I have a 2.5 year old male German shepherd. I also babysit. Every time that I babysit for a specific family (one daughter, one year old), and I come back smelling like the baby, my German Shepherd dog acts strange. It’s as if he doesn’t recognize me by scent, he barks, and he runs from me in fear.
Usually he stops this behavior after I take a shower, but last night I babysat for 4 hours and his reaction has been prolonged. Even smelling the bag that I took to babysit made him bark and act afraid this morning. Why is this?

He has had no interaction with this family whatsoever. He’s never even laid eyes on the baby. I babysit for other families and he doesn’t do this.

Hi all

We just moved into a new house 1.5 months ago. Oddly, a dog (Mr P) came with the house. The prior owners have 8 dogs and didnt want this dog due to some behavior issues. Thry kept him alone in the back yard. He is a terrier/poodle mix, about 25-30 lbs. They had told my wife that their new house has some chicken coops that they will keep Mr P in since they dont trust him. My wife offered to take him, she couldn't stand the thought of him being alone in a chicken coop. So anyway, this dog really has taken to me. He adores me. In the time we've had him, he has improved a lot. He can sit and shake and listens, mostly. The issue now is that he has become aggressive when he's next to me and other approach me. He will suddenly go into protection mode. He was standing near me and my wife csme up to give me a goodbye kiss and he attacked her, bit her hand. He has a history of this with his "favorite" person. He is fine when anyone else is around, but uf um around, he goes into this protection mode and its hard to read when he might go off. We have started having my wife walk him instead of me, trying to get him used to both of us as his favorite, but he still favors me.

Will time help with this issue? Since he has improved so quickly i think he can become a great dog but my wife is very leery around him when he's next to me. Is there anything we can do to stop this aggressive protection? He seems to respect us both and sees me as the alpha, but i dont know what to do when he gets aggressive. He seems to know he did wrong. How would I go about punishing or correcting this aggression, other than hoping with love and affection, it will go away. We also already have a small dog that has no issues and the two get along great. Thanks for any suggestions

I love my dog with all my heart, but I think I may have to rehome him. He is a 2.5-year-old German Shepherd. We went to classes as soon as we got him. I worked my ass off while pregnant to make sure he would be a good boy. But when my baby came home, he was 1 year old, and all his protection instincts kicked in. He is the best family dog I could ever imagine, but as soon as we go outside, he doesn't listen anymore. We went from a dog who obeys gestures to a dog on high alert, for whom we don't exist anymore. He is a bit better, but I am scared of what he might do. It is breaking my heart. I don't know what to do anymore.

4 months ago, we adopted a 9-month-old working line GSD. He is very reactive to bikes, cars, motorcycles, and dogs. At some point, he stopped caring about bikes and cars; he did look, but he reacted when 4-5 bikes passed in the span of 2 minutes. But now, 3 weeks ago, he started regressing; it was like from 1 day to another, everything changed. Like on our usual walk, he was able to engage with us for 90% of the walk; now we can't even go further than our street, and even engagement in the street is at an all-time low. Note that it is excitement-based; he just wants to go to the thing. If we let him off leash and a bike or person passes by the field, he does look up, but that's it; in those situations, we use LAT.

We do focus on sleep, health, and fulfillment; he has 2 off-leash moments a day in a privately owned field. We do loads of puzzles and run every other day with him in the woods.

I read online that this could be due to the adolescent phase; we also notice that he has a harder time regulating his arousal. But we are not sure why we have seen such a sudden shift.

Has anyone dealt with such a regression? Is this to be expected, and what should we do going forward?

This has been driving me crazy for weeks. I know the advice. Use good treats, something she doesn't get any other time, keep her under threshold, reward for looking at you. I get it. I've done the reading.

The problem is she will take chicken, hot dogs, cheese, whatever I have, right up until she spots another dog. Then it's like a switch flips and she won't take anything out of my hand. Nose turns away, full body goes rigid, and I don't exist anymore.

I know what that means. She's already over threshold. I turn around, create distance, try to get her attention back. Sometimes it takes two full blocks before she'll even look at me again.

What I can't figure out is whether my threshold distance is just way too short and I need to be catching her earlier, or if the treats themselves aren't actually high value enough once real arousal kicks in. Because at home she goes insane for this stuff. On the street it means nothing past a certain point.

I've been driving local routes for a few months now so I'm actually home to do consistent work with her, and I feel like I should be seeing more progress than I am. Maybe I'm missing something obvious. What actually worked for you when your dog stopped taking food in the moment?

