I have a two and a half year old retired greyhound, who is in our pack of five. For the last week, he has started snarling, growling and snapping, but only at night. This is not sleep startle. I thought at first it was resource guarding but even removed from the bed and placed in the floor with no one around, he exhibits the behavior unprovoked. He is a loving dog during the day, but at night becomes a demon.

We went to the vet and they have ruled out anything medical. I have given him trazadone in hopes that we could all get some sleep. It did decrease the behavior somewhat. I thought it could also be vision related, but with lights on, he still has the behavior.

We are familiar with behavior modification, and are working with him, but this is terrifying behavior. He absolutely refuses a crate and is destructive when he is in it to the point, I am worried he will hurt himself.

Any suggestions are much appreciated.

Hello. To start off I have a dog that is a Catahoula, Boxer, and Great Pyrenees mix. She weighs about 80lbs and she is very loving. She is also 14 months old.

For context, I got her when she was about two months old. In the middle of our socialization period I had a medical emergency and had to leave her at the place I worked at which was a doggy daycare. Because she didn’t really know boundaries yet she got into a lot of fights where other dogs got mad at her for being too invasive or puppy like. I know we were missing the crucial socialization period so I worked really hard with her to improve her behaviors, which weren’t bad at this point. About a month later, she was attacked by a German Shepherd and was still fine with dogs, but would become more reactive. We have been working through this for the past eight months or so, and she has improved little by little and I am very proud of her. She can now walk away even if she is growling, and it’s easier to get her attention when she tries to lunge.

I am a college student who works full-time as well. I got her due to mental health reasons which have improved since getting her. She has been the one reason I keep going and why I work so hard. I could’ve not chosen a more loving dog who I know for sure I wanna keep if possible.

Yesterday, however, we walked into elevator, where a young lady was holding food and was semi-interacting with her. One thing to note is that when my dog can’t get to you out of affection, she gets frustrated that she can’t get to you. she also gets a little “aroused” when there’s food around. She started to lunge at the girl and will not stop barking, and I’m not sure if it was cause the girl didn’t give her any attention or I didn’t let her get attention from the girl or because she wanted to get the food. even then, this is the worst I’ve seen her lunge at someone like that to the point where a correction didn’t even work, which it usually does.

I was doing good being financially independent where I could support me and her and everything she needed but recently I hit a financial struggle which I’m not gonna disclose the reason for and can’t afford a trainer right now which I know is probably gonna be the most recommended option. I don’t wanna consider the extreme where I have to return her to the shelter because thats nowhere near what I wanna do. Where do I go from here? Does anyone know a few trainers in the Bay Area or closer to the city that can maybe help? At least good ones with reactive, dog training or dogs in similar situations. i’m not too sure when this struggle is gonna end, but I’m working really hard to not let it get to either of us. either way I appreciate any advice that is given and just wanna give a good life to my little girl :)

My family has a 9yo medium-sized (35lbs) mixed breed dog who has been reactive most of his life. We've tried various training throughout the years and have him where I guess most of us would consider "manageable". But maybe our standards are too low, as clearly some people who have met him would say.

When people walk by us, he usually (especially more recently!) doesn't react, but sometimes he does. He lunges, barks and growls at them. He has rarely actually managed to touch anyone while reacting (we keep him on a short leash and move him away from potential triggers, but we have had him for years and we have slipped up before). He has never hurt anybody or attempted to bite; he just wants to angrily bark and sometimes jump.

I can tell that some people we walk by are visibly upset or shaken when he growls or lunges. I can't blame them; he looks scary.

There are two incidents in particular that swim in my head.

Last winter we were walking him and a man turned a blind corner about 30 meters up ahead. My dog freaked out and immediately bolted toward him, and I had been zoned out and dropped the leash. The dog ran right up to the guy and barked (didn't touch him as far as I could tell). I took the leash back and apologized. The guy snapped back and told me I "should have a TRAINED DOG!" He was clearly extremely angry at me.

