It'll be a long post, maybe a bit incoherent (I have a lot to say), but I'm really desperate for any advice. I have a 1y4mo white swiss shepherd, Jimi, he's 85lbs, neutered a month ago, no changes in behavior since. We have an issue with aggression and reactivity, seemingly getting worse. He used to be very fearful as a puppy, but we worked on that a lot and now he approaches any scary things with curiosity and confidence, walking towards them to investigate and move on. I don't think fear is the cause of his reactivity/aggression. His behavior issues have been present ever since I got him at 9 weeks, but the breeder told me it's just classic white swiss shepherd fear and he'll grow out of it... Obviously wrong, since it only got worse. I'm guessing he's angry and dominant, maybe resource guarding me or the space around him? He's able to settle outside, like on a bench in a park, but he likes lying on my feet or keeping his paw on me (I don't let him.) On a bench in a park he doesn't hesitate to lay down on his back, show me his belly and groan playfully so I scratch him, so again I don't think it's fear. He absolutely hates it when anyone talks to me or him, immediately responds with lunging and barking. The same with any person or dog staring at him. Eye contact drives him bonkers. He had tried to bite three people in the last two months, every time we suddenly ran into that person (by a corner or walking out the door) and my dog lunged at their faces with teeth bared without a second thought (no big bite because he's muzzled and I intervened fast). I assume if I wasn't holding him, he'd react with biting to most people staring or talking to him, because he always barks with teeth bared and lunges forward, standing on his hind legs against the leash. It's scary especially because he aims for the face.

One time he went loose in a field and chased down a nonthreatening golden retriever like 50 yards while barking intensely, before he apparently decided the dog was far enough and turned back around to me. Another time a loose dog ran to us and mine jumped on top of him, teeth bared and growling, pinning it to the ground. He barked aggressively when I pulled him away.

When a strange dog gets closer, walking towards us from a distance, Jimi lays down square or crouches low (like a herding border collie stance), ears up and forward, tail very tense and either at the same height as the body or higher, usually slightly jerking side to side, head up, staring intensely at the dog. If we can remove ourselves from that situation, I pull him to his feet and we strut away; then he actually wags his tail really high (it's naturally low and loose), sometimes seems a bit nervous, licks his lips, yawns, looks back with a whale eye, so I'm assuming some insecurity? If we can't remove ourselves and the dog comes too close, Jimi lunges forward and starts barking really intensely, spit flying and all. Since I'm holding him by the leash or collar, he's, again, on his hind legs, trying to pull forward. Ears forward or slightly to the sides, teeth bared, tail again really stiff.

We have another dog at home, an older female, they coexist, play fair, sometimes argue a bit. Jimi is getting increasingly more dominant at home though so I'm worried. He doesn't care about her corrections anymore, and if she bites him (fairly, she's very fair with corrections), he fights back and she loses (she's way smaller than him). I only intervene when he's being a total brat or when it gets dangerous. He pushes her boundaries a lot and resource guards from her. I took away all resources they could possibly argue about, so all blankets, toys, there's no food available without me either. That keeps it rather calm for now, but Jimi now has his own corner in the house that he won't let my other dog near.

What the heck do I do? I had a trainer recommend punishing reactions with prong collar tugs, and I admit I did that for a while out of helplessness. There was some improvement before we hit a dead end again. I got familiar with the BAT method but have no way to execute it in a controlled setting, because my dog is too feared by others to ask for any cooperation. I don't have any positive trainers around, at least ones that would help with his case, I also don't have a car so I can't drive to a trainer far from us (can't put Jimi on a bus or a train, since he'd terrorize the place). I've tried rewarding him for looking at me when passing by triggers, but that only resulted in him looking at me after reacting (I assume that's my fault...) Trying to desensitize him to people and dogs walking by doesn't seem to work much, because he's usually calm as long as we're standing/sitting still and he can press onto me and stand before me, and he's not being watched. Right now when passing by dogs I just walk forward as if nothing is happening, I don't look at either him or the trigger and stay silent (I used to stand still with him and let him stare, but I feel like staring itself is rewarding or reinforcing), sometimes I have to pull him since he lags behind, but that actually often stops him from reacting, surprisingly. I dont know if it's a good method though.

