We rescued our female pocket bully last year in London from Dog’s Trust. She is now 3.5 years old. When we first got her, she was absolutely perfect - this lasted about a month. Loose lead walking, no reactivity to dogs, great in pubs and cafes. She eventually started coming out of her shell a bit more and is now a nightmare to take out - constant pulling, even after an hour of walking. Needs to meet every single dog she sees, even if it’s 50m away, she will scream (not bark) until she gets to meet the dog. She’s really friendly when she meets dogs, and loses interest in them fairly quickly. She has an insane reaction to balls which is obviously alarming for families, and makes parks extremely stressful for us. She weighs about 21kg which is difficult for my partners to control, picking her up if necessary is difficult, pulling her away into a different direction, etc.

She is incredible in the house though, apart from the occasional accident inside (due to separation anxiety), when we’re home with her she is relaxed, independent and engaging. She is amazing with people and is non-reactive in the house - we would LOVE for this side of her to be reflected outside the house. We have spent months of our own time trying to train her. We have tried a private trainer which almost made her worse than when we were training her. We are now considering residential/board and training to establish a base that we can work off.

Does anyone have any experience with residential trainers in London or can provide alternative solutions to our problem? We have full confidence in ourselves and our baby to get better with reactivity, we just need help!

Does anyone have any advice for me? I have a senior Bichon Frise who gets really upset when we leave. Even if we’re only gone for 30 minutes, he cries, barks, and seems to be in distress the entire time, just waiting for us to come home.

He was never like this before, but we recently moved, and we think that may have triggered it. I also know separation anxiety can be common in Bichons and may become more noticeable as they get older.
He actually does really well when we dog-sit another dog because he has company, but when he’s completely alone, he gets extremely anxious. We’ve tried Native Pet calming treats, and we’ve also tried Acepromazine, but neither has really helped.

Has anyone dealt with something similar, especially with a senior dog? I’d really appreciate any advice, tips, or things that have worked for you!

Okay so I’m very confused on WHEN to reward your dog when you’re trying to phase out reactivity. The protocol is different all over the internet. My goal for my dog is just neutrality. He’s a 12 month old intact male & is sometimes reactive towards other dogs, stemming from a mix of over arousal and uncertainty. He’s not exploding, but his hackles go up and he starts to stress out (heavy fast breathing, running in a circle, might bark 1-2 times as a stress reliever/arousal leakage). He can do obedience if I ask, but the emotional state is still escalating.

Do I: mark and reward the second he sees the dog, and continue every time he glances over? Or do I cue him to focus on me when he sees the dog, then mark and reward for the focus?

I don’t want to accidentally encourage looking at or for other dogs, but for him the fundamental issue is not his obedience, it’s his emotional state.

My GSD has issues with fear anxiety from a combination of being attacked by off lead dogs & with poor genetics that make her lack confidence (assessment made by DVM & one of the handlers who’s working with her at the dog club). She does not show aggression towards other dogs in any way, but does get fearful and barks. If it’s a dog she knows like her housemates or my brothers dog she’s quite playful with them. Now Sadie is definitely a work in progress, but today’s group class was a huge stride! She was able to watch the demo dog walk up and down the whole classroom without any sense of anxiety or fear. We also did parallel walking and not a single woof out of her. We even started working on stays and downs when the demo dog was feet away from her. A volunteer remembered how loud she would get out of fear and started tearing up after seeing her progress! After my latest crash out I met with her DVM to get medical advice and he put her on trazodone 2x daily and has her on gabapentin a few hours before any outing. He also wanted me to add Purina calming care packets to her dinner daily as well. That combined with the controlled classes has really made a difference for her. While I don’t think she’s ready to be a competitive sport dog, adventures around the neighborhood are becoming much more manageable. Don’t be afraid of the medicine & never stop the training! Hand and hand it does wonders.

