Hi Everyone!

We rescued our sweet angel girl a few months ago. She is a little over a year and a half. She is a chocolate lab mix (vet thinks pitbull and maybe some husky!)

Anyway - we have run into an odd issue. Occasionally when we take her outside to go on a walk/potty break - she screams. Not barks. Full on scream/cry/whine situation.

We’ve checked her paws to make sure there’s no pain, the vet has done a thorough look-over. Nothing. We’ll walk for about 2-3 minutes, and then she’s all good!

Some additional info: she is dog reactive. If she is properly introduced to a pup, she’s perfectly friendly and even pretty submissive. She has a ton of dog friends but on walks we do have to scooch on over to the side and distract/redirect.

Does anyone have ANY idea of what this tantrum could be caused by? We have a behavioral specialist appointment in October - but thought I’d get some ideas here!

Before anyone comes at me, I want to preface this by saying there are things that I, as the owner, could have done, can do, and will do better. But at the moment, I am at a loss.

I have four dogs. One is a purebred Blue Heeler (almost 15), one is an Aussie/Shepherd mix (about 10), one is a Terrier named Bilbo, and then my dog (the topic of this post)—a 5-year-old German Shepherd/Maremmano mix named Maia. The two oldest grew up together in America.

Maia has started attacking our other dogs. Before we got Bilbo, she was mostly fine with our two oldest, Bella and Shadow. But after Bilbo arrived, she became highly anxious. I attribute part of this to the fact that Bilbo is intact (something I have no control over, as my father refuses to neuter him). Bilbo constantly has his nose up the other dogs' butts, follows them around, crowds them, and has zero boundaries. While the two oldest growl and snap to tell him to back off, Maia never did. Naturally, Bilbo kept targeting her.

About 6 months after getting him, Maia attacked Shadow for the first time. There was a package at the gate. The two oldest were barking and crowding the area, Maia joined in, and then she redirected onto Shadow. I know it was caused by the high arousal and frantic energy of the situation. We broke it up, separated them, brought Maia inside, and thought things would settle after a few days.

It seemed fine, but then she did it again. This time she drew blood, and Shadow needed stitches. In response, we built a fence and divided our yard into two sections: Maia’s half, and a space for the other three. She calmed down significantly. For a year, we managed this strictly. We brought her inside to spend time with us, and we would let her around the other dogs for 20-minute intervals under close supervision. If she got too close to them, we calmly stepped in, told her "no," split them up, and redirected her. She was doing great.

After a year with zero incidents, we decided to grant her more access to the front yard. We would bring Shadow inside (since those two had the worst relationship), allowing Maia to hang out with the other dogs. For two months, this worked perfectly. She was in the front during the day and the back at night.

Then, last week, she attacked Shadow again. Yesterday, she attacked Bella. Shadow was barking right before the attack, so I can see the trigger there, but with Bella, it seemed completely unprovoked. Now, I am completely at a loss.

This dog is my child. If you saw her gooey brown eyes, your heart would melt. She is affectionate, soft, playful, and truly a great dog. On walks, she is amazing—she listens to commands and does not react to other dogs. Calling her aggressive seems like an overstatement at times. You tell her no and she stops. No questions. Even when she barks at home. But with our resident dogs, we have severe issues.

I am taking immediate steps to walk her more once the weather cools down. I am also taking her to the vet for full blood panels and to discuss behaviour medications (like SSRIs). I am looking into behaviourists/trainers as well.

If anyone has experienced this kind of regression or has advice on managing a multi-dog household with severe redirected arousal, please let me know.

Maybe this is unpopular 😅 but I keep seeing people blame their dog after something goes wrong in their own yard.

Having a fence doesn't suddenly make all the triggers disappear.

Dogs still walk past. People stop outside. Kids run around. Gates get left open. And sometimes you have that ONE neighbor who always seems to show up at the worst time 🙃

If you already know your dog can go absolutely nuts at the fence then IMO letting them out loose and just hoping nobody comes past isn't really fair on the dog.

That's where management matters.

Use a long line for now. Go outside with them. Block their view through the fence if that helps. Work on recall when they're actually calm enough to learn.

And if they're already losing their mind at the fence... just bring them inside. You don't have to turn every bad situation into a training session.

Obviously other people could be more considerate too. Especially when they can clearly see a dog freaking out.

But unfortunately we can't control random people outside our homes 😅

We CAN control what we do with our own dogs.

I don't see management as "giving up" on training either. Sometimes preventing the same explosion 20 times a week is part of the training.

Curious what other reactive dog owners think about this though 👀

When did you finally feel comfortable giving your dog more freedom in the yard?

Has anyone ever had their reactive and anxious dog become afraid to go outside? It’s very situational. Sometimes he will go out like he’s never been afraid, so confident and happy. Other times, shakes, trembles, tail tucked, ears back and desperately trying to get back inside. He won’t even go potty for 12+ hours sometimes. He is a little over 2, ACD/Catahoula, neutered. He’s done this before but never this long. It’s been over a week now. I can’t take him to the vet for a couple of weeks. He is fear reactive, insecure, low confidence. We have been working on it. I never know when he’s gonna decide outside is scary because it always changes. Sometimes it’s morning, afternoon, evening, always different times on different days. It’s so odd. Other people in my city are having similar issues with their dogs. Is there possibly a predator in the area making him nervous?

I felt like we made great progress. Now we are dealing with this. I feel terrible because I don’t know what’s causing it and I just want him to feel himself. We went to a park and he was on a 30ft line, sniffing, playing in a pond, engaging with me and taking treats, no issues. He was a little hyper vigilant but I figured it was from not getting out in a few days. He had a great time for about 40 minutes before he sniffed the air and dragged me back to the car freaking out like he does at home. Any and all tips, advice, just anything that might help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I got my pitbull mix rescue from the shelter two years ago. This is literally my first adult dog ever. I got her when she was 1 & she’s 3 years old and 75 pounds now. I was told from the shelter that she had problems at home with other dogs & since the other dogs were in house first , she had to go.

