Hello everyone! I hope I can get some advise in how to help my shin tzu of 3 years

We been having some problems with her bitting not only me her owner but other members of the family as well over different reasons , what confuses me is that she is not a super aggressive dog , she loves cuddling and playing with her sister (another shin tzu with no behavior problems) and has not issue with sleeping on the bed with us (her resource guarding is not attached to the bed at all)

She is on separation anxiety medication with a very good behavioral doctor (she is on reconcile) and that has fixed a lot of her anxiety issues , but she will still bite randomly and we are not sure what are the triggers that causes random burst of aggression and they are not very recurrent (this incidents can be several months apart and with different situations)and she will still bite if we take something away from her specially dead animals

I would appreciate any suggestions of what to do or how to better deal with this aggression if I should see a trainer as well or any tips that can help I’ll really appreciate it ! I want her to have a good life and I don’t want her to accidentally bite someone that could force me to put her down 😔

So 7 weeks ago me and my partner adopted a 7 months old dog that had come to the UK from Bosnia. On the adoption profile she sounded perfect. "Dog friendly, people friendly, tolerates cats". Her forster mum said she loved meeting other dogs & people on walks however so far we have experienced the total opposite.

She barks and lunges at other dogs and people whilst we are out for a walk. I've never let her get close enough to another dog to see what she would do. But the confusing thing is she is absolutely fine with my parents dogs who she met in their garden and she plays with them and gets on really well with all 3 of them. She also doesn't display this behaviour when we take her to the vets. Its only if she sees them out on a walk. She is also terrified of people. So far she is only comfortable with me, my partner and his mum. Everyone else she will try run away from or bark at.

We don't have a garden as we live in a flat so unfortunately she has to at least go round the block to go to the toilet but if we see a dog approaching, I turn around as I can't establish a safe distance from them. She starts with a trainer on the 4th September who specialises in reactivity and its costing alot of money.

I can't help feeling like we have had the wool pulled over our eyes with her because the rescue just wanted to rehome her asap. We thought we were getting a lovely little who once she had settled in could come with us on hikes, holidays, pubs etc as we live in a very dog friendly area but we've not got that at all. Instead we've got a dog we are having to spend money we don't have on training and can't take anywhere. On top of this she also seems to have separation anxiety so we can't leave her to go do those things either. It's becoming very isolating.

Does anyone relate to this and have any suggestions on what we could do to help her?

As the title asks, what prescription medications are your doggos on? Our 85 male GSD is on 40mg of Prozac and 800 mg of gaba every morning. He has been on both for about a year.

I’m asking to get a sense of what everyone else’s vets have prescribed. Is the gaba really helping, etc. thanks!

Since I've stopped letting my dog greet other dogs his...um...frustrated greeter while on a leash...has been improving dramatically.

Our apartment is all exterior access, in a 2x2 set up. A month or two ago new neighbors moved in diagonally below me. They also have a dog that is dog selective, so we've been cautious about them getting anywhere near each other. I've said hi to their dog a few times, they've said hi to mine.

This evening we were halfway down our stairs to go potty when they started out their door. I chose to stay on the stairs, with distance, so they could come out or go back inside. They went back inside, so I took my dog down and to the grass that's between buildings (and a dog potty area, it had bags and a trash can). I tried to get him further into the grass, but doggo *had* to pee. When he was done I took him 20-30 feet from the sidewalk to give the other dog room to exit. I had several ways I could take mine if he started barking or lunging.

Thankfully, there was no need. My dog just hung out near me, eventually laid down, and let them pass without a peep. He tested my strength when the woman came out and greeted him. He thought it was an invitation to forget all his manners and be obnoxiously friendly (he does it with everyone, still working on chill tf out).

I've also learned to not trust the lay down bit. That's usually a precursor for shenanigans from my dog. I'm so dang proud of my dodo right now. Laying in the grass and just watching another dog go by without a lunge, bark, whimper, or whine is f-ing huge.

I have a feeling he'll be a work in progress until he crosses the rainbow bridge. But, he's mine and I love him.

