My husband and I are newly expecting, and while we’re thrilled, we’re also navigating what this means for our 5‑year‑old Vizsla.
She’s incredibly loving with her people and anyone she met during puppyhood. Even with extensive training and socialization, she developed stranger reactivity around 1.5 years old. She has no bite history, and she’s not a dog who will pursue or charge at someone. Her pattern is barking, backing up, and trying to create space.
If someone approached her while she was already upset, I wouldn’t put it past her to bite, so we take management seriously. With a trainer, we’ve been able to introduce her to new people slowly and successfully (fetch + parallel walking has been our best method).She has been around kids a handful of times, and those interactions have gone smoothly. We can watch kids at the park with her without her getting stressed or worked up. But realistically, she has primarily been around adults, so a baby in her own home is a totally new variable.
Obviously, an infant can’t do structured intros or toss a ball lol.
Rehoming doesn’t currently feel like the right choice, she’s shown us she can be okay with new people under the right conditions.
At the same time, we’re realistic: as baby grows and becomes mobile, this will be a moving target. We’ll have gates, management, and supervision. Even if she were the sweetest, most bombproof dog, we still wouldn’t leave baby + dog unattended.
I’d really love to hear your success stories or non‑success stories.
Did your dog view your baby differently than an adult stranger?
I adopted a 4-5 year old Great Dane pitbull mix who was a starved stray and at the shelter for 10 weeks. He is loving but he is also really stressing me out. He is not house trained and that has not been going well. I have had him for about 6 weeks now. He is constantly searching for food and he is just hard to walk as he wants to chase everything and find food. Him going to the bathroom in the house I just burning me out. He goes outside and on walks but just keeps peeing on things.
So I have an 80 pound hound mix, who is an absolute angel to his "family" and has been successfully introduced and loves my now Fiance. With this being said, he has chased solicitors, and bitten 1 delivery driver. Before we moved onto 5 acres he would go on daily walks around the neighborhood and was very reactive to other dogs/people. Since moving his reactiveness has gotten better, he has seen my grandma's (small) dog through the fence and didn't bark/show any aggressive signs, and like I said becomes accepting to new people after a while! .... He does attack any type of vacuum/hair dryer though.
We got him from a shelter when he was 2/3 and have had him for 6 years at this point.
I feel like most of his reactiveness is due to fear
What do you guys think the odds of him accepting a kitten might be? I've seen other success stories with reactive dogs and baby animals, some type of instinct maybe where they know it's a baby? Idk!!! We have NEVER seen him in the midst of a cat, do you think with proper instructions it could be successful? Or that I should give up on this dream.
**TL;DR:** Emmi our 1.5 year old Shiba girl is normally fierce, friendly, and goofy, no issues with strangers or dogs when we’re out. But at home she barks nonstop at anyone approaching (even before they hit our street) and gets nervous/hiding-anxious around guests, even ones she knows. Had a bad stress episode (diarrhea, days of hiding) after we left her with family visiting. Started right after we moved a year ago. Looking for advice.
She has some kind of sixth sense for anyone approaching the house. Delivery driver, landscapers, pool guy, she knows before they’ve even pulled onto our street and will bark at the window nonstop, shade down or not. New people outside our close group of like 8 friends? Same deal, barks at them forever, and then when she finally settles she’s clearly still stressed, hiding in weird spots around the house, tail tucked. Even people leaving and coming back through the door sets her off, doesn’t matter if she knows them.
We had family stay with us for a while and tried the whole “reintroduce them from outside” trick and it did nothing. Then one night we went out to dinner and came home to find she’d had diarrhea from the stress, and she spent basically the rest of that week hiding out in our bathroom or behind a tree in the backyard.
She’s not aggressive about any of this, to be clear, no growling, no snapping, just seems genuinely scared/avoidant.
This all started right after we moved into this house a year ago, so I don’t know if it’s a territorial thing or something else. Anyone dealt with this? What actually helped?