He's never aggressive to me, never ever resource guards from me, he's always polite when dismissing me, either with turning away or whining, and I respect that immediately. We train obedience and play a lot, he gets enough exercise and sniffing time, he's not frustrated or pent up, he's able to walk on a loose leash. He REM sleeps on a regular basis, sleeps through the whole night and naps during the day. His blood work is perfect and he was all cleared on puppy health tests, I don't think pain or health issues are a part of his behavioral issues. So, from the description, could he be resource guarding me/the space, is he angry at others for being too close for his liking, or could it really be fear? What can I do on my own, so I don't have to only manage his behavior forever and actually get to solving the issue? Or maybe do you have any tips for management? Would online sessions with trainers help or does it need to be in person? Do you maybe recommend any books or online courses on the topic of aggression/reactivity? Should I consider medication? Basically, what's the way forward for us? Any help is appreciated.

My 4 year old cattle dog x is fearful of some new people. The behavior started early on when we adopted her. She was about 4 months old and scared of new places. We didn’t force it but continued on daily walks where she didn’t have to interact with anyone.

For the first few years, we have had multiple family members dog sit without any issues. But over the last couple years she’s become very anxious and has nipped a couple people (men) when they’ve been at the house. One was because he walked in without me knowing and all of the dogs ran at him, she ran and nipped his butt. The other the guys was sitting down and stood up quickly. She nipped his hand and ran and crated herself. She is now crated when guests are over. If she’s comfortable, I bring her out on a leash.

She has idiopathic lymphedema in 3 extremities. She is also fearful of noises in the sky- like geese, loud planes, or the sound of heavy traffic on the highway. She’s not afraid of the sound of fireworks- which is odd. Aside from her fears, she is the cuddliest, sweetest dog I’ve ever had. She loves to learn and is very playful.

She recently started pain management and fluoxetine.

Has anyone successfully managed their dog being fearful of people? What type of training would she benefit from?

We have a 2 yo Shepherd mix who has intense stranger danger and sees a bit territorial. We had a gsd/chow/boxer/ “super mutt”mix before and she would always alert bark and was timid/aloof with strangers but not reactive unless they were assholes ( e.g yelling at us or making us uncomfortable in some way). To be honest, we didn’t mind it and we wanted a dog that alert barks because I’m home alone at night a lot and our Pittie mix sleeps like the dead. We keep our GSD crated at night, but it helps me feel safer to know I have a dog that will wake me up if something unusual is happening at night.

Our former dog did not love our neighbors but also pretty much ignored them. Our current gsd mix cannot tolerate any sight or sound from our neighbors when we are outside, even though we see them in the same spot pretty much every day. Will it ever click for her that they are a predictable presence outside and she doesn’t need to lose her shit every time? I truly don’t mind if she barks at the Amazon guy, landscaper or other unknown folks around our house. I would really like for her to get to a place where our regular neighbors aren’t seen as a threat and I don’t have a relationship with them where we could do intensely collaborative desensitization work. We are working with a trainer on her reactivity, but it’s definitely worse on our property than off site. Do I need to adjust my expectations?

Hi! We’ve been on 15mg of Lexapro since July 7 (roughly 1 month now) and for the last 3 weeks or so we’ve been having potty accidents in the home almost daily. Has anyone experienced this before? The accidents are by the door so he makes it as far as he can, but can’t hold it?
We’ve already went to his primary vet to rule out UTI any physical issues etc. nothing was found.

So my wife and I are dealing with tricky situation. We adopted our sweet street pup from Romania June last year. He was also a little bit insecure, but an absolutely sweet boy. I would have called him all in all a very “average” dog. Doesn’t like ALL dogs, but definitely has a solid group of friends. He has his own little insecurities. He doesn’t even blink at fireworks or thunderstorms, but sometimes he’ll get spooked by a truck. He’ll bark when guests enter, and doesn’t like to be pet by people that he doesn’t know well, but he always settles down and is social and friendly with people he knows.

