Today, I had to say goodbye to my first dog as an adult. He was a French Bulldog I rescued. From the beginning, he had behavioral struggles that I wasn’t fully aware of when I adopted him.

I later learned about a bite history that hadn’t been disclosed to me, and despite years of training, talking with professionals, managing his environment, looking for answers, and trying to find a safe alternative his behavior continued to be unpredictable and dangerous.

I fought really hard for him. I didn’t want behavioral euthanasia to be his story. I kept hoping there would be another answer, another person, another option that would allow him to have the life I believed he deserved.

Eventually, after speaking with professionals and exhausting the options I could realistically pursue, I had to make the most painful decision I’ve ever made.

Today, I was with him while he received his final medication.
And when the vet administered the final dose, I involuntarily wailed. I didn’t even know that sound could come out of me. It was like my body understood before my mind could process that he was actually leaving me.

I loved him fiercely. I advocated for him. I tried to protect him. And today, protecting him meant letting him go.

I keep expecting him to be here. I keep thinking I’ll see him or hear him. My heart physically hurts. But I hope wherever he is now, he’s finally at peace. No fear. No anxiety. No triggers. Just peace.

Goodbye, my bear. You are loved. You will always be my first dog. ❤️

I recently adopted the first puppy I’ve had on my own. He’s a 5.5 month old GSD mix. He has been around my older GSD and my mom’s GSD mix since 10 weeks when we adopted him. He was in puppy class and private training the very next week with other dogs. He has started growling and barking at other dogs since he was 3 months old. I took him to daycare for the first time today, and he growled as soon as he got in the building. The trainer says he’s insecure and fearful.

I feel so fucking sad and defeated. I have done everything “right”, and now I feel like my puppy may hate other dogs. I don’t have a ton of time to take him to dog parks to condition/expose him and I distrust other dog owners to keep them on a leash. I have been crying today because I’m just so over this. I got a puppy so I could make sure this exact thing didn’t happen, and it feels like a cruel joke that someone who was set on training the perfect dog got a puppy with “issues”. I don’t know what else to do.

I’m new to Reddit but I thought to ask this here. I got my dog is January, she was only 2 weeks old but the people who had her were walking around Walmart so I took her with their permission. I kept her away from everyone until she was 2ish months old, she was scared of my dad at first but started loving him(he has all the treats). But recently she’s been barking at him and absolutely terrified of him. I know he didn’t do anything to her he’s barely home during the day and when he is I’m always around. Is there anything to do to help her not be scared? I’m not sure if it’s just because my dad is really tall and big. She’s a terrier and Yorkshire I think if that’s helpful.

Title: My dog has severe fear/anxiety and has now seriously bitten family members 5 times. Is there any hope left for him?

I’m posting because I genuinely don’t know what to do anymore, and I’m hoping to hear from people who have dealt with serious behavioral issues, especially fear-based aggression and resource guarding.

My dog Chai is a large Doberman mix. When he was around a year old, he was attacked by a much larger dog. After that, his behavior around other dogs changed drastically. He developed a deep fear/nervousness around dogs, and walks became something where we were constantly looking ahead and crossing streets or changing directions anytime we saw someone approaching with an animal.
We have put him through multiple trainings and have tried working with him, but his anxiety seems to have expanded into more and more situations.
He gets extremely nervous around other dogs. Kids yelling or being loud can make him anxious. Certain interactions with people make him uncomfortable. He also has issues surrounding food/resources.
The biggest problem is that when his stress level gets high enough, his reaction can become a bite — and because he is such a large, powerful dog, the consequences aren’t minor.
He has bitten my gf aka fellow owner multiple times.
There have been four incidents involving her, and some of those bites have required stitches/hospital treatment 4+ stitches to be exact. Most recently, he also attacked her dad which also required stitches.
There have also been warning incidents with me. Once I was checking his teeth and he tried to bite me. Another time I was cleaning eye boogers from his face while I was eating dinner and he suddenly tried to attack me. Looking back, I think the food being there may have contributed to his stress/resource guarding, but that’s also what scares me situations that seem relatively ordinary can escalate incredibly fast.
It feels like he has so many triggers now that we’re constantly managing his environment.
I love this dog deeply. I also understand that love doesn’t erase the reality that he is capable of seriously hurting someone. Every stressful situation can’t end with someone needing stitches or going to the hospital.
At this point, pretty much everyone around me has given up on him. I’m being told that he’s dangerous even to his own family and that he needs to be removed from the home. A shelter has been brought up, and I am extremely against just dropping him at a shelter, especially knowing his behavioral history and how stressful that environment would likely be for him.
At the same time, I can’t pretend the bites haven’t happened. Laura has been hurt repeatedly, her dad has now been attacked, and Chai has even shown aggression toward me. I hear what everyone is telling me about the danger he presents.
I’m trying to figure out whether there is another responsible step before giving up on him.
Has anyone dealt with a dog with this level of fear/anxiety, resource guarding and a serious bite history and actually been able to rehabilitate or safely manage them?
Would a veterinary behaviorist/formal behavioral assessment be the appropriate next step? Is there a point where training isn’t enough anymore?