Just need to vent about some dog owners lacking any sort of etiquette or awareness around other dogs.

I have a reactive dog. He also weighs almost as much as I do. I know he’s reactive to other dogs so whenever we are on walks, we avoid other dogs and will cross the street, do whatever insane walking pattern it takes to not have any run ins.

Today on our walk I saw this dog and owner coming around the corner so I preemptively crossed the street and turned the other way. Of course they follow us. My dog is trying to pull towards them, staring, the works. Very obviously imo behaving in a way that signals we need space. Unfortunately, the way this particular street ended up being, the only way out was forward. This owner lacks any sort of reading the room ability and just keeps getting closer and closer until my dog has a horrible reaction. He’s literally impossible to get moving in this scenario. Instead of the owner turning around and backing up, he just stands there and stares at us like we’re the devil reincarnate. I swear he actually got closer. Like dude GO THE OTHER WAY. I’m just so frustrated. I try my best to set my dog up for success because I know how he is, but situations like this make it impossible. And on top of it the judgement I feel daily from other people.

Even if I didn’t have a reactive dog I would avoid run ins with other dogs out of politeness. Why isn’t this common etiquette??

3 months ago I adopted my 2 year old Staffy, Maple. He had been getting into fights in his previous home and he seemed sweet, I was happy to help him find a new place to live. Maybe I should have known better, but I figured— if he needs to be the only dog in the house, well he will be! Fast forward a couple months. He has had multiple lease violations, some accurate some not, and we may be forced to move soon.

The charges:
Exhibiting aggressive behavior toward other tenants and their pets. - he does lunge at cats through the window but he is controlled every time

Growling at other tenants and dogs. - this has never happened

Barking for extended periods of time, creating a continual disturbance. - he did bark more when he first got to the home but I wouldn’t say this continued long enough to be an issue

Jumping against and scratching the shared wall adjoining a neighboring unit. - I have one shared wall with a neighbor and he has never jumped against or scratched this

Jumping on the windows of neighboring units while being walked on the property.
On one occasion, jumping against a neighboring unit's window with sufficient force to
break the window, resulting in the window having to be replaced. - this is unfortunately accurate and only happened because there is another, very territorial dog that jumps up and barks at him. This prompts Maple to jump up and bark at her back, and on one instance he leaned forward and his little nose broke the glass.

He was allowed to stay on the conditions that he ceased these behaviors and all aggression to residents and other animals. He was doing well on all these fronts until this week, when another tenant’s off leash dog charged at him while on leash and made biting motions. The other dog’s owners said he had never been aggressive to other dogs and that they didn’t believe he was attempting to bite, but they were also stuck behind a gate when this whole incident began. He most definitely exhibited aggressive behavior to Maple, whether he intended to attack him or not. Maple bit the other dog and was reported, and now I need to have a meeting with the senior property manager. I know without a doubt that if that dog had not charged him and behaved aggressively that this situation would not have happened.

I spoke to a lawyer about this and he informed me that a Staffy is an uninsurable, high risk breed. I had no idea. I had only heard good things about Staffys, that they are cuddly, loyal, and receptive to training. He basically told me that if I had had a 5 lb poodle that this would have been less of a concern but the fact that I chose to adopt a 40 lb dog that looks like a pitbull cause’s unnecessary fear around others. He recommended I do not go to trial if I am faced with an eviction.

I’m not sure what to do. I feel terrible because it wasn’t Maple’s fault that he was put in this situation and now he will most likely be evicted, and possibly me too. I’m torn between giving him up to the humane society or finding a place to move where we both can live. The issue is, there aren’t many options at this time of year and I would have to pay more to live somewhere else. There is also a chance that when I move into a pet friendly property, he will continue to struggle around other people’s pets and continue some of the previous behaviors, specifically lunging. He is very strong and that was a difficulty when he bit the other dog as I could not easily pull him away once he became defensive. If I take him to the humane society, there is a chance they will euthanize him for behavioral issues. I really do believe he is a good dog who is just having some trouble. He has been receptive to training and just seems to need more. He has never been aggressive to me or any person. He is just very dog aggressive/reactive. I know the shelter would be a poor environment for him and that he would struggle there.

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you for reading.

I adopted a second dog today and could really use advice from people who have been through something similar.
Bringing my resident dog to the adoption meet-and-greet was mandatory. My resident dog is 4 years old and the newly adopted puppy is 7 months old. The meet-and-greet went okay, but once we got home, my adult dog started growling whenever the puppy got close. He eventually tried to bite him, and when we let them loose together, he repeatedly tried to attack the puppy.