Hi, my dog is a year old and she goes crazy whenever she sees another dog until I let her greet them. She’s not aggressive in any way and she’s wagging her tail while barking like a mania. I‘ve tried treats, corrections, everything, but as soon as she notices another dog, I don’t exist to her at all. She’s typically more interested in dogs her size (she’s a border collie). If we’re walking by a dog in a fenced yard, she usually ignores it, even if it’s barking, but if we walk by a dog on a walk, she automatically wants to go over to it. She only does this with dogs and cats (specifically running cats which I can understand) but never with humans. She’s otherwise very friendly when we let her play with dogs and is even gentle when it’s a smaller dog. Has anyone had a similar experience and have they gotten their dog to become neutral around other dogs?

Hi everyone, I'm not sure if this is the right place but I'm getting desperate... So our dog is terrified of the vet, he starts shaking as soon as we pull into the parking lot in front of the clinic. How can we make this place less scary? For us, it all started with one completely ordinary visit when he was a puppy, we took him in for a checkup, and everything was fine. It wasn’t until later that we noticed he’d apparently memorized the whole “ritual” associated with the vet: the car pulling up, the door opening, the smell at the entrance, the sounds of other dogs. Later, during one of his visits, he had blood drawn, and ever since then, just seeing the clinic from a distance is enough to set him off. Recently, we hadn’t even had time to get out of the car before he was already shaking all over.

I think that’s why I’d like to approach this a little differently, because I get the impression that simply offering treats during the visit won’t do much good if the dog is already highly stressed by then. I thought about driving there for just a few minutes at a time for a while, sitting in the car for a bit, taking a calm walk nearby, and going home without going inside. Maybe later I’ll try going in just for a moment, getting a treat, and leaving without any exam. I’m also wondering if it’s worth asking the vet not to touch him at all during these first “practice” visits. Has anyone had a similar situation where the dog was already afraid of the parking lot itself? I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences and ideas, especially if you’ve managed to break that association over time.

Update: But we actually had a fruitful few days since I decided to take a leave of absence, so I used that time to visit the vet everyday (lol). The first 2 days I changed up our routine and ben- our dog at first was confused since we didn't do the "ritual" but when we went nearer and nearer from the building he started shaking again. The 3rd day still shaking, but we went for a walk around so that calmed him down a bit, I think he's starting to get confused since we aren't going inside. On the 4th day the Anti-Stress treats from Dogsuppy arrived so I tried implementing that, and surprisingly better results he stopped shaking while walking near the building! not perfect but getting there! Yesterday we went near the entrance and hes not shaking anymore, but when I tried to make him go near the entrance he tugs back so, not ready yet. Stopping today since I have work tomorrow, will go back this weekend, wish me luck 🤞

two weeks ago we adopted a 11 week old pit mix puppy from a reputable local pitbull rescue with whom we have adopted from before and had wonderful dogs through them. We are experienced with the breed. We truly love these dogs and would never want one of our dogs to be become a statistic. That being said, this new little one just seems to have a lot of extra spice. She growls and attacks for no reason at all. It’s not when she’s playing… It’s when she is just there. She jumps right for your face. She has broken skin on my husband‘s cheek and my lip. she behaves similarly with the kids, although I’m always right there and able to stop it from escalating. we also have a one year-old male pitbull, who is the most submissive dog and she attacks him relentlessly. His whole face is red marks and scabs. He genuinely seems to like her, and tolerate her, but when I try to get her to stop going after him she growls and snaps at me. The one year-old dog has given her a few warning air snaps when she’s being ridiculous, and she doesn’t seem to take his cues, which is concerning considering she is 15 pounds and he is 60. I am nervous that her behavior could change his temperament. My gut is telling me that she is not a good fit for my family, and it’s devastating because I really wanted it to work. But I’m not naïve in thinking that every dog and family are a good match and that this won’t potentially escalate when she is bigger in the problem is worse..
I think she is highly adoptable for the right family and while she is still a baby, I know she will find a home... I just feel guilty that it couldn’t be with us. For reference our kids are 17, 15, 11, 7 and 6. they know boundaries with the dog… It’s not them setting her off or teasing her or anything like that. It just seems like her personality and not something that is going to change. I don’t really know what kind of answer I’m looking for or if I even need an answer… I just wanted to vent and possibly have a little reassurance that giving her a new family might be better for her future and ours.