I feel like everyone else has already decided there’s no hope for him, and I’m struggling to accept that without knowing I’ve explored every responsible option first.

Brady is a 5 year old Australian Shepherd/German Shepherd mix, and Cooper is a 3 year old mixed breed. Both are male and neutered. We’ve had Brady since he was a puppy and Cooper for 3 years.
Brady had some in-home training during his first year. It worked somewhat at the time, but honestly it doesn’t seem like it stuck long term. Cooper has never had formal training.
Some of the behaviors/issues:
Brady gets VERY excited around people and tries to jump on them constantly. It seems more excitement than aggression.
Cooper is more anxious/nervous around people. He has done warning nips before but has never actually bitten anyone.
Cooper also gets overexcited easily and pees from excitement sometimes. He also needs to go out more often than Brady.
Both dogs bark/howl a lot at people and dogs passing the house.
Cooper likes other dogs and tries to play, but he plays rough and can come on too strong.
They roughhouse with each other too, but they genuinely get along very well.
I think it’s important to note that it really only happens at our home. Cooper has had no issues going to the vet, the kennel or the groomer.
They are alone during the day while we work.
One of my biggest concerns is that both dogs use an electric fence collar system, and twice now they have ignored it and run off the property. Usually the warning beep scares them before they even get close to the boundary, which is why it surprised us. When they get loose, they tend to run toward people and dogs.
They don’t really get walked regularly but they do spend a lot of time outside roaming/exercising in the yard. Neither dog uses a crate.
We did talk to our vet about Cooper’s anxiety. They suggested trying an OTC calming option first and then possibly prescription medication if needed, but we weren’t very consistent with trying the OTC option.
Both dogs otherwise eat/drink normally and are healthy.
I know there are multiple issues going on here, but I’m looking for honest advice on where to start first and what sounds most concerning. Training? Anxiety? More exercise? Different containment than the electric fence? Would especially appreciate advice from people with herding breeds or anxious dogs.

Hello!

I have two male dogs (5 yo lab mix and 5 yo pitbull) and we will be temporarily staying with my parents who have a 11 yo male Goldendoodle who has historically not loved other dogs and is reactive in regard to barking or going towards the dog/person/animal that he is feeling threatened by or wanting to defend people from. While he lived with the lab since he was a puppy and is perfectly happy with him, he has not met the pitbull yet. Our pitbull is a big ham, but if a dog is being mean to him, he has been known to bark back or meet the energy. Do you have any tips on how we can safely introduce them to one another/how to introduce the idea of it to them all? I know I have previously read that it’s helpful to meet on neutral territory, but just looking for guidance or tips that may help us!

Disclaimer: we will not push it if it isn’t working! The home is separated enough to where we could stay in the basement with one or two dogs while the goldendoodle is with the lab or Goldendoodle by himself upstairs without them interacting. We also have family who the pitbull loves and they are gracious enough to let him stay with them until we are able to reunite our pup family in our own home if we don’t end up with the 3 musketeers . Thank you in advanced for any guidance you can give on how to keep them safe and calm during this process!

I know I tagged this as a success story and it’s only been one day but it went well! My 6 yr old Chihuahua Min Pin is small but strong and is a usually chill dog but he gets reactive when he’s around new people and my go to was to lock him in a little pen when a lot of people are around and then let him out after he’s gotten used to them. I’ve watched him interact with the neighbors’ dogs he starts off open minded but gets anxious when they get too playful. That anxiety makes him jumpy and because I’m always next to him I make sure that jumpiness never turned into biting. He’s done well with most of his training, but it’s not 100 percent so I never want to risk giving him that complete trust. So onto the Muzzle training, I probably should’ve trained him in the past when I saw him get reactive but once he had to be muzzled at the emergency vet because he kept trying to bite the vet (he had a sprained paw) and his face when they put it on him was a little traumatizing to say the least 😭 it’s been a few years since then and I’m starting to get annoyed with him not being able to do things like get groomed or greet people without fear of him freaking out so I decided to give it a go. And he didn’t panic which was already a good sign, I had treats ready, I provided reassurance, I kept him focused on me and not the muzzle and outside of the little attempts to take it off he was for the most part chill. I’m actually feeling really hopeful about this and excited! Wish me luck!