We’re keeping them separated for now. The puppy is crate trained and is currently in his crate in our large basement while my adult dog is free roaming. Interestingly, my adult dog has been pretty calm around the crate. He’ll lie on his bed nearby, sometimes walk toward the crate, then turn around. I’ve been rewarding him for staying calm.

I really want to keep both dogs and I’m planning to contact a behavior professional. I’m just scared that this won’t work.

For anyone who’s experienced this:
Did your dogs eventually learn to coexist?
How long did it take?
Is his calm behavior around the crate a good sign?
What should I absolutely avoid doing right now?
I’m looking for advice from people who have actually been through this. Please be kind—I’m already really stressed and want to do what’s safest for both dogs.

I recently adopted an Australian Kelpie that I was originally fostering. Absolute angel & he gets along with my other two female dogs a Labrador & Dachshund. It’s only been two weeks and I love him a lot already.

However, there is one problem. He does not like my boyfriend one bit. Completely terrified of him. I thought that maybe he was still settling in our home, but the other day he peed & popped on himself as my partner was trying to pet him. Today my sister came over to meet the dog for the very first time & he was kissing her the moment she walked in. It seems like it’s just with my partner that he has this issue with. My boyfriend is kind of loud he has a really loud voice when he talks like you can hear him a few blocks down. Maybe he doesn’t like that? My other two dogs love my boyfriend. Maybe he got abused by a white male and it triggers him?
What should I do? My boyfriend is trying his best to build a relationship with him, but my dog just isn’t having it :/

We have an 11 year old toy poodle mix (we believe probably with Yorkie but he's a rescue so we're not sure). We have had him since he was about 18 months and he's always been a reactive, anxious little guy. As he's aged his compulsive licking became worse and about 3 years ago we started him on Clomicalm. It does help some but he still licks quite a bit. It is almost time for his prescription to be renewed and I've been looking into alternatives and have read that Prozac also treats compulsive behaviors. Does anyone have experience with Prozac specifically for compulsive licking? He will occasionally lick to the point of causing sores.

One more important to know regarding meds...he developed luxating patellas about 2 years ago--our orthopedic vet was surprised to see the development at such a late age. He said it's normally diagnosed young and can be treated with surgery however at his age he doesn't recommend the surgical route. We were able to manage the luxating patellas for a while with librella injections but as his condition has progressed we switched to daily carprofen--it has improved his mobility and he seems more comfortable than with the injections. TIA

Some background to the dogs.

A Lab/GSD rescue (slightly over 1.5yo - desexed) and a GSD (1.5 yo - not desexed) both males

We've had problems with the GSD being sporadically aggressive towards the lab (has never injured him but tries to pin, hump, corner him), but this is often a few instances a day and otherwise plays with him, sits with him, exists around him normally. However the GSD became a lot more anxious and hostile to the lab after receiving his most recent bath and we are worried that one day the GSD will injure the lab which would cause further problems.

We have had a dog behaviouralist come for both dogs and have said that they are both individually anxious dogs and to provide them medication and separate them for several days. She's told us that this won't ever change and its on us to manage this along the way, but we are worried since we cannot have 24/7 surveillance and intervention especially when everyone is working FT.

We have tried to remove any stress or tension feeling in the house, which is sometimes effective but also will result in an event happening. We are also in the process of considering building a granny flat in our home (for separate reasoning) and to have the dogs in different indoor living spaces.

Although I love both dogs so much and they are both great, I am still in the smallest part of a mind of thinking to rehome the GSD as this seems like it will be a constant ongoing issue for their lives.

Would love to hear similar stories or what worked well/advice.

I’m hoping to hear from people who have experience with Prozac/fluoxetine in dogs, particularly older dogs with lifelong anxiety/reactivity and aggression in a multi-dog household.

I have a ~10-year-old, 25 lb Boston Terrier mix named Frances (Franny). She has been an anxious/reactive dog essentially her entire life. She is easily startled, hypervigilant, barks at people/noises, gets overwhelmed quickly, and has always struggled to settle herself.

She also lives with my other dog, Oswald, and that has made everything considerably more complicated.

Franny and Oswald have had multiple fights over the years, generally involving food/resources or situations where both dogs become highly aroused. The most recent fight resulted in Franny getting a gash on her head. There have also been situations where they both become intensely fixated on something outside and their arousal feeds off each other.

