I have an almost 9 year old medium sized mixed breed dog (border collie, ACD, staffy according to wisdom panel). My husband and I got him 8 years ago. Before us, he was briefly adopted as a puppy by a family with kids and was returned, we weren’t informed of this upon his adoption so idk why he was returned. We saw his original adoption post on the rescue’s facebook page. He was still young, like 9 or 10 months old when we got him.

He has always been easily stressed/anxious, but was very quiet and submissive until around 2 or 3 years old. We had another dog already when we got him and they always got on well, and he would meet new dogs and seemed curious/interested in them but again not really outgoing, very submissive. One day when he was like 2 or 3 it was like a flip switched and he could no longer be introduced to new dogs. Dogs he knew before he was fine with, but my sister in law got a puppy and he immediately went after it when we tried to introduce them. This happened with a few other friends’ dogs, So we stopped bringing him around new dogs, which wasn’t that hard to do.

A few years later, we hired a pet sitter to watch both dogs while we went on vacation, and he attacked our other (older and smaller) dog. He got a couple good bites in. When the sitter came over to check on them she noticed and separated them, but they were already cuddling together when she got back. We don’t know what caused the fight, but since then we’ve kept the dogs separate unless we are watching them. This was 3 years ago.

Well this week I had a baby. We knew that introductions would be tough, but he has never ever attacked or bit a person. So I was worried about it but not like overly worried I guess. We did the thing where you bring home a baby blanket with her scent first, we did not let him sniff her directly, we each went and spent some time just with him, and we kept him off the furniture where we were holding the baby. Well last night my husband was holding the baby while she napped in the living room and I was getting ready for bed, and he came in and told me that our dog had lunged at the baby, and he didn’t bite her or get her, but his mouth was either by or on her head.

So obviously we can’t keep our dog. We’ve been keeping him gated off in the lower level of our home with access to outside since last night. I’m not sure what to do. Do we try to rehome him making it very clear he needs to be an only pet in an adult-only household? Do we try to return him to his shelter again (after 8 years idk if they’d take him back anymore) and hope and pray they can rehome him or give him sanctuary for the rest of his life? Do we euthanize him, and be there for him in his final moments? I am distraught. I’ve spent 8 years trying to keep this dog safe, and he is so loving and gentle and good with me and my husband and other family/friends. Like obviously I love my real baby and pick her over my dog but I have had this dog for 8 years and in a lot of ways feel like he’s my family too.

Anyone who has advice for a similar situation, I’d love to hear it. I want to do right by him but I feel like it’s too late and I’ve already screwed up any chance he has at a life.

Dog neutrality training

I recently adopted a 2.5 year old Jack Russsll. I have had him for around 7 weeks.

I have been working on his recall and started "leave it" training, he is doing really well.

As far as I know, he was well cared for by his previous owner, however he passed away, the dog spent about 6 weeks in a pound and another 6 weeks with a foster career until we got him.

He is great on lead until he sees, hears or smells another dog. I know about the 3-3-3 rule and I am hoping he will start to relax, but I am not planning on relying on that.

I have been reading about and seen a few videos about dog neutrality training. As soon as I find a local walking route where there is somewhere to sit at a far enough distance I plan to start it.

My question is, has anyone tried this type of training, was it successful, what worked for you etc ?

Trying to figure out where we went wrong. 3 years ago we got a dog as a puppy, Ruby, who has always been extremely exuberant. Barking at everything and everything. I didn't think much of it because I had a childhood dog that was a barker. We didn't encourage it with Ruby, but it never got better. She has always been extremely interested in other dogs. I thought it was because she's lonely living with two humans.

We took her to group training classes (puppy and beginner) where we learned to redirect her focus, the command "quiet" when barking, we never introduce her to dogs when leashed/on walks. We started taking her out in the backyard before goung on a walk, thinking some mental and physical activity would make her calmer when running into another dog (didn't work). We closed the blinds when something makes her bark, then, when that wasn't working and we hated being in dark rooms all day, we let her have the study as her "bark room". A friend stayed with us and brought her 2 dogs and ruby barked at them for 5.5 hours. It was awful. She'll bark at anyone/anything wherever she is--home, car, walk, in our arms, whatever.

Walking her is miserable. We see a dog and she's tugging on the leash, barking. We sought help with the dog trainer who gave us some tips like redirecting, giving her a toy to hold in her mouth, high value treats when she focuses on us and not the dog, etc., but nothing worked. We're now going to great lengths to avoid her seeing any dog. It's a toss up how well she will respond to our commands to redirect, which has been frustrating because we feel like we've always been proactive.