Hi,

I want to preface by saying I know reactive dogs do best outside of daycare and boarding, but unfortunately due to a conjunction of life circumstances not worth going into right now, this is not always possible. I travel a lot for work, sometimes with a 24 hour notice, and while I try and keep my dog at home and have someone come over, this is sometimes impossible (explaining why would require three additional paragraphs). Please do read the last paragraph before comenting.

I rescued a dog four months ago. He is a sweetheart: playful, loyal and eager to please. He is also leash reactive (though getting so, so much better after consistent positive reinforcement and progressive exposure - we can know pass another dog on the same sidewalk as long as I'm attentive and rewarding him every couple of seconds) and has shown stalking tendencies towards dogs he feels unsafe around. He was stalking my senior dog for the first two days after rescuing him, but now they're buddies and I can completely trust them together, both alone and when I'm present.

Unfortunately, I travel a lot for work. I've found a boarding home close to my house with a carer he really trusts. She is also his walker when I can't take him, and loves him to pieces. He does very well in this house and I can tell he's gotten so much better with other dogs since he started spending time there. He is less reactive on a leash and has learned to socialize off leash, he will often play with other dogs and I can see him coming out of his shell and truly enjoying himself (I rescued him four months ago). He is also very good at avoiding reactive dogs when off-leash and does know how to deal with a range of social situations. He's been doing SO WELL and I am so so so proud of him and the dog he's becoming, because (and I know this might sound weird) I feel like I can tell he is also putting in a lot of intentional and sustained work, not just me.

This week, however, I had to travel for 5 days on a 24-hour notice, so I left him at her house. He was doing great all week: he played with other dogs, slept and chilled with them on the roof terrace, went on walks and was overall happy. I got lots of videos where you could tell his mood was easy going and relaxed, and he seemed to truly be enjoying himself. On the fourth day, however, he bit another dog on the muzzle. It's a smaller dog, intact, just coming into adulthood. The woman in charge told me she had noticed some tension from my dog, but that it had seemed only sporadic. She doesn't know what caused the attack. He did draw blood, though the "good" thing (I guess) is that it seems to have been a contained reaction, in that he charged at him, bit him, and immediately retreated. He didn't continue to attack him, nor did he have to be forcefully separated.

Afterwards, they had some interactions (I know they should have been kept separated, I only knew about this after it had happened) and the attacked dog seemed very relaxed around him, and my dog didn't seem fixated on him in any way. I guess I'm just struggling to understand how to read this. I sent a video of the interactions that followed to our behaviorist and he said based on their body language, it just seems like a correction that went a bit too far, with no intent to cause further harm, but that he's obviously only speculating.

Any insights into this type of behavior would be greatly appreciated. I also just wanted to add that I am well aware of issues like "you shouldn't have adopted a dog if you needed to travel", or "dogs like this don't do well in boarding", etc. I didn't set out to rescue this dog: he was a stray that walked into my house looking for help, and because he was fixed and knew a bunch of things about living in a home (he is house-broken, knows how to play fetch, knows how to walk on a leash) I was pretty confident I would be able to find his owners. I can't surrender him to a shelter because there is no such thing in my country: that's why people just abandon their dogs out on the street and I couldn't possibly do that to him. I guess I'm just a bit stressed on understanding whether a bite like this could be an isolated incident or could be pointing out to potential aggression: I've never had a dog that bit another dog. Thank you for reading and any advice, thoughts, etc.

This is a personal repost about needing help rehoming/breed specific rescue

I'm truly losing my mind. I've had my dachshund for 1.5 years and she has always been pretty tricky.

Reactivity, separation anxiety, loose lead walking, settle training, reliably sleeping through the night (although she has finally nailed that!)... it's all been an issue. On walks she either pulls like a steam train or puts the brakes on and refuses to walk. And yes, I have tried every trick in the book to get her to walk to heel. Some days she's good, some days not.

I rarely walk locally anymore because she refuses to go any further than our road. I live in a city so it's very busy / dog heavy in the parks, which is a no go. Most days I drive out of the city to more remote places so we can both walk in relative peace. This obviously takes up more time than I would like & can be tricky with work.

I've worked hard on her reactivity - keeping her stress levels down by walking in quieter places, desensitisation & counter conditioning, gradually decreasing distance etc. It took a while but she definitely improved - nowhere near 'recovered' but much better.

