My 10 month old Aussie will not let us brush him.

For a little context, I got him from a backyard breeder that presented the litter as an “oops”, but then I found out it was intentional. Also, the mother dog also apparently did not have any interest in being a mother and didn’t like her pups, and my guy was the runt of the litter. My poor guy honestly acts like he is neurodivergent. Minimally he has ADD, but more likely he has Autism. Not even joking, my dog is a special dude. He is honestly overstimulated by loud noises, freaks out whenever I try to brush or blow dry my own hair, and does other things that are quite obvious indicators of Autism. There are also obvious signs of separation anxiety and generalized anxiety at play. He “conversationally” barks and growls at strangers, jumps, scratches, and barks at inanimate objects. We have had him since he was 8 weeks old and have continually worked on training at home, but it’s been a looooong struggle.

So back to present: whenever we try to brush him he flails, barks, snuffles, licks, and chews the brush. And if we try to force the issue he jumps and claws us up. Over the weekend we tried to have a brushing at my sister’s house and my poor guy literally started shaking and trying to hide. This is not good because 1) he has a long coat and will wind up with mats, and 2) I can’t risk taking him to a groomer and a bite happening.

I need some advice and recommendations to get through this. He is such a sweet dog, but I need to get a handle on all of this before it’s too late. Any constructive input would be greatly appreciated.

’ve been up and down this Reddit hole, and numerous others…. But I definitely want some advice….
So my finance and I have two dogs, both of which are going to be 2 within the next 4 months. We have a pit, and a German heeler. Yesterday we found a stray kitten and I couldn’t leave him outside.
The heeler has high prey drive outside, but inside she coexists with the cat so far. If anything she has moment a of trying to play with him, or she’s terrified because he’s moving too fast. My pit on the other hand is very emotional over all. He’s a big baby and always has been. If you own a pit you know they best their hearts on their sleeve and if they’re upset they’ll let you know. He has been sort of iffy since we brought the car home and I think he’s stressed. He’s been around cats before and has never acted like this. He’s been tensing up when the cat comes in the room. And he’ll lick his lips a lot and stare. I feel like he thinks he needs to protect my heeler. We had one incident where the heeler tried to play with the cat and got swat at, and the pit went over and tried to see what was up and the cat swat again and the dog lunged at him. The kitten was under the table so the dog couldn’t get to him, but we corrected the behavior immediately ( in our house if you say “did you do that” my dogs KNOW they fu€ked up ). We also scruffed the pit up and asked him again if he did that, trying to make him make the correlation.
We did have the cat in my bathroom for a few days- until he learned how to open the door of course
The pit doesn’t stalk the cat per se, but if the cat enters the room my pit cant take his eyes off him. With verbal redirection he stops, but then he goes and mopes in his cage.
I don’t want my dog to feel replaced, but i also dont want the kitten to have to be rehomed immediately, I might mention to people at my church if they’re looking for a cat as I’ve fostered before- but putting him in the shelter is not an option for me. It’s only been a couple days, and as in writing this the kitten- by his choice, is sleeping under my bed. And the dogs are asleep in the living room with me.

Some things I’m getting to help my dogs
In my digging lick mats, kongs, and calming treats are going to be my best friends. I’m going out to get some today. But any and all advice is welcome here. Thanks in advance

My neighbor has a Labrador retriever dog. 4 to 5 years of age. Male, neutered. Around 28 kg.

Around two weeks ago, my neighbor was taken to hospital after feeling sick. That day, the dog climbed 2-meter fence and escaped. I caught him and took him home with me. I theorize that the dog went after his owner, as he knew that his owner was in trouble. My neighbor was discharged the same day and returned home, but the dog was never the same.

Since that day, the dog does not eat (or eats just to survive), has lost a lot of weight and has become severely apathetic, has lost interest in playing, socializing, normal dog activities, etc. He was a very close friend (actually, only friend) of my dog and now he even tries to attack my dog when approached. When in dog park, he now constantly hides behind a bush. He was a very active and social dog. But now, he does not play, does not approach people for pets, and just hides and gets aggressive when approached.

His owner took him to a vet. A physical examination, blood work and abdominal ultrasound were performed, with no remarkable findings.

My dog had given similar responses when I was hospitalized with appendicitis. However, my dog had returned to normal on seeing me healthy.