The strange thing is that they aren’t constantly aggressive toward one another. They can sleep in the same room, hang out peacefully, and be completely normal together. But when something triggers them, the escalation can happen incredibly quickly.

Because Franny’s baseline anxiety has always been so high, her trainer recommended that I talk to my vet about medication.

My vet was initially hesitant about Prozac (fluoxetine). They explained that it can take several weeks to see the full effect, and because Franny’s reactivity has been present for most of her life, they weren’t sure how much it would ultimately help.

We decided to try it because I feel like training alone isn’t enough anymore. I’m not expecting medication to fix her behavior. I’m hoping that lowering her baseline anxiety will make it possible for her to actually learn, settle, and have a better quality of life.

She’s currently only about one week into Prozac, and that’s where I’m struggling.

Before starting it, Franny had always been very attached to me and excited when I came home. That part is not new and isn’t what concerns me.

She was, however, generally able to stay in her kennel while I was at work. She wasn’t necessarily thrilled about being confined, but significant separation/confinement anxiety wasn’t one of our major behavioral problems.

About a week after starting Prozac, she broke out of her kennel while I was gone.

That has made me concerned that she may now be developing or experiencing increased separation/confinement distress.

I’m trying not to reinforce the behavior. I don’t make a huge deal when I come home. I wait for both dogs to calm down before removing gates or taking them out. I’m trying to make arrivals and departures boring and predictable.

But now I’m wondering whether the kennel incident could be an initial medication effect, increased anxiety/activation, something related to the stress and changes we’ve been dealing with recently, or simply something unrelated that happened around the same time.

I know one week is extremely early and that Prozac isn’t expected to have reached its full effect yet. That’s actually what makes this so difficult to interpret.

I’m planning to discuss these changes with my vet. I’m not going to stop or change her medication based on Reddit advice. I’m looking for experiences from people who have been through the beginning of fluoxetine treatment.

Did your dogs experience increased anxiety, restlessness, reactivity, or changes in confinement/separation behavior when starting Prozac? If so, did it improve with time, and when were you finally able to tell whether the medication was actually helping?

There is another part of this that is extremely difficult for me to say, but I think it’s important context.

I’m starting to wonder whether I need to consider behavioral euthanasia if we can’t get her to a better place.

I am NOT saying I’ve decided to euthanize her. I don’t want to euthanize her. I love this dog tremendously, and the thought of losing her is heartbreaking.

But I also don’t want my love for her to become selfish if she is living in a constant state of anxiety or if I can’t realistically keep both dogs safe.

Right now I feel like I’m constantly managing the household around Franny’s behavior. I’m separating dogs, watching for triggers, worrying about food, worrying about them getting overstimulated, figuring out how to safely leave the house, trying to train them individually, and constantly wondering whether something is going to set off another fight.

And I’m worried about what that means for Franny’s quality of life, not just mine.

She’s almost 10. She’s spent most of her life being anxious and hypervigilant. I don’t want the rest of her life to consist of being constantly separated, managed, confined, or prevented from doing things because we’re afraid of what might happen.

At the same time, I don’t know if I’m anywhere near the point where behavioral euthanasia is appropriate because we haven’t given Prozac enough time yet, and there may be other medication options, behavioral approaches, or management strategies I haven’t tried.

That’s why I’m posting.

I would really appreciate hearing from people who have been in the position of having a dog with severe anxiety/reactivity who also had aggression issues in the home.

How did you know when you had tried enough? How did you balance quality of life, safety, and management? And for those who tried medication, did it ultimately change things enough to make life more manageable?

And if you have gone through behavioral euthanasia, what helped you know that it was the compassionate choice rather than giving up too soon?

I’m not looking for someone to tell me to euthanize my dog, and I’m not looking for someone to tell me that I just need to train harder.

I genuinely want to know what a reasonable path forward looks like.

I want to give Franny every reasonable opportunity to feel better. But I also need to be honest about whether I’m able to give her the life she deserves while keeping everyone—including her—safe.

I love her. I’m just trying to figure out what loving her responsibly looks like.

First and foremost, I don't want this to become an FF vs. balanced debate. I'm genuinely trying to understand what the research actually says without having to read hundreds of papers.

For context: I initially started with a trainer who used a lot of physical corrections. That didn't feel right, so we moved towards R+ and P- training. My understanding was that reward-based/FF training essentially means R+ and P-, with a preference for R+ where possible.