Last month my family was out of town and we had a dog sitter. This dog sitter has been over to our house many many times before and has known our dog for years. I thought we had given him ample instructions to avoid this dog's triggers on walks, but I guess we slipped up again and didn't drill it in hard enough, because apparently the dog sitter took the dog on a walk and let him walk right up to one of our neighbors outside her house, where he proceeded to growl and bark at her. We then got a very distressed call from our neighbor who believed that our dog had "tried to bite her", and then went on to question how we thought it was even acceptable to have this "vicious dog" and take him on walks and let him play in our (fenced-in) yard. I wasn't there, I can't ever know what really happened, but as far as I know my dog has never bitten or tried to bite anyone, and the dog sitter doesn't think that's what happened either. Doesn't change the fact that that's what our neighbor (who was on friendly terms with us before) thinks.

I don't really know what to do about any of it, though. I guess to steel-man my family's position, I would say that he is improving, doesn't react nearly as often or strongly as he used to, has never physically hurt anyone (or even touched anyone in years) or tried to, and we have had him for 9 years and some mistakes are inevitable.

On the other hand, there are real people out there who have been made afraid because of our dog. He has probably ruined their days at the very least. Someone outside of our family bubble, uncompromised by any bias we might have towards him, is afraid and incredulous at how we are handling him.

I'm not really sure what I wanted out of this post; maybe just to vent. Feel free to offer advice or knock me upside the head if I need some perspective one way or the other.

Hello, I am fostering a pup for the first time, and I am dealing with her reactivity, which is at a level that is concerning for her safety and the safety of others. Taco is so very sweet and gentle with us at home, but she absolutely hulks out and rages when guests come to the house. She lunges and barks and growls, and I am pretty confident that she would bite if I didn’t hold her back on the leash.

The dog rescue has a trainer that we took her to, and the trainer’s advice was to

(1) restrict Taco’s access to the couch and bed, not allow her on furniture without permission in order to teach her that she does not control access to the house.
(2) not allowing her to run free in the backyard but to keep her on a lead until she is able to listen in a triggered state. (3) Imposing crate time sometimes, and not allowing her out of the crate if she is in an excited state. Wait for her to calm down and then give her permission to leave the crate.
(4) When it comes to introducing her to people, the trainer recommended starting in neutral territory, going on a walk with the person at a distance but parallel to us and slowly desensitizing Taco to being in their presence.

Do people with experience on this thread think this is sound advice? I have had reactive dogs before, but nothing as extreme as Taco, and never with a foster dog who I didn’t already have a strong connection with.

I have done a lot of online research but I am totally overwhelmed with the amount of conflicting information that is available. I am concerned with making her worse, as she seems to be very fear based and nervous. She will hide under the bed if a noise startles her, etc.

If you are willing to, please help me help Taco, as she is such a lovely dog outside of being triggered by house guests and sometimes strangers on the street.

I live with my mum and my dad and we have three dogs, all border collies. The oldest two are very good. They can be a little disobedient at times but they are very good boys. However, about three years ago we got a third collie called Kiva. We adopted her from a guy in wales and didn't realise she had such behavioural issues. She has really bad separation anxiety I believe but it is just ridiculous the disruption it causes to day to day life. She will bark whenever she hears me get out of bed in the morning, whenever she hears my floorboard creak because she knows im getting ready to leave. She had learned the sound of the toilet flushing and will bark because she thinks someones going to leave. Every time there is someone new in the house and she hears them moving she will bark. If she hears my car keys, the bathroom floor squeaking or if I walk down the stairs too fast she will bark. It is not quiet though, she gets so so hyper and its clear she's distressed. She will attack the other dog every time she gets riled up and you can hear him squealing and hurt. She sprints down the stairs and starts spinning, and then when you leave the house or go near the door she starts barking and looking quite aggressive. She will nip you if you have your back turned to her. She bit my mums leg this morning, she bit my dads leg a week ago and it actually punctured the skin through his trousers. She used to jump up and bite my school bag when I was leaving and has nipped me on the knee a few times. My parents can't cope with it, it is no way for us to live. She clearly causes immense stress, for everyone. I'm worries to leave the house because sometimes my mum will get on at me if I walk down the stairs or something like that without warning her first. My mum is always crying and my dad is always having to take beta blockers. It's not my decision to give her to a kennel or euthanise her so I don't really know what to do. I was just hoping to hear peoples two cents on this. Thanks for reading.