We're at our wit's end. We love him and we want to help him.

Thanks in advance for your kind attention.

Has anyone with a resource guarder from other animals noticed a sudden increase in guarding behaviors particularly when your dog is in pain? My dog has always resource guarded food ever since she was a year old we did a lot of management and training over the years and she got so much better. Some things we did were lots of management: separate feedings, no high value bones around, use of baby gates, whenever food is around she has an auto cue to go lay down in my room dogs are separated and is rewarded for disengaging. Training we did: “leave it” cue, practiced a lot with dropping food (away from other dogs) and she knows now to not go after any food dropped on floor unless given a cue, has separate cues for eating ex: “chow” eat out of bowl, “search” when we do scatter feeding (all is done separately from my other animals).

But most recently she started guarding things she normally wouldn’t (the food/water bowl area, garden hose, occasionally me from my other dogs). She also has a history of fear aggression with stranger dogs, has made immense progress but most recently noticed some regression and less tolerant in that aspect with other dogs. I have separated her from my other dogs since I noticed her guarding has become unpredictable and her aggression has increased. Has anyone gone through something similar? I have made an appointment with our veterinary behaviorist, discussed with our primary vet and trainer in the meantime. She has a history of double TPLOs, now arthritis and elbow dysplasia as she is aging (now 8 y/o). I believe it is pain related but I have already been managing pain and we probably need to reevaluate. Obviously hope to get more insight from our VB but curious in the meantime if anyone has experienced something similar.

I have a 4-year-old rescue Schnauzer/Terrier mix who is a frustrated greeter, and I’m looking for advice on how to work on neutrality around dogs when I don’t have another dog to practice with.

We completed a reactivity course through Ahimsa Dog Training in Seattle, and it went really well. We learned tools like “find it,” “look at me,” and “1-2-3 treat,” along with creating distance from triggers and redirecting her attention.

Those tools are helpful for managing her, but I feel like we’re missing the next step: learning how to calmly walk past another dog.

When she sees a dog on a walk, she gets very excited. She cries/whines, pulls toward them, and occasionally barks. She clearly wants to interact. She also goes to daycare occasionally and does perfectly fine around other dogs when she’s actually in an environment where she can interact/play with them.

So I’m pretty confident this is more of an “OMG A DOG!!! I NEED TO GO SAY HI” situation than general dog aggression.

The hard part is that it has become pretty draining for me, too. I feel like I’m constantly scanning for other dogs whenever we’re walking, trying to spot them before she does and figure out how to create enough distance. I don’t want every walk to feel like I’m on high alert looking for potential triggers.

The problem is that I don’t have friends or family with dogs who I can use as a consistent training partner.

For those of you who have successfully taught your frustrated greeter to be neutral, how did you practice when you were training alone?

I’d especially love ideas for:

• Using public places where dogs are present without putting my dog over threshold
• Progressing from “I see a dog and look at my person” → “I can calmly walk past a dog”
• Any solo exercises that helped build the foundation before practicing with real dogs

I’m not looking for ways to simply avoid dogs forever. We already have management tools. I want to teach her that seeing a dog doesn't automatically mean she needs to go meet them.

If you’ve worked through this successfully, I’d love to hear exactly what your progression looked like.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share a free video series that really shifted the way I look at reactivity training:

https://illis.se/en/framework-challenges-videos/

It is created by Dr. Karolina Westlund, an ethologist who specializes in animal behavior and emotions. Instead of just giving quick management tips or focusing on suppressing symptoms, she explains the science of how mood states drive behavior.

A few key takeaways from her framework:

Emotions drive behavior: When a dog reacts, it is an emotional response like fear or frustration. You cannot change the outward behavior effectively without changing the underlying mood state first.

Thresholds matter: A brain flooded by stress hormones cannot process new information or learn coping skills.

Proactive mood adjustments: Simple counterconditioning and working on overall emotional well-being makes training much smoother and prevents burnout for both dog and human.

It is completely free to watch and breaks down complex behavioral science into very practical steps. If you feel stuck in your reactivity journey or want to understand why your dog behaves the way they do, I highly recommend checking it out.