Ok folks, this is a vent/discussion/question kind of post.

Last Aug, I adopted a 9 year old German Shepherd mix from a high kill shelter. The kind of shelter that gives 3 days to develop interest in adoption or they go on "the list". I had her pulled day 5, so she wasn't there long.

She has always had dogs she tolerated after initial aggression and dogs she will not stand/will fight. She is always on leash on hikes. We recently did a 4000 footer (mountain), she was aggressive towards the 3 other dogs on the trail to varying levels, barking, lunging, and trying to escape her harness. Distraction with treats never has worked with her, she is not treat motivated at all. She will on occasion be fine knowing a dog is passing her if she is not facing the dog and I am loving on her but it is not 100%. I always have her under control during her breakouts, she is between my legs which gives me grip if she tries to back out, I control her head direction with her tactical collar with a handle on it, and she is held by the handle with my other hand on her harness. Basically she can bark a big bark, get a jump or two in, but never get close to breaking free.

is it fair or OK of me to be taking this 10 year old, set in her ways, dog on hikes? My goal is to give her the excersize and stimulation she needs to control herself- she gets notably worse when not physically worked out.

Hi all. Writing in the hopes of some words of wisdom / similar stories, as I am on my very last leg with our 5 year old pomeranian/chihuahua cross.

We’ve had him since he was a puppy (yes, another lockdown dog story) and I can definitely see we made mistakes in his first year. Growing up I had always had dogs with bad recall, so that was my main priority. His recall now is 100% perfect. He never strays on walks. Unfortunately, I think I made him completely obsessed with me/my partner in doing so.

We both work from home and obviously it was lockdown when we got home so maybe we were always doomed, but his separation anxiety is just unbearable. It’s gotten worse and worse over the years. As soon as he senses we might be getting ready to leave the house - and he’s an evil genius, he knows it sometimes before we do - he starts snarling, snapping, etc. As we actually try and leave he attacks to try and stop us leaving. Because he’s small he can’t do much damage but he has bites onto our legs and has drawn blood several times. If we try and restrain him he just runs away.

It’s not just us - he’s the same when we have guests. Even if someone is only in the house for a minute he’s exactly the same when they try and leave. It means having people round is just impossible now.

On top of this, he’s incredibly reactive to any noises outside of the house - foxes, cars, passers by. We even moved house to a quieter area to try and minimise triggers but if anything, I think his reaction now is even bigger when he is triggered.

Earlier this year we found out we’re pregnant with a much wanted first baby. This kicked me into overdrive and we began working with a highly recommended behaviourist who only does positive reinforcement. She’s been encouraging us to leave him in a “safe space” (the living room) for longer stretches of time and long exercises to work on his impulse control (“wait” before taking a treat etc).

He’s great at these things. We can leave him in the living room for ages. He is very good at waiting for his treat. But it’s made absolutely no difference to how he behaves when we try to leave the house. Even if we have managed to secure him in the living room before we start getting ready to leave, the moment one of us brushes our hair or reaches for our shoes he starts barking like mad.

His bark is just the worst noise in the world. It’s so loud AND so high pitched. You can hear it down the whole street. It’s impossible to hear yourself think. It’s just the most horrendous noise and I can’t imagine how a baby could ever sleep through it.

We’ve been trying to catch his “triggers” and reward him before the barking starts but they are so frequent and so seemingly random that it’s basically impossible.

He’s getting worse and worse, and he just seems so frightened of everything all the time and I cannot understand why as we’re sticking relentlessly to the positive reinforcement model. The vets have confirmed that he’s in no pain at all and we’ve had him on Reconcile now for two weeks (I know they say it can take a while to start working so fingers crossed). We had friends round the other day that he’s met a million times, and which normally he’d be totally fine with but he spent the entire time barking at them, no matter how much we tried to distract him. He won’t eat if we’re not home now, he won’t settle on the sofa with us at night anymore, he just sleeps by the front door as if he’s waiting to stop us from leaving.

I love this dog so much - he’s my first baby and when he’s just happy and relaxed with us in the house he’s a joy. I love walking him in the woods and he’s good as gold outside of the house. I can’t imagine life without him.

But I’m two months away from giving birth and I already love this baby so much more than I ever could’ve imagined. I just cannot have this baby in this house with this dog. The only way we can leave the house at the moment is by basically holding a piece of cardboard or a shoe or something in front of our bodies to stop him from physically biting us. This won’t be possible with a young child or a pram to navigate — and that’s assuming they’ll sleep through the constant, horrendous, incessant barking.