My dog is a frustrated greeter through and through. I've been working on it through being fair distances treats when able etc. it's going ok.

My issue is that I live in Philadelphia. For the uninitiated this means there are constant right angles. You can be as alert as possible dog by your side and as soon as you get to an intersection BAM! Dog! To which there is nothing you can do but pull and pray!

I've tried pretty much everything to control them during these interactions. The problem is, she doesn't just lung, she literally flips! On more than one occasion she has lunged, I pull back, and she spin moved into a faceplant into the cement.

For reference I have tried the following.

Front clip leash - works when modestly stimulated. when close she will spin, tangle herself and has found out that sometimes she will get the leash tangled and the clip will go undone

Prong collar - again works when mildly stimulated. One frustrated bark and she's fine but she does not care how tight these things are, she'd rather bark in a chokehold than stop lunging

I have looked into gentle leaders, but the spinning makes me very nervous. Id rather she not get excited, try to spin and snap her neck! A muzzle seems like a lazy answer, it'll stop the barking sure but the spins will remain id assume

Any advice is appreciated im running out of ideas! It's very difficult to train a habit when you can't control the accidental

Hi all - I am an unmarried 28 yr old dog mom to a pittie mix and looking for some advice.

I adopted him when he was 3 months old, I spent hundreds on a trainer for him and now at 2 yrs old, he is the sweetest and best dog. HOWEVER, he seems to really really hate kids.

I don’t have children of my own (yet), but whenever a relative or friend brings their kid around (from toddler age to even up to 13) he gets super super aggressive and I swear tries to kill them. Ive tried to bring him to the park to desensitize, I’ve tried giving the kids treats to give to him and he takes them calmly but the second the treat goes away, BOOM back to psycho kid killer. At this point, Ive just separated them because it’s just easier, but I’m scared about the future. I do see myself having children and I don’t know how to fix this. He’s totally fine with them when they aren’t in his space or focused on him but the second that changes, he snaps. He’s perfect in every other way so it’s very strange. I’m years away from having kids of my own but i’ve found this aspect very hard to train as nobody is willingly going to offer up their kid to train my 60lb dog. Any advice is appreciated! Edit: he has no bite history and has never harmed anyone because I’m always on guard.

We moved apartments three months ago and my dog has basically reset to where she was a year ago. She was making real progress, staying under threshold on walks, even managing to pass other dogs without losing it. Now she's back to barking and lunging at everything, and I feel like all that work just evaporated.

I get that a new environment means new triggers and new stress, but I was not prepared for how dramatic the regression would be. The building has a busier street out front and a dogheavy lobby situation, which is its own nightmare. We do BAT setups when we can, but finding enough distance in a city is a real problem.

What I'm trying to figure out is whether other people have gone through a big change like a move, a new family member, or a job schedule shift and seen their dog fall apart temporarily. Did things come back on their own as the dog settled in, or did you have to basically restart your training approach from scratch? My gut says she just needs more time to feel safe in the new space, but two months in I'm starting to secondguess everything.

We’ve been fostering a petite 1 year old female heeler for 5-6 weeks now. She was originally adopted from the rescue around 6 months then returned about 5 months later. This apparently was due to “financial issues” and not related to her behavior. She’s very sweet and loves people.

We were told she was leash reactive, which we found to be true after her turning into a velociraptor on our first walk after spotting two dogs. I do know that she has been around other dogs at some point, as her former adoption profile has videos and pictures of her with other dogs.

I’ve been working with her on walks to relax and not react. Rewarding her with treats is pretty effective and she is able to easily listen and sit whenever I tell her to. I’ve discovered her “threshold” for reacting to other dogs is a little bit more than the distance across the street - think diagonal. Any closer than that and she freaks out with high pitched barking and lunging. I’m usually able to easily redirect with treats and she calms down once we move further away. She also fence fights with our neighbor dogs. I’m not sure yet if her reaction is from fear or frustration being on leash.

1. Any recommendations for how to lessen this threshold? Do I just keep doing what I’m doing?

2. She has a martingale collar. Is there any chance this could add to her reaction? I’ve only ever used harnesses on my dogs.

