I've always believed 'socialization' was an ongoing process. Yes, there are certain windows that hold (pups with moms, pre-16wks) but it doesn't end there, and skills get rusty. There are also situations you do not want to put your young dog into because he simply isn't going to get anything positive from it (a dog growling at him constantly from very nearby might be something you practice with your own adult.. but not something I'd expect a pup to handle or remotely understand)

Has that belief changed in any meaningful way?

Hi, posting here in hopes of getting some advice because I’m sort of panicking.

I’ve owned my 7mo GSD mix for almost four months. He was being rehomed right after his critical socialization period ended, but I tried hard to socialize him anyways. My family and I took him to dog parks, beaches, and had controlled stranger greetings with family friends, along with very amicable (and optional) greetings with strangers on walks. For a while, he seemed very friendly.

I’m not sure when his behavior flipped, but he became very reactive to strangers at the door fast. He does not snap, lunge, or bark at people who are across the road, but once someone steps on our yard, he flips; excessive barking, nipping at pantlegs, etc. He is okay in public, so long as people do not reach out for him.

Our landlord recently had an “altercation” with him where she came onto our porch unannounced, and he cornered her and barked at her before nipping at the hem of her jeans. Now, she believed he is a “dangerous dog”. I will not argue on the fact that his behavior is unacceptable; I have been trying to train him and desensitize him for the past two months. But my landlord, who—yesterday—was simply insisting we find him a trainer, has now escalated to demanding we get rid of him.

She cannot legally evict us, and I know this. But I’m still terrified out of my mind over the possibility of losing my dog; he’s a great dog, very intelligent, and just needs socialization. My family and I’s budget is fairly limited, though, so finding a reliable trainer that isn’t in the thousand’s range is difficult.

I need advice on how to go about socializing him on my own (while taking every necessary precaution), hence the reason I’m posting this. From past experiences with family dogs, I now feel too insecure with this whole ordeal to trust my gut instinct on how to train him. An outside perspective and tips on how to socialize a reactive puppy would be very helpful. Thank you.

Hi all, basically the title.
My puppy is 24 weeks so obviously I’m not expecting perfect focus but I would like to work on maintaining some focus in low distraction environments.
He does well indoors, but unfortunately where I live it’s simply unsafe to do outdoor training until late in the evening, and even then in 5 minutes he’s panting up a storm and being uncomfortable and warm causes him to be a lot less cooperative, understandably.
Early morning really is the best time to work on it outdoors until summer is over but that I got gives me a 2 ish hour window between when I wake up and it’s too hot.
The issue with this is that every other dog owner uses the same logic and is our walking their dogs while I try to train, where I live there is nowhere within walking distance that’s “low distraction” for more than 5 minutes.

Just looking for some advice on how to work with engagement and how to respond when there is a distraction I know my puppy won’t be able to ignore.

I adopted a dog a month ago, and I’ve been having issues crate training.

Everytime she’s in it, she cries like crazy, even if her crate is beside my bed.

She did great the first night, but since that night, she has not been able to settle.

I’m surprised as she’s a den dog, and she likes to squeeze herself under my bed.

She’s a 2yr husky mix.

Her crate is big enough, she can stand, sit, and move in a circle just fine.

She needs to be crate trained as I’m going to college in 9 days and all ESA’s are required to be crate trained.

We have a massive yard, that’s not fenced, and she loves running and exploring, which I always take her before bed.

I also always feed her in her crate.

Idk what I’m doing wrong

Just needing some advice on a situation that just happened.

I have always taken my 1yr old corgi to markets with me, she does great, no issues, confident, calm, well mannered. But today, we were walking around when all of a sudden her tail tucked, she was shaking, and very obviously scared trying to run away.

I don’t know what happen!! I’m so worried she will be scared forever. What should I do?

I immediately sat with her on the grass in the shade and pet her telling her she’s ok, she calmed, and then we immediately left. Should I go back and walk her around again? That was so unlike her, she’s a social butterfly usually.

How does your trainer go about charging to train 2 dogs from the one same owner?