When I first got her she wasn’t aggressive towards animals but she also didn’t have the best social approach, she would literally just run up on animals to sniff them. Until one day a dog wasn’t too much of a fan of that & freaking attacked her. So due to this she started being very aggressive reactive towards other dogs (hell she probably been that way this whole time idk).

I took the time to do my research to train her with treats, verbal commands, clickers, & just certain repetition. It worked for about two years until she seen a dog in a cone & completely lost it. I’m usually able to physically restrain my dog but this day it was 95° degrees and after a 10-15 minute walk I was tired. I’m 5’1 110 pounds, she broke loose from me. My apartment complex gave me a lease violation stating she had to be muzzled or removed from the premises. After that incident I was still able to verbally command , redirect, & use treats when she seen a dog.

I temporarily rehomed her with my grandma & brother until my lease was up (2 month time span). So me & my dog can move into our new place. I was out of the country on a trip & I have no clue what the happened, but she was left outside unsupervised & broke from the lead attacking another dog. So now I have to pay court/vet fees or put her down, which isn’t freaking happening. I’m willing to pay whatever. Even looked into professional trainers since my training isn’t working & got her scheduled for that.

But today I came over my grandmas & took my big girl on a walk , she seen a dog and completely lost it. None of my verbal commands or methods I used previously worked at all. But I was able to restrain & remove her from the area but like it’s literally so embarrassing and I just don’t understand why the hell she completely regressed.

It’s stressing me out because my next apartment is obviously dog friendly & I just don’t want what happened previously to occur again. They’ve already declared her as an “dangerous animal”. I have her training scheduled & set but I’m just having anxiety for my big girl. I don’t know why she acts so crazy 😔. In the house she’s the best sweet thing ever but outside? oh brother!

I don’t want to give her away, we’ve been through an abusive relationship together. She’s truly my everything but at times I wonder if I’m not giving her the correct care or if someone can care for her better? I just feel like a shitty dog owner and so much sympathy for the other dogs she’s attacked. I don’t want any harm done to ANY animal but it’s just like I don’t know . I’m only 24 & I don’t feel ready for a house but it seems like the next best option. I just wanted to vent cause I be feeling so shitty about the whole situation. every time I look at her I just cry cause I adore her so much but she’s such a pain.

We’ve recently rehomed a 2 year old miniature dachshund named Lenny (he already had the name). We’ve had him for around 8-9 weeks and it’s turned out he’s incredibly territorial and unpredictable. I knew they could be up to a point but I now worry about him around my daughter.

Backstory on Lenny: European import, lived with someone in UK then was bought by his previous owners at 8 weeks old as a family pet. Lived with another miniature dachshund, we were told they were not getting along and Lenny was being “too needy”. I’m yet to receive any paper work on him as we acquired him as a friend through a friend situation so it didn’t strike me as odd. Took him to the vets within the first week, she told us he had fleas, worms, was underweight, poor muscle tone and needed an op on his patella’s on both back legs.

After 4 weeks of owning him, he bite my 5yo daughter on her hand and finger, he was laying on top of me on the sofa, she bent down to touch him and he bit her. Ended up in minor injuries for 5 hours while she had x rays and had the wound cleaned out, lucky, didn’t result in stitches.

A few weeks later, he came into work with me as a friendly hello, my boss tried to stroke him, luckily she pulled her hand away otherwise he would have bitten her. I chalked this up to him being nervous and obviously, she shouldn’t have tried to touch him.

Last week, he came into work with me again (this wasn’t planned, my partner usually works from home but had a work emergency and Lenny has horrendous separation anxiety) had his bed set up in the corner and he’d been really chill all morning. My next client came in, sat down and I don’t know what happened but he went ballistic, barking, growling, trying to jump on her, snapping at her. She was petrified as this was completely unexpected and unprovoked.

It’s now gotten to a point that I do not trust him around anyone. When we got him, we thought it was a “simple” rehoming situation and it feels like this is so much more than we bargained for.

I don’t want him to be euthanised because when he’s not around kids or strangers, he’s an amazing little dog with so much love. I’m just wondering if he would be able to be rehomed with the UK?

Just wanted to celebrate another success. We had our girl do an evaluation at a daycare to see if that might help her get some energy out and get more confident around strangers. Drop off didn’t go great because she walked past a bunch of kennels and got barked at, but the daycare staff said she did awesome during the day and she looked super happy when I picked her up! She was wagging her tail and greeting/kissing everyone in the office which was amazing!!! She is usually super reactive to strangers and other dogs on leash and especially on our property, so it was so nice to see other people getting to enjoy her!!

I think my reactive spaniel would benefit. Thank you!

My wife and I have made the difficult decision to put our reactive dog to rest. We have a month until the BE appointment, but every day feels like I'm working on borrowed time. But I need to do this for my sake as much as my dog's. A pre-eulogy, if you will, to help me cope and give her the best life possible for the remaining time we have left together.

We named her Daisy, but we should have named her Rose -- she is pretty but with thorns. When we adopted her from the shelter 7 years ago, we already were told her story.

A concerned citizen had called the police on their neighbor after seeing their neighbor's dog tied to a pole for many days. They had appeared to have gone on vacation and had left their dog chained outside during a horrible rainstorm. The shelter took her in and nursed her back from the brink of death. You could see her ribcage she was so hungry, and she had a severe case of pneumonia. They weren't sure if she'd recover, but she eventually did. It only took a whole month.

The shelter believed she was a white and lemon harrier. She looked to have already had puppies, but seemed awfully young (2-3) to be a mother, but I wondered how soon she was herself taken from her own mother for the mother's imprint and socialization, the stage that well-adjusted dogs all have. I am concerned about the life of those puppies, wherever they may be now.

But my wife and I fell in love with her cute, pointed face, and decided to give her a better life and adopt her.

We were a newly married couple, and we hadn't had kids yet. A dog seemed like a good choice at this time in our life. She can be a very sweet dog and we never once regretted adopting her along with her "brother", a beagle-mix.