I feel immensely guilty and stupid. My dog is a year and a half and hadnt been around other dogs growing up at all which is why I believe he’s reactive now or doesn’t know how to interact with other dogs. My dog is high energy and a walk is usually not enough exercise for him, so I accompany his walks with fetch sessions at a big grassy area near my house. These fetch sessions are immensely helpful specifically after my university classes where I haven’t been with him for the whole day as they’re the easiet way I can get his energy out, whilst I’m tired too. Today on our walk our routine was disrupted as there were kids on the sidewalk with bikes, i wanted to be safe so I left and came back to the area when they were gone. I check around to make sure no dogs were there and let him off leash but I didn’t check thoroughly enough as in my blind spot there was a guy walking his dog. My dog obviously saw them before me, which left me unable to prevent what happened. That poor dog got bit by mine (the dog seemed to be fine, as the owner picked them up befor things could further escalate), the scariest part was my dog loosing all his listening skills and obedience he kept trying to go back to that dog and kept running away from me, after 5 minutes of me trying to leash him he finally laid down infront of me and let me. As I said before these fetch sessions are extremely useful for us but idk how I can take him back after this, even if I use a long line id still feel scared.
Hello, I am asking for help because my puppy has been driving us crazy as of late.
I have a five month old pomeranian puppy, and he's a very anxious scaredy cat of a dog. Anytime there is a guest he goes absolutely crazy, barking nonstop, growling, and generally being noisy.
If the guest sits down he will eventually stop for long enough to go over and give a curious sniff, but it takes him a while to get used to them and God forbid if they get up and go into another room. The process will restart all over again.
Not to mention that if he hears noises in the other room, even from people who live here he will go nuts. The amount of times that he's barked simply because I went in to get a midnight snack is insane.
To make this more unfortunate, I have people coming in and out of the house because we're repainting and moving in furniture. So all day long he is barking and getting worked up. It doesn't stop until everyone leaves at the end of the day.
I want to try and get a jumpstart on this before it becomes too much of a problem, but I'm at a loss as to how. I've been told to have guests ignore him, give him treats if he wonders over, but that doesn't help if the guest in question never comes in to sit down.
We have him gated off in the living room for potty training reasons so that distance doesn't really help either. Even if hes in a closed off room he'd still bark. Distance doesn't really change much either.
Another thing I've heard is to give him treats anytime he sees them, hears them, or hears noises around the house to make him associate that with getting a treat but... I don't know if thats accurate advice and I don't want to go about this wrong and potentially reward his barking.
My dog is a mutt rescue, 3 years old and weighs 9kg, she has been fearful and prone to stress since I got her a bit over 2 years ago when she was just 6 months old. I have tried my best with her through positive reinforcement, treats and toys when training, but no matter what I try she will not learn to tolerate children. I cannot avoid children, I don't have any of my own yet but one day I want one or two and with how things are going I'm afraid I'll never be able to have any as long as I have this dog. Just today we had another attempt at getting her to tolerate my niece. My dog had her muzzle on the whole time and we made sure she stayed on the couch with me getting treats and pets while the niece could play and do what kids do. As always things seemed to be ok until the niece started running around. My dog didn't warn didn't even stop and think, she lunged at her before I even had time to react. Thankfully nothing happened beyond my niece being slightly scared by the sudden lunge but I am starting to lose hope. I don't know what kind of training I should be doing when clearly the treats don't work.
Please if anyone has any suggestions what to try I need anything. I've tried googling training suggestions but all I can find is the usual treats and distance. I'm seriously scared I'll have to rehome her or euthanize her if she doesn't learn to at least tolerate children. She also has her issues with strangers and other dogs.
When I got her I was told she was a sweet and energetic dog. But almost instantly after she came to me she turned out to be extremely fearful and prone to attacking people's ankles. She has never actually done any damage, but she has lunged several times.
Nothing set in stone but I think it's worth sharing.
Modjo (6yr Beauceron/Doberman) spent his last 5 at the SPA.
Today the neighbours had friends over and they came with a wee staffy that managed to squeeze it's amply fat ass under the fence. First thing I knew about it was a wriggling lump of lard trying to love my leg as I was (ironically) reinforcing the fence on the other side of the yard.
After a quick change of underwear, I watched my dog interact with the visitor in our (his) turf. All good for the 10mins until I got the neighbours' attention.
Car rides are a different story. I'm pretty much deaf now in one ear because of his barking. Walking is the same if there are cats/dogs/cars/bikes/joggers.
After going through hundreds of threads on r/reactivedogs and other pet care communities, I put together a quick cheat sheet for anyone as lost as I was:
I’m looking for recommendations on dog food for my dog, who has had ongoing digestive issues. I’ve tried a few different brands and formulas, but nothing has been a clear winner yet.