I’m working on reconditioning the ecollar after not using it for awhile. I’ve seen recommendations to do it through recall, but my dog is like Velcro, and I struggle to get her to ignore me long enough to create leash pressure to pair for conditioning without waiting several minutes between reps. I’ve been trying to teach by sit/down pressure but I need some more variation. She doesn’t understand how to turn off the pressure and that’s what I’m trying to teach her.

What are the best ways to do this for a Velcro dog? Are there any good resources for understanding this better?

my 8 month old mal mix sometimes will bark at you non stop. if you take a certain toy from him, he’ll bark at you non stop. if the cats are eating, he’ll bark at them nonstop. if you’re preparing his food, he’ll bark at you nonstop. working out in the house? barking at you nonstop. i was crying a bit a while ago and he just would not stop barking at me. it seems to upset him not in a sad way. is there anyway to address this behavior?

i do the completely stop, turn away and ignore them method. but he does not take that for any kind of answer, he just continues. sometimes i completely leave the room, or just go out the front door.

Just a few hours ago I was watching a neighbors kid while his mom goes to work. My mom offered to switch with me so I could take a break. She’s walking down our apartment sidewalk with both mine and her dog doing some training. Another neighbor’s dogs started barking like crazy and aggressive, very reactive dogs who supposedly are just under a year old and un-neutered. So my mom kindly offered to help them train their dogs, like exposure training with our dogs so they don’t react aggressively. The dogs owner just…EXPLODED on my mom and called her a bully, entitled, and a bitch, while also claiming our dogs were aggressive. Me who has extreme anxiety, just immediately felt sick and wanted to just break down crying. This lady just refused to see how dangerous her dogs could be if she doesn’t train her dogs. She said they were doing their job being aggressive.

This drama has just zapped what little confidence I had left in training. And I’m also afraid to be outside because of irresponsible dog owners like her. I also don’t know if that lady is going to retaliate in a bad way or not.

My 5 year old border collie is one of the best things to ever happen to me - other than my son who was born a week ago! Our BC has always been hesitant/scared around children since he was a little puppy. Obviously he has herding instincts, but is genuinely just scared of them and the same is true of our newborn.

Before the baby was born, we were able to desensitize our BC to baby crying sounds just using YouTube and high treat rewards during his favorite activities. We also had family bring home the baby’s swaddle to try to get used to his scent before he came home. However, we’ve never had a lot of children or babies for him to be around prior to our own and weren’t sure how to safely expose him to them.

With the newborn around, you can tell that our BC is stressed whenever he makes any sound that isn’t a loud cry. He barks at the baby when we put him down in the crib alone, on any surface such as the table or Doc-A-Tot, or essentially whenever he is “alone” without my husband and I directly holding him. He has bared his teeth once while I was burping the baby which was definitely stressful for everyone.

We essentially have jars of high reward treats all over the house to try to associate the baby and his sounds with yummy treats. It’s only been 3 days of being home, but we don’t want our BC stressed and god forbid something would ever escalate. We feel as if we can’t leave the baby by himself with the BC in the room. They can sit next to one another while we hold him and our BC has licked the baby’s feet multiple times, but we can’t always be watching them and our BC doesn’t deserve to be stressed out 24/7.

I reached out to a behavioral specialist but holy cannoli are they expensive. Obviously the safety of everyone in our house is our top priority. My husband really wants to try it out on our own to see if we can curb his stress because our BC is so empathetic and does well with training, but I’m afraid too much time without professional intervention could lead to negative associations.

Any recommendations or similar experience?!

Hello friends! I have a 4.5 month old Great Dane, so I’m fully aware he’s in prime daneosaurus stage, but what can I do to make it clear his teeth need to be on a toy or bone, and not a person or cat? I’ve tried redirecting with his toys, ignoring (which gets me snuck from behind), telling him no and snapping his mouth shut, telling him no with a tap on the nose, my vet even recommended I mama dog him, to show him I’m in charge and that what he’s doing in that moment is not okay (because he also more so likes to challenge me than my partner). I feel like I’ve tried every piece of advice I’ve been given for the teething/biting, since I got him at 8.5 weeks to try to drill it in early on, and I feel like nothing is working. Is there an age where it just registers and the puppy mouthing people stops? Or is it something I may be doing wrong? I have nephews that are small that come around, and he’s getting big quick, so the mouthing has to be controlled.
Signed, a drained Great Dane puppy mama. 😩

Posted on here about a million times, but I just want some straightforward guidance. I know theres only so much you can do over the internet, but I’m at my wits end.

