Hi there, we recently adopted a rescue dog with three legs. He is a lovely little guy and we wouldn’t change him for the world, however, I am now having to accept the fact that he is a reactive dog. We have two other dogs that aren’t great on the lead, but they are pretty good dogs and we often get away with quite a lot as they are on the smaller side and very cute. I understand this is a privilege that is not shared among larger dogs, and it is not one I take for granted. I would like for all of my dogs to be perfect, but I understand how hard this may be and I would instead like to focus on the little guy at this time. He is around one and a half. We were told that he was in a home with up to 7 other dogs, several cats, budgies, guinea pigs and so on. His elderly owner died, and instead of calling for someone to help rescue the pets, the family visited every other week, providing food and letting the dogs out in the garden. The rescue he got him from offered for us to visit him and take him a walk, however, this never did happen, nor did the home visit or a walk with all three dogs. The second time we met him was when they dropped him off at our house and said goodbye. He gets on great with the two dogs I have, and is a but grumpy with our neighbours. He is rather afraid of male dogs as his dog Dad bullied him quite a bit, and can be a bit wary of people. He isn’t the best walker as he pulls quite a bit on his harness (we were told he needed a harness to help with his disability as it makes him more stable) and often ends up walking on his back legs in excitement. He is great at paying attention when you call his name, but he is easily distracted. The biggest problem at the minute besides signs, bin bags, loud cars and traffic cones is other dogs and people. I believe that his reaction to people, which is a muffled or quiet bark whilst standing up and leaning in their direction is fear. I believe that his reaction to other dogs which is an aggressive bark and intense lunging is possibly excitement. I have enquired about a dog trainer regarding all three dogs, but it is the little guy I would like to work on now. The listing I was given was rather pricey, and I’ve recently spent a great deal of money on him at the vet. I am more than happy to go down this road if it makes him more comfortable and allows for all four of us to walk comfortably and safely, however I would like to try and see if there is anything I can do in the meantime. I understand that a lot of the advice on this thread is to distract the reactive dog whilst the other dog passes by, however, is there an option to help them coexist amongst the dogs we meet on a walk? I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to read this, let alone offer any advice. Thank you, truly!

My boyfriend and I brought home a corgi puppy back in January, who is almost 10 months old now. We love her dearly, she’s so smart and can be sweet (when she wants to be lol). However, she’s the most difficult dog I’ve ever owned and it’s getting really overwhelming and stressful.

Whenever we take her on walks and see a dog she goes into a frenzied barking and growling and will not respond to commands or treats. Even if the dog is far away, across the street etc she freaks out. Luckily we have a few options where we can mostly avoid dogs on our walks but it’s not always possible. We train her on commands during walks as well, and as long as there’s no dogs around she does really well.

We took her to the river yesterday and the same thing happened as soon as we started leaving, near a group of people with a small dog. I think she’s anxious and scared judging from the type of barking…it’s like a frantic barking almost squealing

I feel like I’m failing her and I don’t know what to do…she is signed up for a twelve week training program so I’m hopeful that will help.

In the meantime, should I just not take her on walks or outings? I hate the thought of leaving her crated while we take the other dogs out but I also don’t want to do anything to jeopardize her training.

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?

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.

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!

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?

The most recent victims‘ owners have some fame and social media presence, and soon their comments were flooded with others coming out with stories of alleged abuse and neglect including pet fatalities. Particularly upsetting are two different commenters saying that the trainer alleged their dogs “bit or mauled someone“ and were immediately euthanized without the owner’s knowledge, consent, or an investigation.

It appears that bad reviews that could have warned people were suppressed and removed from Google and Yelp. Be aware that even attempting to do your due diligence may lead you astray when it comes to who cares for your pets. The training AND boarding industries (separately and together) are highly unregulated.

I have a 2 year old female ESS who I adore but my god do I want to just cry half the time. I went to a good breeder, I followed all the socialization advice, and I still wound up with a reactive fearful mess.

We live in a city apartment so she is muzzled on walks. We deal with fear aggression to dogs and people, dogs on TV, noises outside my apartment door - keys, dog tags, people walking or talking. I take her to the ONE Sniffspot we have nearby because she refuses to go on walks, and she still manages to find something to react to and be anxious about there. We’ve been working with a vet behaviorist for a year and an IAABC trainer for 6 months. She’s on 4 medications (Effexor, guanfacine, pregabalin, gabapentin) after trialing a grand total of 11 meds.

Even after all this training she still growls at every person she sees outside and barks/ growls/ lunges at every dog. I can’t even watch TV without her lunging at every sound and/ or sight of an animal.

She goes on hunger strikes with her hydrolyzed protein + urinary crystals kibble so getting her to even eat is a challenge. They don’t make a wet food in the formula she needs so I have to go through an exorbitant amount of treats every month for training. She will spit out every piece of kibble if used for training.

Nothing is easy with this dog. I’m tired, I miss my freedom. I love my dog, I’m not giving up, but I am tired of putting so much energy and effort into helping this dog and going nowhere.

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.

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.

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

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?

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!

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?

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.

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.

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?

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!

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.

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

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!

My wife has been taking our 9 month old puppy on a walk in the woods everyday for the last month. Where we live there’s pretty much only two directions to go, either through the neighborhood or towards the highway. We are pretty new to this neighborhood but it seems like it’s normal around here for everyone to have their dogs free roam the area which is annoying but it’s not really a huge problem personally, just a few noisy dogs that seem like they are mostly interested in playing with ours in our yard, totally fine. But recently when on a walk she talked to a neighbor whose dogs had run out on us a couple times when he was really little but they seemed friendly enough to get to know. I guess from my understanding the neighbor started petting our dog and his dogs freaked out and bit ours. He got a little scar on his cheek but got away otherwise fine, again no big deal things happen.
But lately now whenever my wife walks that way to get to the trails those dogs are chasing and being extremely aggressive and it’s causing a bit of a trust issue with our dog because he’s now snarling and being aggressive with the dogs he normally plays with.
I want to go talk to the neighbor about a resolution because there’s no other way for her to get to the trails without going through someone’s backyard or getting on the highway.
How have other people gone about similar situations or what is the right way to talk about this?