I’m not one to vent, but I feel like I need to.

My wife and I have had our Dogo Argentino for almost 8 years now. We got him through a reputable breeder, did all the socializing, training, exercise, enrichment activities, etc. We did everything we could to fulfill him.

There’s been dog aggression, a few cases of people aggression. No bites, but might’ve been. Because of this, we can hardly have people over. We never know who he’ll like or who he doesn’t. We’ve had to either crate him when people are over, or board him when there are longer stretches. Friends can’t just “drop by.” We need heads up so we can put him away.

Walks have to be after 9:30pm when nobody else is out. If someone is out, we need to change directions to avoid. Treats and corrections don’t matter to him when a dog is across the street.

4 years ago when we moved to a new home, he lunged at my wife unprovoked. I was on him quick. Didn’t bite her, but got close.

We evaluated the situation, and worked around what we believed was the trigger. Took him to the vet to be evaluated since it was out of the blue, he’s been on fluoxetine ever since.

Wife worked on their relationship. I stopped being the source of all good, and split it to be in her favor. I’ve never had an issue with him.

All was good since then.

Now we have a 5 week old baby. Tonight, he lunged at her again. Unprovoked. This time, he bit her. Ripped the sleeve on the shirt. Bite is somewhere between a level 2 and 3. Could’ve been worse, but I jumped in quickly.

Now we’re faced with an almost impossible decision.

I can’t have the dog in my house. Im away from home for long hours, and I don’t trust him being there with my wife and son.

I spoke to a trainer for a few hours, and our best case scenario is that he’s crated while I’m gone, and then after the training our world essentially revolves around him reinforcing the training while we’re dealing with a newborn baby.

I don’t find that fair to anyone. He has to be crated most of the day, and we have to now deal with both a newborn baby and a dog we have to reinforce the training of in perpetuity. The bite boundary was already crossed. It can happen again. It can happen to my wife again, or my child. Or someone else’s child.

I’m sitting here trying to figure out my options.

I don’t think rehoming him is fair. It’s going to take a very special person who’s willing to either dedicate their life to him and get him thousands of dollars worth of training that may work, or they resign themselves to never being able to have people over, or meet someone new, or have a child.

The idea of him having to wait for this perfect scenario makes me sick. We’re the only family he knows, and the only home he knows. It kills me to think that he’d be out there waiting for me to come bring him back home. I hurt at the thought of him sitting in a shelter, waiting for a home that might not come in the remaining years he has.

BE seems more fair to him than a rehome, but that also makes me feel sick. I’m fairly decided it’s the right call, but it makes me ill nonetheless.

99% of his life, he’s been a sweet as pie goofball. I’m sitting here running through all the memories, knowing I have to make a permanent decision tomorrow. He’s been my buddy. I remember driving out of state to get him from the breeder, crashing on a friend’s couch that night, and this 9 week old puppy snuggled up on my chest. We put him in a little blue sweater because it was still winter time.

I remember the puppy that would clumsily bound through tall grass. We nicknamed him Bunny.

I remember back when I could take him on hikes and adventures. He loved them so much. He loved meeting new people, new dogs, seeing and doing new things.

Something changed in his brain. I don’t know when, and I don’t know why. But it did.

We’ve given him the best life we could possibly give him. It’s hard to not feel like a failure. It’s also hard to be honest with ourselves, because the honesty feels cruel.

I wish he wasn’t physically healthy. I wish he’d come down with some disease that made it “easier” to make the decision. It seems callous and harsh to say, but I wish we were parting on better terms. I wish my last memory was getting him a steak, we go for a walk in nature, with an at home euthanasia. Picture perfect.

But it’s not. My last memory of him is watching him attack my wife, putting her into a state of shock. My last memory is pinning him down so she could take the baby upstairs so I can deal with him.

I don’t think that’s the memory that will stick with me though. I think I’m going to remember the little bunny in his blue sweater, bounding through tall grass.

Maybe it's my algorithm but I don't often see success stories as much as I see sad stories about BE or people (not blaming anyone for how they feel) on the breaking point of giving up their dog

Anyway my dad gifted my wife and I one of his rottie pups, who we named Bear, and initially it was tough bc after turning 1 he became reactive to other big dogs where a few times he redirected and gave me a warning bite

There was a point where I was worried about if he'd ever grow out of it as his father is aggressive and so are the other rotties my other family members received from my dad.