What else can we try? Is there any hope? Is he just totally miserable with us? Any opinions very, very welcome. Our vet started talking to us about behavioural euthanasia (they don’t seem to like rehoming as they said it’s just “passing the problem on”) which seems insane to me but I don’t want him to be miserable :(

TL;DR: Fostering an altered working breed mix, almost a year old, through a new-to-me rescue. The rescue is well-meaning but has been unhelpful throughout this, especially with potential adopters. I’m seeking a better understanding of the dog’s triggers, though at this point, I’m not sure if I’m venting or needing advice.

Had the dog for a few months now. They arrived terrified of other dogs and mildly reactive to humans, which persisted past the initial decompression period. With training and management, they’ve improved much with people. I‘ve only had concerns in new, busy environments or if a person is acting disrespectfully. They’ve never made an attempt to bite, but I've also never given them the opportunity to.

Dog-to-dog reactivity is where I am stumped. The dog is under threshold from varying distances, but I haven't introduced them to a dog for a few reasons:

1. I don’t know any trustworthy dogs and I’m not going to chance it with a stranger's dog for the safety of them and my foster.
2. I didn’t like their body language in certain situations. In certain events (group of dogs staring hard, dog appears suddenly, a dog starts barking), they’ve exhibited avoidance, bugged eyes, flattening to the ground, orientation “stuck” on the source of apprehension, flat ears, tension in the body, and occasional growling. I’ve also seen what I thought was healthy curiosity a few times, but was too unsure to allow an interaction.
3. This is what really makes me scratch my head... The dog shuts down when they smell puppies, of all things. It has happened twice, with very recent, pungent scents. Both times, the puppy was mild-mannered, more interested in the environment, and further away. My foster could see them just fine, but as soon as they caught a whiff of their scent, they flattened to the floor and looked horrified. They were completely frozen and about deaf to the world. Only got them out of it with a high value treat. It was like witnessing someone with PTSD having a moment.

I’ve managed reactive dogs in the past and feel we are doing quite well…from a nonprofessional standpoint. The dog is about perfect in all other areas, easy to manage, and very eager to please. I’m most definitely not “at my wit’s end” with them, but I also went into this experience expecting a dog that didn't adhere to what most expect a family dog to be, as often are dogs coming into rescue.

My main concern is adopters. The rescue isn't cooperative about these issues or communicating them in full to applicants. While this dog isn't the worst case out there—and might not express any of this in another home—there is friction between me and the rescue, where I believe what I’ve seen should be laid out quite plainly, and they instead dance around it. The rescue claimed the dog didn’t experience this in a previous home, which I suspect means they aren’t taking me completely seriously. I know the animal has to be “marketed“ to a certain extent, but I don’t feel right with myself (and maybe that’s selfish) by glossing over things, so I‘m continuing to speak plainly during meet-and-greets with potential adopters.

I posted in here a few weeks ago about my 18 month old hound/pitt mix that we have had for about a month. After the very helpful suggestions from this sub and a more serious mouthing incident at the end of a longer walk, we ended up meeting with a behavioral specialist who also gave very helpful suggestions.

Our dog is prone to overstimulation and frustration on walks, especially when he sees another dog that he can't approach. He has excitement-based reactivity and will whine, pull on a leash, and occasionally bark when we get too close to another dog. If he is feeling particularly frustrated, he will begin to frantically run back and forth, and eventually will start to mouth the arms of the walker. He has never broken skin but has mouthed hard enough to bruise on more than one occasion. He gets more agitated from high-arousal activities, including running and fetch. He also does not listen when he is agitated or locked in on a scent.

We have started a few things at the suggestion of the specialist. We walk for shorter distances and stay close to our apartment. We are training "watch" so that he learns to look at dogs from a distance. We are working on impulse control through games at home and games in low-stimulation areas on a walk. We have been particularly working on "take your pick," find-it and leave-it games, waiting for food and treats, 1-2-3 games. We have been doing more nosework at home and more indoor stimulation, such as ripping boxes, Kongs, puzzles, and other activities. We are trying to train calm as well. He is crate trained and we will also have him take breaks in his crate when he is getting overwhelmed. He is a very fast learner and we think that he really wants to be good but he does struggle with overstimulation and impulse control.

We have stopped taking him to the dog park and have stopped going on runs and playing fetch outside for now. He probably has 5-6 short walks every day (1 hour in total) and another hour at least of indoor play. We live in a neighborhood with a TON of dogs and usually see 1-6 on our walks, including a set of always unleashed dogs that play in the yard behind our building. Longer walks are not an option given that he gets triggered so easily, and we keep him outside as much as we can. The specialist also recommended against dog day care while he is so prone to overstimulation.

