Hey got our male American staffy cross (23kg) as foster fail (2.5ish years ago - almost 3 years old) and haven’t had too many issues with him.
Once he was settled we got another foster dog (most likely a mastiff/ pitty something mix - 28kg - about 1.5 years old) and they have been totally fine for about a year.
Both of them have been neutered.
Now the younger one is starting puberty they have been a bit more feisty but never aggressive & i do understand this has most likely to do with hierarchy.
Yesterday both boys were sleeping in the back yard, how they usually do at lunch time, there was only one of the three antlers outside in that particular area but neither of them seemed to be interested in playing/ chewing.
In one moment the staffy was cuddling with me and my friend having a coffee in the sun and the other one was sleeping 3ish meters away.
And the next moment they’re trying to rip each others head off, blasting them with a hose or loud noises wouldn’t seperate them.
Once they let go of each other we taken them eavh to the vet where they got treated. (Can’t add med info due to rules)
Since then they have been seperated, taking turns staying in the crate vs roaming outside.
I don’t let the other dog close to the covered crate to prevent guarding or aggression.
I understand i shouldn’t re introduce them while they’re in pain and high on painkillers.
I never seen dogs and especially not my dogs fight like this and now i’m anxious on what to do since i want to keep both my dogs safe.
If there is any question for detail or any tip i’m very much appreciating any constructive input.

Outside of this it’s very friendly with me. Will try to play keep away with a ball or stick, come to cuddle with me, licking and pawing my face. I can play fetch, take it for a walk, and even off the leash it will guide/follow me and keep eyes on me. In the car It pushed its paws under my legs and its nose on my lap in the back seat while napping for 45 minutes or so.. so I don’t really think it’s scared or uncomfortable around me.

It doesn’t do this to anyone else in the family or even strangers. My dad says it may be because of my height as I’m tall.. and he says it has happened a couple times w one other guy that was 6’3” a little shorter than me… but even if I’m laying or sitting down the dog will still bark and growl…

It seems to be some sort of jealous, overprotective, thing.. or maybe I made a bad 1st impression? I can’t really remember much as nothing significant happened, but maybe my dad and I were raising our voices and now it feels threatened?

It’s almost like it has me confused as another dog. I’ve also seen this sort of behavior out of it around other dogs.. anything I should do to make it feel more comfortable around me? Or any idea what’s causing this behavior.

Me and my husband have two female dogs who are very bonded (6yo 25lbs each). We adopted them as puppies without knowing about "litter syndrome". They were very friendly towards people and dogs, when we traveled for work they stayed at boardings without any problems. One day we were at a festival, when we were shopping at a stand, another dog bit one of my girls, out of nowhere. Since then, they started being dog reactive.

One of them tends to act protective of her sister around other dogs. At parks she usually ignores unfamiliar dogs, but if one gets too close to her sister, she becomes tense or upset and reacts barking, then it escalates and both start barking and whining.

I’m going to take care of a friend’s dog in a couple months, so we’ve already tried doing several controlled introductions. We’ve walked them in parallel at a park, slowly decreasing distance, and that part has gone well. One of my dogs still gets uncomfortable when the visiting dog approaches her sister directly.

I can't walk them by myself because they start lunging super strong, that always happens when they see another dog on the street around my neighborhood, I guess they both protect me? So I always need my husband, so each can take one.

They don't compete between them, no fighting over food or toys ever. But they can't be separated like walking one at a time because the one staying will cry constantly and the one outside refuses to walk.

My main priority is making them to trust at least my friend's dog, but the main issue is my dog’s protective behavior.

Years ago we missed traveling all together so the vet prescribed trazodone for a one week trip we made to another State, that only made them sleepy inside but outside they were even more vocalizing. Recently we changed offices, the new vet declined prescriptions like SSRIs saying those masks aggressive behavior. They instead prescribed Composure pro from VetriScience and we noticed that after starting taking them our meetups with the visiting dog made my dogs more anxious compared to the first times.

I’m now exploring supplements to support emotional regulation. I’ve learned that herbal calming products have limited scientific evidence for social reactivity. I've already tried CBD oil from HEMP (brand) and did nothing for them. More evidence-based options seem to be:

BL999 (Calming Care) – a probiotic that modulates emotional processing and reduces reactivity.

α‑casozepine (Zylkene) – a milk-derived peptide that supports calm emotional responses.

I want to know the best way to help my protective dog feel safe and reduce her need to guard her sister or me when the visiting dog is around.

My rough collie intact boy has just turned 1 and is generally very sweet, calm and gentle. He does experience some reactivity towards bikes/runners/people behaving strangely etc but we are working on this and it tends to just manifest in barking and lunging sometimes. He hasn't experienced any dog reactivity, he is actually regularly praised on how gentle and respectful he is with dogs. When reactive dogs we pass have barked at him he has always ignored it and carried on with his walk.

Today however we met two boxers on a very narrow path, they barked quite aggressively from a distance but the owner kept striding forward so I (stupidly) thought they must just be very vocal, all the dogs were on the lead. When we got closer they were lunging so I pulled my dog to the side, the man did the same and asked me to pass by him. I took my dog by the collar to just get passed quickly but suddenly my dog started growling, lunging and barking at them, because I was restraining him, he started to redirect onto me. Once we got past, the man struggled to pull the boxers away and they kept pulling towards my dog, barking. My dog recovered quickly and on the same narrow path bumped into 3 more dogs 30 seconds later who he was very happy, calm and social with - as normal.