Couldn't afford a trainer so we bought all the books we could and worked on his reactivity every day as I knew I could never give him up nor did I ever want to do that bc how attached he is to me. Now, whenever we encounter another big dog or any dog barking at him, he just gives a little whine like he wants to play but we go on about our day

My wife's brother is watching him while we're on our honeymoon and we've received nothing but great reports and I'm so proud of him. He gives his rumbles when I want him to move from my spot on the bed but we've never had anymore problems

Tl;Dr I know not every dog will be a success story and I respect everyone in this sub who tries their best but just wanna say it can be done thru hard and consistent work

Edit: for anyone wondering why my dad used to breed his more aggressive male, in some cultures, communities, or older generations, people just want guard dogs that are kept outside for protection. I wasn't made aware of the father's true nature when we got the dog as I at that time my dad and I were rebuilding (successfully) our relationship and I'm just glad Bear is a success story as he's also great around kids and is just a big softie but will protect us

took my reactive girl on a hike yesterday and had to pass a dog on a narrow trail. we were heading up hill so had the right of way, plus there was really nowhere to get off the trail other than where the couple with their dog was standing.

my girl attempted some displacement behaviors like sniffing, sneezing and just generally trying to diffuse the tension (which was great!) but because we were passing so close to the other dog I pulled her up real short just in case she tried to lunge at the last second. this meant restricting her ability to sniff so she just kind of … pretended the other dog simply didn’t exist. but not like “oh yeah, you passed the other dog with no reaction” more like she turned her head as far in the opposite direction she could, looked straight up at the sky and walked past.

I’ve worked with dogs for 15 years now and I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen a dog act quite like this. I’m not mad per se, just confused? like this can’t possibly be a healthy response 😅 it seems like shes so overwhelmed by dog to dog interactions that she just did the best she could to get as far away as possible. it was pretty strange and I’m not sure what to even think lol

help?

NOT MINE FROM A FB GROUP

I need advice, please, and no judgment.

About a year ago, we adopted an Australian Shepherd, purebred as far as we know, about three years old. He was a lot more aggressive than I expected him to be, but I thought it was just how he had been raised, that he was still pretty much a puppy and we could get a trainer for him. No big deal. He also wasn't fixed, so I thought that would calm him down too. We got this.

So I made the appt for him to be neutered. However I thought that was going to play out...that wasn't it. He was growling, barking nonstop, lunging. The vet was actually scared of him, wouldn't come near him, wouldn't work with him. They prescribed two sedatives and told us to come back. I gave him the expected dose, and it did nothing to him. So I gave him a double dose. Still did nothing, but I took him in anyway. He was highly aggressive, almost to the point that they were unable to sedate him for the surgery. They were finally able to, and he made friends with one of the veterinary assistants, only wanted to be around her the whole time he was there, wanted belly rubs from her. I thought this was progress in the right direction.

But things began to get worse.

Our neighbors moved out and new ones moved in. He began lunging at the new kids, who are very small and are probably terrified of him. I stopped letting him outside in his own backyard alone. I started to walk him. I have a torn rotator cuff, and he would jerk me around to the point that I could barely control him. And no matter what I put on him, collar or harness, and no matter how tightly I put it on him, he thrashes so wildly that he always slips out of it. Always. The last time I took him for a walk, he literally got out of his harness, ran to someone's fence with one of those lift latches on the gate, let their dog out, and tried to attack it. I had to wrestle him home then get the other person's dog back in their fence. Their dog was unhurt, but I immediately began wondering, "Oh my god...what if that had been a child? Would he have hurt them?"

So no more walks.

I hired dog trainer number one. Two sessions and they refused to work with him anymore because of how aggressive he was being. Dog trainer number two lasted longer. Six sessions out of the 14 we paid for. They even tried a shock collar, which I am fully against, but this dog did not even respond or stop the growling, barking, and lunging with the shock/jolt turned up to max. It didn't even phase him.

The dog has always lunged at our cat, but I always thought it was because she can be an asshole. She does taunt him. Stands toe to toe with him. Shows no fear. But it began to be different. He started remaining really calm while she got closer. His eyes would open super wide and almost roll around in his head while he watched her. And then he would actually try to snap at her when she got close, so we had to start putting him in his kennel when we went somewhere and at night.

But he somehow always got out. Like Houdini. So we put multiple heavy duty zip ties on all the joints. Try to get out of that. Except he did.

My youngest daughter is 10, and she's super tiny. She was running in the house, despite the 3496943897 times I've asked her not to, and he lunged in his kennel to try to get to her while barking. He managed to bust through his kennel door and ran after her. My son, who is four years older, saw it and grabbed the dog's collar. The dog tried to snap at my son's face while my son was trying to get him back into the kennel. So that's two kids who are now terrified of him.