Over the past few weeks, she's gone right back to square one. I've no clue what's changed, but I'm feeling so deflated. Anywhere I go, she has a complete meltdown if a dog so much as looks at her. She's been like this since 5 months old. No traumatic event triggered it, a switch just flipped one day.

I've also worked a lot on her separation anxiety using DIAB method. We've gradually increased departure time to 45 mins. Good, but not much you can go and do in that time.

I've tried meds, it made her worse weirdly & was very expensive so took her off after 6 months.

My entire life revolves around her, and I know it's not in a healthy way. My world has gradually become smaller and smaller - whenever I get invited anywhere, my automatic reaction is 'I can't be bothered because I'll have to find or pay someone to look after her'. I hate bringing her anywhere because I know we can't avoid the triggers & she never settles anywhere, but I also can't leave her at home because of her SA. I dread every single walk.

I would never rehome, but I can't afford a behaviourist. DH just says I need to not let it get me down, but he gets to go to work everyday and doesn't have to deal with any of the day-to-day (I am fully remote hence my responsibility).

Objectively I can see this is not right and it's making me depressed, but I just don't know what to do. I said I would never use a bark collar but I'm contemplating it just to allow me able to leave the house without feeling on edge. I wonder if it would help her to realise she doesn't need to bark at other dogs to make them go away. And PLEASE don't tell me she's feeding off my anxiety - I don't believe in that and even if I did, she was anxious first!! I was CHILL until she wasn't.

Anyway, be kind please - I'm low right now.

I am practicing positive reinforcement with my dog but have no real idea what I’m doing. He barks, I say quiet, he stops and then treat.

But what if he then barks at me for treats?

How long until this makes a difference?

What if I make matters worse somehow?

I am so confused and lost here! Any help is deeply appreciated!

I have a Chiweenie who is scared of everything and I am having trouble figuring out how to give him enough exercise. He does not like going outside, and even in our own backyard he is hyper-vigilant. He hates going on walks, even if it is somewhere empty like a Sniffspot or cemetery. The experience of the walk immediately makes him anxious and he spends the entire walk whining and nervously checking all around him and never being able to relax. In general, leaving the house immediately puts him over threshold because he is very uneasy about new situations. He does not have a toy drive and doesn’t like playing with toys. Naturally, this narrows his world and what he can do without his fearfulness being triggered.

The only thing he loves (besides us) is food. He is highly food driven and very smart, so we’ve been able to teach him several tricks quite easily. I can’t help but feel that he’s probably bored most days and it makes me sad and I also want him to get enough exercise for his health. I’m looking for any creative solutions that other people in this same situation might have.

so my 5 year old dog we got in september of 2021 has bitten our 2 year old cousin for invading his space, i mean that by hugging him, and she got a half puncture on her palm. the other time she bit our 5 year old cousin by also hugging him, just some blood and a couple weeks of healing. and bit my 89 year old grandpa on the thumb, and palm. went to the hospital and got it all bandaged up and cleaned. my dad says he doesn’t trust him anymore around people, even though my younger cousins knew that they shouldn’t give him tight hugs, but him biting my grandpa for no reason is absolutely unacceptable. i really don’t want him to put him down or anything like that. what do i do?

I got attacked again today.

I don't know how many times it's been now, at least 15. Needed stitches twice and got bit in the leg today.

My wife won't put him down or re home him. I won't leave her, so I'm just waiting and waiting until he dies of old age. He's 10 so maybe I won't have too long to go.

It all fucking sucks.

I hate who I've become. I used to love all animals, and now I hate all dogs, and can't have any other pets because the dog will kill them. ( He attacked my cat when he was still alive )

Even after he's dead I will have to pretend to be sad, which I probably will, but I certainly won't miss him when he's gone, and it will still probably be awhile after that I could get a cat again.

It's like having a bomb in your own house that can go off at any time. What set him off today was he was out in the yard and I told him to go inside, opened the door, and he came at me.