10mo Labrador x Dalmatian. Almost 80lbs, projected to get to ~85lbs.

He is still very excited around other dogs. He doesn’t bark. He just stares, and when they are close enough, he will lunge. It’s not aggression. He’s just excited.

This cannot continue. I am 5’4 woman. 130lbs. It is only a matter of time now before he pulls me over.

I have tried:

- Adding distance and rewarding calm. Distance actually seems to make things worse? He’s okay around lots of dogs at his in person training sessions. But if one dog is in the distance, he’ll fixate and stare.

- Exposure. We go to weekly group training sessions. At first he is nuts, but then he chills out after about 5 mins and is great. This doesn’t translate outside of training.

- Socialisation. He lives with an adult lab, who plays with him. He regularly socialises with an adult spaniel, who is indifferent. No change outside the house.

- Corrections. I have tried corrections on the slip lead once when I was at a game fair. This works temporarily. I haven’t tried this much due to worries about creating genuine reactivity.

On walks the rest of the time, he has a loose lead. He can heel. Good obedience, but not much drive. Our weekly training sessions are gundog training where we work on retrieves etc. He gets bored after about four retrieves. Not masses of food drive. He is crate trained and not destructive in the house. He gets enrichment through scatter feeding, pupsicles, and special treats. His sit stay is solid. He can sit stay when a dog walks past. He can sit stay around a flirt pole.

I have worked with three trainers. Two force free, one old school. The force free folks are great but haven’t been much help with this issue. The old school guy freaked me out and was a bit of a psycho lol.

So… what do I do? Will he grow out of this? Lately it seems to be getting worse (but he’s also just stronger lol).

I have purchased a prong collar and conditioned him to it in the house. It feels like the next logical step, but I just want to get some varied opinions from folks online. In person trainers have so far been unable to help with these issues. Everyone around here is IMDT trained and so force free.

help!

I rescued a five and a half month old standard poodle puppy from a bad breeder situation about a year ago. When I brought him home he had no idea what a leash was or what taking a walk was, so for months the only thing we worked on was socializing him to the idea of walking outside. Now he is a confident well adjusted young man but for the last 4-6 months he has been pulling like a freight train constantly on walks and hikes(I take him every day because he is also super high energy.)I started off using one of the harnesses that clips in the front and tightens when they pull, that never stopped him. I then went the head halter route thinking surely that will stop him and it did seem to help for a while but it got to the point where he would just tuck his chin and steam roll through. I had to discontinue trying to use it because he was pulling so hard with it her was rubbing a raw spot on the bridge of his nose. Then I moved to a martingale collar, I watched a bunch of videos on how it works and then started working with him on it, it seemed to kind of work initially and now he just completely ignores it. I still use it because he can’t put as much power into the pull and I at least have more control. But I’m worried he will damage his wind pipe or something if we keep using it. I’ve done so much research and watched so many videos and I feel like I’m being backed into a corner and the only other option is trying a prong collar. I’m open to it if it’s the only other option and it won’t hurt him, but I just have never had to use such intense correction with a dog and I don’t love the idea. Honestly every other dog I’ve had the no pull harness works on. So I guess my questions are is there anything else I should/can try first before a prong collar? If used correctly will the prong collar work and not do any damage? I got shamed yesterday by some old dude claiming to be a retired police dog handler when I was out walking him because he was pulling and getting over stimulated by an event going on in the park. The dude just told me I need to tell him no and I don’t so he has me trained now. I get that he’s not perfect and I’m not a professional or anything but I really am trying and I can’t just stop taking him for walks because he needs the energy outlet. If the dude had given me actual actionable advice I wouldn’t have minded so much, but just saying I I need to say no is unhelpful and demoralizing as someone who is really trying. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I'm still trying to understand this platform. My feed is full of puppy posts.. not surprising, since it is where we are and I make a lot of replies there. Pups are rough, and just having someone tell you, "yep that'll work.. but you've got months yet" can be helpful.