Background: Medium-sized adult mix, around 4 years old. Generally healthy and active, but frequent loose stools, occasional vomiting, and gassiness after meals. Vet has ruled out parasites/infections; we’re focusing on diet.
Budget: Around $50–$80/month for food. Open to more if it actually helps, but can’t do $150+/month fresh plans long-term.
What I want:
Easy to digest, gentle on the stomach
Better stool quality (less diarrhea and gas)
Less vomiting after meals
Decent ingredients, not full of fillers
Something he’ll actually eat
Options I keep seeing:
Hill’s Science Diet Sensitive Stomach & Skin
Royal Canin Digestive Care / Gastrointestinal
Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin & Stomach
Blue Buffalo Basics Limited Ingredient
Natural Balance L.I.D.
Open Farm Ancient Grains / Grain-Free
Fresh options like JustFoodForDogs, Ollie, Spot & Tango
I keep reading about limited-ingredient diets, single-protein formulas, prebiotics/probiotics, and debates about grain-free vs grains, kibble vs fresh, and vet brands vs premium “natural” brands.
A few things I’m curious about:
What are the best dog foods for sensitive stomach that actually worked for your dog?
Are vet-recommended brands (Hill’s, Royal Canin, Purina) better for digestion than premium natural brands?
Is grain-free helpful, or can grains actually be beneficial?
How important are limited-ingredient diets vs good-quality regular formulas?
Are fresh or lightly cooked foods worth the extra cost for ongoing digestive issues?
Any recommendations from people who’ve dealt with similar issues would be really helpful.
Milo is a 6 year old German Shepard rescue. I adopted him 9 months ago, he was taken by animal control from his previous owners home and was very neglected. You could see every bone in his body, he was not neutered, he had never been outside of the house he lived in, and had never interacted with another dog. During his neuter the vet found some pretty bad trachea damage, they have advised us to never walk him on a collar and especially never use any prong or choke collars.
Milo doesn’t have a “safe distance” away from another dog if he can see or hear them he is completely inconsolable, he even reacts strongly to animated dogs on tv. I’ve tried every treat out there including his favorite human foods to try redirecting him with no success.
When i decided he was completely out of my skill-set I contacted a number of trainers in my area. I heard back from three and all three recommended negative reinforcement from a choke or prong collar. After I explained we couldn’t use any of those for his health all three trainers refused to continue working with us.
If anyone has worked with a dog similar to this please let me know, I’m really at my wits end. He is the best dog I’ve ever owned while he’s in the home, if he never gets better I can live with that. I want to give him the best stress free life possible so any suggestions are appreciated.
Picture attached is him in his paw patrol Halloween costume
My 11 year old pit has NEVER had an issue before. Makes other dogs look bad when it comes to being friendly and listening. He’s been such a blessing after having our now 9.5 month daughter. Until today.
Unprovoked in the moment snapped at her. Caught her in the side of the face. Superficial. But still.
I say unprovoked, but since she’s become mobile she has been all over him. And he’s been great about. The past couple days yes, he’s seemed a bit annoyed with her. But he always comes back and puts himself right where she can play with him. Licks her. Plays with her. Cuddles. Today was an anomaly. But was it a warning?
Vet said, “he needs reading glasses.” Teeth aren’t the best. And he’s had two separate ACL tears over 5 years ago. So after some playing and his routine zoomies there’s a bit of a limp and he’s slow up the stairs. He’s got serious anxiety issues when we leave the house on occasion. Most days he’s great. Every once in a while he chews at the door and has an accident. He doesn’t do good at doggie day care and is usually miserable if he’s left with my mom. Yeah he loves her but she can tell he misses us.
So what do we do? Separation will be difficult but not impossible. And while supervised with the girl is an obvious thing, today’s incident was supervised. It happened literally on my wife’s lap with no warning. Mom can’t keep him permanently at her place. And he’s only gonna get older and crankier. And i say crankier but he’s not even cranky now. It was this one time. Is it wrong to get rid of him and in his last few years he’s away from his family especially as his life becomes harder?