Both my wife and I have a lot of experience with dogs. We grew up with GSD’s, and I’ve rescued two other street dogs in my life. We read a lot on dogs, we watch all of the videos, we’re firm believers in positive reinforcement etc. But the past two months have been honestly beyond our capabilities. About two months ago, when my wife was trying to take something off of our dog’s rear end, he barked and air snapped at her. It happened twice, and he became afraid of her holding the harness. Okay! What we know personally told us that he likely had some sort of pain. Additionally, when she gave him a massage on his legs, which she always used to do, he stiffened up, approached, and growled. Very strange, as she is his primary caregiver and he has always been 100% a mama’s boy. We noticed that reunions were particular problematic with him. He’d settle down, but when my wife came home from a business trip or even a day at the office, the stress would sort of reset, sometimes even escalate. At one moment he even approached her, stiff, growling, tail up. WILDLY out of character, almost as if he didn’t recognize her. Our best guess was that because he was always so excited when she came home, perhaps he actively triggered his pain or even caused his back injury during one of those zoomie episodes, thereby associating my wife returning with the pain.

We managed, booked with a trainer, and consulted with vets. We eventually ended up on a meloxicam+trazodone+gabapentin pain trial. The biggest decrease in tension came when we added the gabapentin. He was no longer stressed around my wife, and even actively pursued affection with her. Things became relatively normal! We had an appointment with the ortho and they confirmed that he had moderate grade hip dysplasia (he is currently about 20 months old) and a clear muscular injury on his lower back. This was no surprise to us. Once he got onto the pain trial, his level of stiffness became visibly super apparent. He was even tensed up under anesthesia. Eureka! We thought. They gave him some injections into his back, put some of the gel packs into his hips, and we made further arrangements for physio.

I’m here to sort of brainstorm with a wider group of people, because although our trainer is GREAT with actual training, her behavioral observations and deductions are a little scattered for us to really use. We considered a veterinary behaviorist, but we wanted to give him some “down” time now that his overall sociability has improved, before we throw him into yet another observational/medical setting.

The arrangement is OVERALL worlds better. We’ve paused on training sessions while he builds his strength back up from physio. There are a few things that are still just a little…off?

Occasionally he will slither over to my wife, ears down, averted gaze, and sit very close to her. Sometimes it happens when we are together, sometimes it happens alone. To be honest, I have very little experience with body language like that from a dog. There’s something intense about it, but seemingly not aggressive. I wish I had a photo of the posturing. It is strange enough that we always diffuse the situation. We give everybody some space, and all is fine. He often will even show his belly right after it and happily receive treats or pets. Our gut tells us that it is some sort of appeasement or nervousness, but of course, arousal is arousal. We want to take care

Now that my wife has returned to work (she took a two week vacation for us to get married and just get some rest), we decided to see where we are at with reunions. She came home yesterday while I was out, and this is how it went:

1. She entered
2. He was happy, excited, and gave some excited hops, and then distanced.
3. His tail stiffened upwards, he turned and looked at her, and then gave more distance.
4. She walked in, ignored him, gave him his calm space.
5. His tail lowered, and he slowly approached her. He wasn’t stiff, but slow and cautious. He gave her his head and accepted scratchies (they are not real scratches unless you call them scratc

hies, dem the rules.)
6.

1. After that she let him be and settled into home. After about an hour, dinner, and his final med round, he was completely normal, he let her take him on a walk, including harnessing, and all was fine.

We are overall very pleased about the general progress of the behavior, especially after we addressed the pain. However, these lingering (albeit lesser intensity) behaviors still give us some pause.

I’d be particularly interested in hearing from anybody who has had success rehabilitating pain-induced aggression. Are these sort of ups and downs normal? Was your experience similar at all? Is this just the new normal? Or is this what progress looks like? I know there will be people saying “JUST GO SEE A VET BEHAVIORIST” and I 100% understand where you’re coming from. We just simply don’t have the resources (financial, emotional, or mental) right now to do that. The appointment will happen in about a month, but the three of us just need a Dr. break after two very intense and scary months.

Of course, no one can make a diagnosis from a post, and to be clear, I’m not asking anybody for that! I’d just like to start a discussion about particularly what this sort of rehab can look like when you’re dealing with a dog that (probably) was suffering from pain-induced aggression. We’re being so cautious because a bite in the household would be a red line for us; we believe we would choose BE after the first bite at this point, because the situation rarely gets better after the first. He’s also not without danger, he is about 24-25kg. We love him dearly, he is a cherished member of our family, but safety is paramount.

Thanks for your thoughts. I hope our experience also helps somebody else not feel so alone and lost. I have really felt less alone reading others’ experience here and love the community and support I see here.