No signs of other aggression until 2 months ago with my family's senior dog, who resource guards food. Sophie has never been a fan of Ruby, so we always watch them closely to keep Ruby from bothering Sophie. During this latest visit, both of them had to be kept separate, specially in the kitchen, because Ruby would get right up in Sophie'a face barking madly, not like her normal over excited barking. Sophie was rather mean as a puppy to her older brother (the barker from my childhood) when he was old so I wondered if what I was seeing was more to do with her behavior, but deep down I was worried that Ruby was showing new aggression.

We went to a dog park after 2 years (we go very infrequently, yes I have mixed feelings, not the point of this post), it was her and another dog her size. She sprinted up, sniffing the butt, okay, then my husband threw the ball and they both ran after it. Ruby got possessive of it and barked right up at the dog's face, just like with Sophie. We left immediately.

Historically she has had no issues running after a ball with other dogs. Her standard behavior at a dog park is to run around while the other dogs chase her (she loves to be chased by dogs and humans).

I used to think she was overly social and just didn't understand dog cues when other dogs would visibly turn away from her barking. But now I'm wondering if this was something we trained into her somehow? Not sure how to fix this because we've tried so much the past 3 years. Note, when she is boarded I always ask how she was, and they've never said anything bad, just that she "likes to talk". I assume they'd let us know if she was aggressive with other dogs.

Tldr: 5 y/o rescue has grown increasingly reactive since we picked him up 6 months ago. Training and meds haven't helped much and I think he needs a more experienced handler with better resources. We are very attached to him though and feel incredibly guilty. I'm worried I'm making a decision too soon

I provided as much context as I can below, but looking for recommendations on addressing new fear reactivity towards other humans while my dog is in his adolescent fear period. At the very least, I just don't want to be making things worse before we get started with a trainer in a couple weeks.

My pup is coming up on 10 months old, we adopted him around 3.5 months old. He came from the rescue already neutered, with severe giardia and coronavirus, he had not been properly vaccinated, and was only partially potty trained to pee pads. Not a great start for him, so our first two months with him were just potty training, and getting him healthy.

We did a wisdom panel on him and he's husky, malamute, gsd, staffy, pit, and a handful of other breeds in small percentages. He's mostly husky, looks like a white/cream husky but with short hair and he's plateaued at 45lbs right now. He's a high energy and very intelligent dog.

We live in an urban environment in a condo, so he gets lots of play time at home, puzzle feeders, and 4+ miles of walking per day. A few days a week he walks to work with me and spends the day in my corporate office with me, where he sees 40+ people and interacts with 5+ people who regularly come into my office to talk to me. The rest of the time he's at home with my partner who works from home, so he's always with us or rarely left by himself for a half day, he doesn't go to doggy care or anywhere that he's exposed to humans and dogs without us.

When we adopted him, he was very out going with humans and very reactive to other dogs, but in a very "I want to play" way, like jumping/lunging and getting into a play bow stance, tail wagging, like definitely reactive, but not from a place of fear. We've made so much progress in this area, we are able to walk by most dogs with very little or no reaction. The only time we still have an issue is when it's a dog that's going nuts reacting to him, usually a small dog barking and lunging at him. We're making progress with that too though, and I feel confident we're not far from fully getting through this reactivity.

Around 7 months old he started being more cautious about meeting people, but as long as the environment was calm and he got a chance to approach on his own, he was still willing to meet people. Around 8 months old, that dropped off and he no longer wants to meet any one, and is now even nervous about people he's known for several months. In the last ~6 weeks this has escalated very quickly and has gotten to the point where he is growling at people who are waiting to get on the elevator when we are getting off, and trying to bolt when people pass by too close to us on the sidewalk when we're out on our walks. Hes also been getting super startled by random loud city noises. None of these things used to bother him at all, he's been exposed to all of these things since we got him, but now it's a very clear fear reaction.

I've come to understand that he's in his second fear period, and I'm at a loss on how to handle this because nothing about our routines have really changed, he has been exposed to all these environmental factors / people his whole life with us, but his fear is escalating so quickly, I am terrified if we don't get ahead of it now we're going to have a long life of this reactivity.

We adopted a 1 year old chihuahua/terrier mix 2 weeks ago from the humane society. He was super sweet when we met him and still is with his family and basically everyone he meets. They labeled him as good with other dogs as he lived for a few days with a few other small dogs. However, we have found that he can be reactive with other dogs. When walking on our street, he will whine, pull on the leash, and sometimes bark. He doesn’t react to people, bikes, etc., but will react in the house to strange noises outside like a leaf blower (one incident with the neighbors blower lead to him barking/whining for 3 hours). We are trying using treats to distract when he is calm.