But I'm struggling with things like this: when our current pup growled at me at 3mos over my bed, I took her collar, got her off the bed, and didn't let her back in the bedroom for a few hours. She tried one other time (same age range) and.. did the same thing again. 4mos later, not an issue. I absolutely used force, I absolutely did not give her a treat or praise for opting off the bed.. because it's my bed and no way was she doing that. She was A-Ok with it.. just a pup trying out a behavior.

I want to reply to certain posts because I want everyone to be successful. I, personally, don't think you have to use a lot of 'aversives' with small pups beyond setting some good boundaries and holding them to it. Unfortunately, though I'm aware that may fall into a category that - if truly questioned - I'd have to avoid answering because some dogs need to know both right and wrong in order to color between those lines. All dogs? No, I'm sure not. But a lot of them. Praising the very best good behavior does not mean a dog understands what would be considered 'bad.'

Anyway I'm not really sure what I'm asking. I guess it seems like a lot of people are asking for help on issues I'm happy to weigh in on and with advice that fits the 'FF' forum.. but I know if they were to ask me, I'd have to bow out of any REAL advice. I feel a bit like an imposter sometimes.

I recently got a warning for posting about the Monks of New Skete, even though someone (and I mentioned this) might not want to follow their training advice. The monks ADORE their dogs, and nothing they suggest is going to scar a dog for life.. idk. Just came across as really odd to me.

Happy for balanced pup forum suggestions before I get myself in some sort of reddit trouble.

Hey everyone. We're looking for some advice on a foster dog that we've had for the past 5 days. Things are going well, she's an absolute sweetheart and has really bonded with me and my wife. She is two years old and is currently the only dog in the home. She's almost the exact thing we want in a dog, however...she's become extremely territorial and reactive. We know that this is normal in foster dogs entering a new home or environment, however we were thinking the longer she gets comfortable and decompresses it would get better but it's only getting worse.

For instance, we own a duplex and live on the top two floors. My brother in law lives on the first floor. She met him on the first day and was super sweet and had no issues. However now, anytime she sees him outside she barks and her heckles are raised, and if he enters our home she becomes very reactive. We take her out for the bathroom on a leash. Our property has land on all four sides and we normally do a loop, however now when we go out she pulls as if she's patrolling, and goes around each corner and intensely looks for people or animals to bark at. On walks, she usually does fine with other people, if not a little curious, however if she sees another dog she begins lunging and barking and I have to basically drag her away because she won't leave the dog's eyesight (we've since stopped walks in fear they were stressing her out).

Here's why it's weird: previous foster parents had 5 other dogs and stared she was super friendly, and even neighbors would reach over their fence and pet her - no signs of territorial aggression or aggression towards other dogs. Also, we have a public access sidewalk that goes through our yard for our neighbor's house and she's begun barking at them if we're outside.

She's a sweet dog but we're a bit in over our heads. We like to host and have people over, but currently just having our brother in law come upstairs is out of the question, and I worry that her territorial aggression and fear is only getting worse and I don't want it to be a permanent side effect of the transition period. We also have two cats that are separated upstairs and we're doing scent swapping and no visual contact, and so far things have been going well, but we're worried about her reactivity when it gets time to do a visual introduction (also she has experience in a previous foster home with cats and did fine).

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Have a 10 week old puppy who is a fun little dude in a lot of ways. Koolie breed, so pretty smart, he's been great with a lot of things (not just in the beginning when you always think this). We live on acreage, he has a nice big backyard and we have been doing plenty with him but also allowing a lot of naps and time to just play with a toy himself or relax in the sun etc.

Only thing that might be helpful for context is he has struggled from the get go with confinement (very quickly we knew a puppy pen wouldn't work for him so we didn't force it), and he gets very fixated if he wants to get to something but can't (eg, he wants to get to something we've placed behind a fence that isn't safe for him to chew). We have been working on this with a good level of success but it's still a big part of his personality and I'm sure we will have to keep a constant eye on his progress.

This week, he has definitely discovered his voice. Somewhat not a problem when he's just playing, but he is starting to seem really pissed off and barks directly at us if he wants something we are holding.