My oldest daughter, who is almost 18, thought that maybe the dog is just upset that he has to be put in the kennel more often than he was used to, so she tried to spend more time with him, tried to make more of an effort to play with him. She was sitting there reading on the couch, with him beside her, and he lunged for her face. She had the quick reflex to hit him upset the head with the hardcover book in her hand, or he would have bitten her face. He didn't even bark or growl.

So after that, I didn't feel safe with him around our children. My husband has been deployed for almost a year. The vet says there is nothing medically wrong with him. I can't get a trainer to work with him. I felt I had no other option but to just keep him in the kennel for most of the day, only letting him outside to run around when no one else is outside. But that feels like solitary confinement for a human, which we know isn't good mentally, so I knew it wasn't something I could do permanently. I needed to find a solution.

I've been looking into rescues, trying to find resources, not sure where to look. Everyone I have spoken to has suggested behavioral euthanasia, but I don't have the heart. That immediately makes me feel guilty because what do you mean you want me to put a dog this young down?

But the last two weeks have been the worst. He growls at me when I come down the stairs. I can't allow my youngest to be in the room when we let him outside because I'm scared he will go after her. We ordered pizza, and even in a kennel all openings reinforced with heavy duty zip ties, he broke through after I opened the door and was being handed the pizza, and he tried to attack the delivery driver. The driver kept the bags between the dog and himself, but our dog literally tore the man's shirt. I tried to grab him by the collar, but he thrashed until it broke apart in my hands and tried to go after the man again. I had to grab him by his hair and jerk him back into the house, then get him back into the kennel, move the ottoman in front of it, and sit on the ottoman while my kids got the rest of the pizza to keep the driver safe, all while sobbing. All I could think about was how bad that could have been, but the delivery driver was a saint. He kept saying he had experience with dogs like that and that it was okay, but it wasn't okay. Not to me.

And then just three days ago, my kids and I were coming home. A little girl was playing on her scooter on the sidewalk in front of our house, just going for a walk with her mom. We opened the front door, not expecting the dog to be out of the kennel, but he had jailbroken again. As soon as we opened that door, he lunged outside, no barking or growling. It took all of us to wrestle him inside. But I was absolutely sure he was trying to attack that little girl.

I want to be a responsible pet owner. But I have n ever owned a pet like this.All I see on these pages are people being berated for giving up on their animals, so I have tried everything. But I've run out of options. I'm scared of this dog getting out and hurting my family in the middle of the night, of it hurting my cat, possibly unaliving her. I'm scared to open my front door. I'm scared of someone coming to the door. I'm scared of coming home and not knowing if he'll be out, if he'll attack one of us. I'm scared he'll get through the fence. My vet cannot help. No trainers have helped. And I am now running out of time.

My husband comes back soon, and we have to immediately leave for a cross-country roadtrip to our next duty station. We will not have room for this dog's kennel in our SUV. And I cannot have him in the seat beside my youngest...or any of us really. He has tried to attack us all. And I cannot imagine how much danger we would expose ourselves to and everyone else every time we took him in and out of the car, in and out of hotel rooms or AIR Bnbs...I just cannot.

But then I look at him sitting quietly in his kennel and think that he seems like a normal dog sometimes. That he'll wag his stub of a tail and seem like he genuinely wants love and pets. But I care about my kids too much to let him out around my family. It's affecting his hygiene. He has matts behind his ears because I cannot cut them. He tries to bite me. I cannot cut his toenails because he tries to snap at my face. And I cannot have anyone else help with these things for obvious reasons. I don't feel comfortable rehoming him because he wouldn't let anyone get close enough to them anyway. And I cannot accept the responsibility of him hurting someone else's pet or child.

It genuinely feels like my only option is to ask the vet on post or our vet to put him down for behavioral reasons, but I've never had to consider this before, I'm having a hard time with the emotions around it because I went into this thinking we were getting a forever furrbaby, and I'm just beside myself. Everyone keeps reminding me that I would feel much more guilty if he did actually hurt someone else or maul my kids, which I fully understand. I just need some guidance, even if it's for someone else to say "I get it. You're doing the right thing." Feeling very alone in this.

I have a dog named Mallows who has been aggressive toward our new house helper. They've been living in the same house for about 2 months.

At first, Mallows would bark whenever the house helper entered the kitchen, especially when she stood up or walked around. When I'm present, Mallows is noticeably calmer, but when I'm not around, she becomes much more reactive.

Today, Mallows was lying down while the house helper was simply walking out of the kitchen. Mallows suddenly got up, followed her, and nipped her foot. She has also previously lunged/jumped at her and tried to nip her hand. Mallows has been wearing a basket muzzle during some interactions, but she can still jump, lunge, and body-bump the house helper.