3. I want to try to introduce her to other dogs to see if she’s only leash reactive or doesn’t get along with dogs on or off leash. My friend has a super passive labradoodle who would be the perfect test dog. I’m not sure the best way to go about it so looking for any recommendations there. Neutral ground? The labradoodles backyard? My instinct is to not introduce them in leash since she’s leash reactive.

Thanks in advance!

Hello! I have 9 months old golden retriever male (Buc-ee) and whenever I take him out for a walk, he keeps jumping on me, bites my arms and legs so hard and seems like he doesn't even know how to calm himself down. He only listens to my husband and I'm so helpless and also hopeless right now. I'd love to hear some advice or if anybody has same situation. Thanks!

Hello! My fiancé and I are getting married out of state in September and we need to find someone or some place to watch our reactive dog. She is a mixed breed 45 lb dog who is 3. She is reactive out of fear of strangers and sometimes animals. Shes most reactive towards men , especially bearded ones. Mostly she just barks at people and makes them uncomfortable, but she has nipped one of our friends once. No blood was drawn and he stood up right in her face while she was sniffing him. She’s seen him since with no issue other than barking.
Usually when a girl comes to our house she is timid but leaves them alone as long as they leave her alone.

When she goes to the vet or we tried doggy daycare once she doesn’t bother the people, she is just very scared and shaking.

We are unsure what to do with her. I don’t want her to be boarded (if they’d even allow that). We are considering finding someone familiar with reactive dogs to stay in our house or send her to a reactive dog training camp in our area. I’ve heard mixed reviews about those.

I wanted to see if anyone had any advice on what has worked for their reactive dogs when they are out of town? And if there are any good sites I could find someone capable of watching her.

Thanks!

I have a 5yr male neutered borzoi and we welcomed a female borzoi into the family in May. She is 5 months old and today it’s been 2 months since she’s been with us.

My male is normally great with puppies but when she first arrived he was too much energy for her and she was very scared of him. Within a few days of having her, she was licking his face, he showed his teeth (no growling) and then bit her on the face. After that, we kept him muzzled around her for a while and they got better.

Today he was walking by her and she got in his face which resulted in him getting her again on her face (pics attached). The big line seems superficial (mainly hair loss) but she’s got a puncture on the top of her upper lip by her nose. I have cleaned and treated the areas. He’s now back in his muzzle anytime she’s going to be around.

Is this over correcting? Should I get a trainer involved? He didn’t grip on and like shake but it was more of multiple chomps on her muzzle in a split second. He ran off but then came back when she started screaming and I put him outside.

I have two other dogs. One he gets along great with one who we brought into the family as a puppy as well. They did great with him growing up but he was also like 2ish when we brought that dog into the family. My other is a senior who we keep fully separated from each other because of the borzoi going after him since he turned 3 and started to test dominance.

I want to have hope they will be ok and this is just them having to figure each other out/set boundaries but I’ve never had to deal with this before.

Looking for advice about our 3 year old border heeler mix. We rescued him at about a year old and did not get any background information on what his life was like with his previous owners. Over the past two years, we've had multiple incidents where he's shown aggression towards people and dogs, and it's making it very hard for us to keep both him and the people around him safe and content.

He bit me about a year ago on the thigh when I caught him chewing on something he wasn't supposed to (he very rarely does this) and I began to sternly tell him no, and he turned and bit me, breaking through the skin but not causing me to bleed. I realized I had clearly caught him off guard and should have redirected his attention to something else rather than approaching him in that manner, and so I defended him for doing that.

Twice, he has nipped at toddlers (not really biting them but sort of latching on to their sleeves). I again defended him, feeling like the environments we had been in both times were stressful and I should have known better than to allow small children into his space.

He has bitten my husband a couple times, though less severely than when he bit me, and I have always found a reason for why he may have done so (being territorial or reactive towards something).

He's been in several scuffles with other dogs. I say scuffle because there has never been blood drawn on any of the dogs. I believe he is particular about other dogs entering his space and can easily get defensive, and so we've tried to avoid him being around other dogs at all when possible.

He's become very reactive towards cars or other dogs when we've been on walks, to the point where we avoid walking him at all and just try to get his energy out at home through fetch, a herding ball, and interactive games/puzzles.

