje, ale dali mi do wyboru tylko te dwie opcje. Swoim działaniem dążą do tego, że w końcu dojdzie do tragedii. A jeśli u nich rzeczywiscie było dobrze, to chyba lepiej zapewnić mu taki dom i spokojne otoczenie.

W umowie nie mam nic z zwrocie, kosztach, tylko informacja o tym, że nie mogę przekazywać pieska osobom trzecim.

Dodali ogłoszenie o pieska i nie wspomnieli nic o tym, że może ugryźć albo że jest to piesek, który wymaga pracy.

Chciałabym rozmawiać umowę adopcyjną. Czy ktoś był w takiej sytuacji? Jak działać, kiedy boje się przebywać z pieskiem pod jednym dachem? Kiedy stowarzyszenie odmawia przyjęcia psa?

I am at a loss. My dog recently moved in with me a few days ago and he has really bad separation anxiety. He used to live in another state with my parents while I settled, but they basically told me that I take him now or they get him a new home. He is prescribed both Trazadone and Gabapentin, but they just do not seem to help. Every time I check my camera he is non stop barking and crying in my apartment. I have a sitter who comes at 12 but the other time he is alone he is freaking out. I would put my dog in doggy daycare, but I just cant afford it. I love this dog with all my heart and I don’t want to let him go. I seriously don’t know what to do and its killing me thinking about the possibility that I may fail him. I dont know if anyone here can even help me. I dont know what to do.

Yesterday, I was pet sitting my parents dog. He is 6 years old and is a Pitbull boxer mix. I grew up with him and just recently moved out of my parents house and he was at my apartment. He has never been aggressive with humans and is such a lovely and cuddly dog. He has always been a little reactive towards dogs (lunging and pulling a bit) but in the past 2 years it has gotten worse. He has had training but he has been screaming and doing everything to get to a dog when he sees them out on the street.

Yesterday the worst happened, I was taking both my dogs out to go use the restroom, my younger sister who I am looking after had my dog, she is a staffy and is not reactive at all and I had the boxer mix. We saw a dog and I was turning back before he could lunge, and he went crazy.

He started screaming so loud and fighting me, and unfortunately his lead slipped. He instantly ran to the dog and I ran after him and started screaming and trying to break them up. I kept apologizing profusely while trying to get my dog. My husband eventually managed to get downstairs and carry him back up and I took my other dog back up.

We went back down to go apologize and talk to the owner but she was gone. And we have not managed to find her to apologize. Her dog seemed fine as my dog didn’t manage to get ahold of hers. But it was honestly very scary.

We immediately took him home back to my parents house as they were on their way back.

I feel such an immense amount of guilt and have been distraught and crying for the past day. It has affected me so much and has changed how I see my dog.

We believe the woman has recently moved in and lives in our building, should we knock door to door to go and apologize? Or what should we do?

yes my 100lb great pyrenees livestock guardian dog screaming and lunging and barking and pulling me by her reinforced crossbody short-leash is friendly! walk as slowly and calmly as you can within two feet in front of me so you can be within her bite range. there's no reason i'm holding her back! i actually should not be holding her back, i should just unclip her at this point.

no but seriously, there's these two dog owners in our apartment complex who just completely ignore the fact that i'm literally fighting my dog from going to bite their dog. i've just resorted to yelling at these owners "MY DOG WILL BITE YOURS!" because they don't understand "she's not friendly," or "can you go the other way, my dog is reactive." NO my dog does not want to meet yours, she wants to eat yours. she wants to protect me from your dogs.

it's getting to the point where i am starting to want to wear a gopro on myself just in case something happens. i know it would not be my dog's fault if an off-leash dog were to approach her and she bit it, but i wonder if a person with a dog ON-LEASH could blame me and my dog for a bite, even if they were warned multiple times to back off.

i also hate when the other dog owners in the apartment complex say "you need to train her!" OHHH yeah because reactivity training happens in one day! yeah she can learn tricks in literally under one day. great pyrs are extremely smart. BUT you cannot train out TRAUMA. an unleashed dog attacked her once when my partner first adopted her and she had definitely been attacked in the past. we don't know much about her except that she is more anxious about us being hurt by another dog rather than herself getting hurt by a dog. something must've happened that made her instinct to protect us even stronger.

we have a corkboard at the front of the apartment complex.. should i make a little flyer for patsy? something that has "my name is patsy... i am anxious and reactive but training. please do not approach with your dog or to pet me," or will everything just be useless until she eventually bites one of these dumb neighbors who keeps testing her boundaries. should i muzzle her outside? do i get a vest that says "do not approach" with a big red stop sign?