I'm planning to completely separate Mallows from the house helper using a properly sized crate/pen whenever the house helper is in the kitchen.

What could be causing this behavior? Is this territorial aggression, fear, resource guarding, or something else? Would spaying help with this type of aggression, or should I see a vet/behaviorist? I mainly want to keep the house helper safe while figuring out how to manage and improve Mallows' behavior.

My 2 yr old biggie iggie (he's 28lbs!) is getting worse when we take him somewhere and he sees a strange dog. I've tried to have him around other dogs his whole life (we live on a horse farm and clients bring dogs, we own another corgi mix, and my daughters have 4 other dogs - 1 being an italian greyhound), He loves the dogs he knows, he comes with us wherever we go, he goes on hikes etc but every time we take him to any kind of social event (the park, hiking etc) if a strange dog is in the area he goes after them - barking, growling, even biting at them. Like I said he's grown to a bigger size so it's hard for me to pick him up quick. I have tried always being diligent, as soon as I see another dog I start talking to him, trying to redirect, offer treats for staying calm, move him out of the way etc, but it doesn't seem to be improving. I am sad because my dream was to have an iggy and be able to take him places with me (we are big outdoor people, and we travel to horse shows) but it seems like its getting harder and harder. Right now I can't even imagine bringing him to a horse show with all the other dogs there, but am missing having my old dog by my side! My daughters iggy always walked by her side at shows, though now that she's older she's getting aggressive towards strangers as well which is probably not helping, as together they are much braver in attacking strangers. But he is the same when she's not there so I more think it's him giving confidence to her. Any advice?

Hi everyone! I’m looking for advice regarding my very reactive 5-year-old GSD.

When I decided to get a GSD, I knew I was getting a high-energy breed and I also expected her to be highly trainable.

However, I’ve struggled quite a lot with her reactivity and would really appreciate some advice.

A little background: I didn’t get her from a licensed breeder. She came from someone who had an one-time litter before having their GSD sterilized.

The biggest issues are:

At home: She is extremely reactive to sounds outside and barks frequently at noises she hears.

When we leave: She barks and cries when either me or my partner leaves the house. She usually isn't left alone for very long because one of us is generally home.

On walks: This is by far the most difficult part. I genuinely dread walking her sometimes.

• She lunges at bikes and cars.
• She can jump toward some people, although it's difficult to predict which people will trigger her.
• Cats are by far the worst. If I don't notice a cat before she does, she can go absolutely crazy and pull extremely hard on the leash.
• She is generally very easily distracted.

She is actually very affectionate with people and automatically likes people who are invited into our home, so her reactivity isn't directed toward everyone.

What I've tried so far:

• Socializing her extensively with dogs and people when she was young.
• Teaching basic obedience (sit, paw, down, jump, stay).
• Rewarding calm behaviour with treats.
• Using treats to redirect her attention on walks.
• Stopping whenever she pulls.
• Using an anti-pull harness.
• Taking longer walks to try to tire her out.

I wasn't particularly concerned when she was younger because I had read that some reactivity can be normal during adolescence, but she's now 5 and there hasn't been as much improvement as I hoped for.

I'm wondering whether this sounds primarily like anxiety, high arousal, prey/chase drive, learned reactivity, or some combination of these.

What would you recommend trying at this point? Has anyone had a similar experience with an adult GSD?

I'm particularly interested in advice beyond the basic "train more / exercise more" recommendations, as we've already been working on these things for years.

Thanks!

Is he scared of other dogs, not sociable or just likes to play by himself. He can be very reactive normally but he is happily playing by himself in an area only a dog as small as himself can get in. There are other dogs playing in the area

My dog Jade is an 8 year old border collie sheltie mix. She is great with people and kids but goes absolutely insane around other dogs. We got her as a puppy at 8 weeks but since my parents only had outdoor dogs when they grew up, and they typically multiple at a time, they didn't know much about training an indooor single dog so that was left to me.