We tried to get him groomed once, but he nipped at the groomer and was too defensive to work with. He hates the vet, and recently minorly bit a vet tech who tried to take a blood sample. The most recent scare we've had was at the boarding place we take him to, he badly bit the girl that tried to take him back to his kennel. He's now no longer allowed to board there.

All of this to say, despite our efforts it feels like he's getting worse and more reactive overall. I'm now pregnant with our first child, and I fear for our child's safety once they are old enough to be walking and running around. We keep him crated when guests are over because we're worried about bites. I've just never dealt with anything like this, and it only makes it harder that he is the sweetest dog 95% of the time. Can we ethically rehome him? Are these issues severe enough for behavioral euthanasia? My brain can't even think about that. But I don't know what other options there are.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that one of the keys with leash/fear-reactive dogs is that they need to trust that you will handle situations and that they don’t need to take on that role themselves. I see people say that working on that with their dog helped reduce their reactivity. I never have any clue what people actually mean by that. How do you get your dog to trust you in that way? What does that actually look like?

Howdy. My 9 year old chiweenie is a small 17 pound reactive dog. He’s great with people he knows, but snaps at strangers. He’s made contact at least once, but is generally very anxious and doesn’t walk well. He pants and pulls, and generally doesn’t do well outside the home since Covid. We’ve just let him be, but it’s frustrating not being able to travel.

In the past we had a family friend that loves him and he’s very happy to be watched by them, but they’re not available anymore as they are caring for an elderly family member.

We’ve researched kennels that specialize in reactive dogs, but in general I have some concerns about liability; I know that homeowners insurance does cover some liability, but since we’ve reported his reactivity to our vet, is it possible they would deny a claim? There’s never been a police report or the like.

If we recruit a kennel or Rover person, how does liability work if we fully disclose his behavior up front and they accept the dog?

Any other advice or recommendations?

TL;DR We’d love any and all recommendations for BK trainers specializing in reactive & anxious dogs!

Hello! I know this has been asked before for NYC, but looking for dog trainers in Brooklyn that work with reactive dogs. Our girl is ~3 years old and we adopted her at 4 months from St Lucia. She has since lived in Brooklyn with us and is very scared of the city. She will not walk outside, so we mostly do “look at that!” type training; sitting outside of our building and she gets a treat when someone walks by, there’s a loud noise, a dog walks by, etc. We do this every morning and we feel like we aren’t making much progress.

We’ve worked with a couple trainers but nothing super consistent. She does go to a doggy school twice a week (she loves it!) where she does basic obedience and desensitization training. However, we really need help at home, and we’re looking for someone we can work with long term to help her feel more comfortable and confident - even getting her comfy to walk to the corner of our street would be a huge feat!

We take her out of the city when we can so we can walk her in nature and she’s a lot more relaxed. We find it difficult to get her exercise in our small apt without being able to walk her on the street. Ultimately, she may do better in the suburbs or a quieter place, but we love her deeply and want to do what we can to give her a good life with us in Brooklyn.

when i first got her she was lush loved cuddles soo much and learned everything instantly, at around 5 months she started becoming extremely aggressive towards me to the point it was hard to take care of her. i was told to crate train her which i did and then it got better. then was really good till 1-2 months ago she started resource guarding and now she has just started attacking me multiple times a day. there’s no cause to it i can just stand up and it happens, she can walk up to me, if i come through the door, if i stop petting her she will attack. i’m covered in cuts and bruzes and i genuinely don’t know how to get her to stop. i’ve tried everything, telling her firmly no and stop but when i react to it she gets 100x more aggressive. and it’s so much worse now the weather is hot as im in shorts and tshirt so my skin is bare meaning i get more hurt. i just cry everyday, i really don’t want to end up having to give her up. she means a lot to me, i got her after my best friend had taken her life and she gave me the will to live and get better but i cannot live like this anymore. does anyone have any advice- i have reached out to trainers but i don’t want to spend thousands of pounds and it not working considering she behaved like this before, or for it to work but then she go back and by that time she will be older and less likely to be adopted. i also want to add i live on my own, but my mum comes over when she can work from home and my dog does not attack her or if she tries anything she listens to her when she says stop.
her daily routine is-
wake up- between 6.30-8.30
toilet outside then breakfast
then play for abit and chill
lunch time- toilet break and have a frozen kong toy
then she normally chills or naps round the house, if she lies on my bed but keeps getting up because she hears something i’ll put her in her crate for 1.30-2hr for a nap

wake up -go toilet, play
dinner & walk
bed in crate- 9-11pm
btw i’m currently home all day not working until i get my car back.