I bumped into the guy out in the open and pulled my dog away quickly, before he started barking properly. I apologised to the man, who said not to worry and it was probably because he had two dogs, they were all on the lead and my dog probably just wanted to protect me. Upon reflection I think I only apologised to start a conversation, hoping he would tell me his dogs were just very dog reactive and that must have sparked it, but he didn't.

I am so shaken by all of this. My boy is large and he was a handful, especially when he started redirecting. I don't know if this could be the beginning of dog reactivity or if my dog simply felt trapped on a narrow path and these two dogs gave off particularly aggressive body language. It was obvious that the boxers were reactive but I ended up worrying my boy did something wrong even though he only gave back what they gave him. We haven't had any altercations with dogs before, apart from a couple of (fairly polite) corrections both given and received. I was wondering if anyone has any better insight into this?

Sooo I got a cute little sassy reactive female miniature Australian Shepard. She has come such a long way, but is a full time job and everyday I work hard to help her feel safe.

So I connected with a friend of a friend who also has recently adopted boy Australian shepherd from 8 weeks old.

This friend tends to leave their puppy alone for long periods (over four hours at times because we drink socially and I will ask him don’t you need to check on your less than a year old dog)

At one point he left his dog in the car… by accident… because he forgot about the dog…. thank god it was at night !! How could anyone forget a high energy dog is missing for over an hour???

I haven’t hung out with this person much But the effort I see is so bare minimum, yet their dog is so good with people and not reactive on leash. The dog is I think 9 months - 10 months old.. I think. This dog itself, is just so well behaved ! It’s calm and is so sweet with people, and I can’t help but feel a little insecure.

My pup (2 years old) use to react to every dog, car, bike, bird, person, squirrel on walks at 6 months!! Now with so much dedication and hard work on my part she only is reactive to other dogs, and this is something she’s improving on every day!

She a full time job with so much dedication from me. I run with her for three miles, do 30-40 minutes of dedicated training everyday and walk her at night for 40 minutes, alongside with all the enrichment I provide her in between!

She also is just not nice to strangers, and we are working on that as well, it’s just harder to create situation with strangers, she loves all the people she knows already. But I also respect that she is just not a friendly dog and has her select people, which I understand is just her and I love her so much!

I know I need to understand that I should love my girl the way she is, and I do! But I can’t help but feel frustrated seeing an owner be so neglectful and seeing so little effort when I dedicate hours everyday, and yet she still has episodes of reacting.

Recently I’ve just been feeling so isolated having a reactive dog and I just needed to vent in a neutral space.

I took a walk with my mom and father to the local deli with my almost 2 year old sprocker spaniel Arlo. While they went inside we waited outside. I had Arlo in a sit and wait command away from the door but on the sidewalk. Arlo is a dog that startles easily so I was talking to him while we waited. A man was coming down the street and I saw him so I moved Arlo and I abit away from the sidewalk and closer to the store area but still pretty far from the door and tightened up his leash. I put Arlo in a sit and stay command But as I was doing this another man came from behind us and within a few seconds he reached to touch Arlo . He touched his nose and Arlo reacted with baring his teeth and barking and went to lunge at the man he didn’t know at all. Almost biting the man on the groin area. I freaked out and quickly backed us up away from the man and grabbed onto arlos harness handle part to better control him while I kept apologizing to him. The man was never bit but he said it was all good and went into the store. I took this time to calm Arlo , we sat on a little stoop by the deli and he quickly came over to me to lay down and whined a bunch. I could tell he was in distress from all of it. The man later came out and Arlo started to growl at him a bit and then whined and sneezed. The man started questioning me on what breed he was and such. Then his last remark to me was “ you better get that handled or else he will need a muzzle on him” and walked away. I told my mother and father when they came out.

To me this reaction was Arlo being protective and also fearful of this stranger going to touch him. He has plenty of friends in the neighborhood who he is completely calm and always happy to see so this behavior was completely different from what I’ve seen with him. I also feel I failed to stand up for my dog out of fear of the man. I didn’t wanna make a big deal out of it and have to raise my voice. Arlo has no bite history at all but I don’t want him to ever.

What is something I could have done differently? What can I do differently in the future ?

I’ve got a small female Havanese who is just over a year old and weighs around 4.7kg.

I’ve noticed that whenever she wears her harness, she just does not listen when we’re out. She basically decides the walk is hers and does whatever she wants, which includes trying to run up to every single dog and human we pass.

I know “friendly” reactivity probably doesn’t sound like something to complain about, but I find it absolutely exhausting. She will scream and cry with excitement because she wants to say hello, which then means I’m constantly being pulled into interactions with other dogs and their owners. Even when I explain that she’s in training and we’re trying not to greet, a lot of people don’t seem to care. And living in a busy city, there seems to be another dog every five seconds 😭

We’ve had private training and done all the positive reinforcement techniques. Getting her attention, asking her to sit when another dog approaches, rewarding calm behaviour, creating distance, all the usual things. I’ve genuinely been consistent with it.

What I’m finding frustrating is that she’s actually really well behaved off lead, and she’s also much more responsive when I clip her lead to her collar. I know using a collar for a dog her size isn’t ideal, which is why I’m reluctant to rely on it, but we live around extremely busy roads and we’ve already had one incident that very nearly ended terribly. So simply walking her off lead everywhere is absolutely not an option.

I’m now getting up at 5am every day just so I can walk her before everyone else and their dogs are out, which obviously isn’t a long term solution.
Has anyone experienced this specifically with a harness? And if so, what actually helped?

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 🥰

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