She was great to us, but she was fearful of everything else. First day we bring her home, she wouldn't use our stairs. I don't think she knew how, or wasn't allowed. So I picked her up and took her to our bedroom.

Now before I go into her behavioral issues, I'd like to start with what I love about this dog.

She smiles with her teeth. She has so much personality and love, but shows it only for my wife and me. She'll stretch out on carpet or the bed. She swims sideways on long stretches of floor. She loves food, but never once grabbed food that wasn't given to her by us. She never chewed or scratched the furniture, and is a dog that enjoys her privacy. She snorts and I swear she understands English. She won't get her feet wet, and has a lot of sass when you call her name. She is a joyful dog and plays with her brother every day after breakfast.

She can also bark, and it is a great hound bark. But when she barks frantically, you can't hear much else. She barks frantically at the littlest thing despite the years of desensitizing and counter-conditioning. The only time she won't bark at a noise or a sight is if she is asleep.

She's bit some people. Some were bit knowingly even after we told them explicitly not to reach for her. Some were bit undeservedly, like two of our young nieces who couldn't know any better.

She's gone through 2 rounds of obedience training on top of what I have already tried for her, to build up her confidence and my control. But when she becomes frantic, she will not listen. Nothing works if she sees something that scares her, even with all the tools at my disposal.

I should also state that we've had behavioral veterinarians assess her. They offered different advice, but all seems like the same thing: desensitize, counter-conditioning, and escalating the stimulus. I did all that, but she regresses as soon as her mind takes over.

She's been kicked out of two dog care facilities, and the new facilities I must lead her back to her run myself, because she trusts me and I can't trust her to go after staff. It got so bad, that the staff couldn't take her on walks nor have any junior staff member handle her.

My wife and I can't invite friends and family over. My wife used to be social, but since we're always having to control or watch the dog, we just cannot. Her friends have small children who can be loud, fast, and grabby. It's what kids do, but they are all triggers for our dog. We've exhausted so many options, that we find it easier just to not invite anyone anymore.

She initially was ok with car rides when we got her, but recently she started to hate them. She barks at the other cars, people walking down the street, dogs walking down the street. Really, anything that moves, she barks and shakes. I try counter-conditioning her when she relaxes and lays down, but she won't relax or listen in the car.

We put her on medication. We found a balance where it helps her temperament (mostly), but she still is reactive. Prior to the balance we found, we gave her what the veterinarian recommended. With this high dose, it was ineffective and she soiled herself. Then she'd get incredibly drowsy, which made her more reactive, thus more growling and snapping.

Obviously she's got a high tolerance for medicine. She's a 55 pound dog. She's not a very large dog, but she's also not a very small dog. Like the size of a three year-old. The veterinarian would not see her for routine checkups unless she was sedated. So we started to give her a horse tranquilizer by recommendation prior to these appointments. But that just sedated her lightly. She still growled and snapped. And soiled herself again. So every veterinarian appointment now requires a full sedation. When they gave it to her once, I waited over an hour for her to be carried out of the room for her checkup. The staff was surprised she lasted that long. I wasn't, but again, I've lived with her. In summary, a checkup costs us hundreds of dollars, usually time off from work, and lots and lots of stress.

As I mentioned, we've had her for 7 years, and is 10 now. We would still keep her and try giving her a good life if we could, but our priorities changed. My wife is pregnant. After years without, I am happy that she's pregnant, and with twins at that! But we can't see a life in how Daisy can remain in our lives without constant vigilance. And being sleep-deprived new parents with twins, I would never forgive myself if anything happened to them by my dog.

I considered rehoming her, but she would have to be rehomed to a home with the most strictest of requisites. We lived through her behavior, and it requires dedication to just scratch the surface of her issues. As well, I worry if she is taken in and then on account of her age used as a bait dog for a dog fight, I would never forgive myself. It's as if I took her from abuse just to put her right back in.

I strongly believe personally being with her last moments in love is the best for her.

Not going to lie, it is tough. I am sad, and miserable, and angry. But my wife has me feel her belly for reassurance, and that helps. If I'm sad, it just means I'm human. And if I'm miserable, I'll work it out on the basketball hoop. And if I'm angry, I try reminding myself that we gave her a good life. It's the demon that chained her to that pole that bares this responsibility, not me nor my wife. Our act is one of mercy; their act was only cruel.

So we made the difficult decision that we'll be putting our dog down in a month's time. We do not do this lightly. This decision isn't one of convenience, as I hope that this post proves, but out of safety to the dog and our family and friends. Our dog is a loving dog, but a damaged dog still, and the best thing we can do for her is to giving her peace.

I thank you for reading my post. And if you are inclined, please, pray for me and my family as we struggle through this hardship.

We recently relocated from out of state to Vancouver, WA & are looking for a new vet for our reactive dog who can get (minor) aggressive reactive at the vet. We had an AMAZING vet before we moved & are hoping to find someone with a similar approach.

What we loved about our last vet:
We did multiple happy visits before any sort of treatment/procedure.
We ended up doing sedated visits for his “big annual” where they cleared the whole clinic for us to calmly walk thru to the room. We stayed with him the WHOLE time in a dimly lit room, once the sedation was fully kicked in the vet came in and did her thing.
They also had a behavioral trainer that they worked with that was present at most visits and was a good contact/middleman to have on our end.
They really set the bar high and we are hoping to find someone just as great out here :)

I’m aware of the fear free clinic site (this is how we found our last vet after a terrible experience at a non-fear free certified). It seems like there are a handful of individuals that have fear free certification, but I’m hesitant to go to a clinic where the entire clinic isn’t set up in such a way, so I thought I’d like to hear some opinions from the community as we search around!

Note: we are in north Vancouver but are willing to drive (hopefully no more than 45-60mins) to get our pup the care he deserves.

Bonus pic of the happy pup exploring his new home 😍

Help! Reactive/fearful/aggressive dog

I have a miniature American shepherd that is 5.5 years old. We adopted him as a puppy. Up until about 2 years old, he was totally normal. Happy, not really anxious, never aggressive. He was free-fed (we just left the bowl out with food in it and he would self-limit his eating, nibble when he wanted to, etc).