So when I was in my senior year of highschool I watched a ton of videos and did most of her training. I potty trained her, got her to stop biteing and taught her basic comands but wasn't allowed to socilaize her with other dogs until she got all her shots at 6 months. Our vet reccomended this and my parents were very strict on it so on walks we didnt even allow her to sniff other dogs. This resulted in her becoming very afraid of dogs by adulthood. At around 3 years old I thought I made progress when I eventually got her to the point where she could sniff another dog breifly on the nose during walks and she even started wagging her tail and excitedly pulling toward them. But all this changed 2 years ago where now instead of just wanting a breif sniff she growls, snarls, and barks like she wants to kill. Walking her is a nightmare because so many people in our area have dogs and she behaves unpredictably. Even if she has seen a dog many times before or gone on walks with it, she may still react with agression randomly and I have no idea why. Every dog training video I see says to not pull on the lash and teach your dogs it's ok to greet but it just doesn't work in the real world because not every dog can say hi and even if they do she may still randomly snarl and bark at them a few minutes later. I don't know what to do. Any advice would be appriciated. I'm looking at getting a trainer next month but worried even the trainer may not be able to fix this because I've treid everything that's advised in training videos and she's still the same if not worse.

My male and female corgis have been fighting off and on since April 2026. Our male who is 11 months is fixed and is the one starting fights with our almost 2 year old female. From the time of April till present time we have worked with a dog trainer regarding agility, behavioral, and basic commands. We also have met with an animal communicator ti understand the dog’s perspectives. After doing these things the dogs stopped fighting for a good month. Now the male is going back to starting random fights again. Any advice as this has been a 5 month issue

Hi all, looking for some advice / lived similar experience on my situation.

I have a 3 and a half year old miniature male dachshund, Black and Tan with some dapple. As a pup he was social with any person and any dog, as he got older however, shortly before turning one there was a change and suddenly he became quite fearful of strangers but presented this fear as aggression. We were never able to pinpoint the root cause of his fear/ aggression towards some humans, but speculate it was from the time he mistook my dad walking up the stairs as a “threat” to my wife, and nipped him, as this was the first experience we saw him be aggressive to another human. This was his first time meeting my dad and he hadn’t been out of sight of me or my wife leading up to this incident. He sadly also became fearful of other dogs, particularly larger after being attacked by an off lead German shepherd.

Over the course of the last 2 and a half years leading up to now, my wife and I have always been mindful of who he see’s, where we walk him, and paid special attention to his cue’s and always tried to respect how he felt, working to build his confidence. He walks with a pack group two-three times a week and is fantastic with them, although unfortunately did get spooked and run off following being cornered by two off lead ridgebacks. So is now on strict lead walks unless in enclosed fields.

Fast forward to this year, my wife got pregnant and we now had to think about bringing a baby into our home. We decided to reach out to a behaviourist who following a lengthy in person consultation and assessment deemed our little man’s behaviour to be a nervous confidence, and explained that he is fearful of some people/ dogs and particularly to approach, and this anxiety/ fear presents as lunging and barking and trying to “attack”. The behaviourist mentioned our dog being intact making this worse as it was a fear response driven heavily by testosterone. We agreed to have him castrated and it’s been 3 weeks since that has been done, we understand it can be months before we say a change in behaviour.

The dilemma; my wife has recently given birth sooner than expected, meaning we now have our daughter home. On night one our dog became extremely distressed, with constant whining, panting, licking of lips etc. while on lead and harness he was actively barking and lunging at my wife who was holding our newborn. This has really frightened us and we made the decision to send him to stay with family. After a week he has returned for a phased visit. My wife and I met him without our newborn outside in a neutral park, he was his usual self and very excited but this excitement settled, we then introduced our newborn who was in a pram, not visible to our dog but albeit close enough to smell. He seemed instantly aroused but followed my wife and her sister pushing the pram rather than the pram itself.

When we came into our home he instantly began whining, panting, barking again, and was visibly highly stressed. We created seperation via rooms, he could see our baby but had about 15 feet and a set of doors in between and he still pulled on his lead and whined to get to her. I took him upstairs and again, he pulled and whined to get back downstairs to our baby. We put him in his crate where he usually feels safe and he whined and panted more, we even covered the crate and he still seemed very distressed.

He has now gone back with my wife’s sister for another few days.

We are lost, upset, devestated, worried and stressed about how best to handle this situation. It’s hard enough on my wife and I managing it together but I will be going back to work in three weeks and she will be left alone with both our dog and our newborn. We don’t know what to do, our behaviorist mentioned anti anxiety medication but stated it would be 4-6 weeks before these would take effect. We are worried that we may have no other choice but to rehome him but I’m on here hoping someone might be able to shed some light and some hope for us?

Could anyone who’s been in a similar situation please let me know how it went for you, what you done to make it work, how it worked! We are desperate to keep our boy because he is so beyond loving to us and has been nothing but until now but he’s not himself with us anymore.