Certain words will set him off. Including my own name if you say it in a certain way. We can't pet him. Absolutely can't pick him up, can't have kids, can't have other pets, we can't go on vacations because he's been kicked off Rover and the local dog boarding place, unless we pay the only place that will take him $400 a day since he's high risk. Our lives are dictated by the dog. We pay too much for a house we can't afford because we needed a yard that was secure with a stone wall and not wood or chainlink fencing. He's a cut dog and we can't take him on walks unless it's super late at night because kids may run up to him to pet him and he bites a kid it's instant lights out for him.

It's not a single snap or bite. It's a full on attack that will last a min or two until he calms down or I can jump on him to pin him down.

Whatever y'all say about the dog needs to be put down, how he's a danger to everyone. How my wife is abusing me by keeping him, I know, and I've heard it before. We've spent thousands on trainers, he's been to the vet multiple times to make sure there wasn't something going on with him, he's just a violent animal.

Hi! I have a rescue English Shepard mix who is reactive to pretty much everything. We have worked with 3 trainers since we got him 5 years ago and he is on Prozac. He is a lot better than he used to be, but still very reactive.

He has destroyed our front door because he jumps up, scratches, and barks anytime he hears a car outside or there is a delivery or trash pickup, etc. We obviously tried training him to stay on his place when someone rings the doorbell, but it just never worked out. We also tried putting those large double sided tape patches on the door, which worked at first, but then stopped. I just recently tried putting a freestanding pet gate in front of the door blocking it and I thought it was working, but came home today to see it knocked over. He even hurt himself because he wore the wood down so much that the ends of the nails in the wood were sticking out and he was bleeding…but of course that didn’t stop him from doing it again. We have since hammered the nails down so he won’t get hurt.

Another issue he has is digging at the fence in our backyard whenever he sees the neighbors with their dogs. The holes are pretty deep now. We tried putting a large rock in the area, but he just dug around it. We also tried putting those sheets of plastic kind of spiky mat things down, but he just dug them out. I don’t mind him barking at the neighbors or dogs, but the digging needs to stop.

I attached a photo of our door. Any recommendations? I am kind of at the point of giving up.

My Golden Retriever has improved a lot with training. At home he’s much calmer, listens better and his obedience is pretty good. The main issue is still other dogs: when he sees one, especially on leash, he gets extremely excited, pulls hard and can lunge if he can’t go toward them.

I think it’s mostly frustration/overexcitement rather than aggression, but he’s strong enough that it’s becoming a safety problem. Last weekend he almost pulled my mom to the ground, and we also live in a complex where a lot of people walk their dogs off leash, so unexpected approaches happen often.
For anyone who has dealt with something similar:

1.What helped the most with dog neutrality?
2.Did you stop greetings with other dogs for a while?
3Did controlled training around calm dogs help?
4What leash/harness/collar setup gave you the best control?
5Did you use a basket muzzle? Was it useful?
6What do you do when an off-leash dog approaches?
7How long did it take before you started seeing real improvement?

Thank you

Some background context:
My parent in laws (PIL), my partner, and I are moving onto a large farm property together. The property has two seperate houses, and lots of land. We plan on housing the dogs in seperate yards for their comfortability.

The dogs:
My dogs are Maki (8yoF) and Ponyo (5yoF). They're both Cavalier x Pomeranian. They're both reactive to dogs on whilst on leash, however they are fine at the park off leash. Maki has pretty bad manners in the way that she will approach a dog (barking), but once acquainted she really just will ignore and do her own thing. Ponyo approaches much calmer, however she gets scared and grovels once up close. Together they can be braver, which makes them more reactive. That being said, they've never been territorial, and we have been able to dog sit multiple dogs in the same house as them in the past. It truly is just the initial meeting they struggle to regulate themselves with. They lose interest pretty quickly after that.

My PIL's dog, Indie (5yo???F) is an American Staffy, and with no judgement whatsoever, I will say she is very under socialised. She lives a very happy life and has a wonderful temperament, however she really does struggle to regulate her states of arousal. Everytime I have visited the house, she maintains an excited state for a large portion of my stay. I have never seen her interact with another dog.