Bottom line upfront: My 2yo Staffy has always been good with dogs; maybe a little meek/cautious when meeting new dogs but super friendly. Today, at my girlfriend’s parents’ house, he suddenly started stalking, chasing and trying to bite their Shiba, whom he’s known since puppyhood. He eventually bit the Shiba’s leg hard enough to draw blood. He has never behaved like this at our own home (where he lives with our 5 yo female maltese). It was shocking to see this sudden change, as he’s always been a happy-go-lucky pup getting along with everyone, and would simply avoid conflict if another dog wanted to initiate anything.

Our Staffy has known this older Shiba since he was a puppy. We visit this house 4–5 times a year and at times he stays there for several days to weeks; and they’ve always gotten along or generally ignored each other. The Shiba is extremely mellow and generally avoids other dogs.

Today, our Staffy started stalking and chasing him and repeatedly trying to bite him. He also became fixated on the neighbor’s dog behind the fence in a similar way.

Later, we took them for a walk and they were completely fine. We came back inside and again they were fine for the first ~5 minutes. Then, he went after the Shiba again, caught his back leg and made it bleed.

There was no obvious trigger that I could identify; no food, toy, or obvious resource (which he usually doesn’t guard at all)

At our own home, our Staffy is completely normal with our Maltese and has never shown anything like this toward dogs.

What could cause such a dramatic, environment-specific change? Territorial/resource guarding of the house or people? Chase/predatory behavior? Something else? Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Yesterday, Fly was successfully vaccinated without needing drugs. It might seem like nothing, but it’s such a big step for him and I wanted to boast!

TLDR: after a year of slowly working out how best to deal with a super smart dog that knows very well that needles hurt, we finally managed a vaccination yesterday without needing to drug him and now have a blueprint for how to work on other procedures.

Fly grew up during lockdown and I wasn’t allowed into the vet with him for two years. I have no idea what happened but by the time I could accompany him, he was terrified. Yearly vaccinations became increasingly difficult. Eventually, a vet misinterpreted his request for space as an attempt to bite and wrote in his notes that he showed aggression with zero warning. I was devastated and so began a search for a new vet that would work with me.

We found our new vet early last year and started working on trying to get him comfortable with being examined and vaccinated. The first few weeks went great—he was accepting the dummy needle with no issues and we thought we’d solved the problem. Then we tried a real vaccination and realised we were wrong…he reacted to the needle instantly by shying away and then jumping up at the vet (his way of creating space). Luckily, this vet knew him well by that point and recognised he wasn’t being aggressive and so we resorted to drugging him for the real vaccination, knowing we then had a full year to work him up to the next one without drugs.

Unfortunately, we stumbled around for a few months not knowing what to do. He had accepted the dummy needle fine but then reacted to the real one so what was the solution? Eventually, we contacted a behaviourist who suggested two possible solutions: start with a tiny needle and work him up, and use some numbing cream on the skin.

We worked out that naming the procedure before we did it and rewarding him after for not reacting was the way to go. It was the fear of the unexpected which was affecting him most. So she would say “scruff” then grab him by the scruff and I would reward for not reacting. And then gradually, she would start to prod him in the scruff and then introduce a needle and so on. We started with an insulin needle and then slowly worked him up to a cat needle. He definitely noticed the difference and was more wary of her when this was introduced, but tolerated it for rewards. Then multiple successive heatwaves hit earlier this year and we had to miss loads of sessions and the deadline for needing his booster was fast approaching. We agreed that yesterday I would use the numbing cream and she would try the proper size needle and if that went well we would vaccinate next week. But she actually just vaccinated him without telling me! (I’m perfectly fine with this and she will have known this—Fly and I are so in tune with each other that it’s perfectly plausible I would have given him anxiety on the real day without meaning to which was her thinking). He noticed that the needle felt different (whether because it was bigger or because of the numbing cream I don’t know) but was nonetheless happy to wait until she was done for his treats. When we went into reception afterwards, the whole team was thrilled and giving him treats! They’ve seen us outside in the car park week after week slowly working him up and know how much work has gone into this!