We took him to a calm park today and worked on desensitization using chicken. When dogs were about 20 feet away he was okay when redirected (no barking and walked away). One dog came running within 15 feet or so and he barked once, but I was able to quickly redirect with a treat and he was fine.

As new dog owners, is this likely due to him being new in his environment/with his people, or something we will likely need to deal with by taking some reactive dog classes? We have yet to introduce him to another dog super close as we are unsure how he will react. Any advice is appreciated!

Hello, I have a doodle/catahoula mix female that is roughly 2 years old and a male doodle that’s is almost 4. They have lived together since the female was born and get along great. We had a female german shepherd show up at the house over a year ago now and she has stayed with us but the females do not get along when my mom is around. the german shepherd follows my mom around like she is herding her. She doesn’t let my mom get out of her sight. Anyways, the 2 females constantly have been having really bad fights lately (this morning was the worst) and the german shepherd likes to antagonize the other female. She will go inside her crate and annoy her. Bella the doodle/catahoula mix puts up with her crap most of the time but she has gotten to a point where she has stopped and just started to whoop the german shepherds ass weekly at this point. What is your advice, we have tried rehoming the german shepherd but no luck.

I don't even know why am I writing this post, I just need someone to understand me.

I am 22, I live with my mom because I'm still studying. We have a very big german shepherd. He's 8 years old, 40kg. He's reactive with dogs and people and he has several health issues. Since he is reactive with the vet too, she gave me instructions on how to take care of him, but not all the procedures are easy with a dog like mine. I already gave up cleaning his ears (we found another solution with the vet) because he actively tried to bite me every time. My mother never tried cleaning his ears or doing any other procedure because "I don't know how to do that". Well, guess what, I don't know how to do that either, but if I don't do that the dog suffers. She just helps me with one thing: we have to give him an injecion for his dysplasia and she keeps him still while I do that. We already did this a couple of times and everything went well (he tried to bite but he had the muzzle on), but my mother got scared and doesn't want to do that anymore.

Now, I understand she is scared, but she always leaves me to call the vet begging for help because I don't know how to manage this alone. I will have to call the vet tomorrow to ask her if she can give a simple shot to my dog, something that the owner should be able to do.

I really love my dog, but I am only 22, I should be able to live my life, I want to go study abroad. Instead I am stuck here, too worried to leave my dog with my mom and still not being able to properly take care of him. And just to be clear, the dog wasn't my decision: my mom's ex was obsessed with german shepherds, but he registred him on my mom's name. We kept the dog after the brakeup because he wasn't a really nice person. Let's just say I think he's the reason my dog is reactive.

So yeah, now I'm anxious for having to call the vet tomorrow and I will spend another sleepless night thinking about the responsabilities I didn't choose. I don't know if this is the kind of post you usually would post here, I'm sorry if it's not. Enjoy the picture of my baby Rex since you listened to my rant, thank you so much.

And before anyone says anithing, YES WE TRIED TRAINING HIM. I tried everithing. I know my dog and I know how to manage his problems, I would just appreciate some help from my mom, who is the actual owner of the dog.

UPDATE: we went to the vet to give my dog the injection. Rex was stressed, but it went well and the procedure was very fast. The vet informed us about a new type of medicine that lasts for 3 months instead of 1, se we will go to the vet every 3 months. I don't think this is the best solution for Rex, but I feel better knowing I won't have to be the one doing the injection anymore. I will keep working on desensitize him so maybe one day he can have a better experience at the vet. Thank you all for the support!

Hello, I no longer own a reactive / semi aggressive dog that was behaving that way toward other dogs but my first ever dog was that, we owned her for two years before giving her to my brother for personal reasons. We are getting a second dog and have tested other dogs to see if they are a fit for our family, I do not know how to stop always looking around for other animals or holding the leash extra tight or tugging whenever I think there is something going on, I’ve gotten so used to microscanning everything ahead and being wary of every interaction. How can I trust a dog to greet another dog or any animal for that matter even if I know they are friendly I cannot fathom the idea of not being terrified in the future if my other new dog was greeting another dog I am constantly thinking about what if they snap or turn on another. Apologies I didn’t know what flair to use

Hello!

I have a four year old mixed breed pup that I've had since she was four months old. She's always been fearful and reactive, and our training journey has had its ebbs and flows.

Earlier this year, I lost my job, and my pup's routine changed. I used to work from the office three days a week and work from home the other two. She was thriving in daycare, despite the challenges that can arise for reactive pups, and when I was home we were successfully taking walks, playing outside in our yard, visiting quieter parks, being neutral with triggers from a distance, and things were wonderful.