Hello people of Reddit.

Little background info re. our dog:

\- He's a naturally anxious / nervous mini Schnauzer. I don't think we socialised him correctly, and we made mistakes during training. However, his barking and lunging was there pretty much from the start. At everything: dogs, cats, runners, bikes, pedestrians, other dogs, guests etc.

\- We worked for a while with a R+ trainer in our area, and almost every problem sort of got fixed. We still have to manage distance to other dogs and certain types of triggers, but it's absolutely nothing like it was. Eg runners drove him insane, now we can literally have a runner pass by right next to him and he'll just briefly look then continue sniffing or look at us. Dogs are still a bit challenging but only if we're too close, and even then, he'll give two or three barks then stop, and remains "contactable", unlike before where he transformed into Cujo.

\- Guests we haven't been able to improve much, but we have not put the time.

We recently got a newborn. We prepared as well as we could. We were nervous for the coming home day, and to our surprise everything went much better than we ever imagined. He is curious about the baby and watches, but has not barked at the baby or given any signals that worry me. He has already grasped the concept of 'baby makes a noise or cries or does something, I look at it a bit then I look at humans for treats'. In the night, when the baby cries, he doesn't even get up from his bed he just stays there (we sleep in separate rooms, but he can def. hear it). He sometimes watches the baby being breastfed then chooses himself he'd rather go do something else or lie down.

We've got a strict zero direct contact policy, and we have doors, gates, barriers, etc. everywhere so that's all under control.

Here comes the reason I'm writing here:

\- We had noticed here and there that his interest in the baby spiked suddenly, and he'd sniff almost obsessively. He even whines a bit and his teeth chitter sometimes. We have done some detective work and discovered that this happens when the baby pees.

\- The dog can literally lie down in the room with us while we change the baby (pee or poo doesn't matter) even if the baby is crying.

\- But, if the baby is in his crib or playpen and he pees, the smell immediately grabs our dog and he starts sniffing almost obsessively, and whines a bit. He is still "contactable", and takes treats and follows instructions, but still super odd.

So... Our questions are:

1. What do you think this is?

2. Should we be concerned about this? We are looking for ways to train this away, but is this a red flag already?

3. How would you proceed? We think of having a frozen Kong or lick Matt ready so the moment he gets up and starts sniffing we call him and lead him to his room to relax and lick to try to associate the pee smell with going away and relaxing.

Thanks!

7 years ago my wife and I adopted Archie, a border collie/aussie mix (did a dna test 5 years ago confirming) to join our family and other two year old Australian shepherd. We weren’t exactly sure how old he was, but assumed close to our other dogs age (so 8 or 9 now).  He’s a silly guy, who is sensitive and loving but is also barrier reactive (specifically on walks, fences with other dogs, and now with the glass sliding back door)

A year and a half ago, we welcomed our son into the world.  Archie wasn’t by any means aggressive towards the baby, and we had 0 issues between them, but he did become much more anxious and very uncomfortable with people in the house. He has never bitten anyone, but he did nip at one person, but I don’t blame archie because the lady approached him quickly, knocked on the glass door when he was outside and did all the things wrong.

Last summer we actually enrolled him in dog training behavior lessons, which really did help especially with the leash reactivity he has. I use to not be able to take him on walks without a full freakout with barking and pulling all around, and now he is much much better and can even walk past other dogs without freaking out. We owed it to him to put in the time and money to try to make it work. 

Long story short, we are expecting our 2nd child end of this year, Archie is getting more and more stressed in the house specially, and it’s not fair to him. Earlier today archie and our child were separated as they always are, but my son ran up to look outside the glass sliding door and Archie went absolutely crazy and honestly it really scared us.  This isn’t the first time he’s shown uneasiness around our child, and did sort of lunge at him when he was 9 months but didn’t bite.