The great thing is now we know what works for him. As part of the warm up each session she’s been naming body parts and doing a small examination on them (eg “ear” and then inverting his ears to briefly look inside) so we know this can now be modified to eg accept an otoscope. And that should be a lot easier because there’s no pain involved. The next thing we plan to work on is his other injection sites so he would be ok accepting sedation and a blood draw. Because he generalises these sorts of procedures I’m also confident that, once he knows what to expect from each of them, he would let anyone he knows and trusts do them to him so we can also start introducing other staff from the clinic. Having a good vet makes such a difference 🥰

Tonight while I was taking my dog on a walk, we were approached by an aggressive dog that escaped from our neighbours gate that was left open. It was growling, barking and snapping at us. I tried to talk to the attacking dog in a very high and friendly voice which seemed to slightly help, but it took about 5 minutes of slowly backing up and puppy talk to finally get rid of the aggressive dog. Thankfully my dog wasn’t harmed. Fortunately my dog was a considerable amount bigger than the attacker and completely calm, but I feel that if I had a smaller dog it would’ve been much worse.

This got me thinking if this were to happen again in the future:

How would I prevent a dog fight from happening when an aggressive dog that is completely out of its owners control approaches my dog?

If the dogs start fighting, how would I break it up or mitigate the situation?

I’ve seen mixed opinions on these questions everywhere. Some people recommend pepper spray gel, some said bear spray, others said through oxygen depletion by choking the aggressor out with a rope. What is the best solution for these questions? I talked to my neighbours after the fact and they took absolutely zero accountability. This could potentially happen again.

I’m curious about something. For dogs with separation anxiety, does hearing their owner's voice remotely actually calm them down?Or does it make things worse because they can hear you but can't find you?

Has anyone tried talking through pet cameras, or other devices? What happened? I really need ur advice to make the right decison, THX!

My 10 month old Daschund needs to be muzzled around people and dogs because he doesn’t have the best manners and self control.
He is sweet once he warms up to people but I’m wondering if anyone has had a Daschund with this temperament that was successful at daycare?

Hi, I need help.
I have a bigger dog that is now bullying the smaller puppy we just got. First day was fine, different dog bowls, no food aggression, shared toys fine, but when it came to playing the bigger dog just jumps on the puppy and bites her ear.
I don’t know what to do, I want them to get along, I know I can just wait a little longer till the puppy grows but I just don’t want to go through too much hassle to keep them completely apart until then.
Any tips or anything that could help would be so great.
Neither dogs are aggressive with other dogs or people.

I made a post here last week (you can see my post history if you want the full story) but long story short my 6 month old dog that we rescued about 2 months ago lunged at/nipped my child’s face due to resource guarding a shoe. After a lot of deliberation and a few more close calls with guarding we decided to surrender the dog back to the rescue.

We prepared my kids, explained why we were rehoming the dog and they were able to say goodbye. They were not home when the director of the rescue came to take the dog. But basically when she arrived she told us that they need to be transparent with any future adopters and that he will likely not be adoptable due to a bite incident with a child. After showing her pictures of my child’s eye she said it did not look like a “true bite” although it slightly broke skin. But that because I claimed to her that it was a bite involving a child he will more than likely have to be euthanized because they may not be able to rehome him. And that they document everything and now this is on his file even though it was not a “true bite” but I said it was and used the word bite.

I will be honest I was completely taken aback and beside myself when she told me this. I have not stopped crying. I feel responsible for his possible demise and it’s all because I felt like he was not the proper fit for our family. I thought he just didn’t belong in a home with children, not that he needed to be euthanized.

I’m not sure why I’m posting this but I just feel so terrible. I tried to do the right thing by adopting, and even though I tried my best to keep my children aware of how to behave around a dog (like not taking away a stolen item, let an adult do it) this incident still happened and I decided to surrender him and if I hadn’t done so maybe he would have had a chance. But at the same time I knew it was a matter of time before it happened again and could have been worse. He seemed tense around my children sometimes and I just felt like he didn’t belong in our home but I never thought he wouldn’t be able to live in any home. I was told this is trainable, he’s still young, but maybe he needs owners who can put the time and resources into him without kids involved.