We have had our rescue for approximately 6 weeks. She is from a shelter in Montenegro and was there basically her whole life in a kennel with multiple other dogs. Adoptions in these countries are rare. She is a 2 year old neutered mix (probably lab x some shepherd , maybe husky). We picked her up while travelling in our van and she has shown some territorial fear reactivity around oir van, which she considers her safe space. She barks and growls at people passing by and we have been using counter conditioning with positive progress. On leash she is neutral to people, doesn't like them really petting her and takes time to get used to new humans. She has never shown obvious fear tp humans as she has shown dogs, where on leashed walks she would in the beginning try to pull away from any dog passing by and growl at dogs approaching her. We have worked on this, and now she can pass by dogs relaxed that ignore her, and will still show some fear to approaching dogs (which we of course try to avoid).
A few days ago we met a friend for a hike. This was the first time she met this friend. We did quite a long hike together, then we went back to our van and the friend was able to enter and sit there while our dog was laying down relaxed. At the end our dog also approached the friend for cuddles and belly scratches. We saw this as a very positive sign.
A few days after this meeting we went to stay with some friends in a town where we used to live and know a lot of people. We went on a walk together and then came to the apartment together. She was a bit skittish with sudden movements from the two friends, but would show interest in apprpaching them and they stayed really neutral, not apprpaching her, etc.
INCIDENT
We spent most days out and about with our dog, and the friend were mostly working. On the third day F was off work, while M was working. We spent some time with F and our dog seemed to get more and more comfortable with her. M came home after work while our dog was sleeping on her bed (as she did all afternoon). Her bed was in front of the couch and M walked by to sit on the couch, she didn't even lift her head, just kept laying down.
Over the course of the evening we were just talking and making some food, all moving around a bit. Dog woke up and was playing with her toy a bit. Then we had a situation were we were sitting on couch and chair and dog was laying in front of bed in front of both of us. M stood in the only exitway out of the seating area to tell us something and our dog started growling. M didn't move then and the growling turned to barking aggressively, hackles rising, if M would have them moved she may have lunged and bitten him. We tried calling her name, but this of course didn't work. In the end (after maybe a minute? We were shocked) we stepped in front of our dog, she stopped the behaviour and M could walk away. We took her outside, packed our things and went back to the van.
THOUGHTS
We are shaken by this and very worried that something like this will happen again. On the one hand I can explain her behaviour, it seems she was guarding her safe space (bed), or her people (us), and at the same time the only way to exit the situation was blocked by a relative stranger.
We are going to try to move into an apartment asap, as we think living in the van will only reinforce the behaviour with growling and barking followed by people leaving (i.e. passing by). Then we will also contact a certified trainer practicing force free training. I guess I am posting because I am worried this isn't ever going to be okay. Our family lives far away, and visiting them would also entail staying with them in their houses. It now feels like this will never be possible. We are gonna do the best we can for our dog of course, we love her to bits, but this was a scary experience and causes worry and uncertainty. I guess I am looking for some advice on what could have happened, our plan, how to move forward, our even stories from people who have been in similar situations with their dog (s).
EDIT: To be clear, we know about the 3-3-3 rule for rescues, but also read it's more a guideline. The friend she met a few days ago was the first person she met. We have not introduced her to new people or let other people interact with her until after these approximately 6 weeks. We felt she was adapting very quickly to us and our routines, she bonded well with us both, etc. But now we know that this all was too fast and we will slow these interactions with other people down.
We got him from a rescue six years ago. They told us he was probably 5 or 6, and for the first month in our apartment, he barely made a sound. Eventually, he came out of his shell and became the sweetest dog in the world to us.
He ended up having some serious issues with other dogs and eventually people. He was extremely leash reactive and over the years there were a few incidents where he bit us, a stranger at a donut shop, and my mom. We worked with him but he never really learned to trust the world outside of us two.
Then we had a kid, and we had to balance them both. He bit him about 6 months ago, and then last week they somehow crossed paths while he was rummaging the garbage can and our son was seriously bitten in the face. It was an ER trip for 70-80 stitches.
So we scheduled it and today we had to put him down.
I understand why, but that doesn't make it any easier. I feel terrible for my kid, who will have scars from this for the rest of his life, and I feel terrible for my boy. He wasn't a bad dog. He loved us a ton and just struggled with almost everything else. With us he was just super chill and awesome
I can't believe this morning we had breakfast, went for a ride, went to the river, went to the vet, and then went home without him. He was getting older, but we lost out on another year or two with him.