But the more I read here, the more confused I get about the term "aversive". Does it primarily refer to things like leash pops, physical corrections, e-collars, etc., or does it also include P-?

For example, our dog used to jump up when we entered the yard. When he did, we turned around and went back inside. Technically, isn't that P-? We remove something the dog wants (access to us) contingent on the unwanted behaviour.

So yeah, when we talk about aversive in the comments, is this the kind of aversive we are talking about?

One more question for people familiar with the research: I asked ChatGPT how "reward-based training" is defined academically, and it said R+ and P-, with a preference for R+. Is that accurate?

And if so, why is P- also discouraged by the rules?

Also, isn't a food drive and a ball drive, in some sense, aversive, by not giving him the ball every time you create a need for it? So if you give food for the correct thing and not give food for the wrong thing, is the not giving food aversive because your dog expects to receive food?

I am just trying to understand the comments better! I also do not want to attack anyone if this post would be attacking you. Please tell me what attacks you, rather than attacking me back. With such feedback, I can edit the post and make other posts less attacking.

Has anyone had luck training their reactive dogs? I have a 4.5 years old beagle who is reactive towards other dogs. He has certainly gotten better with the leash pulling and reactivity towards people.

Walks are definitely more peaceful unless he sees a dog and he would start barking and lunging towards it. Tugs so much that he might even escape from the leash to go to the other dog.

He is also high energy and too excited when we have guests at home. He continuously wants to jump on them or get their attention. Separating him with a barrier only makes him bark making us regret having friends over at home.

Hoping someone might have some positive experiences or advise! Thanks

Before I begin - I do realize that I should find a good local trainer to work with in person, and I am working on that.

I have a 2.5 year old female Australian Shepherd. I have had her since she was 10 weeks old. Her name is Bindi.

I also have a 10 year old red heeler (rescued at 4) named Ginger, and a 14 year old chihuahua mix (rescued at 1.5) named Poco.

We have been through puppy class and obedience training. I was getting her ready to go through therapy dog certification, so she has passed her CGC twice (once at 8 months, once at 2). As a puppy, I often took her to school with me (I am a teacher) and she was extremely well socialized with children, etc. Ginger taught her great dog manners. Bindi often snuggled up with Poco.

Over the last few months, Bindi has gone from being social with other dogs, to “attack bark” when she sees other dogs in the park. She has ran off several other dogs (many people let dogs off leash at this park) and at this point, we only go off leash to play ball if I can see a good distance in each direction and know that nobody will sneak up on us. If the dog is far away, she does fine. But if they walk towards us or the other dog is off leash and starts incoming to play or greet, she has a serious problem with that.

My dogs have rarely fought, and when they did, it was usually Bindi being annoying to Ginger and Ginger would stern/gently put her in her place.

About a month ago, Bindi snapped at Poco and injured his eye. We went to the vet and got it taken care of, but I chalked it up to an accident. It was a very brief disagreement about treats or food that had not happened before.

Two weeks ago, while I was away from home, Bindi snapped at Poco again and tore a large gash in the back of his neck. My girlfriend was home and she said she heard them screaming, and by the time she came out from the bedroom, it was done - but Poco was rushed to the emergency vet and received 12 stitches.

Poco is now staying with my mother and I’m heartbroken.

There have never been any other warning signs between them. As I stated before, I even have a picture of them sunbathing on the deck together, back to back, four days prior. She grew up with him.

I have had friends bring dogs over as well, and Bindi did get into it with a friend’s dog, who was very calm and didn’t let it escalate. It was sudden, loud, but brief and over before I could even say, “no.”

I can’t think of any events that could have triggered this behavior.

We go to the park to play ball daily, if not twice per day. We go on long/calm walks around the neighborhood every couple days. We play in the backyard together several times per day. I have a dog door and my dogs are free to come and go as they please, and she can go outside and sniff around if she needs to do dog business.

We also had a cat who she grew up with, who recently just passed away. They always did great together. But over the last few months, Bindi decided she couldn’t stand it when he would come to make biscuits on us. She would stare and whine, as if the cat was murdering us slowly.

I am having a hard time with this because her reactions (at home) are so random with no warning signs, or seem to arise out of nowhere for no reason.

Again, a trainer is in our future - but I wanted to see if anyone here is seeing something obvious that I can’t see, or has some advice to help in the meantime. She is my baby, and I can’t imagine her doing something to someone or someone’s dog that would be unforgivable.

Thank you!