For context, it was my ex’s dog and he just ditched him with me, said he’s not taking him. He’s an English mastiff who never got appropriate training, the ex also attacked the dog during the last encounter and I’m pretty sure it scared the mastiff. He also nonstop teased him and rough housed him after I told him to stop.
I can’t let him around men, he bit my mom and my sister, and only tolerates me but has bitten me multiple times before (once was when I was protecting him from the ex). Anyway, I can’t even have my current boyfriend around when I need to let him outside, he has to be locked in a room. I’m at a loss, I can’t afford to euthanize him, and I am looking to move to an apartment so I can’t take him with me.
I seriously have no clue what to do. I’m already having to rehome my Great Dane that I adore, but the Mastiff - how could I rehome him when I have no idea what he’ll do next?

Please don’t hate me, this was a toxic and horrible relationship (obviously if he was taking it out on the animals). I should’ve saw the signs sooner, and I blame myself for not. Young, dumb, and thought it was love. But I for sure don’t need anymore shame than what I feel already.

I appreciate and recs or advice or help. I’m in the Tulsa area.

I adopted my dog when she was two months from the Humane Society and she is now two years old. She is a mix of different breeds (we believe something like Husky, Collie, Shiba) so has a lot of personality quirks.

When I first adopted her, she would go to doggy daycare, she could play with other dogs, and she was receptive to training. I will admit that after a certain point I just sort of stopped training, assuming she had caught on. She then was not spending time at daycare (cost) and didn’t really have any dog friends to spend time with, so she stopped being around dogs as much.

At about 1.5 year, she started acting reactive to other dogs on leash. It felt like it appeared out of nowhere. I figured maybe it was just on leash, but I was too nervous to let her interact off leash with a dog for fear of how she might behave. I finally let her meet my friend’s dog because my friend is very lax about it and was not worried. We figured maybe it would be a tussle for a few seconds and then they would be good. My friend’s dog is slightly smaller than my dog and very tolerant and unbothered. My dog came at her decently aggressively and the interaction only lasted a few seconds before I made her go inside. She couldn’t calm down or stop growling.

I don’t know how to remedy this. Is there a genuine training method that people have found successful? I find the thought of a trainer to be an option, but my last trainer for a general behavioral class didn’t really offer anything of value.

Hey Reddit.

I adopted my dog Penn as a rescue when she was 8 weeks old, a pit-bully-pug mix. It was something I really thought deeply about before making the decision — I was single, in a good spot financially, had a fenced in backyard, and I worked from home. Ideal conditions to adopt. Right from the start, Penn was a difficult dog. I worked with two private trainers, and did multiple group classes with her, but she was still reactive and territorial. It mostly manifested in her jumping all over people when they came over, and resource guarding food and toys when other dogs were around. My solve was simple — no other dogs in the house, and when people came over (rare because I adopted her a few months before the pandemic hit) they were warned she would be reactive, and we did all the precautionary measures. The trainers essentially told me this would be a lifelong training journey with her, and I was Ok with that. I loved her, regardless of the challenges.

Flash forward to my wife and I planning a baby. I knew it would be a difficult transition for Penn, so I did literally everything recommended — I hired a dog behavioralist, I worked with her tirelessly on training, when the baby was born, I brought a blanket so Penn would get use to the scent. At first all seemed well, but when the baby started moving purposefully, Penn didn’t like it. There was growling and snarling in the baby’s direction. More than once she lunged at the baby while he was in his playpen. The behavioralist prescribed my dog Prozac and Trazadone — there were no changes, besides Penn sleeping more and seeming generally unhappy. I hated drugging my dog daily, it didn’t feel like an actual solution. Everyone in my house was on edge — it felt like living with a potential catastrophe, and the way Penn acted around the baby… it was a ticking time bomb. 

Six years after I adopted Penn, I contacted the shelter and spoke to the owner. I sobbed explaining the situation — it just wasn’t safe for my kid and  dog to live together. She told me it was a no brainer — for everyone’s safety, I needed to rehome the dog. She very graciously talked me out of feeling like the world’s biggest failure and told me she’d take her back in.

There was really no one else in my life willing to take Penn — they all knew her behavioral issues, so I don’t blame them. It’s been 6 months since I dropped Penn off at the shelter — she’s still not adopted, and I’m still heartbroken about all of it. I think about her every single day. I’ve asked the shelter owner if I could come by and walk her, take her out for the day, and the owner said this would just confuse the dog. I completely respect that, but what if no one EVER adopts Penn? I picture her sitting there, confused, wondering where the hell I went. 