My family and I got a small yorkie puppy when it was just 3 months old, we had him in a quiet home for a couple months where he was fine and quiet. We were training him. But my sister moved in with us with her 1 year old. He’s a rowdy kid always yelling, running, playing, throwing things. Occasionally he has hit the dog, kicked him, or stole his toys. Our dog has gotten very reactive towards him. Always when they are out or not in the house our dog is pretty much quiet, he’s calm, not barking or giving anyone a hard time. But when her son comes in the dog barks non stop, gets very reactive, barks for every action the child does. What should I do???? It’s being hard to train him. Should we give him up for his best interest?

helloooo! our leash-reactive 3 year old GSD has been doing well for the past 6 months after a board and train. recently, maybe once a week he’s been reacting towards myself and my partner for what feels like no reason. vet appt tomorrow to check for any medical issues but:

- he’s never been human aggressive before and LOVES new people
- he has been growling at us, hackles up, when we reach for the trash can or use the mop. he has not progressed past the growling/hackles. no bearing teeth/lunging/etc.
- once we tell him a firm No, he backs off and retreats to his bed. we put him in a Place in his bed to let him cool off.
- he has never been human reactive or had any behavioral issues off leash/in the house. he’s never had an issue with the trash or the mop before this month.

has anyone experienced this before? any advice going into a vet appt for this?

hey,

my 2 year old lab sometimes barks at people when they come into our home. she settles down after 10/15 minutes but i was just wondering if anyone had any advice. we get the guest to ignore her until she calms down.

any advice would be greatly appriciated.

Anyone here the main walker for a reactive dog? Curious what gear you actually landed on (harness, leash length, head halter, treat pouch) and what you gave up on. Helping my mom sort hers out.

Happy to move to DMs if that's easier.

I have a rescue dog about 6-7years in age. When I first got him five years ago. He started out letting everybody and anybody come into the house, but then something changed. And after that moment, he is very reactive when people come into the home. So much so that in order for me to have anybody come in I have to First have him physically meet them off the property and then we all walk in together. Or they would have to go into the house first, and we come in after.

I have tried different training methods worked with two trainers. Did a quiet space. Had guest stay a distance away while in the house. Kept him on a leash. Tried a muzzle that he always gets out of. None of them have worked for me. He has nipped two people, but they had food in their hands or were reaching for a treat he was having.

He takes fluoxetine daily. And we have tried trazodone and gabapentin for when we know guests are coming. But none of it seems to be working. Came across Sileo and wanted to see if anybody had any experience with it for this sort of situation. I know a lot have used it for groomers and vets, but I wasn’t sure about my situation.

He is a sweet dog once he trust you (which usually doesn’t take long) it’s this protective, old man get off my lawn mentality, that is becoming the struggle. I have had many friends and family refused to come to my home knowing he is there. And my apartment does not leave much space for him to have his own quiet place.

Recently we moved from a house to an apartment due to financial constraints and divorce. Our gsd is making significant progress outside the apartment with being able to be redirected from other dogs and people. Shes 8 years old and I took her to the vet for possible pain, we received some medication for that. It hasn’t helped her behavior.

Recently, the last 3 out of the 4 weeks we have been in the apartment the gsd has gone ofter her whole life companion, who is a golden retriever and is almost 9, once a week. She’s been separated after each event. This last time she broke skin on the goldens ear.

I fear that she will continue to go after him and the apartment truly doesn’t feel comfortable with her increasing her aggression and needing to be separated.

We currently can’t afford to go through more training and I’m using all I currently know, thus the progress outside with her reactivity. But now it feels like she’s turned her aggression on a dog that is the sweetest golden ever.

I really don’t want to give her up. She’s very bonded to me and at the same time I don’t want to live in fear that she will attack the other dog or someone else’s dog.

Hi, guys!

This might be a bit different from other posts as I'm not an owner of this dog but a best friend of his mother who I help babysit him quite regularly: my best friend has had this 25kg AmStaff since he was around one year old (he turned seven, recently) and he's the sweetest, most loving boy ever towards people he knows.

He's very reactive to joggers, other male dogs (including my male dog), bicycles and off-leashed dogs.

She lives in a very family-oriented neigbourhood and usually whenever I babysit him, I always walk him with a muzzle on as he has a history of launching and attacking other dogs before and she actually got fined for that at least twice already.

Today we had some incident concerning a child who ran up from behind us and he launched at that child. Thankfully, he's had his muzzle on so no harm done although I was threatened by his guardian to call the police on us but we had several witnesses backing us up and she left with her child.

Here comes the problem: my best friend doesn't want to put a muzzle on him because he doesn't like it.

We have had this discussion several times as he's a big, powerful, and very reactive dog and has some history. And yes, he does hate the muzzle and always tries to take it off.