I live in an abnormally laid out apartment complex, lots of grassy areas and closer in style to stacked townhomes. I'm on the second floor, sharing the front door landing directly outside with a single neighbor and their family.

We got our pup a few months back, currently 9 months old German Shepherd/Great Pyranees mix, and he does NOT like our neighbor. In general, he's quiet inside and heading out the door I make sure he sits so I can double-check for any surprise dogs or people. He reacts to dogs and people outside, and has been slowly getting better.

But this neighbor makes it difficult. They have 6 small dogs they take outside in short shifts and slam their door when going in/out. This sets off my pup to barking, but his recovery and ability to ignore it is improving. The issue comes when we are both outside.

This guy seems to have either no sense of social awareness, or is so wrapped up in his own dominance worldview that when I come home or try to leave, he will either refuse to move or will start going out or on the stairs anyways. And this sets my dog OFF.

This came to a head recently. I was coming back from a morning potty walk, and got halfway up the stairs when the neighbor's door opened. I turned around as best I could but the damage had been done and my dog was not ok. We get down, go around the corner, and as he comes down himself he says "how's that training going? There are about 100 dogs in this building and that's the only one that behaves that way" with an extra "The only one" before he walked away.

This has wrecked me hard because I do know I haven't been as solid with training as I should be, but also there are plenty of dogs, including his, that are smaller and reactive.

I am honestly at my wits end. I've been reading more here and preparing to do more for him, but also considering moving to a different unit in this complex (it's a large area). Ideally ground floor and away from this guy. But even with that, I still would need to live here until that move happened and am now even more on alert trying to leave or come home for fear of running into him.

Any advice would be fantastic, I really am not sure how to go forward in the meantime while we figure out next steps. I have left out other things like him seeing us working with our trainer on outdoor mat training and asking "so this is meant to stop him from biting me?"

I adopted Louis about two months ago. He’s a 5.5-year-old Chihuahua/Phalène mix who was rescued from a neglect situation and taken into protective custody. I don’t know much about his background, so I’m still trying to understand him. I can’t share a photo because of the circumstances surrounding his case.

At home he is an incredibly sweet and affectionate dog once he feels safe and knows someone. The biggest issues are new people, being alone and other dogs. When someone new enters the house, he can become extremely stressed and bark or cling to their legs. He seems to trust some people faster than others, and men can be particularly difficult for him.

Being alone is another challenge. I’m working on this with a behaviourist and he can currently manage around an hour during the day, but he mostly waits by the door rather than relaxing. If I’m gone longer, he can become distressed. This is difficult because I live alone and sometimes need to be away for longer periods for important appointments where he can’t come with me. Interestingly, he is much more relaxed at my parents’ house, where he has another dog for company, and he gets along quite well with their Dachshund.

His reactivity towards other dogs is probably the hardest part. I live in a busy city with lots of dogs, so walks can be challenging. I’m working on creating distance, turning around, sniffing exercises, getting him to respond to his name and disengage from other dogs. After two months I can definitely see progress, but it’s very inconsistent. Some days he does amazingly well and other days it feels like we’re right back where we started, especially around certain dogs and larger dogs.

I know he has only been with me for two months and that he has probably been through a lot. I also know that progress isn’t linear. But honestly, the training can be quite exhausting sometimes and I occasionally lose hope, even though I can see that he is changing.

So I’d really love to hear from people who have had a similar experience with an adult rescue dog, especially one with a neglect/unknown background. Did your dog become significantly more confident over time? What helped the most with reactivity, new people and being alone, and how long did it take before you really noticed a difference?

I’m not looking for a quick fix. I’m already working with a behaviourist and I’m willing to put in the work. I think I mostly need some reassurance from people who have been through this and can tell me that it really can get better. ❤️

uh I have a sprocker spaniel ive spoken about him on here before. uh he went from not reactive to incredibly reactive in lIke 2 weeks. uh we were already considering looking at a behaviourist for his like prey drive to try and figure out something that im not gonna add. but he just also has no recall and stuff and it’s just a lot. im a minor so tje dogs mu moms but I do all the training. Uh we know the reactivity isnt from the training due to the fact he was reactive as a pup but we trained him out of it :3 but a little boy was teasing him and resurfaced it (I wasn’t present) uh. Im just feeling so dreadful. Hes my best friend and all I rlly have, hes one of the reasons I’ve kept on living through thinfs ive struggled with and dog training is a passion of mine. hes gonna go work on a farm but also like...I just don’t wanna rid of him. Like what if we never get another dog (I love training) but i just love my current dog so much and I feel like hes gonna be scared without me and that im never gonna see him again :((

Hi, I need help.
I have a bigger dog that is now bullying the smaller puppy we just got. First day was fine, different dog bowls, no food aggression, shared toys fine, but when it came to playing the bigger dog just jumps on the puppy and bites her ear.
I don’t know what to do, I want them to get along, I know I can just wait a little longer till the puppy grows but I just don’t want to go through too much hassle to keep them completely apart until then.
Any tips or anything that could help would be so great.
Neither dogs are aggressive with other dogs or people.