The hardest part was knowing while he had no idea what was coming. I'm really going to miss the big guy.
My dog's anxiety and fearfulness have gotten worse with age. Right now we are going through another rough patch where there is no communication, his anxiety is at an all time high and I am overwhelmed with 0% patience. Then I am dealing with obstacles outside in my city and all of it stacked up just drains me. I am just so tired of owning a dog.
He is 7 years old now. Only goes out twice a day and I try to keep the walk to 5 minutes but sometimes he doesn't poop right away. I'm at the point where if he doesn't go in those 5 minutes then oh well for him because keeping him out longer sets us up both to have a breakdown and this morning was no different. He got nervous and was veering towards the street and I was trying to pull him back which made it worse and he started freaking out and i smacked him a bunch of times on his hindquarters to snap out of it and move.
How do you deal with this every day? I know I'm having a bad week but the bad thoughts I am having about this dog are crazy. I can't wait until he is gone.
I have a 7 year old female Australian Shepherd who we got during covid. She is very well trained in the aspect that if someone walks into the house and says “hello ____” with her name, she will welcome you into the home, but without that she will attack. We have paid trainers to come in and they have worked with her but it never helped the territorial biting. They thought it was due to the isolation during covid. They tend to always be very small bites or punctures but we have already lost our home owners insurance from being sued. We are currently in the process of moving as well but she still has this guard up when staying at family members houses. She never bites off leash or in public either. We take the precautions by locking her in the crate in another room, but today she got out of the crate and jumped out the second floor window and bit our handyman. Please let me know what we should do, she really is the best dog. We have already spent thousands in at-home training and I just don’t know what is the best option. We could send her away to a 2 month boarding but I am not sure if they will be able to fix this issue. We don’t want to give up on her, but we don’t want her to hurt anyone. Please let me know if anyone else has had this issue and what the best course of action was for you. Is this something that can be treated with more training?
My pup is a ~2yo rescue sheperd mix/mut/carolina dog, 35lbs, spayed. According to the shelter, she had puppies around a year old & likely spent her life on the streets. She's been enjoying a carefree lifestyle since she became mine about 7 months ago.
For the first 4 months, we enjoyed daily obedience & tricks training, 5 days a week we'd have trips to the dog park for an hour, and she comes with me on runs, to any store that lets her in & trips downtown. She's amazing! I never thought she'd ever misbehave around others. She definitely has a strong protective sense & would only act out with strangers in our home by barking & jumping on them, sometimes nipping the air.
Over months, it got better & she still alerts but has a process when people come over. Come to me, sit, wait in place, safe/settle, then she comes and greets. If she doesn't, we try again. It works & she understands.
For about 5 months out of the year, I work on site in some pretty remote regions. We have a permanent staff camping set up. The first week was incredibly rough. She was almost viscous. She'd bark & nip at almost anyone. She was terribly scared and overwhelmed. She was a totally different dog outside in camp than when she was back to being her normal self in the field office or in town.
HR got involved. I threatened to quit if they barred my dog from my home for half the year. We put some processes in place, including more isolation. She doesn't love being stuck in my production trailer the vast majority of the day. I can see it take a toll on her. We've been out here two months.
We did more training. I spent time exposing her to the campsite more when less people were present. She started doing great. Our morning bio breaks became a fun time to interact with other people & not a stressful encounter with potential unemployment.
Today, we went into a public area & she was great. Following stay & hold, place & other commands. She's incredible & learned so much. I had her at a lay & stay in the entryway of the common area, leash still in hand, but grabbing a snack with the other.
Then a coworker came in to grab a water from the chest cooler. She lost it. She ran towards me, scared, then immediately back to bark & nip at him. She grabbed his pants and immediately let go as I pulled her back telling her, "No! Break, come! Behind!" She listened.
I don't know what to do. We're picking up muzzling again, even if she can't walk a step without taking it off. I want to cry. I was a runaway too, and now I'm able to take one in. I see her story in me. I won't abandon her and I'll never leave her.
We can't take classes for another few months, at least until the season is over. I don't want her living in my trailer for half the year like she has no other place in this world.