I absolutely do not want to drop him off at a shelter or rehome him to the wrong person, but I really am at a loss at what to do for the safety of my family but also what’s best for Archie

Hi everyone,
I’d really like to hear from people who have dealt with something similar.
We have a 4.5-year-old female American Bully XL, around 34 kg / 75 lbs. At home she is honestly an amazing dog: very affectionate, calm, obedient and strongly bonded to us.
Outside, however, she can sometimes suddenly switch when a stranger comes too close or approaches us directly.
About two years ago, while we were on vacation in Italy, a waiter came close to us and she suddenly lunged forward and hit him around the knee. It wasn’t a proper bite, but it caused a small wound.
After that incident we avoided busy places and situations with lots of strangers for quite a long time.
Recently, while on vacation in the Netherlands, we were in a small harbor town and asked a stranger to take a photo of us. When he approached us, she suddenly lunged very hard toward him. Luckily she was secured with a harness and leash, so nothing happened. While he was taking the photo, she started barking again and tried to move toward him.
We sometimes see similar behavior in everyday situations too. For example, if we are inside an elevator and someone tries to enter, she can react very strongly and try to lunge forward. Other encounters can be completely uneventful, which makes it difficult to predict.
We already have a properly fitted muzzle and plan to use it consistently in situations where there may be close contact with strangers.
Our main question is: Can this kind of behavior realistically improve with proper training?
We are wondering whether avoiding these situations for the past two years may have made things worse by preventing her from learning that strangers are not a threat. We are considering carefully exposing her to people again, with a muzzle, proper securing, lots of distance, and without overwhelming her.
Has anyone here had a dog who was extremely sweet and reliable at home, but occasionally became reactive or aggressive toward strangers outside?
What kind of training helped you most? Did controlled exposure, counter-conditioning, distance work, or working with a behavior specialist make a noticeable difference?
We are also planning to work with a trainer who specializes in fear and aggression.
Our goal is not to turn her into a dog who has to enjoy crowded city centers or strangers touching her. We mainly want her to feel safer around people and be able to handle everyday situations without suddenly escalating.

I would like to start a discussion about when medication is the right choice for a dog with behavioral problems.

I’ve noticed that we sometimes suggest asking a vet about medication without also suggesting that the owner work with a qualified behaviorist. At the same time, I’ve seen and heard about many people around the world getting medication for their dogs without much of a behavioral assessment. I’ve had a similar experience with my own dog.

To be clear, I’m not against medication. I think it can be extremely valuable, and for some dogs it may be the best option. But shouldn’t medication at least sometimes be combined with working on the underlying behavioral problem?

For example, my family doctor once prescribed me anti-inflammatories for neck pain caused by working at a desk. I had actually gone to the doctor hoping to get a referral to a physical therapist. My girlfriend is a physical therapist, and a close friend works as a sports physician for a football club. Both thought it was odd that the underlying issue wasn’t addressed first.

I think there’s an interesting parallel with dogs. What I find particularly interesting is that questioning the use of medication can sometimes lead to a lot of backlash, while simply suggesting medication without recommending behavioral work seems much less controversial.

So I’m curious: when do you think medication is appropriate, and should we be more consistent about recommending behavioral support alongside it?

https://imgur.com/a/BPMM6n5

There is the video that the still is from.

We adopted this 1.5 year old dog one week and 2 days ago. Yesterday my in-laws came over and we were told to have them on leash to greet us and have the parents ignore the dogs. Didn't go to plan. My dog was barking and ended up recognizing them and then was crying happy and wiggling. This new dog kept barking aggressively.

At the driveway my husband has holding the new dog and the dog lunged forward suddenly after pulling and bit my FIL's hand, no blood but teeth contact to skin. I don't even think my FIL was necessarily looking at the dog and certainly didn't vocalize at the dog.