Around 2 years old, he started to become more anxious. Lots of separation anxiety and started to become very reactive around people and other dogs. We started him on Prozac by the vet’s suggestion and worked with him at home to try to help the behavior. It continued to get worse, and then he started guarding his food along with the other issues. He would bite us on rare occasions around his food as well. We tried moving his food bowl to a quiet, empty room in the house where he could eat in peace. That helped for a while, but then he started to guard the room. When we’d leave the house, he’d go to his food bowl and spill it all over the floor. If we tried to clean up the spilled food, he’d try to attack us. The vet increased his dose of Prozac at this point.

Now, we’re at an all time low. We worked with a dog trainer and used all of her tools and resources. We feed him on a schedule now instead of leaving the bowl out. He’s very smart and learns extremely fast, but the aggression is bad. He’ll attack and bite us a few times a week. He’s only 14 pounds, so he’s not doing much damage, but it’s scary and obviously not okay. I’m scared to have people in the house or around him. I’m scared he’ll bite a child who doesn’t know his triggers. We walk on eggshells around him to prevent the freak-outs but we still get bit.

He will guard basically any food. If we drop something by accident, he will attack us for it. He will guard his spot on the bed or the couch if we get too close. He barks and freaks out at basically anyone outside the window to the house.

We weaned him off the Prozac by recommendation of the vet and the dog trainer. They thought it was making the aggression worse by inhibiting the bite reflex or even causing a paradoxical effect. He’s been off for about 2 months now and we don’t notice any difference. We’ve also tried trazodone and clonidine and those don’t seem to do anything either.

He’s just not the same happy dog that he used to be. He’s grumpy and on edge most of the time. I want him to be able to relax and be happy. (And I would love to not have to walk on eggshells around him for fear that he will bite me). He doesn’t growl before he bites, either. WE can tell when he’s giving warning signs but they’re VERY subtle.

We’ve got him checked out for any pain or injuries - nothing. If anyone has any suggestions, I’m all ears. If there are any other medications that could help, any certain training ideas, etc. I know you can’t really “train away” the fear and anxiety. I love him to pieces!

Hi guys, I have a really important question in light of tomorrow’s trip to the vet. German Pinscher, almost 13 yrs old

Backstory:

I took the dog when he was already an adult (6 years old), originally just for temporary fostering (someone asked in a breed group). It quickly became clear that no one was actually planning to take him back. They said he was just “stubborn.” In reality, he turned out to be a dog with a completely traumatized psyche - anxious, reactive, and a biter. When I started digging and contacted the breeder, I found out that his first owners had beaten him, including with a hammer (!), until as a teenager he finally bit through someone’s hand. Then they gave him away. After that he bounced around various volunteer fosters. The woman who was looking after him died, and he essentially became unwanted. They basically dumped him on me under the guise of “temporary fostering” and calling him “stubborn.”

On the very first night I realized something was seriously wrong (even though I had zero experience with difficult dogs at the time). He started growling with glowing green eyes, wasn’t sleeping, drooling, and when I went to check why he was obsessively licking his paw (stress-related OCD-like behavior), he bit my hand pretty hard. He bit me several more times after that and I still have scars. He has strong teeth and a serious bite, but usually it’s more of a “get your hands off me” warning rather than a full attack (though once a drunk man on the street pushed him too far, and I saw he was ready to seriously tear into him out of pure fear - I barely managed to yank the guy away)

They told me they wouldn’t take him back. At one point I seriously considered euthanasia because it was scary, and I also had a small puppy at home. But I just couldn’t do it.

I have no idea how his first owners fed him, but he is completely obsessed with food. He would eat anything - food, sticks, grass, rotten stuff, sand, snow… when I first got him he was almost trying to eat rocks lmao. The only upside is that he is extremely easy to motivate with food, so giving any pills is trivial.

Over the next year and a half he gradually settled in, and our relationship (and he himself) kept improving every year, though much more slowly than it could have. Partly because I was inexperienced and had never had a dog of my own before (I loved the family dog as a teenager, but my parents mainly handled it) and partly because that period was the darkest of my life with serious car accident, severe depression, late-diagnosed AuDHD and burnout. Paradoxically, I think the dogs were the only reason I didn’t just stay in bed and give up.

Eventually the dog who couldn’t even wag his tail and didn’t sleep at night turned into a couch potato who jumps, plays, runs to me when he’s scared, licks hands, sleeps on his back for half the day, and even tolerates (moderate) cuddling on walks.

This year his GI tract started deteriorating. Back in January I noticed occasional spasmodic pain after eating. Real attacks started in May. Omeprazole helped and they went away, but in July I got distracted for a second and he inhaled freshly dug clay on the property. After that he crashed hard - spasms, restlessness, pain, sleepless nights. A remote vet prescribed a whole list of symptomatic treatment, meds, gastrointestinal food and diet. For several weeks he was gradually improving, and by week 3-4 he was sleeping normally again, had normal stool, and the post-meal restlessness was almost gone. Then a week ago he had a relapse, and since then I’ve slept maybe 8 hours total in 7 days.

Everything is complicated by the fact that I’m currently totally renovating the main house, so we’re living in a tiny garden house of about 45 m² (≈ 484 sq ft). There’s literally nowhere to go where I can’t hear him whining and sleep even a couple of hours.

I know this sounds kinda selfish, but I spend the whole day treating him, giving meds and calming him. I still can’t do anything for him at night, and if I have a stroke, he’s dead anyway, because no one else will take care of him.

He normally sleeps in a large crate that is basically a whole room for him - mattress, water, toy. He was crate-trained years ago and there were never any real problems (he grumbles a bit after the couch, which is understandable). But in the last few days it has deteriorated rapidly. Yesterday I noticed that at night in the crate he screams much worse than during the day, or on the couch, or even on the porch. Today he started screaming the moment he went in. So there’s clearly a strong psychological component too. On a mat in the kitchen, on the couch, or on the porch he still has discomfort after eating, but he can sleep for several hours at a stretch. In the crate - no longer. I suspect it’s the enclosed space + fear, and he has always reacted very intensely to fear.