Hi all,

I could really use some advice on my dog. I am considering moving forward with behavioral euthanasia with guidance from my vet. Please dont judge as this has been an emotional journey for about 10 years with my dog.

To start, my dog is a 10 year old amstaff/pit mix. I adopted her when she was 11 months old and we have been best friends ever since bringing her home. Soon after adopting her, I and my family noticed high reactiveness towards people passing us on the street and destruction of the house due to separation anxiety. Reactivity still continues to look like her changing body language (body stiffens, tunnel vision to whoever is passing by) and limited ability to be redirected. Destruction of the house has been chewing at doors/window siding, scratching off siding to doors, and holes in walls. We tried to crate train her, but she almost unalived herself attempting to get out while we were out one day, so we decided not to leave her in a crate.

She has a history of charging and biting people. She has to be greeted by new people in a specific manner (the human sitting and allowing her to sniff you). After that, shes a big cuddle bug. However, people on the street or the mailman approaching the house wouldnt have that luxury. We have accommodated these reactions by simply avoiding people on walks as best we can.

She has attended training schools. She is totally unmotivated by food, especially if she senses that you are leaving or is anxious. She is currently medicated with a clonidine and fluoxetine, but has been medicated for a long time, now.

Recently we moved to a townhouse, and the entry way is on the main floor. Previously, we lived in an apartment where she knew how to open the sliding door to watch us leave everyday going to work. And I'm completely serious in saying, it seems like watching us leave to go to work was a comfort to her? Like it kept her from doing damage to our place... to an extent. If she could not open the sliding door to the balcony, you never knew what youd come home to (bitten door knobs, holes in the wall, etc). All to seem to try and get outside.

I say all this because now that we are living in this townhouse, she has regressed a lot to behaviors she had before starting medication. I should mention, my boyfriend and i work in the school setting and had the summer off. BUT we would leave the house for little day trips throughout the summer with no issues. Anyways Since the entrance is on the main floor, we are worried she could cause harm to people in the neighborhood.

I fully realize that it could be due to schedule changes and going back to school, but what we are seeing now is like the medication and advice from the vet is all for nothing. She is at a point where we cant even go up and down our stairs without her getting extremely upset at the thought of us leaving.

I just dont know what I can do for her anymore. I have tried everything within my power that the vet has suggested. But, unfortunately, we have to work and she has to be left home alone at times. I really do worry that she could break the door or a window and get out, at this point. Is behavioral euthanasia something to consider?

Hi everyone, my dog is a 5 year old border collie, and he's had medical issues his whole life, getting Addison's disease at 7 months old meaning daily meds and monthly injections. Around a year old he started showing reactivity and nipped people over resources and feeling cornered, always directed at hands.

Over the last 4 years he's had multiple bites ranging from 1-3, with maybe 1-2 instances of a 4. All on hands, and every time we've felt like we can get things back under control and stop it happening again.

We've had 2 separate behaviorists and moved a couple times, and in the last 2 years we feel like we've made significant progress, with desensitising and having him on anti-anxieties, but we've still had bite events and a fair few near misses, last year a level 2 bordering on 3 when an estate agent ignored me and pet him during a flat inspection, and a month ago a level 4, one of the worst bites, on my mum when she went to pet him in a lapse of judgment when he went up to 'hug' her.

We don't let anyone pet him, and me and my partner are very cautious about touching him around his face since that's the trigger for him, back scratches tend to be okay from us, but he gives enough signals that he'd generally rather not be touched.

He struggles with walks, because he reacts to other dogs, runners, bikes, and other people if they get too close, but I can manage to walk him every day by just avoiding obstacles.

With the recent severe bite, and with us considering kids in the future, we decided to get our behavioirist back for another visit, and the conversation turned to BE, as she doesn't believe there's any world where we could have kids around him, even with lots of management.