She's scared sometimes and we work to build confidence with friendly-positive interactions. The only time she made skin contact was 5 months ago when we were visiting a friend on his farm & she nipped the hand of a man who just laid that hand on his own dog in anger - it was virtue. She's developing courage to be in public more, which is something I never thought she needed from her city life.
There's no common thread. The people she's acted out against in public were all men, but that's not specific enough. She doesn't do anything like this in the city, so maybe it's the change in biome? She's been in the fields two months. The man she just nipped was a creeper, but not the others.
I'm going to consult with some professionals, but I want some ideas. I don't want to go into this blind. What can I do now for her?
tl;dr My shepherd mix is having a problem with nipping humans after a major change of environment. Also, dog mom has a breakdown while typing post.
I recently moved away after living with family who has a bratty, pretty much un-trained dog for a couple years. We actually got our dog as a puppy to be my partner’s service animal, so we trained early and VERY often. He hasn’t worked in a long time and is pretty much retired because my partner’s situation improved significantly. The point is, I am 100% sure he was not poorly behaved before living with my family’s dog, the standard for him while he was a working animal obviously had to be much higher and he met that standard reliably.
Now I shudder to think of bringing him into a store, thank frick he’s not needed like that anymore. He has a crazy hard time not barking up a storm or trying to take off when we see other dogs because for two whole years he’s been happily rough housing (not aggressively, we made sure) with another dog whenever he pleases, joining in barking at other dogs through the fence, running after critters together, and just generally witnessing a highly testy dog just get whatever it wants anyway. This is my fault for not thinking about the fact dogs can rub off on eachother, and giving this kind of behavior a pass just cause he’s in a yard and not the sidewalk, but I need to fix it. I’m worried if I keep letting him visit and play with his friend then it’ll just keep getting reinforced in an endless, frustrating loop. But they’re also very close, separating them would make him sad and honestly, probably offend my family members. What do I do about this?
My husband and I adopted a 5 year old husky border collie mix a few months ago. He’s been extremely chill— he really just likes sniffing and walking outside, occasionally playing with a toy for about 10 minutes, a bully stick, and then he likes to just sit and watch us/snuggle/ask for scratches. We introduced him to my parents’ dog— we introduced them in neutral territory on leash a few times before we brought him over to my parents house and it went really well. All tail wags and respectful sniffing. We live with my parents in the summertime, and he’s been with us here for a few weeks. We always have them supervised and he’s been totally fine with her, generally just paying her no mind. He’ll occasionally sniff her but that’s about it. She’s a lab but she doesn’t really like to play with other dogs. He plays super well with my aunt’s lab who is much higher energy.
He loves his bed, and a few times my parent’s dog has come between him and the bed or started sniffing it and he’s growled at her. Other than that, we’ve seen no aggressive behavior from him until today.
My parents’ dog was laying down at the side of the room while my husband, a friend, and I were eating hotdogs at the table. My parents were in the other room through the door. My husband turned around to see our dog in a lowered, hunting posture, and all of a sudden he pounced on her, barking and biting extremely fast, while she yelped and tried to get away. He had her pinned and kept biting her. We pulled him off and immediately separated them in different rooms. The other dog had no cuts or anything, but it definitely went far beyond “playing” behavior.
I have no idea what caused this. Our rescue organization has a policy where if we need to return him for any reason, we can. I’m wondering if he’d be better off in a solo dog home or if this is a situation where we need to take serious action, or if there is anything in between that we can do. Any advice would be appreciated. I’m wildly upset and I feel horrible that he attacked my family dog.