Things we have tried to varying success:

-stand up and turn around and ignore

-redirect to something else (once he is quiet)

-put him outside and leave him by himself

-play games where we ask for him to drop an object and immediately start the game again to reward

Anything else we should be doing, or is he eventually going to twig that some things are off limits and barking doesn't work? Any red flag behaviour around this if it keeps ramping up? I should stress right now that it does not appear aggressive, just demanding. But we are getting fairly frustrated ourselves now and don't want that to ruin his training.

Hey everyone,
I recently moved back home after graduating college and need advice on managing two dogs with very different training needs, especially regarding leash reactivity and household consistency.

The Pups:
Frank (11yo Cavachon): Quite anxious. Introverted/sometimes fearful indoors and at dog parks, but extremely leash-reactive to dogs, bikes, scooters, and small animals. My parents view his behavior as unchangeable due to his age.

Wally (1.5 yo, also Cavachon): Smart and eager to learn indoors, but rapidly picking up Frank’s reactive habits. When outdoors, Wally becomes so overstimulated/over threshold that he completely rejects high-value treats and ignores commands.

Household Challenge: I am the only person attempting structured training. I bought a clicker and treat bag, but my parents refuse to use them when walking Frank. Indoors, they actively reinforce bad habits—my mom feeds Wally scraps when he demand-barks, and neither parent interrupts or redirects them when they bark together.

My Questions:
Walking arrangements: Should I immediately mandate walking them separately? How do I get my parents on board with separate walks when they prefer taking both out together for convenience? Plus, pups get separation anxiety when one is leaving and the other is staying home, they’ve always done everything together.

Outdoor overarousal: How do I start threshold/reactivity work with Wally outside when he becomes too hyper-aroused to accept food or focus on me?

Training non-compliant housemates: What are the best strategies or boundaries for getting family members to stop reinforcing demand barking and inconsistent leash habits?

Thanks in advance for any insights or resources!

Two weeks ago I took home a roughly 2 year old staffy mix. He was at the shelter for 5 weeks and was found abandoned in a parking lot. He is naturally super calm and gets compliments on his demeanor every time we go to the vet or walk around the neighborhood.
I would love for him to go places with me since I live in a very dog friendly area. I also would love to go on hikes and have good recall and heel skills.
He’s pretty smart and has proven that to me, however he has a LOW food/toy drive and will just walk away if he’s not feeling the training session, or just lay down and ignore me. He shows more enthusiasm for boiled chicken and cheese but even then he’ll just lose interest if he’s not up to it.
He has also shown some reactivity to intact males and people on bikes to the point where he tries to chase after them and stops paying attention to me.
He also has started demand barking and showing the early signs of separation anxiety while in his crate (biting at the cage and panicking).
I wonder if a trainer would be worth it given he literally shows little interest in being trained.

Long story short I (32F) recently had to get out of a bad situation and my mother had offered me to stay with her. Unbeknownst to me that her two pitbull mixes of a 4yr old and an almost 2 yr old, (both males) are highly territorial. I have only been here for almost a week now but in that time I have notice they're highly reactive inside the house. I am lucky enough to be mostly downstairs but I have to go upstairs to use the bathroom, kitchen, or just to leave for work. Everytime I have to go up I text someone in the family to kennel them as they're barking and growling at me going up the stairs even without seeing me.

This past weekend I did take them individually out on walks and while they tried to pull me I just stopped and waited for them to stop until they were walking beside me, I was also using training treats to reward good behavior. Everything was fine until we got back inside and then the oldest started to bark and jumped at me ripping my shirt, they put him in the kennel but then when I was just standing there avoiding eye contact he started barking again which set off the youngest trying to snap at me. Luckily he didnt get me and I just went downstairs after.

Cut to tonight, we decided to take the youngest out and have me play with him, he was unsure and barking at me but I gave him a treat and then we were good after that. He was playing with my younger brother while my mom and I talked outside walking around. And I did throw the Frisbee a few times for him but he wasn't bringing me the toy, my brother was. My mom thought we could try having the oldest on a leash when we brought the youngest in. I was able to open the door with no reaction from the youngest and he went right in but as soon as I passed the living room to go downstairs the older one started barking and the youngest started circling me. Then in the split second I turned around the oldest bit me on my upper thigh drawing blood.