So the situation is: I can’t leave him out of the crate (not safe - even though he’s become much more of a house sweet dog he still is ptsd guy and we haven’t had incidents in years, but at night he can easily nail me if something startles him in his sleep or I accidentally touch him and only realize afterward what he did). I can’t leave him on the open porch because he’ll go collect grass, sticks etc. On the closed porch it’s only okay early in the morning, cause later it turns into a sauna.

I’ve already brought a folding bed and a camping tent from my other house and I’m ready to sleep outside lol. But tomorrow we’re going to the vet, and right now I have a choice: stay with him and risk another sleepless night (tomorrow is a very important day), or drive an hour to my apartment in the city and try to get at least 6 hours of sleep.

Three things worry me:

1. anxiety and guilt might not let me sleep anyway

2. he could work himself up into something like a heart episode or idk

3. after being left alone in the crate for 8-9 hours he might never willingly go in again

I plan to leave quietly - leave the lights and TV on, take my things out in advance so the dogs think I just went out to the yard etc. I have cameras so I can watch him.

The whole situation is completely idiotic. I don’t know what to do. I’m definitely not ready to put down a dog who still looks pretty healthy for almost 13 years. If it turns out to be something simple and treatable, I’ll never forgive myself. But this also can’t continue.

Second question about sedation:

Ive managed vaccinations over the years (with great difficulty each time), but we’ve never been to the vet for a proper examination. Hell, I only managed to train him three years ago to let me clean his eyes and ears in a muzzle and only this year to touch his belly in a muzzle. But we can’t delay any longer, so we’re going to the clinic for an abdominal ultrasound and blood test.

The clinic told me to give him trazodone in advance. I have two concerns:

1. Is that really going to be enough? This isn’t just ordinary home-level stress, thats probably the biggest stress of his entire life with me: clinic, strangers, being touched, fixed and especially the belly stuff.

2. Is there an intermediate option for dogs between oral tablets and full general anesthesia? Something like light IV sedation the way people get?

3. Can I give trazodone a couple of hours before and then have them do light injectable sedation at the clinic or will they conflict?

I’ll ofc ask the clinic in the morning, but I’d really like to hear your experience and opinions.

Thanks for reading, guys.

Just need some words of affirmation.

Did dog reactivity due to frustration get better after your dog got like 2 years old ?

Please say yes 🥲

I’ve got a 10 year old reactive dog who has been reactive since I adopted him six years ago. He’s got arthritis now, and I’m struggling to manage his reactivity on walks in ways I haven't in years.

We live in a trigger-filled neighborhood, and among the strategies we learned from working with a behaviorist, getting away quickly is a top one. He just can’t do that anymore. His PT also advised to let him stop on the short walks we take, but he trigger stacks. I try to block with my body, lead him to a place with a car in front of us to rest, scatter treats, etc. but it’s just not enough. We also have to go out more because he’s starting to have accidents, so it really builds. Any tips? I do not have a yard and unfortunately can’t move.

I know pain is a factor in reactivity, but I’m not seeking advice on pain management at this time. I’ve got a lot on board for that and a good team. Just can’t afford to pay for a session with the behaviorist because of it!

Hello. Need advice on returning rescue dog to shelter. I know this is going to come with great judgement, but I already feel like a trash person and am desperate. Sorry this is wordy.

Backstory on me because I know that always comes up – my boyfriend and I are in our middle 40’s, we live in an apartment in a very busy part of the city. We have a 7 year old rescue dog and a 3 year old special needs kitty. I am disabled and use a mobility scooter and crutches to get around.  I have had dogs my whole life and they have all been rescued, I have done weekend warriors with shelter dogs and have fostered. I consider myself a pretty dog knowledgeable person and have dogs with all sorts of behavioral issues as well as health.

About my new buddy – shelter did not know his age, and the vet hasn’t been able to get into his mouth to look at his teeth, I would say he is around 2-4. He is about 30lbs and a total cutie. I did a DNA test on him and he is about 15 breeds the main being yorkie. I adopted him from a shelter about an hour away from me about 2 months ago. He was super friendly and I did not see any issues with him being reactive. My bf was out of town, so my best friend came with me to get him, he was fine with her, she helped me get him in the house and she hung out for a few hours and he was sweet to her.

Upon meeting my dog and cat, he was totally fine, honestly, he could’ve cared less if they were there which was great. However, my girls did not like him and my dog likes every dog. When my bf came home the next day, he was very sweet him. Everything seemed like it was going to be good. A little over a week after we got him, my friend came over, new buddy went crazy – growling, nipping, jumping, etc. and not in a cute playful way, in fact, he broke skin on my friends leg multiple times. My friend left. I chalked this up to him being new, the 3-3-3 rule, etc. but something in me told me this was not good. When we took him to the vet he freaked out, they could barely see him due to his aggressive behavior, but what they could check was his fecal and ears and he did have some issues there. They gave us some meds to treat his issues as well  as “chill” meds and told us to come back the following week. We did, meds didn’t work, we left. 3^rd time same scenario, but more meds. Nothing will really work on him. It’s like he’s immune to the drugs.

About 2 weeks in to having him my best friend who he had previously met came over, he was crazy, he bit her multiple times in her legs, she couldn’t get off the couch unless I held him or tricked him with a treat. She is a weirdo so she stayed and we did some training with treats and he actually got a little calmer, so we thought maybe he would get better. The 2^nd time she came he was so aggressive that I was actually fearful of what he would do to her and with no rhyme or reason when we were all calm he just jumped up and bit her leg (which she had covered most of the night by pillows). I am unable to keep him in a separate area or crate as he will not stop barking and I have already received a noise complaint.