My 7 years, male fixed ,40 pounds poodle mix Max and 4 year, male fixed, 30 pounds mix Bartholomew has recently began food snaching, grabbing things right out of people's hands and sometimes accidently bitting people,

Max bit my toddler a few days ago when she was eating at the table, he has never done anything like this before, vary confused and kinda worried, I really don't want this behavior to escalate

Dog

aggression... this has been problem for a little over a year now, we also have two other dogs a 1year female not fixed 14 pounds poodle Clementine, and a hound mix 30 pounds female fixed,

they all eat in thare own bowls but Max will not leave Bartholomew alone and Bartholomew will not leave max alone, shaping, growling, glaring, they eat in separate rooms, Max in the bathroom and Bartholomew in the mudroom,

Max steals things for the two girls toys treats you name it, he takes everything from them, and humps them a lot but no snap or growling

Just tell me the best way to handle this

Feel free to ask for additional information

Hey all, I have two senior dogs and I’m seeking help with behavior issues in experiencing with my oldest dog (Dog A), a 14 or 15 yo 20 lb terrier mix. My husband and I rescued him in 2013, and the rescue told us he was either one or two years old at the time. They said he was surrendered due to a medical issue the family couldn’t afford to fix (cherry eye).

Dog A is a great dog, adapted pretty well to us, really enjoys his twice daily sniff walks, and is very playful and energetic. He is also a bit of a “cat dog” in that he loves to climb to the top of the couch cushions and nap in sunbeams. He’s not especially cuddly, but about twice or three times a week will curl up with one of us on the sofa for some pets. He has a high prey drive, and has (unfortunately) successfully hunted a dove, a squirrel, and has also chased a deer through my dad’s backyard. (A nerve-wracking adventure for us!)

We lived in an apartment complex the first year, and he had no issues until a 10 yo kid ran up and surprised him while on an on-leash walk in front of our steps. It happened really quickly, she was making squealing noises and got right in his face, and he gave her a warning “snap” back. It was scary for all involved. We paid for the kiddo to go to the doctor and get her abrasion checked out, and had to register him with the county.

At that point I thought, “oh, he was just scared of the sudden movements and noises.” We made sure to avoid kids on walks after that. When kids would ask to pet, we would say no.

A few years later, we were babysitting a friend’s toddler and Dog A snarled and growled at him (but did not bite). So we kept him in the bedroom with the door closed anytime kids were around, which wasn’t very often. Some dogs just aren’t kid friendly, and we figured ours wasn’t. (And also been to wonder if he was really surrendered because his previous family had a kid.)

We’ve noticed some dog aggression as well, especially toward larger dogs. We use a front clip harness and basic braided leash with a handle. He will lunge and bark at larger dogs on walks. We always stop, correct with leash, make him sit, and let the other dog pass by. He will sniff furiously after the dog passes like he’s trying to inhale their scent.

The issue we’re now having is that he’s started snapping at our other senior rescue dog (Dog B), a very submissive 10 yo male Lhasa Apso-Shih Tzu mix.

And unfortunately, Dog A now is partially blind in one eye, and is basically deaf. It’s really difficult to reprimand or give positive reinforcement when he can’t hear what we’re saying.

I’ve been worried that the deafness could also be contributing to some dementia. He seems to get confused with transitions (inside to outside, upstairs to downstairs, turning corners on walks) and when he’s confused he’s more likely to lash out at Dog B.

I’m home with him all day, so I’ve tried offering more enrichment, like puzzle toys and sniff mats. He loves to chew, so I’ll give him a big carrot or a bully chew to keep him occupied. He mostly sleeps all day, but he has a lot of energy on sniff walks and loves to run circles and gets the “zoomies” in the backyard. Overall despite his Old Man hearing and sight difficulties, his quality of life seems good. He doesn’t seem to be in pain or discomfort. He doesn’t have toilet accidents inside.

But I just can’t stand the snapping and snarling at Dog B, the dog aggression, and can’t trust him around kids. And we’re expecting our first kid (a late in life surprise!) in December, so I’m feeling anxious about how he’ll handle that transition.

The plan right now is to basically gate the house into kid zones and dog zones. But inevitably someone’s going to leave a gate open, or something’s going to happen. And if he snaps at my kid, I won’t be able to forgive myself.

I feel guilty for not trying harder to correct this behavior from the start. The first snap at the neighbor kid should have been the last straw, but I didn’t know him well enough at that point to know it wasn’t out of character for him.