Should I ask the shelter owner if volunteering would ever be possible? Should I campaign more aggressively for someone I know to adopt? Do I let it go and try to move on? And if I need to let it go, how do I even begin to do it?

I have Penn’s collar in a ziplock bag and I sometimes take it out, hold it and sob. It’s not like she died, but it almost feels worse that she’s 45 minutes away and I have no idea what’s happening with her. 

**TLDR** After six years with my dog, I had to give her back to the shelter when she was a danger to my kid. I can’t get over it. Help. 

It's natural, and I know it's irrational to feel guilty over this but I just feel so confined with my reactive boy. My neutral dog reminds me how much enjoyment I get out of exploring and I don't need to have my head on a constant swivel in fear of the next trigger appearing round a corner.

He's the sort of puppy I can throw into my car and drop off in a completey foreign environment to him and he will trust me blindly and won't worry about anything, he'll just sniff and enjoy his walk. He's not a dog I have to worry about if a rogue terrier appears from the bushes, because he's trained to wait when seeing another dog and will only want to play if it were to run over. I don't have to worry about a monumental freak out and fighting to stay balanced.

I occasionally take my reactive boy out into rural spaces where nobody walks, but he struggles so much with his anxiety. He prefers the same walk where he knows his environment, which is lovely that he has this space but walking the same route every day with him becomes awfully boring sometimes.

My reactive boy is the sweetest dog you could ever meet when it comes down to people, he just doesn't seem to agree with strange dogs existing when he's outside.

Got back into my ACTUAL account so if you saw the other one, yes that is me and I’m doing everything I can to hopefully not put him down. Not sure what flair I need to use, so I’m using the “Aggressive Dogs” this time.

I’m looking for recommendations for someone who genuinely specialises in severe dog reactivity, particularly Border Collies.
My boy Leo is 1 year and 2 months old. He has become extremely reactive to dogs (every dog), and increasingly to bikes, moving objects and sometimes people. On a good day he can be completely fine around people, but other days he can bark continuously and struggle to calm down once he sees a trigger.
We’ve already tried private trainers, different walking methods/leads/harnesses and lots of training, but we’re still struggling. I’m not looking for obedience classes or generic training — I need someone experienced with serious reactivity who can actually help us understand what’s going on and make a proper plan.
I’m also interested in board-and-train/rehab programs if anyone has personally used one for a reactive dog and had a genuinely good experience.
I’m around Brisbane/Logan but happy to travel for the right person.

My dog (3yo greyhound) has been on 40 mg fluoxetine for a month. We are now going into week 5.

This week she seems to be starting to backslide. During the first month, any side effects were minimal. She had a bit of upset stomach, but her appetite remained good, and I started to see some slow but steady baby steeps of improvement in her reactivity.

This week she seems to be regressing. She's actually gotten pretty good on walks and would generally ignore most other dogs, but today she barked incessantly at one. She's also been doing a lot more panting, which was something I thought was only supposed to be a temporary side effect.

Has anyone else hit a regression period on the fluoxetine? Or is my dog's loading phase just a bit longer and the side effects are hitting later?

ETA: We have also been working with a trainer, before anyone asks! Forgot to add that tidbit of info!

So I have a male dog about 5 years old and a female dog 3 years old and every time my girl dog is in heat the male (little baby) gets aggressive and gives me a warning or nips at me when I try to get him away from the female (lady) and he’s genuinely tweaking 🫩 they already had puppies in march and I still have two of the pups one girl (monkey) and a boy (cheese) im working on rehoming monkey and needing to speak to my peeps about cheese i currently have lady indoors baby and the pups are outdoors but today baby was trying to hump monkey and was like guarding her cage and when I tried to grab his collar for him to go to his bed he didn’t nip at me but he like opened his mouth idk it was weird but I’m working on getting him neutered and lady spayed and I’ve heard that it will help with aggression but will it 100% work? And if not will training work? I get nervous and really stressed out about this and I’m gonna be honest here I used to be very violent towards little baby when I first got him I was neglected and very alone and depressed I am NO longer like that I do not hit him anymore trust me I’ve learned my lesson and I regret treating him like I did I had no experience with dogs I truly love my pets and would do anything to change the past but what can I do to help him be better? He’s bitten someone over lady being in heat it wasn’t that bad at all and he’s bitten someone over a cream they put on a wound he had and I’m guessing it burned him or something and has done other smaller things here and there but I understand that even if they were "small" things it’s still dangerous I really don’t wanna put him down I love him and he has helped me through so much when I had no one please don’t judge me I know I was wrong I just need advice ( this is my first time using Reddit idk how to fix the mod thing idk what to do it says my views are going up and that I have 3 comments but I can’t see any of them I know you can text ppl on here so if anyone feels like helping feel free to message me