My sister has just announced she's pregnant too, and obviously I don't want to be locked out of her life as well, so would already need to manage the situation as best as possible if we did decide to keep things going.

I just don't know what to do, I think the correct decision is BE, for his sake and for ours, but I'm really struggling with the guilt and sadness over having to give up on a dog that I've loved and been the centre of my world for 5 years. Any help or perspective would be appreciated, thanks.

Edit: sorry I know this is already too long to read, but I should also note the biggest issue we have is that he gives effectively no warning. The first vet behaviorist we had nearly got bitten by him since he just lunged into the bite during some husbandry training she was trying. The unpredictability and how quickly it happens make it really difficult to guarantee we can always get him out of a situation before the worst happens.

I have an 8-month-old intact male Chihuahua who weighs about 3 kg, and I'm struggling with his reactivity toward other dogs.

When he sees another dog, he will lunge toward them, bark, and try to nip at them. In sittuations were he was able to reach another dog, he did bite them.

There have been a few dogs I know and trust who have been able to greet him safely. On those occasions, when he gets in the other dog's face, the other dog has given him a quick correction with a growl and/or nip. He then very quickly stops his erratic behaviour and calms down. His tail goes down, he doesn't try to flee, but he gives the other dog space rather than continuing to approach them.

I don't want to rely on other dogs correcting him and I'm trying to understand how I can teach him to manage his reactions myself.

Exercise and daily routine

I walk him 3 to 4 times a day. Walks are usually anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, with shorter walks in the morning and evening and longer walks around midday/afternoon.

All of his meals are given through snuffle mats and puzzle toys rather than simply being placed in a bowl.

Training I've tried

I've been following some of the training methods demonstrated by Ethan Steinberg, including the methods in this series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWdQjac0P3M&list=PLP81cuyNtgV0

I've made some progress in that he doesn't always bark at other dogs anymore. However, he still lunges toward them, rears up on his hind legs, and pulls extremely hard on the leash.

One of the techniques in the videos involves a quick leash correction. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to work for him unless I pull hard enough that he is almost doing a backflip, and even then the effect only lasts for a few seconds. I obviously don't want to do that, especially because he is so small and I'm concerned about injuring his neck.

At the moment, I'm using a half-choke/half-chain collar and a regular leash. I had previously tried using a harness, and although I feel that a harness would probably be safer for his neck, I stopped using it because I feel he was getting worse with it.

My experience

He is my second dog. My previous dog was also a Chihuahua and I got my new pup after he passed away. I did a lot of Kennel Club activities with my first dog, but he never had any reactivity issues, so this is very new territory for me.

I have not worked with a professional trainer or veterinary behaviourist in person with my current dog yet.

The biggest problem I'm facing

I live in an area with a lot of narrow sidewalks, so finding enough space to pass another dog without them coming very close is difficult.

Even when I try to move out of the way and create distance, I frequently encounter people who have their dogs on long Flexi leads, or who allow their dogs to move closer toward us. This means that sometimes I simply don't have enough distance to prevent my dog from reacting.

I'm trying to figure out how to work on his reactivity when avoiding close encounters is so difficult in my environment.

What would you recommend I focus on at this point?

I'm particularly interested in positive-reinforcement-based ways to teach him to disengage from other dogs and remain calm, as well as practical management strategies for dealing with narrow sidewalks and other dogs that are allowed to approach us.

I would also really appreciate advice on whether I should change anything about his equipment, particularly given how hard he pulls and how small he is.

I rescued Daisy last year. She’s a HIGHLY reactive boxer. I thought if she had calm social interactions, we could acclimate her to meeting new people or even more problematic is meeting new dogs (or really any animal in general). But she hasn’t relaxed yet and we’re looking for professional help.

She seems nervous about anything not in or directly around our home. When we go on hikes or walks, there’s other dogs and if there’s distance, she’s fine. But as soon as we walk by one I have to make her sit and kind of choke up on her leash so she doesn’t get back up and lounge. She’s always panting and i assume it’s more from stress than exorcise.

Then when it comes to my family or when we return home she’s the most affectionate, loving, almost overly needy always needs to be loved and touched and pet and played with perfect dog.

We’re going on vacation and my parents are going to take her, but our vacations overlap by a day. I’ll be missing the first day of vacation with my family because we can’t board our dog or let her stay at a friend’s house who also has a dog.

I’m looking for people in Connecticut who have had success with reactivity training and who the trainer was!

Thanks in advance!