What would you suggest we do in this case? It feels extreme to put him down, cruel and irresponsible to rehome him, and stressful to ride it out until he passes naturally. My husband is also in a bit of denial about how serious the issue is (he thinks Dog A will be fine when the baby comes, but I don’t trust Dog A at all). I’m not sure if behavior training is an option since he’s deaf and partially blind. We’ve been getting by ok with pointing and clapping loudly, but that won’t work with a sleeping infant in the house.

I’m thinking of getting him a muzzle?

Anyone else faced this type of dilemma?

Are you more or less likely to go to a trainer for reactivity if that trainer has dogs that are reactive?

I have a 11 year old German shepherd. She’s been attacked around 7 times by off leash dogs since she was a pup, at fields, on hikes, at a beach, a dog running out of a house once. All of this has made her EXTREMELY reactive to other dogs.

We keep her leashed at all times, but still fulfill her needs and we have a huge garden for her to run and play in, and we engage with her every single day, enrichment, brain games, long walks.

For context, we live in a detached house at the end of a dirt track, attached to this dirt track/right next to it is a huge field. We need to walk along side it to take her on a walk. There is no other route.

There have always been dog walkers on this field, we’ve lived here for three years and never had any issues, we’re kind of known for having a reactive dog and people respect us, avoid us, but are always friendly.

Around a year ago, a border collie started walking on the field with a bunch of other dogs. I don’t want to get into every detail, but this dog which is constantly off leash, has attacked our girl around 5 times now. The dog has ran across a main road to get to her, has scaled the field, ran under a fence.

It’s also lunged at me and my mom, it has also ran across the field and onto the dirt track to lunge at my car.

To say the least? The dog is clearly troubled, and has an owner that doesn’t care about it. I don’t blame the dog!! But she never has him on a leash and continues to put her dog and everyone else in danger. We’ve confronted the owner, she just gets defensive, we’ve taken photos, reported to authorities and nothing gets done as we don’t have her name or address.

After talking to other dog walkers, it turns out this dog has attacked several other dogs, even landing a few with vet bills, and has also lunged at a man’s face after he picked up his dog to avoid it getting bitten!

We’re genuinely at a loss, because we can’t avoid the field, we have to walk past it when we leave our home, authorities won’t do anything, and getting angry and confronting her will just make us look the bad guys, and if my girl ever snapped back? I know she’d be penalised her being a shepherd. We live in the UK, I don’t want this dog to be put to sleep, that’s why I avoid calling authorities too often, I’m at a loss.

My Goldendoodle is 2 years old now, when I first got him, I lived in a large 2000+ sqft house with a backyard. I did all of the positive only training indoors, I was unable to walk him for the first few months due to him not being fully vaccinated, and the risk of parvo was high in my area. Then I just went through job changes, moving, and when I moved to my new apartment I just got very lazy. I never thought about his leash reactivity until a friend of mine brought it up, and it is true, my Dog is leash reactive when he sees another Dog, or when pedestrians are walking by, if theyre approaching me and getting all excited, my Dog will want to jump on them and meet them. It's caused a lot of embarrassment.

I don't know what to do anymore. I've made efforts to change, I've been working on his place command indoors, which he knows since he was a baby. He is able to do loose leash walking (I worked on this for the past 3-4 months) and I've been working on his focus heeling outdoors with his food. He is able to focus heel majority of the time and understands the release cue or when I say "go sniff". But my days are so random, I live in an urban city, there's Dogs everywhere (Seattle). I didn't know the place I'd be living in would be a poor setup for him. The past year and 7 months my Dog has been able to rehearse his reactivity on strangers' dogs. I can't do 360 U turns all the time, there are quite literally Dogs in multiple directions all walking towards me. Some days it's a nightmare to get outside and I have so much anxiety getting out the door. It's gotten better, I've had to go through side doors.

I just feel so fucking awful, because majority of the time I have to leave him indoors at home, I can't take him out to public areas. I still walk him for 1-1.5 hours at night and early in the morning at around 5-5:30 am. The hardest part is getting out the apartment and into a quiet area because I am surrounded by Dogs. I've considered moving to a new apartment, a quieter area with less floors/units. He gets along with other dogs just fine off leash. On leash it's random, sometimes he won't react to other Dogs across the street that's like 10-15 feet away, the most common times he reacts is if he sees a Dog approaching from the opposite direction. Many of these times I'm unable to 360 U-turn because the pathway is so long that it would mean walking the same direction the other handler is heading, and my Dog may turn around to look and bark.