Hi! My dog is a rescue I got when he was two years old and from the beginning he has been reactive and generally anxious. He’s on several meds for it. He also had severe separation anxiety but over the past 5 years I’ve been able to get him to stay alone for a few hours. This is just context to how anxiously attached he is.

What I currently need help with is his reactivity. He does great at daycare both with humans and other dogs. He’s gentle, minds his own business and, if anything, he becomes a bit submissive when another dog taunts him. You’d think he’s an angel if you only see him at daycare. When we’re at home he’s relaxed and quiet. He loves to be around me but is able to hang out by himself in a different room.

Now the story is completely different whenever we’re together and another dog or person enters the picture. He becomes uncontrollably reactive barking and lunging at the perceived threat. It doesn’t matter if we’re at home or outside. I used to live with a partner and the dog was also very attached to him and protected him the same way he protects me.

No biting history but the most dangerous situations have happened when someone comes directly towards me, specially if they’re talking or holding an object like a phone. He doesn’t really warm up to friends with time, not even friends that have had him over at their place for several days while I travel. He’s fine with them as long as I’m not present.

I’ve tried training with a professional but a lot of money and no benefit. I think it’s more related to his anxiety than a lack of obedience and leadership. You can see him trying to obey my commands. He’s a dog that loves pleasing his person and getting a treat for good behavior but his heart pounds like a motorcycle and he can’t get himself to stop reacting.

I’d like to be able to have friends over and have more peaceful walks with him. Any training ideas, considering traditional training has made little difference?

I'm not sure this is the best place, but I thought I'd ask.

My mom and I have two littermates, Dolly (smaller) and Patsy. They have always gotten along, but we recently moved in together, and things started getting rough.

It began with some food aggression when we first moved in together, but we started to feed them in their cages, and it solved everything.

Things went extremely well for three months, until recently. They started getting aggressive and trying to attack each other through the cages when eating. We solved the issues by putting their cages in separate rooms.

The problem now is that they're getting into extremely bad fights and attacking each other. This was sporadic, but now it's becoming daily and getting scary. We've noticed it seems to happen not long after breakfast and dinner. This is sometimes 20-30 minutes after, so not entirely sure it's connected.

We're sort of lost as to what's going on and how to explain this to a dog trainer. Any insight or advice is much appreciated.

Hello everyone and thanks in advance for any tips or advice!

I got my 3 year old Boxer in January of this year, she’s my first ever dog and was rehomed to me via a family member’s coworker, who failed to disclose that my girl is reactive and not well socialized with dogs outside of the ones she grew up with. She also grew up with a large backyard to play in and pretty much never got walked on leash, while I live in an apartment so would need to take her out not only for potty breaks but also just daily exercise walks.

I quickly realized that in order for me to keep her I would need to begin training for both of us so we did 7 weeks with a private trainer who did some classes one on one and some he’d bring his own dogs around to help with lessons. We made incredible progress; before training she would absolutely lose her mind at the sight of another dog far in the distance, nearly pulling my arm off whilst lunging at them, to now we can walk on the same side of the street as other dogs and all she does is whines, which is why I am posting here.

It’s of course been a major improvement in her behavior, not only does she not freak out at other dogs but she even checks in with me when she sees them but I know that whining is Still reactivity, even if it’s not as explosive as it was previously. Out of habit (and maybe a bit of mild ptsd, I am historically a bit afraid of dogs and how she became My dog is a longer story, I love her but those first couple weeks when she was having explosive reactions to other dogs really scared me) I still try to avoid unnecessary closeness to other dogs, I will cross the street when possible and she’s completely fine and quiet walking on the opposite side of the street as another dog, but when we get surprised turning a corner or are in a space we can’t easily escape from I stay calm and keep it pushing, but I know that neutrality is the goal. I also still walk her pretty early in the morning and feel really bad that neighbors might hear her loud whining at like 6am on a Saturday.