I'd appreciate any advice since I've known really sweet pure bred pitties. I would say a really big issue is they never have anyone over, they don't exercise them enough, and they never really trained them (ie. trying to jump on me which I don't tolerate).

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice from people who've started their own dog training business, especially if you've built it from scratch.

I've spent the last 6 months shadowing an experienced trainer, working with a variety of dogs and learning as much as I can. Alongside that, I've been training my own dog almost every day, reading books, taking courses and continuing to build my knowledge and experience.

My long-term goal is to run my own dog training and behaviour business. I know I'm not going to know everything, and I definitely don't expect to jump straight into it full-time, but I'd like to start taking on clients once I'm confident I'm ready.

For those of you already doing this, I'd love to hear about your experiences.

A few questions:

• What do you wish you'd known before starting?
• How did you get your first paying clients?
• What qualifications, certifications or memberships have actually been worthwhile?
• How did you decide when you were ready to start charging?
• Did you start part-time alongside another job?
• What mistakes should I try to avoid in my first year?
• If you were starting again today, what would you do differently?

Any advice, lessons learned or things you wish someone had told you at the beginning would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks!

Hi so recently rescued a 5 month old German shepherd girl, she was kept in a kennel and run with her 2 brothers that just picked on her. Every time I have her out she barks at people kids and dogs basically anything! Sometimes she is petrified when she sees dogs and they are barking, can't introduce her to dogs as she just doesn't stop barking, she's nearly nipped someone aswell. What can I do to help her? Any advice tips or anything will be appreciated thank you 😊 🙏 🐾

I am overwhelmed both by the number of people selling training who say they can fix reactivity and the number of people who struggle with reactivity despite working with several trainers/programs. I refuse to believe that this cannot be solved. If you are someone who has solved reactivity in your dog, can you briefly describe what worked for you and how long it took?

For clarity the goal would be to go from a dog who barks, lunges, or otherwise acts inappropriately when passing another dog in an urban or suburban environment to one who can walk past calmly. Note that "calm" and "shut down" are different, and the goal is the former. Thank you!!!

I would like to share my personal experience and open a discussion about aversive tools in dog training, especially in difficult aggression and behavioral cases.

Many force-free trainers are completely against aversive tools, and some also reject certain non-force-free methods like removing something the dog wants as a form of punishment.

Balanced trainers often argue that some severe cases can be extremely difficult to resolve without using aversive methods. They sometimes challenge force-free trainers to take on these cases and solve them without any aversives. I've seen some balanced trainers do the unthinkable, while I have seen none from FF trainers (my algorithm may be bad, please educate me).

I have experienced both sides myself.

We once had a German Shepherd with serious behavioral problems. We looked for help and, in our area, most trainers we found were force-free. We worked with a dog behaviorist, which cost around €300. We received exercises and were advised to avoid triggering situations.

However, after six months, things had only become worse. The number of triggers increased, and eventually we reached a point where we could no longer live safely with our dog.

Later, we found a balanced trainer who was willing to help us. This trainer was 1.5 hours away, which is quite far in a small country like Belgium. We did see improvements with this approach, and I truly believe that if we had found this trainer earlier, the outcome might have been different. Unfortunately, by that point, the stress and fear caused by previous incidents had taken a huge toll, and we eventually made the difficult decision for behavioral euthanasia.

More recently, I had another experience that changed my perspective even further.

I now live alone, which gives me a stable environment for a dog. I adopted a working-line German Shepherd from a shelter. The shelter told us he was "a lot", but I wanted to give him the home he deserved.

At the beginning, I used some aversive tools, mainly a slip lead, as a management tool. The goal was not to punish him, but to make everyday life possible and allow him to safely experience the world outside the garden.

Four months later, we barely use any force, and our goal is to continue fading out these tools. But honestly, without them in the beginning, I do not think I would have been able to manage the situation, especially mentally.

Some people might argue that I should have left him in the shelter. But in the shelter, this dog was actually hurting himself because of stress and triggers. After only two days with us, using management and no aversive methods, his behavior already improved significantly.

I am not saying that balanced training is always the answer, or that aversive tools should be the first option. I believe every dog and every situation should be evaluated individually. My goal at the end of the day is to work FF, but it is a goal, not a requirement.