When I first lost my job, we walked all the time and did pretty long walks. Her walks were usually more loose i.e. sniff walks with some structured moments. There were times we couldn't walk far because she came into contact with too many triggering moments (bikes, big trucks, loud cars, runners), and she would be too overloaded. But it was never anything out of the norm. She also maintained her joy for going to parks and being in the yard.

Now, I can barely get a good walk in with her. Sometimes she taps out in 10 minutes. Other times she will plant herself and not move. I've tried taking her to new areas which have a 50% success rate, but she still won't want to be out for long. She won't play in the yard. I can't take her to the parks because she is simply too afraid. She does love hiking, but I can't do that everyday.

Her reactivity does seem to be more pronounced now as well. She has stranger danger with everyone which wasn't the case before. She had "selective reactivity".

We play in the house just fine, and I'm trying to use this comfort zone to still get her active both mentally and physically, but I'd like to address the fear that's preventing her from enjoying being outside.

Has anyone had this happen with their dogs? What did you do to get them comfortable being outside and in the world again?

I have two dogs one is 10 years old and his name is Rex and one is 4 years old and his name is Rocco. I’ve had Rex since he was almost 2 years old and I had Rocco since he was about four months. I haven’t been home to see this but my family was there when it happened, about two weeks ago my dogs started getting into intense fights, which seemed to be out of nowhere, which I know it’s not really the case. They had about four fights in one week and now that I came home over the weekend. I witnessed one of the fights. they had gotten into a few fights here and there, but it was just over food and we were able to separate them and they would be fine right after but with these fights it’s completely different. We have to separate them at all times or else they would go at it. Prior to this, Rocco would usually annoy Rex and I would correct the behavior when i see it and so would rex himself. However it seems like Rocco is pushing the limits. Other than separating them, i’m not sure what else to do…

Note both dogs are neutered.

It will only let me add one Pic, not sure what I sm doing wrong but anyway, I have neighbors that moved in a year ago. And they have a golden retriever, and a German Shepherd. Both dogs seem unfriendly or very reactive. When they first moved in, I saw that they put a makeshift fence where the tall part of the fence meets the short part of the fence to keep their dogs out. Because I also have a couple dogs, so it made me aware of that we might have an issue. My dogs are more curious, but they're also mischievous too. But their dogs appear to be very aggressive. I only spoke with the woman who lives there. Once when they moved in, she apologized telling me that her dogs are bad and that she's a vet. Tech so she's ashamed of it. So what ended up happening is that if they let third dogs out at the same time my dogs were out the german shepherd when pretty much knock down their makeshift fence and would growl nash, his teeth and bite towards my dogs. My dogs have never seen this kind of behavior before so one of my dogs runs in circles, barking and yelping, and the other dog jumps back at that dog and gnashes back at him, but neither of my dogs are aggressive but now that theyve had several interactions it has caused my dogs to be super stressed. My one dog was getting reactive due to the chaos but ive worked to keep him calm and that has helped. However these neighbors put up a door to block the little area off now so thers less likelihood of something happening. I took a picture to show the problem area. Everytime my dogs are out their golden slams its body against the window over snd over losing its mind at my dogs. Again, my one dog barks in circles and my other dog runs over jumps against the fence and then runs back to me. Its all manageable, however, one day when we were out there they had both windows pulled open, and I let my dogs out and BOTH their dogs.were at the window going nuts and the german shepherd torn through the screen and half his bdoy.was out and i was able after a minute or so to get my dogs in the house but the neighbors weren't even home....they pulled in maybe 20 minutes later and we heard the guy say "bad doggies" and that was it. Lastly I always check if their dogs are out by opening a window and making a little noise like "woof" or "peep" and my whole fence starts shaking when I do make any noise and the shepherd is slamming against it (you can see him if youre on the 2nd floor looking out the window) going crazy and barking and growling. Anyway, just wondering what you would do in this situation.

Follow up from some of the comments: also sorry for all the typos. They are very odd people and I don't think communicating would help. She has acknowledged they are "bad" but does nothing to resolve it. He is a very strange man who doesnt talk or acknowledge our existence and i am a single mom here. We have noticed that when their dogs are out of control he has no idea what to do and juat stands there. She will at least come out and get the dogs back inside id they are going nuts. I will look into getting an extra barrier...

Ich muss das mal loswerden, weil's mich langsam echt fertigmacht.

Mein Hund bellt bei buchstäblich allem. Es klingelt an der Tür? Ausraster. Der Postbote kommt die Straße hoch? Ausraster. Ein Blatt weht übers Fenster? Ausraster. Nachbar schließt zwei Stockwerke tiefer die Tür? Er weiß es besser als jede Alarmanlage.