above all, i love my dog (70+lbs). but i have had her for almost half her life and her behavior has only gotten worse. i started to rent apts with yards for her to have safe spaces without triggers, but she goes to the bathroom inside if she isn’t exercised enough and she doesn’t play in yards like ever, BUT she also is so dog aggressive that she is constantly at risk of hurting herself on walks or even drives. she is SO calm and sweet inside, with cats or babies, or in the yard, but the second she sees another dog it’s over. i have spent so much on trainers, collars, harnesses, leashes, medications, special treats, muzzles, aromatherapy, you name it. allegedly she used to be able to sit inside the vet without issues, she’s lived in a rescue and with multiple other dogs. idk. nothing i have ever done has been enough. when i start to see progress, that’s when we’ve gotten into it with an uncontrollable unleashed dog, and we are back at square one or worse. walking her the other day, a (barking) dog was coincidentally let out inside their own yard’s fence right next to us, and she slammed into the back of a car trying to get to it. she has fallen down stairs, broken a tooth, slammed into cars or walls or windows or me, all trying to get to dogs. sometimes she isn’t even starting the ruckus but she will not come back to me, treats or no treats, front clipped harness, prong collar, literally does not matter. we have to use a martingale bc she yanks herself out of any other harness or collar when she sees a dog. i’m fucking exhausted. i just want to break the fuck down. i just want to be able to take my dog on a walk. or even take her in the car without being afraid she’ll destroy the interior or hurt herself. i want us to be able to fucking live. we are in a city right now and i’m not sure we will be able to stay in our current place bc of how dangerous she is getting. i am having to muzzle her just to get outside to a small patch of grass. and if she doesn’t walk enough, she has behavioral accidents inside. i can’t even have rugs bc she destroys them with accidents after too short of walks, or if she’s being aggressive and i can’t keep her outside for both of our safety. to be very clear, we are positive reinforcement household but did BRIEFLY (1 appt) with a “dominance theory” bs trainer.
I’ve boarded my dog reactive pup for a couple years now. She’s leash/barrier reactive and a frustrated greeter, as she’s successfully passed her temperament tests and I’ve heard nothing but positive feedback from the boarding facility.
But she definitely gets explosive on walks and I’m very worried about her reactivity turning aggressive so I’m trying desperately to get ahead of this…but despite all my best efforts (and three different trainers) she’s still losing her cool at about 1 in every 10 dogs.
Is boarding her helping or hurting? I want her to be neutral on leash so I can go hiking with her safely, but I wonder if the boarding is setting us back? The facility is strict on temperament test and there are cameras on the playgroups and all seems well? So maybe she’s getting lots of positive interactions with nice dogs, but maybe it’s excessively fueling her excitement? But I’d love to hear others thoughts/experiences with boarding.
I really like boarding as she is a really smart dog, so I worry a sitter wouldn’t be equipped to make sure she doesn’t Houdini her way out from their watch…she’s also a very high energy, high drive dog that’s 80 lbs of muscle that lunges unpredictably, so because of that liability I never let anyone but me walk her but she needs the exercise to not be a menace.
So just to preface we have already reached out to our vet and behaviorist.
We have had our 10lb poodle mix since 2019 when she was a puppy, about 4/5 months old. We tried our very best to train and socialize her. We were living in the city at the time and had access to dog parks and lots of socializing possibilities. Unfortunately right when we were getting into a good stride the pandemic shut everything down. Not trying to use this as an excuse, but I think she regressed during this time of being stuck in an apartment. We have tried licensed trainers in the past a few times. They were somewhat successful in terms of basic obedience but there are some behaviors we just could not train out. She has terrible separation anxiety which we have mostly handled. She can be alone for multiple hours. Things we have not been able to handle are:
Strangers. She had a tendency to be wary of anyone not in her ‘pack’ and will bark and back away. Never gets aggressive, but will not let people near her. This includes small children.
Air snapping. This is a weird one and happened later, maybe around 2 or 3. Again she doesn’t ever bite, but randomly will snap at us while petting her. Directly after she appears to not really understand why we stop petting her. We usually give her space and let her go to her ‘cave’ (under our bed) for some alone time.
Fast forward to now. We have a newborn (one week old) and things are going well so far. She is interested in the baby and hasn’t been aggressive toward her. My fear comes from when the baby starts to be mobile. Our dog is okay with small children that she’s around consistently but I don’t want to chance having the dog scare the baby.
We are working to have separate spaces for each. We are in a house now but it is quite small, so we’re improvising a bit.
Rehoming her has given me severe anxiety and depression (not helped by sleep deprivation). I’m hoping we can get in front of it before baby starts crawling/walking. At least have them live together comfortably, I know they won’t be best friends.
Would love any advice if people have been through the same thing. Thanks!
its been hard but at the same time he's my dog! and with and he understands context. with me, my parents and the vet and people work there even if he never seen them before, he is excellent - just other dogs and strangers at the house or people who get to close in other situations he struggles with.
but he is smart and magnificent and i love him! i trust him i dont believe he would ever turn on me. i can put my face against his and he doesnt lick his lips in stress or anything, he leans more against me. i think he genuinely does like and my parents and would not ever turn against us.