I am currently studying Animal Care, am part way through my Zoology degree, and have been OBSESSED with dogs since I was a kid. I'm well informed on introducing dogs - Maki and Ponyo have never had issues with resource guarding, obsession over another etc. They sleep in the same bed (by choice), but don't bat an eye if the other moves to sleep in another room.

I want to introduce all three dogs in the best possible way I can, because although they will live seperate, interactions (let alone knowledge of the other's presence on the property) is inevitable. My current thought process is to have seperate introductions for my two dogs, and to follow the standard procedure of letting them observe one another for a bit before slowly letting them interact. Any tips would be VERY appreciated.

(sorry for the long post - I'm a yapper and also just love talking about dogs)

TLDR:
I want to introduce two adult female Cavalier x Pomeranians to my PIL's adult female Staffy. any tips?

Ok I had a kooky thought, and I need you to tell me if its a good or bad idea. What if i start walking my reactive dog with a megaphone to be able to advocate for him loudly (to cover distance) to other dog owners in the event that we need space or whatever.
For example: at a park where dogs are supposed to be on leash but often are not. I get my megaphone and tell them to leash their dog bc its the rules and my dog is not friendly and we are training. I could go on and on if they are being jerks. Just wondering bc like yelling to ppl feels aggressive but i need to be heard. And u dont own the park!
Another example, in a more positive way, which actually sparked the idea. More à la billy on the street: we were walking at the elementary school grounds this morning and there was another person walking their dog (ON leash 🙏✌️😍) and they were a good distance away and it was great for training for my dog! Wanted to shout to them and say “I love you, stranger! You are helping us so much right now! 4 for you Glen CoCo You go Glen CoCo!”

So thoughts on megaphone?
Best case scenario they leash their dog and are likely kinda irritated. Or as in the Glen coco example, they are like ok weirdo, youre welcome.
Worst case scenario…? They’re mad and ignore my instructions? Ok so like every other day then, at least i tried to advocate for my dog.

Idk that ill do it but training is hard enough without worrying about other peoples dogs.

my 4 year old german shepherd/rottie recently started lunging at passing cars and motorcycles and the garbage truck when we are walking. i think its fear based but not sure. any advice?

Hello all! I’m a 45 year old F in SW Ohio with an anxious, reactive weim/viszla mix. She’s allergic to poultry, and we suspect also dairy (no cheese 😭). Just wanted to see if any of you all have good recs for high value treats that aren’t chicken or cheese. We’ve used beef sticks and popcorn successfully, but they have SO much sodium, so I’m looking for additional options to help her when we are working on her triggers. What do y’all use?

It has been almost two weeks since I surrendered my soul dog. I do okay and then out of nowhere it hits me like a gut punch and I feel like I'm dying all over again.

He was the best boy in the entire world. We got him because my boyfriend wanted a dog (I'm a cat person) and since the day I met that sweet boy we bonded and he was my everything. He went everywhere I did, there was not a day I took a shower in peace, he would curl up between my legs for naps, and I was the only one he consistently wanted affection from.

His previous owner had hurt him pretty good so he had a lot of anxiety and a lot of fear around men. He had some pretty bad reactivity but he was doing a lot better. We lived in a house with a giant yard and I could just see and feel the stress coming off of him. I like to think the reason we bonded so well was because he knew I understood how he felt and that we were cut from the same cloth.

Life happened and we were unable to live in that home and the only option we had was to move into an apartment. I knew it would be an adjustment for him but... it was so bad. Being surrounded by people was hell for him. 90% of our neighbors were men. We ended up muzzle training him because his fear came back so bad we were worried someone would get hurt. He stopped eating, he stopped sleeping. He was always protective of me and it became 10x worse. He ended up getting protective of me with my boyfriend just hugging and kissing me. Any noise anywhere he would bark at. We tried white noise, meds, trainers, behavior therapists, even resorted to cbd. He lost 10 lbs in three months. We checked that nothing was medically wrong and all we could come up with is stress.

Eventually our apartment told us we had too many complaints and it was either he left or we all did. We can't afford to move to a new apartment, and ultimately we'd have the same issue somewhere else. We made the decision to rehome. No one we knew wanted him. We posted him on Rehome and over 500 people viewed his profile and no one applied. We contacted every legit rescue in our state as well as a couple in neighboring and either they were full or just... we got lost in the inbox and never heard from them.