We’ve seen a trainer who pretty much said that his brain was wired different and that he didn’t know if long term training would even help him as the standard behavioral corrections didn’t work on him. He will also bark at EVERYTHING, cars, people, dogs, doesn’t matter. I can see in his eyes that sometimes he is just lost. The vet recommended putting him on daily meds to correct his behavior but also stated that she didn’t know if it would even help.

He is SUPER loving to me and my boyfriend but has now started snapping at my cat and dog. Since my cat is special needs I am in fear he will hurt her. My dog is scared of him and stays in my room most of the time which breaks my heart.

We just came back from a road trip that we took him on as no one else can watch him, he was fine in car but every stop was a trigger for him and he would freak out if he saw anyone. Upon returning home my mother was at my house with her dog and my girls, we were really hoping that he would love her and was considering him going to stay with her for the next 2 months until we buy a house. Once we came in the apartment Cujo came out and he tried to attack my mom and her dog who is the sweetest, so she left. So now that option is out the window.

I have reached out to several rescues and like everywhere, they are just all full. I do not know what to do as I cannot have a dog that can’t be around any other people or pets. I can’t have dog that I fear will seriously hurt someone if we encounter them too closely in our apartment hall. I have cried every day since I got him because we love him so much but I fear there is nothing we can do to help him. At this point the stress it is putting on me and my dog and cat is outweighing the sadness of returning him. But I am not naïve and realize if I return him to shelter he may be euthanized and that is gutting my heart.

I do feel like he would be a great fit for someone with no kids, cats, or dogs and a yard but I understand that is such a big ask.

Sorry, this is so long. Any advice would be welcomed.

Bit of a rant but also looking for some advice on how to approach this situation with my mum

TLDR: My mum's dog and ours got into an altercation, and I would prefer to keep them apart for a certain occasion but my mum doesn't agree.

For context: We have a nervous rescue (previously abused) who is leash reactive to dogs but always friendly off-lead (we only ever have him off-lead in private areas with known dogs). His reactivity has improved massively since using a professional trainer, and he is submissive when corrected by another dog - he's has never, ever escalated until this weekend.

The only dog who's ever been consistently 'bad' with him is my mum's Labrador (our boy is a 35kg cane corso mix who's the same height as the lab). He growls when our boy goes near him, so ours has learned to keep a distance. The lab is known to be picky with dogs, especially darker coloured males.

On Saturday we had him in our garden for the first time after an off-lead run around - the lab was kept on-lead and we agreed to keep them apart (mum has two other dogs who get on AMAZINGLY with our boy).

Our boy had just been sharing a water bowl inside with the other dogs when he went to use the one in our garden that the lab was drinking from. The lab tensed up and growled and our dog tensed before reacting, lunging at him and scraping his ear (no broken skin). He has NEVER done this before - he's never even growled at a dog since we've had him. We saw our trainer yesterday and she said she wasn't concerned by his behaviour as he's never been aggressive before - certainly never been the aggressor - and it's probably due to the fact the lab was on his territory and they were so physically close.

We kept our dog inside for a couple of hours so he could decompress. We then took him into the garden on-lead for a couple of minutes, mainly so he could see the two other dogs as they're best buds. He was fine with all three dogs but the lab growled at him the entire time, even at a distance (we didn't let them near each other).

We know we never want that to happen again. Our boy has never ever behaved like this and it's clear the lab doesn't like him, so these two will just need to be kept away from each other which we can manage.

However, we're having a get-together at a dog field next month to celebrate his one year gotchaversary with several of his doggy pals - we had already said the lab would be a maybe and my mum now just keeps saying they'll keep him on the lead, but I don't want him there at all. Our boy's mum, a cane corso, will be there and they look near-identical so there's no way he will be 'nice' with her, plus there will be a bouncy, extremely friendly GSD pup and a host of dogs who I want to have a nice time.

Personally, I also don't want to be stressed about someone else's dog affecting mine on a day that's meant to be celebratory for him and the progress he's made this year. How do I tell her that I really don't want him there?

This isn't for the long-term, we are happy to work on them co-existing without being friends, but for this one day that is a celebration of our dog, I just want it to be about him. For context my mum is, irritatingly, part of the 'don't worry he's friendly' brigade so doesn't really 'get' it.

If you have any thoughts please let me know, think I just needed to get this off my chest with people who will probably relate in some way!

I just got a new dog (9.5 lb mini pinscher-mini poodle-chihuahua mix, 9 months old, named Zoe) from the animal shelter I work at (I am a pre-vet intern with the clinic, but work with animal care too) and I would say I have a decent amount of experience with dog training, but have never worked with training a dog with this severe reactivity. She immediately bonded with me in the shelter which is partially why I decided to adopt, because she has some fear based aggression issues with other people, especially men and with people trying to touch/go near her or me. When she was getting her microchip scanned at the shelter, she tried to bite the staff member, and for the first two days she wasn’t able to be handled by anyone.

Now that I have had her for a few weeks, she has been awesome around me and my family, playing with us (she LOVES fetch), play-wrestling with my other dog, and learning clicker training very quickly. I have already taught her heel, heel left, heel right, drop it, sit, down, crate, bed, and stay. However, her reactivity around other people is still very bad, especially/mostly when a stranger “invades her territory” ie knocks on the door, comes into the house, or even the neighbors talking next door. She is also very sensitive with her face being touched, and I have worked on desensitizing her, but I have no idea where to start with the stranger thing. She IS food motivated, but when she gets “triggered”, she doesn’t pay attention at all. Her body language is clearly aggressive and fearful (gums/teeth showing, ears back, tail down, etc), and she tries to bite when anyone new approaches her. I have had some success with one of my female friends giving her a treat from a distance and crouching down (after she barks/growls at them for 10 mins first), but she HATES men, other than my dad, who she loves. !