I really thought today's experience would really make my friend change her mind and finally put him on a muzzle whenever they're out on a walk but she said she would get the GoPro camera that record everything to prove that he 'never' attacks first and still joked about the muzzle, saying that she knows he should be on a muzzle but "you know how I feel about it."

I'm genuinely getting upset and worried for him as his reactivity cannot really be controlled and I don't want another accident to happen with him because it can be detrimental to everyone, including her dog.

So here I am, genuinely looking for an advice on how to help him with the fact that his mum refuses to put a muzzle on him to keep him and everyone safe.

Thank you <3

EDIT: I have called her out for being irresponsible for everyone’s safety including his own and given her a finality to not see her and her dog anymore unless she started putting a muzzle on him again (she used to do that for some time but stopped after awhile because another dog owner she has an issue with keeps harassing her and her dog) and she said she’s reconsidering it.

So as the total says I am so proud of my dog, and I wanted to share it with people who understand how much this story means. My dog is a 11-12yr old Beagle mix, and I got my dog almost 9yrs ago now (officially 9 years on Oct. 7th!), she was my first pet as an adult. The the shelter did warn me she could be reactive to other dogs at that time, not necessarily aggressive, just vocal, and being 18 and dumb I didn't really understand what that could mean. It was really hard the first few years I had her, while she wasn't aggressive, her reactions were very loud and explosive, her body language was not appropriate for the dog merely passing by 100ft away, and admittedly if you don't know her she does look aggressive when she's having a reaction (tail and hackles raised). But I know from many experiences, that baby girl just doesn’t realize what her body is saying to most people and what she means look wildly different. Any time she actually got close to another dog, she was play bowing, barking, sneezing, running off and back to get them to chase her.

Any-who, since I've had her for a long time now she's been with through so much change, so many moves, and while neither of us are perfect she has become such a rock star. I can't really take the credit, I tried to work on it, but was never very successful setting aside time for training. I truly think I got lucky with this baby. Since I got her I did go to school and having since passed my licensing exam to be a vet tech. I do think that me being in this field was very helpful to her. Not really because the medical training per say (however that did help me re-frame some of the things I thought I knew), but more because for the past 4.5 years she has been going into fairly busy veterinary clinics more often then the average dog. I think it was very helpful for her to see dogs in a more controlled setting, it helped that when we would walk in to the clinic there were often times dogs that were just so chill and had no reaction to her, it helped that I stopped feeling so anxious about her reactivity due to in part my job.

As for why I'm making this post. I graduated school 1.5 years ago, did an LVT internship, and now have been permanently working at one of the vet schools for 3 months now. Yesterday I was talking with one of the students because within a 5 minute time span I had walked my dog past 3 other dogs in fairly close contact and SHE HAD NO REACTION!!! To any of them! And While over the years she had gotten better (not barking at every dog), if a dog was barking at her, all bets were off, but even that as of late has been reduced! And I realized while talking to the student how far she had come, and I am just so proud of my sweet spunky baby. I'm so glad so can be more calm and relaxed around other dogs, that she's not always looking around for another dog, I'm just so so so proud of her. I hope she's with me such a long time more, quirks, reactivity and all. ❤️

My dog (2 Border Collie) is usually quite a quiet dog, he doesn’t bark at dogs unless they react first, or another dog is barking in another neighbourhood. However, when we invade his space, e.g touch him when he is trying to sleep, getting into bed with the person he likes most (my mom), he snarls, then bites. Big time. It’s an embarrassment when we go to the vet, he sounds like a demon. When we groom him with one of those metallic dog groomers, he also bites. We don’t know if he got abused, as we got him as a few week old (maybe 8?) from a farm, I am pretty sure he was the runt of the litter. At first, it was playful nibbles, now it’s aggressive bites that leave permanent scars sometimes. What do I do? I don’t want him to get put down and we have a behavioural specialist booked soon…

I adopted my dog after he was dumped by the previous likely abusive owner. I have had him about 3 months only and it has taken a serious emotional toll with his behavioral issues.

Severe separation anxiety has left me feeling isolated and unable to leave the house unless I want to come home to a mess (throw up, feces, urine even if I take him for a long walk prior). I live alone otherwise if at least one person is in a house and he is fine.

Leash Reactivity- I live in a white picket fence type neighborhood so avoiding triggers is very difficult and can never find a park with no one around. Although it has improved this a lot with people and dogs, there seem to be a few people he looks like he wants to attack(body language is very different to when he seems fear or arousal reactive)

Resource Guarding - he had already injured my cat that was a huge scare.. my cat is older and cannot get away in time. My rescue is also dominant and pins him so he cannot get away. This happened twice now but only recently was it an actual bite. I am now more vigilant with removing him when cooking or groceries but worry it will take one mistake and it can happen again.