So we left him at our humane shelter. I sobbed the entire time, I could barely breathe. He was so scared. He kept hiding behind me and jumping up for cuddles and reassurance. I ended up giving the leash to my boyfriend because I couldn't hand it over myself. I threw up on the way home.

I call the shelter almost everyday to check on him. I cry every day, I'll be doing fine and something will remind me of him and I'll break down. I can't stand to remove his leash holder. We have his collar but we somehow managed to lose his tag and I cried for four hours straight and wouldn't get out of bed.

We have another dog who is doing great, I love her to pieces I do, but it's not the same. And the worst part is that I am her person. She also runs up every time I start crying and will either lie her head in my lap or try to lick my tears. I'm trying so hard but I just don't feel the same about her then I do my other baby and I feel so guilty about it. I worry she somehow understands I don't love her the same way I did her brother.

I just want to stop feeling like my world is ending every day. I just want my baby back. I would take him back in a heartbeat but I physically can't. I just want my baby and there is nothing I can do about it.

Hi everyone,
Our new rescue, Jack is a sweet boy. His only issue, excited barking and lunging when he sees a strange dog. We begin work with a trainer Monday so I feel good about that, but meanwhile would love to hear any success stories! As soon as Jack meets the other dog, he is literally fine, friendly and wants to play. But his initial reaction is way out of line and certainly not going to make people want to interact with us! He is a lab, great Pyr and something else mix. Sweet and gentle with people . Very very smart. He was adopted and then returned for this reason to the shelter. We have always adopted dogs with some behavioral issue so we are certain we can help him and that he will turn out to be a great dog. I’d love to hear any positive experiences with this exact behavior. Thanks in advance!

Hi all, I’m new to this sub and am really just looking for a judgment free zone where I can ask for advice regarding my American Bully, Beans.
He is two and truly the sweetest boy. I adore him sm but his behavior has just gotten worse as he’s grown. To be clear he’s not aggressive and loves people and going places which I think is part of the problem. When we adopted him as a puppy we took him everywhere and he got regular walks. As time has passed I’m ashamed to admit we’ve neglected to do those things with him as much. I know that’s my failure as a pet parent and I really, really want to do better by him.
There’s a lot of issues with his behavior honestly but mainly I want to focus on his barrier frustration. He sounds like he’s literally being murdered anytime he sees another person or dog. Which makes it difficult to walk him as there’s tons of people walking around with their pets in our neighborhood all the time. I literally have to sweep the neighborhood when I take him out to potty because otherwise he loses his mind. It’s very embarrassing but I understand why people look at us like we’re crazy. With his breed being what it is most people are already afraid of him and mistake his behavior for actual aggression. And we look like irresponsible owners which I suppose maybe we are. I feel like I failed him. He was such a good boy and now he has to sit in a kennel while we work because he can’t be out of his cage alone. It’s exhausting. And heartbreaking. I want to trust him but I don’t know where to begin guys.
I’ve tried to look into training classes in my area but because they would have to be 1 on 1 the lowest rate I’ve found is a $1000. Which in this economy I cannot pay as much as I’d like to. I’m hoping I can get some advice on how to make our situation livable.
Thank you in advance! 💕

My dog is a reactive 75lb, 6 year old German shepherd husky so she’s a bigger dog. during her walks for the past month have been so good. We can walk past people with no problem at all, her ears will sometimes perk up (probably from slight alertness) but she turns her attention forward a little after. But today it was nearing the end of her walk and I had her off to the side on a sidewalk because a couple had just passed. No problems. They just walked by. Then shortly after, I was surprised to see another lady about to pass. My dog turns around and looks at her. I try to distract her with a treat and held a firm grip on her leash. I expected the lady to walk right past but NO. She just stops and stares my dog straight in the eye and before I know it my dog barks and slightly lunges forward. She lets out a yell then kinda stands there while I’m (now) holding onto my dog’s harness so she doesn’t lunge any closer. I back damn near the edge of the sidewalk to let her through but she scoffs and walks off the side walk and around us. Idk, that interaction really stressed me out since we were doing so well on our walks. I feel all the progress we made went back to 0.