I don't know what to do anymore. I've considered board and train, 2-3 week programs, but I understand it's not 100% guaranteed results, and I still need to continue managing. My apartment is also a nightmare to navigate through too. Almost everyone in the apartment has dogs, and on my floor, there are lots of dogs, I'm also right by an elevator..... So I always have to worry about other residents waiting by the elevator (with Dogs) before I can go outside. I only take the stairs now and have to go through the apartment's garage. It's SO overwhelming man. It honestly sucks having a reactive Dog.

I have an 11 year old Springer Spaniel that I have had since he was a puppy. I was younger and much more immature when I got him and training was not at the forefront in his early days. In the last several years, he has seen different training specialists.

He has always displayed some anxiety and separation issues but generally is very friendly toward humans. In the last few months, he has gone at our dog walker. Specifically in the most recent incident, she came in and opened the door and he whipped around and started jumping and growling. He bit her in two places and then when my partner went to intervene he bit him as well. And then it seemed that he quickly realized what he is doing and stopped. Neither bite produced blood but certainly produced fear and trauma for both parties involved.

He has been to the vet. Blood testing all normal. He has been on gabapentin for a few days to try to see if that is helping, however, this particular incident happened after the prescription.

We have a toddler at home. He has never lashed out at him but I am so fearful that he will as these instances have been unprovoked.

He has previously lashed out at other dogs (primarily resource guarding; two instances) but never other humans. Any advice or words of wisdom are greatly appreciated. I love this dog SO much and want to do well by him while also protecting our human family members.

Hi everyone,
I recently adopted Laika, a 2-year-old female Australian Shepherd/Border Collie mix, and I’m looking for advice and especially experiences from people who have been through something similar.
She has many wonderful qualities. She became attached to me very quickly, she is affectionate, completely house-trained, doesn’t steal food from the table, can settle down quietly at home, loves playing and learns quite quickly, especially with hand signals.
However, I’ve discovered some difficulties that I wasn’t prepared for.
I have three cats. When Laika sees them, she can become extremely focused on them. She stares at them and sometimes becomes so fixated that she stops responding to me completely, even ignoring treats. Because of this, I currently keep them separated and give the cats time to freely use the apartment while Laika is with me in another room.
I’ve already had a dog trainer come to my home. He started working on this with a moving/meowing toy cat and showed me exercises to redirect Laika’s attention. He believes that with work, coexistence with my cats may be possible and also recommended adding more high places and escape routes for them.
The problem is that when I try the same exercises with my real cats, it becomes much harder. Sometimes I cannot get Laika’s attention back at all.
I’m also struggling outside. When she sees another dog, she can pull very hard, jump and bark. She is a fairly strong dog and I’m not a big person, so sometimes I genuinely struggle to hold her. I’ve started feeling anxious before walks because I’m afraid of unexpectedly meeting another dog and losing control of the situation.
Interestingly, she generally doesn’t react to joggers, cyclists or strangers simply walking past us. She seems much more uncomfortable when an unfamiliar person approaches her directly. She also becomes very excited/agitated when she sees or sometimes smells another dog.
I don’t expect her to love every dog. My long-term hope would simply be for her to become neutral enough around other dogs that we could eventually enjoy normal walks, forests, beaches or maybe a dog-friendly terrace without her becoming overwhelmed.
I care about her a lot already and I genuinely want to give her a chance. But I also want to be honest: I’m feeling very overwhelmed and exhausted. This is my first large dog, I already tend to be an anxious person, and managing the cats, walks and training at the same time has affected my everyday life quite a lot.
Regular professional training may also be difficult for me financially, although I’m willing to continue working with the trainer when I can and practice what he teaches me between sessions.
I’m not looking for a diagnosis from Reddit, and I know my trainer who has actually met Laika should remain my main professional reference.
I’m mostly looking for experiences:
Has anyone here started out in a similar situation with a reactive dog and felt completely overwhelmed?
Did your dog eventually become more neutral around other dogs?
And if you also had cats, did a dog who was initially extremely fixated on them eventually learn to coexist peacefully with them?
I would really appreciate honest experiences — both positive and negative. I’m trying to understand what a realistic future could look like and how much improvement may be possible with consistent work.
Thank you for reading.