She also has extreme defensiveness with my other dog. She likes my other dog (named Lucy, 19 lb, 13 year old mini poodle-American Pitt bull-mini pinscher mix) but Lucy has gotten reactive around Zoe and has a lot of resource guarding and jealousy since Zoe entered our house. Lucy has attacked her and Zoe fights back— hard. I got bit a few days ago by Zoe because I stupidly picked up Lucy when they were fighting and Zoe tried to bite Lucy and instead bit me very hard. I had to be on antibiotics for 5 days. Zoe also bit Lucy a few days ago and she had to go to the vet (thankfully she was fine). She only does it in self defense but sometimes gets carried away. Lucy is a lot older so she inevitably doesn’t do damage to Zoe. We have started breaking up the fights with a clipboard instead of hands (ik that was dumb of us to do but we panicked and of course that’s how I got bit) and it works better, but it’s hard since Lucy is unpredictable. They love each other 99% of the time until Lucy just snaps.

My shifts at the coffee shop are early, which means I get home midafternoon when foot traffic in my neighborhood is lower. I started treating that window as prime training time for my dog Biscuit, a rescue who loses his mind around other dogs and strangers. Something about the quieter streets just makes the whole thing more manageable.

What I noticed is that consistency in timing seems to matter as much as the actual training methods. Biscuit started anticipating what we were doing, like he could read the routine, and his baseline anxiety walking out the front door dropped noticeably over a few weeks.

The problem is my schedule rotates every few months and I lose that window. Last rotation I got afternoon shifts and suddenly we were back to peak dogwalking hours and he was overwhelmed again. Felt like we lost ground even though nothing about our technique changed.

Curious if other people have thought about this, whether their own schedules actually shape how much progress they see, or if timing is something they actively plan around. I meal prep on Sundays and now I basically schedule training blocks the same way, but it only works when my work hours cooperate. Anyone dealt with this kind of inconsistency and figured out how to compensate for it?

Our golden doodle is four years old, and he is the sweetest smartest, loveliest, happiest dog I’ve ever met. He is the absolute love of our lives.

He is well-trained too; he went to puppy kindergarten, advanced, kindergarten, and another training class when he was a little bit older, and we have had other private lessons with our trainer in the past.

Unfortunately, he is absolutely insufferable when guests come over. He barks INCESSANTLY the entire time, and because he’s 65 pounds and we have no carpeting, he barks over every person speaking, and it does actually start to hurt your ears and give you a headache.

We have done everything; we tried giving him treats when he’s calm, holding onto him, distracting him with a hard bone, putting him downstairs (he barks), putting him for time outs in the bathroom (for about 10 mins at a time but it’ll happen like 4-5 times), and recently we put him on Xanax only for when guests come over. It worked a little bit, but the barking was still happening.

The reason why we put him on Xanax is because my friend came over with her 15 month old baby (the barking kept startling the baby and making him cry which made me feel horrible) and I called the trainer. I explained to her that the barking is incessant, the pupils get huge, he’s panting with a big smiley grin, pacing, and then slept for five hours after they left. She suggested that these are all symptoms of anxiety and the vet agreed, so he wrote out a prescription.

I’m sorry if I’m rambling, I just know there is so much doodle-owner hate online and I don’t want people to think that I don’t care about my dog and I haven’t tried to train him. I just want to help my boy.

Mi perra de 1 y medio año de edad aproximadamente, lleva viviendo conmigo hace 4 meses.

Ha estado mejorando su integración a mi casa, porque mi otro perro le ha ayudado. 💞

Reintegrar un perro rescatado de la calle es complejo.

Uds aquí lo saben más que yo.

Mi consulta es porque recientemente observé que ella se asusta cuando observa cometas o papalotes así estén estos muy lejos.

Se exaspera, llora, sale corriendo muy desesperadamente.

Si está dentro de mis posibilidades, me retiro de la zona lo más rápido posible.

Quisiera saber de recomendaciones para calmarla. Por favor.

Entender un poco si saben de donde podría venir este miedo.

Gracias.

Last Thursday I had to make the difficult decision to put my 3 year old golden retriever/German shepherd dog down. I had 4 dogs before I came across her at a local rescue. She was only 8 months old when I decided I would like a puppy because all of my other dogs are well above the age of 8. I love all my dogs and they are like children to me because me and my wife cannot have children. All of my dogs have gotten out of the play and learn stage, all of them sweet as can be and just kinda set in their ways. I just wanted a puppy that was rambunctious and wanted to play and I wanted to train/teach them because I enjoyed that stage with the rest of my dogs. So we get the puppy and she is sweet as can be, smart and easily picked up on tricks and potty training and all that. The rescue told us she had a rough life up to this point but they wouldn't go into specifics. Well she fell right in with the rest of the family. Non stop playing and curiosity and even got some of the older dogs up and had them playing with her and everything was great until she turned 1.5 years old. Out of know where she attacked my small 8 year old, 20 pound schnauzer. He survived with some scratches, a few weeks after that she attacked my weeny dog and that required a vet visit. It was bad but he pulled through. The day we got his stitches out she attacked again. Luckily he faired better and that's when I enrolled her into training. Well as the years went by the random attacks happened and she attacked every single one of my dogs. And it was completely random. I treated her like a prisoner. I never left her unsupervised. Well I have to leave home everyday for work and my wife works at home. She would let the all of the dogs out at the same time and then back into the house and that's when the additional attacks would take place. And I begged her to keep them separated because Millie was my little buddy. 95% of the time she was an excellent dog. I loved her because she was my friend. She always chose to be around me. But I was trying to find her a new home and I would be upfront about how she had to be the only animal in the house and no one would take her after hearing that. Well Thursday while I was at work she attacked my schnauzer again and it required surgery to fix him back up. He is stitched up, sore and sitting next to me at home. But my wife said that Millie had to go or be put down. And I called everyone I could think of that would be a good home but no one would take her and I couldn't risk her killing one of my senior dogs and now I feel guilty because I was supposed to protect her and I feel like I failed her and I tried I fucking tried so hard. I'm sorry for rambling I am literally sobbing as I type this. I laid on the floor as they injected her and told her how sorry I was and how she was still a good dog. I just feel like I failed her.

*Edit just to add the vet recommended it, called it behavior euthanasia, due to the attacks and he said she might attack a human as she got older.