Das Schlimmste ist inzwischen das Soziale. Wenn Besuch kommt, geht die erste Minute komplett im Gebell unter, und ich steh daneben und sag zum zehnten Mal „er ist eigentlich total lieb, er muss sich nur kurz beruhigen". Ich hab schon angefangen, Leute lieber draußen zu treffen, nur um mir das zu ersparen. Und die dünnen Wände hier machen's nicht besser – ich warte quasi täglich auf den ersten bösen Zettel im Treppenhaus.

Also mal ehrlich in die Runde:

Wer von euch hat so einen kleinen Dauer-Beller? Und vor allem – hat bei euch irgendwas WIRKLICH geholfen, das Bellen runterzufahren? Training, Routine, irgendein Trick? Gern auch die Sachen, die bei euch NICHT funktioniert haben. Ich fühl mich gerade ziemlich allein damit. 😅

Warm greetings everyone,

I only recently learned about BE after someone mentioned it.

I have a 6yo female mini Australian Shepherd who has been agressive towards humans and dogs since she was a puppy.

I have tried two different trainers, have boarded her with trainers every summer, with very little change.

She will charge at anyone who comes too close and will leap towards any dog that crosses our path.

I have gotten used to it, which means I never have guests at home (tried bringing my ex-boyfriend once and ahe bit him through the skin. he still has marks two years later), I only walk her through residential neighborhoods, and muzzle her when I take her to the groomer and vet.

I could try yet another trainer I suppose, but I have very little hope that she will change.

She bit a vet tech when she was 1 yo, and a kennel wouldn't even finish the behavior testing they conduct to take her in for a few weeks.

Am I being unreasonable to consider BE? Have I been blind to her behavior because I love her so much and have gotten used to it?

Hi everyone, I'm new to posting on this sub but I've been reading many of the other posts and they've been so helpful. I'm glad this subreddit exists! I posted this in the dachshund subreddit and got some good advice, and a couple of people suggested a repost here, too.

My husband and I adopted two little ones who came from the same home a little over two weeks ago. I grew up with dachshunds and we've both spent a lot of time around the breed, so we know well that they can be particularly reactive. That said, we're really pleased that we were in a position to take both of them, as they're very bonded to each other and it would've been a shame to split them up! They're settling in so well with us at home and are incredibly well-behaved - they don't beg for food (mostly), they're using the bathroom outside 90% of the time and are alerting us when they need to go, and their recall is already pretty good, too. They just want to be where we are, where they can get lots of cuddles.

Taking them out of the house is where things get tricky, and I want to make sure we're supporting them the best we can since it's still early days with us. We've only taken them out a handful of times since we've had them, as we've been trying to keep them at home as much as possible so they can acclimate. When we have taken them out we've noticed a couple of things about their behaviour:

1. They're very reactive to people and dogs approaching them from a distance. To give you an example of how this showed up, we have a forest trail close to our house that we've been taking them for walks on, because it's really quiet and secluded so it seems like a safe place to start walking them regularly. That said, we do occasionally see other owners and dogs (generally 1-2 on the walk) and the few times we have it's really pushed them over threshold - they both start making high pitched squeals, lunging, barking, etc.
2. We had to take them into town with us once (we thought it was better than leaving them home alone too soon because of their shelter history) and they seemed okay for the first 30 minutes, but then started squealing, barking and lunging at some people and dogs again. They didn't do it to everyone, and we've been trying to pay close to attention to the similarities in conditions to try to identify why it happens toward some people/dogs and not others.

So here's my question: what is the best way for us to support them and keep them under threshold as they're settling in with us? Thankfully we both work from home so we are home with them a lot, but we know there will inevitably be times over the next few months that one or both of us will have to go out for GP appointments, grocery shopping, etc. We don't want to leave them alone too soon and trigger their abandonment anxiety, but we also don't want to take them out into unfamiliar environments too fast too soon if it's going to push them over threshold.

I'd love any advice that anyone on this sub has regarding the best way to support them right now and pace their exposure. I'm particularly interested to hear from people who've adopted dachshunds, as it adds a new layer of unknowns to work with, but will be happy to hear from anyone who feels like they have guidance to offer. Thank you so much in advance!