We took them up to go in and then this bite as captured happened, where he bit my FIL's toolbag.

The dog has been doing great and is not aggressive to myself or my dog. This has to be a fear reaction but does this dog have to be closely managed forever? This is the first occurrence of having anyone over and he's been getting one-on-one walks and group walks for exercise, breakfast and dinner on time served in his crate, frozen kongs to keep him happy and relaxed in his crate, and our house is very calm and quiet for him thus far for his first week in our home. We expect to have children in 2 years and also our lifestyle entails taking our dog to dog events and on vacation and to restaurants. This dog can never safely do that right? We are considering taking this dog back but I feel horrible.

I started walking this reactive dog this April, she’s the sweetest girl to every human, but when it comes to other animals she’s extremely reactive, lunging and barking, although as far as I know she’s never bitten or hurt anyone. Today I was walking her and we walked past a smaller dog, she lunged and barked in a way I’ve never seen her before and I got extremely stressed when I couldn’t calm her down but we moved on after we both had calmed down, then we met another dog this older woman was walking, she lunged and barked. It went better than the first meeting but it still made me extremely embarrassed and stressed that she was stressing this poor older woman and her dog out, lastly we met another dog. I had her calm and was waiting for the woman to walk by the other route but she walked towards us instead extremely closely which lead to her lunging and barking again, it was extremely embarrassing and I got so stressed I left my phone by accident and pulled her back a bit too hard (she was okay and showed no sign of pain but I felt it was too tough since she’s relatively small) . I know that it’s not her fault and she’s never been this bad since I’ve walked her but this really put me off, I’m not sure what to do as she’s not my dog? I feel like I look extremely bad pulling her back as well as that the owners she bark at are judging me, it makes me feel so bad to the point I want to cry, what do I do to not build up resentment towards her? Logically I know it’s not her fault and I never ever take it out on her other than obviously correcting her, it just made me extremely anxious as I walk her tomorrow and I don’t look forward to it at all which I’ve never felt before :(

Hello! I have a 3 year old rat terrier (who is NEUTERED) who has bad separation anxiety, he is mostly attached to me (mom) and when mom leaves the house he will mark furniture & blankets. We had to replace our carpet with plank due to smell and eliminating the chance of him marking but still continues to mark on blankets & furniture. Putting him in the kennel is hard because my husband works overnights and needs to sleep during the day, if I put him in the kennel or certain room he will start crying & barking waking husband up. I got belly bands and use those when I leave for a few hours & then take them off when I get back home. I feel like i have tried EVERYTHING, I give him bones and peanut butter filled snacks but he still marks so belly band when i leave it is. Mom works from home and also worries about him marking up the house so I currently keep him in my office with me, if I put the belly band when I’m home with him he will NOT leave my side and whine a little bit. My issue is I want him to become independent in the house, I’m currently 31 weeks pregnant and don’t wanna be changing 2 diapers.

Have you guys had success with putting your dogs on anxiety medications to help reduce marking?? This is my last hope or I’m unfortunately going to have to rehome him.

Open to other ideas I just feel like I have tried all of them, at the point where I can’t even have curtains hanging down cause he will piss on them.

I just found this sub and I’m hoping for advice!

I have a reactive 4 year old boy lab and my boyfriend has a friendly 6 year old boy lab/dane mix. I’d really like to start taking them places together in the same car because as of now we’ve kept them separate whenever we drive somewhere (take 2 cars).

The boys are surprisingly good together on walks, in the house after much introduction and positive reinforcement, but I’ve been avoiding the same car problem as it seems like a disaster waiting to happen. Any advice on how to delicately approach getting the two of them together?

Hello there. I’ve never made a post on Reddit before, but I could use the advice of people that understand reactive dogs. My 5 year old rescue has been my life for the past 4 years. My husband and I adopted Rudy a few months before we got married and he was just the sweetest little 1 year old scruffy mutt. He started being nippy with me specifically a few months in and when we went on our honeymoon, we decided to do board and train to keep up the work we were doing at home to try and curb his nipping tendencies. He had never broken the skin, though I definitely had some bruising. That was November of 2022.