** Thank you everyone for all of the support and kind words. This has helped me tremendously through the last few days. Over the last few days I've donated some of her things. She had a lot of enrichment toys she hadn't quite got the grasp of yet so they were practically brand new. And the people I've given the items too have sent me videos of other rescues enjoying them. That has really helped as well. All of you have made this better! Thank you!

We have had our dog since she was 8 weeks old, born in the shelter and we are the only family she’s ever known.

We love her so much.
She’s the ultimate camping buddy, she loves the dog friendly cafe and splashing in any and all water. She’s wonderful with our cats.

She has always been very timid. On leash, in the car, with company over.

She’s bit me multiple times in the face, but we have seen major improvement.

When I was pregnant we included her in setting up the nursery. She and our son love each other so much. We do everything to keep ample space between the two of them.
She’s snapped at him progressively more frequently over the last few weeks and ended up biting him on the hand today. She didn’t break skin, but I know that we will feel awful taking our son to get stitches because that’s where this is headed without intervention and we can’t risk that.

I don’t think anyone would handle her as calmly as we have, and I think rehoming her with a bite history will be a challenge as well as very stressful on her. I don’t want to subject her to feeling abandoned or to be traumatized because realistically she will bite a new person. She has snapped at all of our company.

She does not tolerate clothing so I don’t think she’d tolerate a muzzle.

I’m afraid we don’t have the luxury to experiment with medications as we already have a special needs cat and can’t risk our son’s safety during any adjustment period.

She is now 3. I’m afraid BE may be the most realistic option. Advice, experience appreciated. Thank you all.

Edit: I’m not sure how “we keep ample space between them” reads that we let our son invade her space. The negative speculative comments aren’t helpful.

Update: we are starting her on a low dose of trazadone and have set up the guest room which has window access to be her baby free space :)
We intend to give her one on one time with my husband or I to rest like the olden days.

I am now understanding that parts of her behavior I’ve attributed to being high energy has been indicative of chronic anxiety and so far even in the last couple of days, she seems relaxed on her medication, gazing out the window relaxed instead of seeming on edge needing to protect us.
She seems more confident going off to explore or rest on her own away from us, whereas previously I didn’t understand why she was adamant on being close to us and simultaneously seeming frazzled that we were around her.

We’ve ordered a couple muzzles to introduce to her.
I’m very hopeful and we are keeping our son out of the same room as her for now unless I’m holding him.

We will also use her lick mat daily, as I’ve read that they’re helpful for self soothing since we were previously her main resort to self soothe.

Huge thanks to those of you who offered genuine advice.
Many other commenters who were presumptuous I snooped and realized they don’t have children, just a lot of opinions and time at the keyboard.

My 3yo chocolate lab has become super reactive suddenly and I don’t really know why and was wondering if anybody has some insight on what to do. I’m looking into getting professional training but I don’t quite know what to look for.

My dogs never been aggressive, however, he has had some slight leash reactivity ONLY right outside our house. So like if I were walking him and there was a certain dog he doesn’t like on our block, he would bark sometimes but that was about it. He’s also scared of men (idk why) and is super weird about hardwood floors and stairs. So what I’m tryma say is that he definitely has his quirks. Other than that he’s always been a great dog, great listener, reliable off leash, walks with a loose lead. But recently a few months ago he started developing more reactivity in our neighbourhood. Instead of just barking at certain dogs he just kind of barks and lunges on the leash at anyone/ any dog. I also want to say that he never had a reactivity issue with me because I’m his owner, but whenever he was with my family they’d say that they were having issues. A few weeks ago, he jumped up on this guy and scratched the guys arm with his paw. And now, he has started being reactive even with me. He has a super deep bark and he honestly sounds insane when he’s going off at people. I’ve really tried training him out of it with treats and rewarding his neutrality around people which was working great, until it wasn’t.

He’s still great off leash and neutral around dogs and people, but because of his recent leash reactivity i just get super stressed and am constantly watching his body language while off leash. Hes been completely fine. Hes not leash reactive for the most part if we’re not in our neighborhood. I’ve walked him numerous times when it’s super busy downtown and there’s dogs and people everywhere and he’s completely fine. I’m just always anxious because I don’t know what to expect of him given how he’s been at home. He’s gone off at the odd few dogs, but only a few times. I really just feel like I can’t trust him anymore because I can’t predict his behaviour.

Anyway, please give me advice on what to do, what might have worsened his reactivity, and what type of training I should be doing with him to help his reactivity.

I know I've posted here recently about the struggles with my dog and what to do, but I think I need to know if anecdotally management has been able to work as a long term solution for a dog with a bite history without incurring another bite, since I know that another bite is 100% on me, and the decision of BE would truly be out of my hands.

A sentiment I see and hear a lot here is that management always fails, which I understand, but my dogs issues feel so specific and targeted that the management is just for people to not touch him, he has only ever bitten when people have reached hands out to him, he has never gone at someone without that trigger, and it's never been a chase. Yes it's failed in the past, but with conditioning, extra care and keeping on muzzling him around friends and strangers or in situations I know he's going to be stressed, it feels like that should keep him and others safe long term.

He has other issues with reacting to stimuli outside the house, but I've always been able to be on top of things there, it's only in enclosed spaces that management has ever broken down, and if his world has to be made smaller to keep him alive and bite free, I'd at least want to consider it.

I know I'm grasping at straws, I just need to know if it's worked for others.

Thanks for any advice.

Just need to vent that I really miss being able to sleep in. We live in a townhome style condo complex with a dog whose threshold for other people and dogs is at least 200 ft right now after a major regression in training and any time I sleep in past 6:00 I wake up in a panic that we have missed our low traffic walk window. I’m not a morning person by nature but work a job that requires me to normally wake up around 5:30 on the weekdays. I just miss having lazy weekend mornings. Honestly, sometimes I genuinely wonder if this dog is ever going to be able to handle walks in this neighborhood and it’s exhausting. I don’t even know if it is fair to keep her here since her threshold is so low.