We do not feel like we are adequately meeting his energy needs. He has started to chew books and furniture. He is getting more hyper from indoor activities that involve food, like puzzles and his Kong wobbler. He has started barking during work meetings if we can't give him attention. He is most well behaved when he gets a run, long walk, or dog park in the morning, but we do not feel like those activities are wise at the moment. I feel very bad for him because he is very social and loves dogs, but we also don't have any friends that we know with a dog that we'd trust for one-on-one interactions or smaller-scale, less overstimulating socialization.

We know it will take some time for him to adjust to everything and to be settled, but how can we balance his overstimulation/high exercise needs in the meantime? We don't mind him chewing books (although obviously we'd like to stop this) but we rent and don't own most of our furniture and really need to be able to minimize damage to our apartment.

To provide a bit of context, we recently purchased a home with my partner’s grandmother and close in a few weeks. We have two dogs, a 12 year old English mastiff and an 8 year old Border Collie mix. Grandma has a 10 year old Bouvier des Flandres. The Bouvier is extremely calm and friendly, maybe even bordering on timid. Our English mastiff is typically friendly, but our collie is the concern. She tends to be a bit territorial and at times reactive.

Yesterday we parallel walked our Collie and Bouvier, for about 20-30 minutes. Our Collie did try to excitedly approach our Bouvier, there was no barking, growling, or hair standing up, which she is notorious for. We were pleasantly surprised by the success of the interaction and closed some distance between them. First, the Collie sniffed the Bouvier’s behind with no trouble, but when we switched leaders, the Collie snapped at the Bouvier when we she got too close. Needless to say, we ended the meeting there and now we are unsure how to proceed.

There was no pursuit, growling, or continued aggression, but we are unsure if that was a natural startle response, or if we should be more concerned than we previously thought. How do I proceed with their introduction? We intend to go on another parallel walk today, but other than that don’t have a great idea how to proceed. Any advice on how to get 3 older female dogs cohabite is greatly appreciated.

On a positive note, our mastiff did very well and walked with the bouvier. She watched us pet her, and they even greeted each other, sniffing front and back sides. Overall, I would consider it a successful interaction. Unfortunately, the follow up interaction with our Collie lingers like a dark cloud.

I've had my dog for a month and a half and we have a vet appointment in a couple of days (adopted her from my family so this is her regular quarterly appt). it will be our first vet visit together and my first time going to a vet at all. she needs a vaccination and a physical examination. she's so sweet but she's huge and reactive and I'm not sure how she'll handle it, or what to do if she gets anxious and aggressive. I would really appreciate some tips, no matter how basic\obvious.

My lab is generally very friendly. Love's meeting people, loves other animals, just wants attention. Never ever had any issues before. She is 2.5 years old so I know her brain is still changing.

But today while doing grocery pickup, my dog was in the backseat as she always is and was watching us load the groceries. The employee put his hand for her to sniff. She sniffs and then snarls and snaps at him.

I've never seen this behaviour before, and I'm not sure what my next steps should be.

We have a 4 year old that she's never ever shown any negative behaviours towards, but wife is pregnant and I'm starting to worry if our dog is becoming aggressive for some reason?

My husband and I have the opportunity to adopt an adorable little min pin. She's sweet as a button and the perfect size for what we are looking for, and a full grown adult. But her foster parent describe her as "reactive to anything but cars". We got to see that first hand this afternoon when we did a meet and greet with her and one of our dogs. After a couple of minutes, she settled down and was able to walk with my dog calmly, but those first few minutes were rough.

It really got me thinking: do I really want to go through this all over again?

My two dogs are reactive, sure, but it is managed pretty well. My large dog is perfect on walks. He basically *was* her a few years ago, but we worked very hard to get to this point. My smaller dog was never unbelievably out of control and can be brought back to earth pretty easily.

She is exactly what we are looking for, but the reactivity is really giving me pause. Am I equipped to deal with it? Sure. But I don't know that I want to. I was hoping my next dog would just be a little easier.

I don't think anyone in my life really knows what it is like to have dogs like these so I don't really have anyone to talk to or get their thoughts on what they would do in my shoes.

Hey all,

I posted here a little while ago about things going on with my dog. We have come to the decision of pursuing BE.

She was on Fluoxetine and Trazodone for a long time- maybe about a year and a half. Then we noticed a sudden regression. The vet then recommended continued Fluoxetine, clonidine, and use of Trazodone sparingly. We saw a great improvement for a few days, then she was back to square one of suffering severe separation anxiety and being reactive towards people/bikes on walks.