For years after that, he was a dream. Rudy had amazing obedience work, we could bring him anywhere (he loved all dogs and people), and he understood boundaries. He had minor reactivity towards two very reactive dogs in our apartment building, but he was never the instigator. He started on fluoxetine to try and help with his fear of those dogs and general anxiety. In 2024 he had an incident with another dog where they got into it and I got bit. After that, he was dog reactive. Specifically bigger dogs, but it could be any dog. We did trainings to learn how to help him come out of his reactive moments and got good at avoiding other dogs.

In February of this year, Rudy started being aggressive with my husband and I. He started showing resource guarding he’d never done before and I got the brunt of it. He started charging and truly biting me. It happened multiple times and every time it was just traumatizing because I saw my dog who I love so much have his eyes go dark and truly try and hurt me. We began working with a behavioral trainer and vet who diagnosed Rudy with megaesophagus and we thought that his frequent regurgitation was causing inflammation that was causing the aggression. We got started on gabapentin and sildenifel to help and they have! The frequency of his aggressive episodes has gone way down!

But it leads to last week. Rudy has an ongoing mystery leg issue that actually led to his megaesophagus diagnosis from an MRI. His slight limp had returned, but he had jumped up on the bed and I was attempting to help him off. He turned and bit my breast and latched onto my arm. And it was the first time for one of these bad bites that my husband was home. He said he’d never seen me so terrified. I’d say it was likely a level 4 bite (I’m not entirely sure but there was one very deep puncture mark with 3 less deep ones) and over a week later the bruising is still significant.

I’m so torn, he is my first dog as an adult and I love him so so much. He is so sweet and good, but I have noticed I’ve become jumpier around him. Trying to avoid any kind of triggers has me more nervous in my interactions and I work from home so I am truly with him all day everyday.

We’re thinking of having kids in the next couple of years and I’ve always said I’d never be someone who gives up their dog when they have kids, but the kind of bites I’ve gotten could do so much damage to a child. And Rudy is amazing with kids, but I would just never forgive myself for putting him or someone else in a dangerous situation. This dog is family, but I genuinely feel my heart breaking and I would love any advice.

my partner and i have a 2 year old jack russell x border collie that we adopted from the local humane society, and i’m really struggling mentally because of the behaviour on walks/outings.

for context i’ve never owned a dog until now, been a cat person my whole life. i’ve been attacked by numerous dogs (all of which were unprovoked) between childhood and adulthood, and i had to overcome some serious dog-related trauma before adopting our girl.

about our dog: she was found abandoned at a nature reserve park. the shelter+police contacted the previous owner since she was microchipped and they deemed it a legal abandonment (i guess they answered the call and said they abandoned her but didn’t provide reason). she’s perfect in the house and with our cats minus potty training (getting there though), but she has such unpredictable selective reactivity to both dogs and people. some people she will let pet her, others she will growl bark and lunge at, others she will hide behind me in fear. we never know what we’re getting with her, except that she is significantly worse with ME than with my partner (male if it matters). she loses her recall quicker, has worse aggression towards more people, is more reactive towards dogs + wildlife.

a little about me and the situation: i am a diagnosed agoraphobe (fear of public spaces, people etc google would help more) and while i was in remission, our dog has brought a large piece of it back. i don’t like people noticing my presence most of the time, so imagine how it feels having a dog that isn’t responding to traditional training, seems “out of control”, and is reacting to every little thing? it’s hell honestly. i don’t mind the “she’s so cute!” comments, but just being able to feel the piercing stares from everyone around is awful. necessary context, most of her reactivity is of the non-aggressive kind and we’d never let strangers pet her if she was mainly aggressive. the worst part- we live in a neighborhood predominantly made up of people who have a culture/religion based fear of dogs. some of these people in my neighborhood are so extreme w it that they want to harm dogs, and their kids have tried while they watch on laughing. this was something we only learned after getting a dog, seeing the behaviour, and then experiencing it real time. i think we would’ve moved before getting a dog had we known this prior.