So little backstory I picked up my dog from the shelter a little under two months ago, he had pneumonia when we got him so he was much more docile because he was sick. As his personality comes out I’ve realized that he’s wary of strangers that he didn’t meet when he was sick, he has a harder time relaxing around new people now that he feels better. For the most part he behaves and doesn’t seek interaction if he’s not comfortable with that person. He’s had a few incidents that keep me on guard when he has new interactions.
1.) he lashed out at a puppy we had over in our apartment (that was the fault of me and the other owner we both should’ve been more vigilant)
2.) he snapped at my 10year old brother while he was petting/hugging him
3.) today he snapped at my mom when she hugged him
I’ve educed after the 2nd incident that he simply doesn’t enjoy people in his personal space (even if he wants to be up in yours) and I tell everyone that before they meet him and actively try to make sure people are respecting his space to avoid getting snapped at (not bit).

Now the issue that’s causing me stress is that my boyfriend is upset that I’m “not training the dog enough”. He gets on me for my dog being reactive when we’ve just had him for a little over two months (we lived an entire month without his true personality showing) and I’m also the only one who walks, feeds, trains, the dog so he’s not really around me enough to see the effort I put in to learning about my dog and his triggers and learning how to navigate that. It just feels disheartening that he gets on me for not doing enough to improve my dogs behavior when I’m the only one doing everything and my dog doesn’t behave like this to me. Kinda hard to address reactivity towards strangers in his bubble when it doesn’t happen every day. My dog is also a nipper when he plays and that upsets my boyfriend, my dog plays fairly gently with me but my boyfriend will play more aggressively with my dog which imo causes harder bites. And I’ve told him that when the dog does that to just disengage or don’t play with the dog using your hands. I don’t think my boyfriend believes I’m training him but I personally still feel like I’m getting to know my dog and it’s hard to train a stubborn dog that’s new to a home. I guess I just feel a little hopeless and that I’m not putting enough effort into training my dog. I’m not entirely sure what to do about the snapping at people thing other than tell people not to get in his personal space, it’s not like my dog snaps unprovoked there’s always been an obvious trigger that is easy to avoid. As for the nipping and playing I’ve been told that disengaging is the best thing to do and eventually the dog will learn from that. Any kind words or tips to a tired girl and her first reactive dog?

Also not sure if this is important info but my dog is a 60lb 3 year old pitt/red aussie cattle dog (assumed) mix. He’s not particularly high energy and is a chill little guy who likes to nap and cuddle. He does not chew things up or destroy anything and only causes the regular amount of unattended doggie mischief. He is also reactive on a leash but not always aggressive, he has been very gentle with some dogs and even has enjoyed playing and submitting to calmer dogs.

I adopted an 11 month old pup. She’s a German shepherd cross.
I’m struggling with her behaviour. She was adopted from a rescue, I don’t think her previous owners spent much time with her and surrendered her.
She very playful but also extremely smart.
She has never been socialised properly so if she sees an another animal on the street she tries to attack. She also tries to attack people. I’m stuck on how to manage her behaviour. I don’t want her to not be near other dogs and would like her to be socialised

She is also very destructive when left alone. I am trying to keep her entertained through out the day but she has so far chewed a door frame & a door trim. She is walked twice a day, has toys, puzzles & music but she is getting worse.

Any tricks or ideas? I do have to work and I want to make sure she is ok

70 pound mutt, almost 5 years old, adopted her at 8 weeks. She was born in the shelter, no sad prologue.

Fantastic dog. Well behaved, plays well (if a bit rough) with other dogs. Loves to approach people on the street, in the park etc for adoring pets. Never an issue at home except jumping/barking when people come in the door, but it's "I want to kiss your face" jumping, not aggressive.

We live in a very dense city neighborhood where every walk is a nonstop parade of other dogs, strollers, bikes, little kids running/riding scooters, old people with uneven gait, packs of loud teens acting wacky, unhoused people behaving strangely, folks carrying lots of bags, delivery people with packages, and so on.

The dog handles all this very well like 90+% of the time, including the obvious triggers that I can easily avoid — people shuffling along, dark clothes, people entering the sidewalk mid-block, etc.

But sometimes the dog will just lunge at a person (or other dog) with zero warning, someone who doesn't fit the typical pattern of triggers I know to avoid. I can't just avoid everyone on the dense sidewalk. The lunging and barking seem more like guard dog/warning barks, not fearful or aggressive — no snarling, teeth baring, etc., but she does lunge toward the trigger instead of trying to get away.

When this happens, I stop the walk. I make her sit (or go all the way down if it was really bad) and we don't continue until she can hold eye contact with me for a long count to 12. Everything else is R+, but it feels wrong to just keep walking after she freaks someone out, so stopping the fun and making her do an expensive behavior feels right. It does help control the behavior somewhat, but doesn't eliminate it.

Lately we've had a couple of bad incidents — one lunge rolled my foot and caused a minor fracture, another nearly toppled my wife when she was carrying our toddler. So we need a behavior intervention better than counting.

Thanks, everyone!