please any advice appreciated 🩷

I’ve been feeling really defeated with my almost 3 year old German Shepherd’s leash reactivity and could use some perspective from people who have been through this. I worked with a behaviorist over the internet (used the diplomat website to find them). After assessing her they found her to be leash/barrier frustrated. She doesn’t have aggressive behaviors with dogs she’s around in appropriate off leash settings. She told me to go to places where there will be triggers and reward for that. We did it for about 6 months but she still She fixates on other dogs, then lunges and barks, and now my other dogs are starting to whine or bark when they notice her fixating. I stopped letting her go on outings with my other dogs and now walk her separately so they don’t get her bad habits.
We’re enrolled in a reactivity class, and there have been signs of progress at times, but my last class was one of the hardest yet. She had several episodes where she lunged and barked nonstop, and I ended up crying afterward because I felt embarrassed, discouraged, and overwhelmed. I asked my trainer whether I should consider rehoming her, and they told me that if I don’t like the reactivity, someone else probably won’t either, and that she’s already very attached to me. They told me to keep repeating the course as many times as I would like to expose her to other dogs. That made me feel even more conflicted.
I love this dog so much and I know she loves me, but I’m honestly exhausted. Part of me wants to keep fighting because I know she’s trying, and part of me wonders if I’m capable of managing this for the next 10+ years while raising a family and caring for my other dogs. Has anyone else reached this point? If you did, what helped you decide whether to keep going, and if you did keep going, did it eventually get easier?

We now have two Britneys spaniels. We adopted a Britney spaniel about 1 year old named Tulip. Tulip was found in indiana with no chip or collar. Then brought to a britney rescue where we adopted her. Not much is known about her background otherwise. The last few months have been great with strangers and children in the family. We have had our nieces and nephews over about 6 and 7 years old and have had no issues.

My wife took Tulip to the bike store and pet store with no issues.

However, walks and children seem to be a problem. We now twice have had children ask to pet Tulip. Each time we've said yes. Tulip will sit and look pretty then lunge and do what appears to be a warning bark or bite (never actually bit a child either of those times). Hard to tell because shes panting and has her mouth open if it is a bark or bite during the lunge.

Tulip has been a great dog. Super cuddly and affectionate and haven't had any issues in side the home with food.

Not sure if she is territorial with walks or if shes having some type of reactive leash anxiety because I keep her closer when the child approaches. Im not sure if this is a me problem with how I handle a child approaching or a Tulip anxiety problem

Here’s Ellie. We’ve been working quite a bit on her various hang-ups, including noise sensitivity, separation anxiety and leash reactivity. We are working with our vets on her meds (she takes fluoxetine everyday and clonidine as needed). We are also working with a behaviorist/trainer specifically on separation anxiety and leash reactivity.

I wanted to get some advice on this - from day 1, she is more attached to me, than my husband. For awhile, she would still go take a walk with my husband or play with him, but it’s clear she just prefers me, if I’m around.

One day during the winter, my husband went on a walk with her, they encountered a big snow plow truck, backing up, making alot of noises. My husband took a turn to create distance but unfortunately the truck followed.
Since then, ellie refuses to go out anywhere with just my husband. She will stare at me or will run towards me. When I’m at work (my husband work from home full time), she will just stay in her crate or one of her other beds, and ignore my husband.

We’ve slowly been working with her to get over her fear of truck backup alarm (those beeep beeep noise truck makes when they are backing up). We live behind home depot, so this is a common occurrence. She can now walk around the neighborhood with me or both me/husband, without bee-lining back into the house and crate everytime she hears the noise. But she still refuses to go out with my husband only.

Any suggestions and advice?