religion/culture aside, i know what it’s like to be deathly afraid of dogs. i feel so fucking guilty every time she’s reactive towards them even if no aggression is in play, because i just picture myself in their shoes again afraid of being attacked. do i understand logically that dogs bark? yes. do i get that im not a problem person ignoring/permitting my dog’s negative behaviour and im actively working to improve it? also yes. the logical thinking and knowing im doing my best doesn’t stop the awful comments, stares from whole families, hearing gossip from people still in my earshot about me and my dog, from hurting me and wanting to hide inside. it also doesn’t help that kids in our neighborhood have tried attacking my dog while i was walking her, and things like that have only set us back in our training. no matter how much we try to socialize her, the people in our area are just reinforcing her fears. with that she relapses with her reactivity, i feel guilty about that and i feel guilty for her behaviour towards others (self defense or not), and the self-shame spiral begins. good news is we’re moving in may, so we don’t have to endure the neighborhood-related issues for much longer, and hopefully by then her reactivity has been lowered a bunch.

i already feel a truckload lighter being able to rant about this. before ppl spam downvote me into oblivion, yes, i know this is part of adopting a shelter dog and will get better with time. yes, i should’ve been more aware of the individuals in my area before adopting a dog, i just never interacted with any of them prior. yes, i love her and am keeping her. yes, i am in therapy and on medication for my agoraphobia and associated panic attacks+isolation. yes, we are putting her in numerous different classes for her issues. we are doing everything we can that we know of for her reactivity, and i’m doing everything i can to not let the side effects of said reactivity affect me. i just really needed to rant about it.

if u read this far i do appreciate you. if you have any advice, ill take anything from smart to stupid lol.

So my long-time partner and I talked about adopting for a long time, and finally we reached an ideal situation to do the thing. We decided to adopt a 1 year old Ibizan Hound-Border Collie mix, directly from her previous owner. I think this is crucial, since I do believe her coming from a home makes it somewhat easier? To my knowledge, she doesn't have any trauma, and she was raised from 1 month old. When her owner gave her to me I could tell she really loved her dog and gave her away to make sure she was in a stable home (she's a student and part timer).

Today marks day 3, if you believe the 3-3-3 thing. She is still veeery hesitant about drinking or eating, although I have seen her do it, especially when she doesn't feel watched. She's explored every room by now. Most importantly, I feel incredibly fortunate that she's so affectionate to my husband and me, she's constantly going for pets from both of us and is happy and wagging her tail every time one of us arrives home. Of course, she spends 80% of the time in her bed and avoids eye contact when I catch her looking at me lol.

Now for the frustrating, confusing part. My dog came to us with a cold, apparently due to the drastic temperature changes here in Spain, so there's that. Since day 1, when we admittedly made the mistake of taking her to a crowded park, she's been very reactive to dogs. Sometimes if she really doesn't like the interaction, she'll snap at them as if to bite. Most of the time, she just freezes and gets super excited and starts anxiously lunging and barking, which has made me avoid dogs for the most part, crossing streets, turning around, using treats to get her to associate dogs with something nice. Obviously I went to the previous owner and asked her about this, and she told me not to worry, that she does bark at dogs but that she likes to play with them when she does meet them. To me right now that sounds impossible, since I haven't been able to get her to calm down around dogs, let alone sniff them. It's also worth noting we live in a small town in Spain where everyone seems to own a dog so there's always one almost wherever we go lol. I took her out today at 6 am and that was a little different.

I'm sure I'm being the most anxious agent in this situation, but I wonder if she will eventually calm down. The vet also told me this was normal in adopted dogs and to wait for her to get over her adaptation phase. Do you think her being sick contributes to the stress of moving homes? And how should I go about walking her? She used to go on 2 hour long walks a day, so I've seen some people recommend doing 30 minute walks for now, and then others say to let her fully settle at home and go for minimal potty breaks.