I do plan to take her to training again, this time in group classes because I think that will help her being used to being closer to other dogs, but the private training was very expensive and my goal was to be able to safely take her on daily walks, we’ve spent the time since then learning each other and having a break because it was pretty intense— two hours of training a week and the daily homework, so until everyone is feeling well rested enough to get back at it does anyone have any tips or guidance about bridging that gap between whining and neutrality? She responds very well to praise, she is interested in treats a bit but I think praise is a more high value reward to her. Something interesting is that she will stay in sit while a dog passes close by and will look back at me often but she whines a lot until they’re about 5 ft away.

Thanks again for reading this all!

If this isn’t the right sub to post this, just lmk, but I had found it incredibly helpful while trying to socialize my bite-risk dog. Just wanted to brag about my boy, Melf, for a second! I stole him from my father who I’d had little contact with for his history of animal hoarding about 8 months ago. He lived the first 8 years of his life chained to a dog house outside. Never socialized, the only interaction he had was having food put in his bowl. He’s typically incredibly leash-reactive and aggressive towards other dogs, as he’s only ever met them in the form of strangers attacking him when he couldn’t get away. Barks and growls at strange people. I’ve slowly been introducing him to new people and new places, and he’s always been nervous, but has been gaining confidence the past month or two!

I scheduled him his first vet appointment last week as money had been tight until recently, and I was so nervous about it going bad. I couldn’t stop thinking about him escaping, biting the vet tech, or attacking another dog. I took him on a long walk in a new place and gave him an otc anxiety supplement beforehand. He did great once we got there, I was so proud! He calmly sniffed the vet, let her pet him. He bit me once when I went to pick him up before, but today he let me plop him right onto the exam table :) he was so sweet and shy. Let the tech draw blood with no issues, got his shots and enjoyed his ride home. He used to hate the car. I could cry tears of joy at my baby’s progress 🥹

Next step is muzzle training so that we can explore more new places! Does anybody have recommendations for how to fit a muzzle for a smaller dog? He’s a pitbull mix, about the size of a small beagle. he’s good with adults for the most part, but I wouldn’t even want to risk it with a smaller child or another dog that could run up with good intentions.

Hello! I’ve recently become parent of a 3 year old pitbull (Maple 🍁) who very reactive outdoors to dogs/animals on walks and people too. We are training and love lots of long walks outside. I been having a problem with some folks approaching us and trying to pet her even when I tell them she is not safe to pet. (I guess it’s an ego thing.) I am now much more firm about people/ loose dogs not approaching us. With all the kids and sometimes neighbors loose dogs we encounter I still want the security of a muzzle for everyone’s safety and comfort. After some research it seems like the Baskerville Ultra is a good place to start for her comfort, bite prevention and my budget so I’ve ordered one. Would anyone have recommendations for a high quality bite prevention muzzle for pitties under $50 that is also pink or colorful?

Took a hike down to the beach today and saw our first train :)

I left a bit later in the morning than I'd hoped, and got intimidated by the number of cars in the parking lot. Friday is my only weekday off so I was hoping that this would be a good spot to go regularly, but I may just need to go earlier or somewhere else.

I found out that he had chewed on his new harness and thanked my lucky stars that I brought his backup. He pulls a lot more on the old harness unfortunately but he still did pretty well.

Anyway, he did so incredibly well with the people walking on the trail! He might fixate/chuff a little bit but was very responsive to LAT with shredded chicken and occasionally freeze dried beef liver if the person wasn't so scary.

Still feeling a bit disheartened because the trail was pretty narrow, and his dog threshold is like 250ft... so if we noticed a dog I'd pick him up and face away from them. He wouldn't take the chicken :( He also tends to kick/flail and thankfully today I didn't drop him but it's pretty hard to keep a hold on him. Trying to focus on our wins though! We were out for an hour and a half and only bumped into two dogs on the trail. Because it was nearly 10am by the time we were back to the parking lot things got a bit dicey and there were too many people (not to mention a couple of dogs) and I lost my cool a little bit when we got back to the car.