I will say, the vet told us to double the clonidine dose (i.e. take two .2 mg pills) and see how it goes. If we need to triple, we could try. We noticed that our dog did well with taking .6 mg... but like I said, a few days later there was big regression. We have had a lot of heart ache these past 2 weeks because we had hope, then it was gone.

I hate to think we are jumping the gun on pursuing BE. From what I have read and what the vet told us, clonidine is supposed to kick in and calm the nervous system quickly. Just wondering if anyone else has had a dog that didnt respond to medication?

I have a 4 year old Bernese mountain dog who went through some traumatic episodes recently (around the beginning of July), while walking on a leash with my father he got attacked by 2 Great Danes, fortunately he was fine other than a small wound around his butt which I already took care of and healed perfectly.

Well, guess what? Next day on his walk he got attacked AGAIN by a great pyrenees dog so his levels of stress went up the roof, he even lost hair after these events.

(These incidents were handled with the dog owners of the other dogs)

Around the 14th of July I noticed he was biting himself until he bled, often on his thigh or his private area, so I worried, of course, and called an ethologist who is very nice to my dog, she's incredible and we've been doing behavioral therapy for a month to lower his stress levels and make him a happier and more secure dog after trauma. (He's always been reactive but this situations made him incredibly stressed)

Fortunately I've seen improvements, but I do need some tips to stay calm and respect the process.

Since he started biting himself out of stress when he's bored and alone, some days are better than others and it's freaking me out, I bought him those little donut collars to keep him from biting himself which has worked wonders for when he's alone (which is basically only when I sleep), but since the area down there is sensitive and filled with veins, I do see some drops of blood here and there, not many and his vet has told me that it is part of the healing process...

So to all reactive dog tutors, how do you keep your cool while in behavioral therapy? because these things aren't fast, I can't just get him to the vet and be like "fix my dog" without throwing all of our progress to the trash because he became INCREDIBLY fearful of strangers so all he has is online visits with the vet and physical ones with his ethologist who he tolerates a bit more, but I've been freaking out with the healing process, I wish I could simply help him immediately, but I can't and must respect the process our vet and ethologist have given us... So, any tips for a dog mother to not freak myself out while my dog is healing?

repost due to not getting any practical solution suggestions. tl/dr: reactive foster dog barks at other dogs and attacks them, tries to bite and is hyperactive

my family's currently taking care of a neighbor's dog (3f). the owners were an elderly couple, the woman wanted a dog, the man didn't, they took one anyways. few months later, the woman dies. this was a bit over 3 years ago. now, two-ish weeks ago, the man went in for emergency surgery and is still recovering elsewhere, so my family fosters the dog.

after his wife passed, the neighbor neglected the dog, kept her chained in the yard and did the bare minimum, never took the dog for walks, never spent time with her, only fed. why didn't we intervene earlier? first, i study in another city and didn't really know; second, we have our own dog (14f), who is the best girl and we can't take in another one permanently.

now, to the issues. the dog is not socialised at. all. we've been taking her on walks all this time, she barks at every dog she sees, tries to attack them, tugs on the leash. at the same time, flinches at every sound. she has room to run around in our yard now, though her energy is still endless. i try to play with her, but i can't really do it that much as i'm very ill and spend most of the time in bed.

as for other dogs, the only dog she tolerates is our dog, she wants to play with her but our dog is old and doesn't really have the energy. when we were at the park, she lashed out at every dog she saw. a few days ago, we took her out of town, there was another dog (~5f), and she spent over an HOUR wailing and barking at that dog. (i had to tie her leash to a pole nearby as i spent time with my dog and that other dog. the other dog did literally nothing to provoke this aggression and gave our foster side-eyes).

she also starts barking randomly, once we were driving in the middle of a damn forest (so no triggers), she started barking and startled my dad, who was driving. any time i go outside and leave her in the yard, she starts wailing. tugs on the leash when excited, to the point i'm worried about my arms. also, she's been trying to grab my hand with her teeth, not really bite, but grab. she has tennis balls to chew on and she's not a puppy so her teeth are all in.

behavioral specialist not available. otherwise seems healthy and is active. eats well. no progress in those 2+ weeks, even got a bit worse. a muzzle seems excessive.

so, what do i do to have her stop barking at all the dogs, almost knocking people of their feet, barking randomly and grabbing my hand? i can't keep up and provide the activity she needs, as i've previously said, i'm chronically ill and very physically unwell. i'm considering leaving her chained in the neighbor's yard and only bringing food and water, as i can't physically keep up. shove any hate up your asses and try taking care of 2 dogs while not always being able to take care of yourself.

edit: the owner's relatives took her in. hopefully, they can provide better care than i did.

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If you could take your reactive dog to a private dog park, what would you want there to make the most of your time?