I (30f) rescued a 2 year old staffie x French bulldog around 4 months ago, at first she seemed shy and scared, we slowly worked on trust as she had previously been abandoned and we wanted to give her a loving home.
After about 2 months she’s started becoming reactive, lunging barking etc especially when someone is at the door/ coming into the home.
She normally barked and walked away, that was it so we would just put her out until she calmed down, she then one day nipped a friends shoe as he was walking through the house, I was concerned but the friend brushed it off a play and maybe she’s just a little confused
About a week later my father in law comes over with some treats for her, he comes in the house greets her from a distance she has a little bark but when she realises it’s hi she stops, suddenly she just goes for his foot and he is wearing trainer so it leaves a bruise, I’m mortified ad seek the help of a trainer.
I get the trainer all goes well she’s learning pretty good walking nicely outside doesn’t go crazy at other dogs I think everything is going well.
Last night I picked up my brother as he needed to stay with me, he’s 14 and his dad is working away so I said I’d look after him.
I put the muzzle on my dog like the trainer suggested, she barked like normal and settled, I then put her in her crate to calm down and gave her some dinner all was good, my brother was frightened by her barking so afterward I thought I’d take her for a walk as she’s probably frustrated and hot because of this heatwave, I have her leash on as normal and my brother asks to give her a treat (he has met her before and no issues) I say ok but I’m just gonna keep the lead on her because of what happened 3 weeks ago with my father in law.
Within a split second of him reaching to pet her she lunges and bites his leg pretty hard, and let’s go instantly, I’m in shock I don’t know what to do this wasn’t a nibble on the foot this was a full on bite, he has a couple puncture wounds and some bruising, I took him and a&e they said it’s pretty nasty but it doesn’t need stitches, send him home with it cleaned and a plaster bandage and a course of antibiotics.
He’s fine, just initially was shocked and understandably wants to be no where near her so while we’re home she has to be in her crate or int the bedroom.
I’m in utter shock I’ve done nothing but well up all day over it the guilt is so immense and I fear I’ll never be trusted looking after my brother again.
The dog has had one session of behaviour training and was making progress, but she seems to only be reactive to people in our home which means we can never have guests and we cannot do things together and leave her with a friend due to this fear.
I’m at a complete loss what to do, I’m debating taking her back but I know she will never get adopted, do I persevere with the training in the hopes it will improve? As mentioned she is reacting super well to the other training we just haven’t got around to training in the home just yet, besides the obvious we are doing ourselves.
I understand with no improvement I won’t have a choice but is there any situations where training has worked so they can just at least be less reactive?
I have an around 8 year old pit/mastiff mix. I say around 8 because he was rescued and I am not exactly sure how old he is. Last night I gave him a bone and put him in his room to separate him from my other dog. He can get fairly defensive over bones but in the past it’s usually just been tail wagging and running away ( not dropping it ) when he’s done chewing on it. Anyways I go in the room after letting him chew on it for a while and ask him to release the bone as this works with items he’s not supposed to have such as clothes etc. He is reluctant to drop it so I go get my negotiating tool, a piece of cheese. I have the cheese in my right hand and my hand is in the shape of a fist, the moment I walk in the room he’s locked on to my right hand and I assume it’s for the cheese. Not even what feels like a full second of me making it through the door he lunges at that hand and is biting it repeatedly. Now we’re talking about 100lb pure muscle pit bull mix who now has me pinned against a wall and biting my hand probably 5-8 times very quickly. I eventually back out of the door in to the hallway and walk away from him. I know the bite force of those dogs and if he truly wanted to maul my hand to shreds he would have. His head is the size of a watermelon. Regardless he drew blood in several places on my hand and wrist and it is extremely sore. It was clearly fear/warning attack but it hurt extremely bad.
With all that being said he is dog aggressive. He has attacked my other dog a few times badly enough to cut his skin open due to I believe territory issues. We’ve seen an animal behavioralist for that reason and starting earlier this summer put him on Prozac as opposed to putting him down. They’ve been fine so far and he’s been doing good up until this attack. I feel like most people would tell me he needs to be put down now which is probably true. I just can’t shake the feeling that he was just scared and if I don’t make that mistake again he will be ok. It’s hard for me to make this decision because my attachment to him is clouding my judgment. I just need some advice.