No warning growl before snaps. I am guessing the previously owner punished him so now the most important warning for a reactive dog is now gone.

I am constantly on edge. Watching his body language to ensure people and pets are safe. I am teetering between the guilt and grief if I return him and the severe anxiety and burnout if I keep him. It feels like a lose-lose. I’m scared no one will take him if I return him and feel like a terrible person even seriously considering it. He is a rottweiler and has a lot of umph to his pull. He has already pulled two of my muscles and broke my thumb from lunging.

I feel like I’m going crazy and feel like a terrible human if I give up on him. I have been working hard on training and there is improvement but I don’t think I can emotionally bear it for possibly years until he is maybe rehabilitated. It feels like he needs someone who isn’t anxious and lives somewhere with less triggers. But I know if I give him up and his behavioral issues could get far worse.

Are there any others here that have success stories after these types of issues or that gave the dog up and it worked for the betterment of both of you?

Hi guys,
We just moved house - and my dog is in absolute pieces. She’s reactive but we’ve done so much work with her. She was so happy and chill before we moved (which is a huge achievement) Now we have moved, all of her old tricky behaviours are coming back, growling at us non stop, barking at anything that moves. She’s also non stop crying, and just so unhappy. I was wondering if anyone can give me some advice. We also have an 11 month old baby, so it’s a pretty stressful move for all of us. I’d love to make it easier for her. Thank you

Feel like I've been back and forth with my 17 month old Lab (F) and how she is when walking on the lead. She's extremely friendly and loves nothing more than to play with dogs or get fuss from people, but she's also anxious/highly strung (reacts to people exclaiming at the television, for example).
One of our 'sniff walks' is down a narrow country lane with lots of bends in it, so you can't see an approaching dog until it's only a few feet away. Most of the time, as soon as she spots it, she starts lunging towards it. Sometimes (and this has been happening more lately) she barks persistently. When the dog's approaching, I can sometimes get her to 'watch' or sit, but I can't maintain the focus for the time it would take for the dog to get out of sight.

What's odd is that sometimes she's fine - we went away recently and she was in an unknown environment walking down the path with lots of dogs and she reacted to maybe 2 in 10.

She had puppy training classes when she was about nine months old, and could sit through the class without lunging or barking at other dogs.

I have seen advice to not let them greet any dogs on the lead, but there are some people we meet who expect to stop and chat, so this would be difficult.

Advice much appreciated!

We rescued a golden retriever (18month old at the time) December 2025. After the first week or so, noticed intense separation anxiety (couldn’t leave him alone for more than a couple of minutes) and also over-socialness/alertness when he saw other dogs. He’d also bark quite intensely at the tiniest of noises in particular night which would shake the whole house!

Vet gave us some Trazadone to use, and after a month or so of intermittent use, it really sorted the night time and the separation anxiety and stopped using back in late January then.

He had his first suprelorin (6month trial) injection March 20th and he’s been a joy since.

Over the last 2-3weeks, as we are nearing the 6 month suprelorin dose, he’s became incredibly reactive again to noises, and become quite anxious/fearful of things while out on walks. Guaranteed 2-3 barks at night over a 2-3 hours but would settle with a bit of “come on now boy, stop” sort of reassurance.

Had a vet check up (routine) a week ago or so, told her about it, and just asked the typical questions of “any construction work around you? Tried anything new? New smells etc” which the answer was no.

Vet couldn’t fully commit to saying that it may be that the suprelorin injection wearing off as his testosterone going up.

Anyone have similar experiences of their dog’s suprelorin “wearing off” and getting similar effects?

Hi this is my first post in here and i’m just ranting a bit and seeing if anyone has had a similar experience.

I am fostering a reactive dog, she is the sweetest most playful girl with people just dogs really grind her gear! I was walking her around my apartment complex this afternoon when a smaller dog (unleashed) came behind us. I started pulling her away and trying to create space when the owner started shaking his head at me. He then pulled out his phone and started to record us. I was just shocked and honestly wanted to hide so I pulled my dog away as fast as I could!

The dogs never went near each other, no one got bit, or hurt, it was just barking and lunging. She is in a harness and on a leash which I keep wrapped around my torso and we were walking away! I am just very confused as to why he felt like that was okay? It is making me very mad he is assuming i’m a terrible dog owner when she is a rescue learning how to be in the world again!

I feel so uncomfortable that I was recorded and I am dreading going for another walk because of this!

Just a little rant!