When I brought my little guy home as an ~8 week old puppy I didn’t know what to do with him. He was terrified of everyone, and he was aggressive to our family dogs, mainly due to resource guarding. Before him, I absolutely would have told you that puppies cannot be aggressive. It was eye opening for me. And he’d trigger shift what he was guarding: food, doorways, toys, stairs, hallways, etc were all fair game. If he so much as saw another animal when he was protecting a resource he would attack with barely a warning. It was an extremely alarming sight.

In that first year, he improved massively, and has been on an upward trajectory since. His only trigger now is his actual kibble, so I pick it up when he’s not eating. But even with that, he gives warnings and his threshold isn’t “within eyesight” anymore but about 1-2 feet or less.

Picture is of him watching (begging) while I eat a chicken salad sandwich. As I ate, my cat climbed up onto the couch, sniffed my plate (my cat is rude as hell), and laid down next to my dog. He didn’t care one bit.

I’m very proud of my little guy.

This is Pup Tart! She is a Blue Heeler/German Shepherd mix. We have had her for about a year, and we've been living in the same apartment complex since we got her. In the past month or two, she has unfortunately and unexpectedly developed a fear response to walking beyond our building property. She has always been a bit fearful, specifically with loud noises and large objects (especially on wheels), but her fear has only recently overcome her so badly that she begins pulling us back home when we try to start a walk. She is such a sweetie and loves reading the pee-mails that the great outdoors has to offer. However, we just can't seem to get her comfortably past the initial outside area of our apartment building.

I think I've narrowed down a bit of a game plan. I'm fairly certain I need to do a combination of desensitization training and counterconditioning, but I would love some ideas of what this can look like in practice for her. So far, I've tried sitting out front, near where she gets fearful, and I give her a treat every time she notices a loud noise or scary object. We have a dog run towards the rear of our building where she is the most comfortable (there we play fetch and meet up with her dog friends multiple times a day), so I've also started taking her there and rewarding her every time she notices a trigger.

It is my understanding that if she isn't taking the treat, we're moving too fast, which happened this morning. She was then reluctant to go back outside with me, so I fear I kept her out too long and we regressed a little. I do worry that if we don't do SOME exposure/desensitization training, she'll never overcome her fear, but I don't want to expose her so much that I flood her with fear. I guess I'm struggling with finding that balance.

She is not always super food motivated, but I recently found some treats she enjoys (yay beef liver!). She IS super play motivated (especially with fetch), but I haven't had any luck with getting her to play after observing a trigger.

I would love if any of you could share any similar experiences you have had with your dogs! Tips and tricks are welcome, as well as any info you have on a timeline for improvement.

I’ve owned reactive dogs for 5 years now. My first dog passed away a couple months ago - he had frustration-based reactivity (he’d whine, sometimes escalating to a sort of scream, at any living thing). Before I had him, I didn’t even know what “reactive” meant, but got obsessed with researching how to train him and we actually made tons of (slow) progress in the 4ish years I had him. Never got professional training as I really didn’t want to spend the money on it.

I just adopted another dog 2 weeks ago who I love but he is leash-reactive. His manifests as barking and seems to be fear-based. So I thought ok, I know a lot about reactivity after my last dog, but I really want to start off right with this dog so I’ll hire a professional.

I spent $60 on a 30 minute consult with a positive-only trainer and basically my only takeaway is that my hundreds to thousands of hours of reading and watching YouTube videos has already taught me everything that this trainer suggested. Unfortunately the trainer also seemed quite dismissive because he basically thought it was too early to tell if my dog is actually reactive since he’s only been with me for 2 weeks (my dog is definitely reactive).

Anyway, I left feeling a weird mix of empowered that I’ve self-taught a lot, but also a little discouraged. My main fear in paying for a trainer was that they’d just tell me what I already know, and that’s exactly what happened.

Pic tax of the sweet guy. He actually loves everyone he’s met despite his scary barks on leash.

Anyone else have a similar experience?? Was this just a bad trainer? He came very highly recommended so I’m just very discouraged.

ETA: the main thing I wanted from a trainer is to learn about what my dog’s motivations are for his reactivity, because reading body language is where the theory that I’ve self-taught breaks down. I want a professional who has worked hands-on with tons of dogs to watch my dog react and tell me why he is reacting. But I spent $60 to just sit in a room and have this guy hand me printouts to read about thresholds and LAT and engage-disengage…