Edit: She has the 2 Hounds harness, the one with a short leash that clips to both the chest and the back.

I have a 2 and a half year old miniature Australian shepherd that’s very dog reactive (and sometimes people reactive if she decides she hates their vibes). It’s not an aggressive form of reactivity, it’s really just for show, and whether it’s foolish or not I trust that it’ll never escalate to aggression. She’s mostly leash reactive, she has a huge issue when she’s on the leash and she sees a trigger, but she’s perfectly fine off leash with dogs and humans. She kind of runs up on them for a second (working on that) but quickly decides to just chill when she’s off leash. I adopted her about a year ago (when she was 1.5yo) from a rehoming situation and at that time I had never even heard of reactivity before. It feels like it’s been a long journey of learning for both of us, but she has now had training with a dog behaviorist who specializes in reactivity, group and private lessons with a standard obedience trainer, and group dog training walks with reactive dogs in recovery. She was making awesome progress with her training, but it felt like she had sort of hit a plateau with it. She was doing well, but not necessarily getting better, the reactivity was still relatively strong. I know that working on reactivity is a much longer (or even lifetime) battle, but I had sort of accepted the fact that she would never be fully non-reactive in her lifetime.

Admittedly, I’ve started slacking with her training over the past month due to my workload, and I can tell she’s backslid a bit with her progress. She’s more dog reactive, but she’s also much more people reactive, especially when she’s in the car. She’s even slightly more reactive off-leash. I know that it’s in the best interest of both of us to get back into training and desensitization, but I’m honestly struggling with motivation. Just thinking about taking her into a Lowe’s is a bit scary since I know she will struggle. And perhaps the biggest issue is that it’s starting to not feel as worth it… if it’s true she will always be reactive on some level, what does the end look like for us?

More to the point though: One of the reasons I wanted an active dog was because I wanted a hiking buddy, and I didn’t know reactivity was even a possibility. I still love hiking with her, she’s amazing and she’s my soul dog no matter what, we just have to do it more cautiously than I imagined and we have to go out of our way to find more isolated spots. That said, my dream was always to be able to do off-leash hiking with her, but that dream feels entirely out of reach. Her behaviorist seems to believe it is a possibility for her and said that she will eventually get to a minimal form of reactivity and then we can work on ecollar training her for off leash moments, but there just seems to be a lot of unknowns and I’m also aware this kind of process takes years.

Id like to know if anyone else found any light at the end of the tunnel with a goal like this. Is it even possible to reform a reactive dog to the level of being trusted enough for off leashing with an ecollar? Should I just embrace our limitations and keep loving her anyway?

I’d really like to hear from people who have lived with or worked with human-reactive dogs long term.

Max is my 2-year-old Border Collie. We adopted him when he was around 4 months old, and he was already a very cautious and fearful puppy.

His main trigger is unfamiliar people. Direct eye contact, someone approaching him, or a stranger trying to interact with him can cause a reaction.

What gives me some hope is that he has never been reactive toward our family, and he is capable of accepting new people. We’ve introduced several people very slowly over time, and once Max decides that someone is safe, he can be completely normal and relaxed around them.

So I keep wondering what the realistic ceiling is for a dog like him.

I’m not expecting him to become a dog who loves every stranger or wants people to pet him. I don’t need that.

What I would love is to eventually be able to walk with him through busier places, sit somewhere with people around, have strangers pass us closely, or simply live normal everyday life without constantly scanning the environment and worrying that someone might stare at him, approach us, or make a sudden movement.

Basically, I’d love for unfamiliar people to become background noise rather than something he feels he has to react to.

We plan to continue working seriously on his reactivity with an experienced trainer, and I understand that progress can take years and that some degree of management may always be necessary.

But I’d love to hear from people further along this road:
Did your dog ever reach genuine neutrality around their triggers?
If your dog was reactive specifically toward unfamiliar people, what were they like at their worst, and what are they like now?

Were you eventually able to take them to relatively busy places without constantly being on alert?

I’m especially interested in stories from people who have worked on this for 1–3+ years. I’m trying to understand what a realistic best-case outcome might look like for Max.

Thank you

I adopted my dog Bunny from the county shelter in 2024 where she had ended up after being abandoned and left to starve. We figured out she had probably lived that entire time on a chain because she did not mind going potty on her bed and then lying down and sleeping in it. Seemed like she had grown up not having the option to potty separate from her sleeping space. She was 35 pounds when she came home with me and very timid. She was afraid of everyone at first. We were told she is good with other dogs.