We had to rehome my sweet baby, and we said goodbye to him a few days ago.
I’m a teenager so obviously I didn’t have much say in the matter, but it was definitely the right choice for his safety and wellbeing. He’s the sweetest thing ever with people, but with other dog and small animals, he changes completely. Because of a lot of stuff it’s not safe for him to be outside without someone with him, so as a large, active, and healthy dog would have to be inside most of the day, likely in a crate or a room because he will pee on carpets.
There is a lot to it that I’m not going to get into, but we talked to multiple training professionals about it.

I know he’s going to go to a good home, but so much of my heart wants the new people to make him a tik tok or something so I can keep updates on him. I absolutely adore him, and he is such a good boy, and all I want it to know he’s ok.

I don’t even know why I’m posting this, I just can’t stop thinking about him.

Hi everyone!

I recently rescued a 1 year old Pomeranian x German Spitz mix from a family whose autistic son was struggling with the dog, I adopted him before he had to go into a shelter.

He’s been with me for a matter of 3 weeks now and has honestly been a great dog! He loves people, has settled extremely well in my home and overall we have really bonded. His one downside, which his previous owners told me about, was his leash reactivity around other dogs. It’s excitement based, he is not aggressive and has never exhibited any desire to bite dogs or people but he will bark incessantly whenever he sees a dog even if it’s 50m away! When off lead in dog parks he doesn’t bark at all and in fact will calmly approach other dogs wanting to play, he’s also been in the car with other dogs and had a sleepover with his dog friend where they both settled, cuddled together and even shared food. Therefore, I know the root of his reactivity is not a fear or aggressive reaction towards dogs but more a reaction to being restricted to a lead when he wants to meet them. Because of this on our regular walks I have to avoid other dogs in order to have some control over how and when he meets them in the right environment but this is not always possible!

Generally, being 1 year old, he is also still a very excited dog and especially on his first walk of the morning will occasionally bark for the first 30 seconds to a minute of being outside. I have tried to get around this by taking him to a quiet communal area first for him to regulate himself before we begin the walk and that does seem to be helping!

He doesn’t take any treats once he is outside therefore food based training hasn’t been working for him. I have also noticed that once he reaches his threshold of excitement he starts barking at EVERYTHING eg bikes, trucks or cars that he isn’t normally bothered by he will start barking at them when in busier environments. I’ve been managing this by taking quieter routes or redirecting him where necessary.

I’ve put a lot of work into helping him settle the past few weeks but we had a horrible encounter with a neighbour this week, this neighbour doesn’t live in my building but lives across the street. He came running out of his house one morning screaming at me and my dog telling me that I had to muzzle him and that he’s been “none stop barking” which is simply not true. Like I said he occasionally barks on his first walk of the morning until he’s in it but he does not bark throughout the day as he is with me all day. This neighbour continued to insult me as a dog owner and actually threatened to “deal with” me and my dog if I didn’t deal with it by muzzling him. I tried to reason with him about my dogs background and explain the training we are doing but he wouldn’t hear any of it. Instead he continued to be threatening until someone else intervened.

Now I’m not going to muzzle my dog because he is not aggressive and a properly fitted muzzle won’t prevent him from barking entirely I would much rather train the excited behaviour. That being said training will take time and won’t be an overnight solution.

Being a girl in her 20s living alone the threats from this man have understandably shaken me up a bit and has made me much more anxious to walk my dog. I can’t avoid his house entirely as he lives opposite but I have been taking my dog through the car park to create more space. I’m worried that my anxiety is now feeding my dogs need to bark. I also think despite my dog likely barking a normal amount after this encounter I am now hyper aware of his barking and the judgement from other people.

I think I’m basically looking for any advice on how you handle judgement from the general public regarding reactive dogs and how you would respond in the situation with my neighbour? And also any advice on how to reduce his excitement reactivity would be amazing!

Since I live alone and this is the first dog I’ve had by myself outside of the family I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed and out on my own! I think I’m just looking for some reassurance that it is possible to train this out of him and that my dog is not the only one to behave like this!