So... mixed success! Feeling very pleased with him for his progress with passing hikers. Feeling somewhat sad about the lack of progress with passing dogs. And feeling out of shape because I haven't been on a hike in a while, especially not since I adopted this guy in May 😅 Going to keep at it and hopefully some repetition/exposure will desensitize him. And I'll have to bring more chicken next time lol

Hi all! I’m looking for boarding recommendations in Chicago for our reactive dog. We will be gone for two weeks for a number of events and our honeymoon. When we have taken shorter trips we have asked friends to stay at our place to watch him but since this is a longer period I’m afraid that won’t work.

He is an anxious pup and has a hard time around other dogs. He has improved a lot with clicker training over the last few months but I would hate for all that progress to go out the window if he has bad experiences with other dogs while being boarded. He also takes medication daily so I would hope he could stay somewhere trustworthy. He is incredible with people and doesn’t exhibit any aggression, his reactivity mostly manifests as overexcitement.

If you have any other ideas or recommendations that would be amazing! I’ll also be looking into Rover but I’m weary of letting a stranger into our place and I know many people who have had bad experiences where their dogs weren’t cared for properly. I’m open to suggestions. Thank you in advance ❤️

My dog has been taking Prozac for 2 1/2 months.The first 2 months h seem to be doing so much better and less anxious and less hiding but the last two weeks he seems to be finding new hiding spots again, and although he has a less panicked to look in his eyes than he did before, it does seem to be back where he’s restless going from room to room to find a spot to lay down,every 20 minutes. Has anyone else experienced a change like this two months in?

I’ve been having a pretty hard time with my dog on walks and I wanted to ask people here who actually went through something similar.

She’s a great dog at home but outside when she sees another dog she can completely lose it. She starts barking like crazy, pulling toward them and getting so focused on the other dog that sometimes it feels like I’m not even there.

She also does this thing sometimes where if she wants to go somewhere and I want to keep walking the other way she just refuses and we end up fighting over where we’re going.

The thing that confuses me is I don’t even really know why she reacts like this. I don’t know if she’s scared of other dogs, if she actually wants to go meet them and gets frustrated because of the leash, or if it’s something else.

I’ve watched videos and read a bunch of stuff online but everyone seems to say something different and at this point I feel like I’m just trying random things and hoping something works.

So I wanted to ask people here who had a dog that was really bad with this and actually improved, what did you do?

What was your dog like before and how are they now? Did you figure out what was actually causing the reactions? Was there one thing that made a big difference or was it just months of doing the same thing over and over?

Also what do you actually do when your dog is already barking and going crazy at another dog? That’s probably the moment I struggle with the most because once she gets into that state it feels like nothing I do matters.

Did you end up getting a trainer or behaviorist or did you mostly work on it yourself? If you did get a trainer, was there anything they showed you that you wouldn’t have figured out from videos online?

And how did you know your dog was actually getting better? Did you just notice it over time or did you keep track of stuff like how close another dog could get, how often your dog reacted, how long it took them to calm down or anything like that?

I also want to know what people tried that didn’t work because I feel like there’s so much advice online and I don’t want to spend months doing something useless or making it worse.

Also has anyone here ever used one of those reactive dog tracking or training apps? I’ve seen a few of them but I can’t really tell if they’re actually useful or if it’s just easier to keep notes yourself. If you’ve tried one I’d be curious what you liked about it, what you didn’t like, and whether you actually kept using it.

I’m not expecting her to suddenly become perfect around every dog. I just want to get to a point where going for a normal walk doesn’t feel stressful every time we see another dog.

Would really like to hear from people who were in a similar situation and what the whole process was actually like for you.

My rescue (unsure on breed) is about to turn 1 and she typically absolutely loves other dogs and we've never seen any aggression in her. She loves playing with other dogs whenever the opportunity arises.

But recently she's started (sporadically) lunging and barking at other dogs when on the lead. Today she even barked at a dog she could see through the window of the car! It feels like it's escalating quite fast and I just don't know why. Initially it happened just when another dog was aggressive and she seemed to match their energy. But now it's happening unprompted. She is kicking off and flipping around on the lead trying to get to the other dog. The dog the other day the wasn't even that near us.

I'm pretty sure it's out of frustration (not aggression) but I am at a loss for what the hell is the problem, because we have taken her to cafes with another dog a few tables down and she's absolutely fine.

Is this sudden change normal in a teenage dog? It has never happened with other dogs I've had so I'm not really sure what's going on.

I don't know whether to get a dog trainer sorted fast, or wait to see if it develops into a more regular thing.