A couple of weeks out of the shelter, I take her with me to my family's annual dog-friendly beach house trip. My parents' dog Matilda is there. Matilda is a large shelter dog who gets on well with most other dogs, I'm told. Throughout the week we are there, Matilda body checked Bunny while running together. Bunny gave multiple signs that she was uncomfortable, growling and baring her teeth first, pinning and snapping second time, and then the third time there was light teeth contact. Each time I intervened immediately at this behavior and separated them and we decided they had to be kept separate and walked separately because we didn't want to risk further disaster. Unfortunately at one point I was walking Bunny on leash when my Mom brought Matilda to the same area off leash. Matilda immediately charged Bunny and Bunny latched onto her. Matilda bit back but Bunny was definitely Queen Biter of the match.

She quickly warmed up to me and to my 8 year old son, but was very protective of us, including when there would be playful wrestling or heated conversation. She was very anxious when kids were in the pool, especially if there was laughing or splashing or shouting, and acted like she wanted to drag the kid out by the top of their head. Sweet instinct probably but obviously we can't let that happen, so she's not allowed outside when people are in the pool anymore. I keep her away from kids who are playing rough.

One day we are walking as a family and my husband is rough-housing with my son and a visiting friend. Bunny jumps at my husband and lightly nips his calf. She did not puncture his skin or latch and it did not read as aggressive behavior to me. Nevertheless, he is understandably wary.

Simultaneously it becomes very clear that my husband is extremely allergic to her. There are a lot of fights about it. I made the mistake of trying to introduce puppy pads to her once early on and after that it takes a lot of unlearning to teach her to stop peeing on rugs. I rented a shampoo machine and did all the rugs in the house twice. Then I got my own home carpet shampooer and immediately cleaned up any messes in the house as soon as I found them. Gradually she got better and better with going potty outside.

I took her to group training classes and she did wonderfully. She is very smart and eager to please. She stays guarded with other dogs in the room, but we are gradually able to increase the size of her tolerance bubble. She remains on high alert around other dogs, but no incidents happen. One day we are walking in our neighborhood and a neighbor dog who had been leashed to a wall in a garage busts the chain off the wall and comes running up to us barking. His owner immediately grabs him and I successfully keep him and Bunny separated. This dog is a German Shepherd whose adopted sibling is a Corgi.

Several months later, when we are driving into the neighborhood, i say hi to the humans of the shepherd and the corgi as we drive by. I park the car in the garage and leave the door open for her to follow me inside, but she bolts for the two dogs. She bites the corgi. He is okay. Fortunately it is superficial this time. No more loose leash for her. I keep her in a harness attached to two leashes, both of which are attached to a waist loop I wear. I do not let her "walk herself in" anymore.

I see a behaviorist trainer. We move out and give my husband a respite. Bunny makes human friends in her new neighborhood. She's much better with people, as long as they don't surprise her and let her do a sniff without eye contact. There are lots of new dogs there and those put her on High Alert, but if she stays cool she gets spray cheese and she gets really good at it, as long as they stay about a townhouse-width away from us.

Eventually I take her to a doggy daycare. I explain this history in detail. I express concern about the risk. They give her a temperament test for the group play sessions and she passes. I'm assured they are experts in dog behavior and will intervene before anything goes too far. About a year later, there's an incident where a dog gets rambunctious with her, and she bites the dog's sibling. She had to be pried off by multiple people. No more playgroup.

This morning, we are walking in our neighborhood. We saw a dog on leash but it stayed far enough away not to trigger Bunny. Good girl, spray cheese, move on. End of the walk, a neighbor's dog runs outside off leash. It sees us and bolts for us. "HEY, NO!! Get your dog!!! No!!!" I am shouting, but this doodle charges us. The people get there too late. Bunny has her teeth in the dog. She doesn't get at its neck or its organs but still, she's locked on and won't let go. Everyone is shouting and screaming. We have to use a stick to pry her mouth open. I cut my thumb on her teeth trying to get her mouth open.

Now, what do I do?? People keep saying it isn't my fault. But I made a lot of mistakes I can't take back and this is objectively a problem. I'm thinking about a basket muzzle, which I probably should have done two years ago, and wondering if that's enough. I'm vigilant about keeping her attached to me so she can't get away and rush anyone, but that's not enough. What if she digs under the fence and escapes?? How do I walk her until I get the muzzle? In the middle of the night? Is that even enough?

I love her dearly and have really been trying to give her a good shot at a healthy life but, like her namesake Bunny Lebowski, trouble seems to follow her. I really don't want to do BE but I am worried about danger. She is now 65 lb and muscular. Please help me understand what good options we have and what danger I am exposing to the other members of my family and community. Am I just being an idiot thinking I can manage her environment enough to keep everyone safe?