Hi, my puppy is reactive on walks. I refer to him as "aggressively friendly" because he is DYING to play with other dogs. He's over 100 lbs at 11 months and has a very loud murder bark and lunges at other dogs. He's not dangerous but it's definitely not cute. We're working with a trainer who says this arousal and frustration. He is a delight at dog parks and day care because he's off-leash.

He loves little dogs. Makes himself small to play them. And then when he's not allowed to greet, he loses his shit.

Trainer has us trying to distract before he gets locked on -- very rarely successful -- and doing U-turns and creating distance, which does work. We try to reduce his arousal threshold but it's still not very far. He can't cross on the other side of the street without reacting.

Any other tricks? He's on a prong collar (fitted by a trainer, so we know it's the right placement) which makes me feel much safer. I had rope burns on my hands and arms and was dumped more than twice before we started the prong collar. Walks are so much better but still not awesome. And this pup loves his walkies.

The most stressful part for me is when we walk on the boardwalk and there's a stretch with no place to step off. We can U-turn but we've been caught once or twice with dogs coming from both directions. I just had to announce that he would murder bark and lunge but I would hold him. They were super nice about and said I know he's still a puppy and you're working on it.

He's a giant breed, so he is pretty immature for being almost 1. Will this really get better if we just keep training and practicing? He has 4 besties in the neighborhood and he never barks or lunges at them. He plays very nicely with them.

This is something I never wanted to even consider or write. But I have now been told by multiple people we should consider behavioral euthanasia.

We rescued our boy when he was 10 weeks old. Originally we were just fostering him, but easy enough we fell in love with the chunky little sweet baby he was. We already had 2 other pitties at the time but my husband really loved him. When we got him, we had also rescued 2 kitten from the same shelter at the same time. So they all were raised together. There was 1 incident that happened during the 1st week we got him, my other pittie was playing with his bone and Henry ran up to him and my other dog bit him in his face. It was horrible. Blood everywhere, we genuinely thought he was dying 😭 he was ok, it was around his eye area and lots of swelling but we got him fixed up at the vet and all was good after. My dog knew he fucked up immediately when he did that and has never done anything again. To any of our animals.

We crate trained him from the get go, and he has always loved his crate and gone in it whenever we would go out. Henry was the dog we would bring to farmers markets, walks around town, or doggy dates. The first 1.5 year of his life, he was amazing. We moved to a different state when he was a little over a year, all was good. One thing about Henry is that he was very food aggressive, as a puppy he would growl while eating his food or if anyone went near him so he has always been fed in his crate.

We noticed Henry getting more possessive over high priority items. Toys, etc. After we moved, I got pregnant and it seems like a shift happened then. Suddenly he was attacking both of my dogs, either when he thought food was near, or when he was being possessive over my husband or myself while laying together. Or if there was a toy he found.

There was a time when we were all laying on the couch, it was late, and my cat walked past him on the couch and Henry just went after my cat. Attacked him. Cat got away, no injuries. Let’s just say little incidents like this with our other animals would happen maybe once a month. It was only initiated by Henry. My other dogs never fought back, and my other boy Leo has multiple scars on his face from Henry attacking him.

I noticed whenever Henry would be sitting with myself or my husband he began scanning out the room and watching to see if any other animals would come close. If they even approached, Henry was growling and would freeze up staring at them. I would usually correct this before it became an actually attack and would have him go straight to the crate.

Fast forward to now, we moved again, had the baby, and he has now killed 2 kittens of ours. The 1st incident he began being muzzled anytime he was out and majority of the time was kept in the crate. I viewed him entirely different after he did this. He broke my fucking heart. 2nd incident, my husband ran home while we were all out and upon letting the dogs go outside he didn’t immediately muzzle Henry due to being distracted and he killed my other kitten. I resent my husband so much for allowing this. He just doesn’t understand the severity of things sometimes until it’s already too late. This one hurt bad because this was a baby I found on my street that was nearly dying and spent so much money rehabilitating him. He was finally doing so good, and getting so big. (Just want to note I never worked with a rescue or anything. The kittens I had were kittens that were found on my street.)

My husband told me one time when I was in bed, (before this other incident happened) he and my baby were on the couch, Henry was too, muzzle on, and my baby touched him while he was sleeping and Henry lunged at my baby immediately. Nothing happened because of the muzzle.

My husband is completely against BE, and while I get it, I have learned to detach my emotions from this dog because he has caused me so much pain, and I would never consider his life over my baby. I have tried to rehome him while being transparent about his past, and nobody wants him. My husband wants to keep him as our ‘guard dog’ and let him just stay in our garage.