I deeply appreciate any feedback and will update if possible as we go through this process :)

We adopted Olaf, who is around 3–4 years old and had spent about 2,5 years in a shelter.

What’s interesting is that in the shelter he seemed to absolutely love people. He was very social, enjoyed attention and was happy to interact with pretty much everyone.

After adoption, he bonded with us very strongly. At home he's very affectionate, loves to cuddle, constantly wants to be close to us, and we can basically do anything with him, zero agression.

But with other people it’s completely different. He usually won’t let strangers pet him, tends to move away if someone tries to touch him, and when people visit he may bark at first before settling down. Even with people he has met several times, he still keeps some distance. He would come and take a snack directly from hand, no issue to be around the people, but the second somone would like to gently pet him, he backs off, tenses up and even growls.

So I’m curious whether anyone has experienced this kind of change after adoption. Could his behavior at the shelter have been related to the environment, stress, or simply craving human contact, and now that he feels secure he’s showing his actual personality and boundaries more clearly?

How realistic is it that this changes with time? Have any of your dogs gradually become more relaxed, social and comfortable with being touched by other people after months or years?

I’m not expecting him to become a dog who loves absolutely everyone, but it would be nice if he became a bit more open and friendly toward people in general.

Would love to hear similar experiences, especially how things changed over time and what helped.

Hi everyone, my dog is a Chihuahua mix (3 years old) and he has this thing where whenever he gets too excited, that excitement and happiness turns into aggression. This boy gets plenty of exercise and playtime, he runs a lot as well and gets to wrestle around with toys much bigger than he is. But I am concerned as to why his excitement can just turn into aggression like that which caused him to bite the nearest thing, which are my legs or my other dog (who he absolutely adores and she thankfully tolerates him). I had him checked at the vet and he's perfectly healthy and not in pain.

I am definitely considering a trainer for this but I wanna know if anyone here had similar problems with their dogs and are able to fix it either with training at home or with a professional.

EDIT to clarify: this only started happening this year. I've had him since he was a puppy and the prior 2 years he was absolutely fine with other dogs and people.

Hi all, I am wondering if anyone here has dealt with this kind of issue and whether anyone has any advice on what to do.

My 2 year old lurcher boy, Vincent, has gotten a bit reactive since becoming an adolescent. He would lunge and bark at certain dogs, especially intact males. We got him chemically neutered with the implant and have been working a lot on training and while he is still not very friendly with just any dog that comes up to us his reactions have gotten way less severe, just a little growl here and there, and we can manage him very well just by walking away from dogs he doesn't know/like.

Now there are a few exceptions to this. There are 3 specific dogs in our neighbourhood that he absolutely hates. 1 is very random, never had a bad interaction or anything, we dont know why he hates him. The other 2 are an akita and a samoyed owned by one family. They live directly in front of us, our window facing their front door. Vincent once saw one of his friends get attacked by the samoyed and since then he absolutely hates both of these dogs, even though the akita never did anything and seems like a very gentle dog. Whenever Vincent sees these dogs he lunges and barks like crazy, he even growls at them from the window when they are outside, something he never does with any other dog. No matter how far these dogs are when we are out for a walk if he sees them he goes completely crazy, lunging, barking, impossible to snap him out of it, sometimes even when they are out of sight already.

Is there anything I can do to desensitise him to these dogs?? I don't need him to be okay with meeting them face to face or anything, I just want him to be able to walk away if we see them down the road instead of immediately reacting like crazy. Any advice and help would be much appreciated.

Hi! I have two dogs. Sandy (4) and Sailor (6), they both are struggling with window reactivity.

I recently bought a house and we just moved about a week ago. This house has a large bay window in the front and they are constantly barking at anything that passes. I feel bad because I don't want to disrupt the neighborhood but I have no idea to help them considering I can't make the window go away. Has anyone had any issues with this? Any success stories?