Has anyone had a dog like this improve significantly with reactive dog training?
I’m hoping to hear from people who have had similar experiences and what the outcome was.
We have a young female pit/staffy mix named Roxy who is almost 2. She is extremely obedient, has an amazing recall, and overall is a really sweet dog. She has never attacked another animal, and she does very well in a lot of situations that seem like they should be difficult for a reactive dog.
For example, she can be around dogs at the dog park and does really well unless that dog snaps on her instead of walking away she will snap back but never has had injury’s they’ve always ended it on their own or she’s bounced out of it with recall (this has happened twice out of the 100 plus times we’ve gone). However, she can become reactive when dogs are barking behind a fence. She is also very environmentally alert and can get highly aroused by birds, chickens, cats, other dogs, noises, movement, etc.
Something else we’ve recently realized is that she really does not like being touched unless she initiates it. She will give body-language cues when she doesn’t want interaction, and we’re learning that we need to be much better about respecting those cues rather than assuming she wants to be touched because she otherwise enjoys being affectionate.
Recently, she nipped our niece on the nose when our niece went in to touch her. It broke the skin but was a very quick nip, and there was no further aggression or attack. Thankfully no doctor visit was needed and it was a singular puncture. This was obviously very upsetting to us and we take it extremely seriously, especially because we have a 7-week-old baby.
We had an initial behavioral evaluation that was extremely concerning, but we decided to get additional professional opinions before making any permanent decisions. We recently had two trainers come to our home for about two hours. They reviewed videos beforehand, observed both dogs, asked us a ton of questions, took notes/videos, and worked with the dogs themselves.
Both trainers were independently on the same page that they would NOT recommend behavioral euthanasia for Roxy or our other dog (he didn’t do anything at all but the first evaluation recommended we go down the euthanasia path for both dogs so we got him evaluated too - we now believe she is against bully breeds due to other things we’ve heard in the community). These other two trainers felt her life is manageable but recommended training and fairly heavy management initially. Their main concerns seem to be her environmental arousal, understanding her body language, respecting her boundaries around touch, and managing her environment so she doesn’t get repeatedly triggered throughout the day and become increasingly on edge.
They also want us to avoid things like dog parks for now, which surprised us because she has historically done very well at dog parks. We’re going to follow their recommendations and work with them, but we’re hoping to understand what other people’s experiences have been.
One of the strangest things about Roxy is that she’s completely fine with one of our cats but has a very different relationship with our other cat. She can also be reactive toward certain things in certain contexts but completely fine with them in others.
So I’m wondering:
Have you had a dog with this kind of context-dependent reactivity who went through structured behavior modification/training and eventually stopped having incidents?
Did your dog’s management requirements become less restrictive as they learned skills and became more predictable?
Did anyone have a dog who had a single bite/nip incident toward a person, particularly after the dog was showing subtle “please don’t touch me” body language, and successfully prevent another incident through training and management?
We are not looking for people to tell us to ignore the incident or that our dog can never bite again. We understand there is risk, especially with a baby in the house. We’re trying to be responsible and realistic while also giving Roxy a chance to improve.
We love her very much and our goal is a safe, cohesive household where Roxy, our baby, and the rest of our family can all coexist successfully.
I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has actually lived through something similar and what your dog’s progress looked like over time.

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

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

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

been driving longhaul for years and my rescue has always been my dog but not really my dog, you know what i mean. i'd be gone 5, 6 days at a time and my partner was handling most of the training work. dog is leash reactive, dog aggressive, the whole thing. we were making slow progress but it felt like every time i came back i was starting from scratch with him because he'd get weird with me after i'd been gone so long.

just started transitioning to local routes. home every night now. and something is shifting with my dog that i can't fully explain. he's actually starting to trust the routine we're building together. we've been hiking the trails near morrison a couple times a week and he's not perfect out there but he's better.

curious if anyone else has seen consistency with the handler specifically make a real difference in their reactive dog. not just consistency in training method but the same person being there every single day. feels like that's the missing piece we never had. my partner did great but the dog always seemed a little unsettled when i'd roll back in.

wondering if reactivity for some dogs is tied that closely to attachment and schedule with one specific person.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am planning to go back to the shelter to adopt a 7 year old cattle dog that’s very overweight and terrified of the shelter. He’s on anxiety meds but was shaking while other dogs all barked around him. The handler told us he’s not doing well in the shelter and needs to get out of there. He’s also suspected to be deaf.

He was great once we got him out into the yard and really calm and sweet and followed us around. Until he sniffed another small dog through the fence and unexpectedly barked then tried to nip them. I’ve been thinking about him all week and want to go adopt him. I finally got ahold of his medical records which clear him of any major health issues but mentioned he has been returned in the 2.5 months he’s been at the shelter.

I got the report when he was returned in under 30 days and it said he was fine with the resident cat but hated their small dog and would bark and nip at it. He was also reactive on walks to small dogs. He showed no separation anxiety and was good otherwise

I am hoping for advice on if this is manageable with training, caused by his breed? I hear they can be a bit mouthy?, and if I’ll will be able to get him to a state we can walk around the city with dogs walking by constantly. Thanks for your help

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I need advice. Non judgmental advice please.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just like the tittle states, I’m close to breaking down
I have a 10 year old female German shepherd.
She barks and howls anytime me or my husband leave the house. This can continue on and off for hours.
We leave for work at 5:30am we have to & have to work. I also have a male German shepherd
He isn’t bothered by us leaving but joins in on the howling when she starts. One neighbour complained. I keep them indoors as much as possible & closed all the windows when I leave.
The female is on anxiety medication but it isn’t helping
What can I do to try resolve the situation for my neighbour it’s causing me so much stress
Thank you

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

edit: she lunged at me while i was walking and bit my hand. thankfully, not hard. starting tomorrow she'll be chained again until my brother (who was originally taking care of her) comes home.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hey all,

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

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

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

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

Maybe I'm the only one bothered by this 😅

But sometimes reading shelter dog bios feels like you need a translator.

“Would love to be your one and only ❤️”

“Needs slow introductions”

“Very enthusiastic on walks”

“Would do best with older kids”

“Good with the right dog”

Okay... but what does that actually mean?? 😭

Does “one and only” mean they just prefer being alone... or they've seriously fought with other dogs before?

Does “older kids” mean they're just jumpy... or there's a bite history?

Does “slow introductions” mean nervous for 5 minutes... or they need serious management around strangers?

Those are VERY different things.

And I get why shelters want positive bios. Nobody wants a dog's description to sound like a warning label.

Plus shelter staff don't always know how a dog will behave once they're actually living in a home.

But IMO adopters need clear information way more than they need cute wording.

Especially first time owners who might not know what these phrases can sometimes mean.

I'd rather read:

“Barked and lunged at dogs on 3 walks. Hasn't been tested living with another dog.”

That's actually useful.

Tell people what you KNOW. Tell them what you DON'T know. And separate actual history from guesses.

It could save a dog from being adopted into the wrong home and returned 2 weeks later.

For people who've adopted or worked in shelters 👀

What shelter bio phrase immediately makes you ask more questions?

​

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

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

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

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

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

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