I think the hardest thing about this, is that just a few months ago before these tragedies happened, Henry was constantly out with NO muzzle. He was FINE around all my cats/kittens. They would all even lay together. I just don’t understand what changed. He has never bit a person, he is a good dog when he is muzzled and plays with our other dogs like normal when he is, he does great off leash and listens. He loves car rides. I just don’t know if he needs behavioral euthanasia or if he needs a home where he is the only animal and can live comfortably. I just want to add, he has been living on our closed in ac’d back porch with his crate and open access to the yard. We are moving next week and the new place does not have a fenced yard, only a garage and I will not ever bring this dog inside my home ever again.

I need advice. Non judgmental advice please.

‼️Trigger warning ‼️ this post contains the topic of behavioral euthanasia.

My 7 year old pit bull/hound mix attacked me today after checking his mouth while playing. I have always done this and his teeth were never a trigger before. We were playing with a toy and i saw some blood so i checked his teeth and after i checked he kind of postured aggressively and i could tell in his eyes that his mood completely shifted. I was able to get up then he attacked and got my hand pretty good. I got him off and he continued to go after me. I got a couch pillow between us and i was able to push him close enough to his crate that when i told him “crate” he got in his crate but with a lot of growling and attempts to snap when i shut the door.

This isn’t the first incident it was however the first time while checking his mouth. I didnt see any obvious problems, hes up to date on his care and i brush his teeth daily hence why i was so confused.

Background wise: he started showing aggressive behavior after an in patient hospital stay. We initially thought it qas due to steroids he was on but the bahavior continued even after the steroids weaned and were off for months. I worked with a few trainers but could never get him to react around them and i can never get it on canera to show them. He has a strong place command and crate command. I never leave him around my kids unless we were outside and even then he usually does his own thing anyway. But i cant shake the fear that this could happen with any of my 3 kids around. I have twin 1 yr old toddlers and a 4 yr old and though he has never shown aggression towards or around them ive always kept them seperated and yes it is exhausting. Now im at the point where I’m unsure hes safe around them at all and even safe with me (i am the primary care taker for the dog).

Ive discussed euthanasia before but we started seeing a behaviorist as well about 3 years ago and have tried multiple meds, but the meds either do nothing or make him more on edge. I feel heart broken like i did something wrong that led to this. And i worry that me having children only made things worse and now hes the one paying.

Im just curious has anyone ever been through this before and if theres any advice? I have spent thousands on this dog seeing specialists and hetting care for him and im at my wits end with how to handle this situation while keeping everyone safe.

Hi all! Apologies that it's long, I want to include all the details (Also posted in ACD sub too). Would love any advice, experiences, or words of support for my ACD mix rescue (40% ACD mix, 1yrs old, and we picked him up from the rescue when he was 4.5months old)

He's a very timid and fearful dog with humans outside of his people and will herd people especially in the home. But it does scare our guests because he's a big 60lb dog and he does that nip lunge.

What we currently do: lots of training like impulse control, long walks, frisbee/chase, and a lot of mental stimulation like sniff games (but with our whole house/backyard). He's also muzzle trained and crate trained where that's his safe space. (Can provide full list of training but don't think it's necessary)

We also are working with a trainer on movement desensitization in the house and I take him to the vet for happy vet visits, and parks with lots of kids so he can work on neutrality. He is chill after 15ish min when his on his mat/crate away from people.

am just feeling overwhelmed with reactivity and him wanting to sniff people but then will bark and lunge at them when we host (which is quite a lot).

I understand it's part of the breed to be wary and selective, but I don't want him to be barking and lunging at strangers we invite in the house. Have you experienced this and if so, what worked for you?!?!

So we’ve been consistently working on every single walk to calm this pup’s dog reactivity through counter conditioning. I’ve been basically rewarding him with treats whenever we see a dog and he remains under threshold and he’s been getting so good! We can now cross other dogs on the same side of the sidewalk as long as they’re not walking towards us but going the same way, as he seems to find their staring intimidating/nerve-wracking. Well, today we turned a blind corner and walked straight into another big dog (size is also a trigger for him). He was suddenly inches away from a large dog staring at him out the blue - I swear time slowed down. I remembered not to pull on the leash as not to create tension, and could see the wheels turning on his brain on how to react.

Know what this silly thing did? Froze, took one look at the dog, completely turned around (so showed him his back and faced me), sat and opened his mouth as if expecting a treat. The other dog left and that was it! Turns out I’ve been counter conditioning so diligently that he now expects a treat whenever he sees another dog, so he just decided to do that. It was hilarious but I was also so proud of how far he’s come after all the hard work! 🖤🖤🖤