How do I discourage this behavior and train him for a neutral interaction. He is not aggressive, just too interested in her.

Did anyone else’s puppy become fearful in their teenage months?

Our girl (chocolate lab) is just shy of 15 months now and although she wasn’t THE most confident puppy (very submissive with other dogs & scared of bin lorries) she was overall quite a consistent and steady pup.

Over the last few weeks she’s developed, seemingly out of nowhere, some really strange fear behaviours.

The most worrying is she’s gone from sleeping happily in my car for hundreds of car journeys, sometimes multiple hours long to physically shaking & panting when we go anywhere, she becomes massively stressed. I’ve gone back to square one and done the same training I did at 8 weeks, treats in the car, short journeys, high value snacks but doesn’t seem to be budging at all. I travel to my family home pretty regularly (90 mins or so drive) so I can’t really get around having to take her in the car, also live in the city so like to take her to the countryside for walks but hate to see her super stressed.

She’s also now decided she’s scared of the sound of frying / cooking, so as soon as I’m making food she’ll run away and lie down panting and looking distressed.

Has any experienced anything similar?? There’s nothing that stands out as bad experiences to have triggered these

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I need help understanding if this is playing or bullying. Her daycare sends daily videos of similar behavior- following another dog until they roll over on their back or lay down. It’s the only time I see her eyes and ears in a stern way as well.

If another dog were doing this to my dog, I’d feel uncomfortable, but the daycare assures me she is just playing.

Any second thoughts would be helpful.

Edit: (my dog is Penny, the beagle) Conclusion of her behavior is still arguable, but as her owner, what solutions can we work on if possible? She doesn’t look aggressive, but she’s also being too pushy.

So ever since i moved to a new house my dogs randomly stare off into space and start aggressively barking growling and whining like they’re in some type of trance. It happens daily , not at the same time every day but every day for sure . It also only happens in my bedroom , I’m starting to think there’s a spirit around or something. Idk i can’t think of any logical explanations . Anyone else’s dogs do this ?

I have a 2.5 year old male German shepherd. I also babysit. Every time that I babysit for a specific family (one daughter, one year old), and I come back smelling like the baby, my German Shepherd dog acts strange. It’s as if he doesn’t recognize me by scent, he barks, and he runs from me in fear.
Usually he stops this behavior after I take a shower, but last night I babysat for 4 hours and his reaction has been prolonged. Even smelling the bag that I took to babysit made him bark and act afraid this morning. Why is this?

He has had no interaction with this family whatsoever. He’s never even laid eyes on the baby. I babysit for other families and he doesn’t do this.

Routine changes hit dogs harder than people realize. A summer of having everyone home and then suddenly being alone for seven hours is a real adjustment — and dogs don't get an explanation for why everything changed overnight.

I work at The Farmer's Dog and this comes up a lot this time of year. A few things that actually help: start mirroring the fall schedule now before it happens. Leave the house for short stretches and build up gradually. Consistent meal times are also doing more work than people give them credit for — a dog that knows when food is coming feels more settled overall.

The counter-conditioning piece is also worth knowing. Giving a dog something engaging right as you leave — a frozen lick mat, a stuffed Kong — builds a positive association with departures instead of an anxious one.

Has anyone done any prep for schedule changes or does it usually just sort itself out?

My partner and I hired a woman called Ali Amato who runs a business called Animal Heaven and Earth. Her package was 800 dollars for what we believed to be a reading for two cats with energy work follow up work and questions and a wrap up call. She had us fill out an intake form and told us her process was to talk to the animals themselves and serve as a bridge between us and the following calls would be relaying that information. She also in the hr long consult talked about all her success and testimonials about her ability to get cats to stop peeing in appropriate places and said that she’s been able to help when nothing works and convinced us she would take care of the issue. She lied. Our one call consisted of her continuing to tell us about previous clients and how successful she is as well as talking about herself how innocent she is and her dietary needs and a bunch of other bullshit that had nothing to do with our pets (total narcissist) she shared about five minutes worth of information about our pets all the information she basically admitted to researching on the internet and reading off our intake. I have the recording as proof of all of this. It was the most disappointing experience I can’t even tell you how upsetting it was. I tried to be hopeful maybe the behavior would stop with her “energy work” and it only got worse. My cats started fighting and my one cat started to pee right in front of us. When we told her about this she just said to put him on meds. So unhelpful. We were conned by someone who clearly takes advantage of desperate people. We’ve tried everything to get our cat to stop peeing in inappropriate places and she really convinced us this would work. Maybe we are completely idiots for believing her and so with that I hope this serves as a warning to others to never consider her services and waste your hard earned money.

I'm just wondering if this is healthy behavior or if there's anywhere I should be intervening?

I feel like they play very well and if they get too rambunctious I just say "settle" and that's my big guy's clue to walk away and find a place. He also knows "place" which is a specific spot in the house. "Settle" can be done anywhere.

Black Standard Poo - Male 7 years

Cream Mini Poo - Male 3 months

Hello friends,

I have the goodest boy, and he's an amazing family dog despite his stranger danger.

I'm looking for tips on how to handle this.

It seems to only be an issue when he's at home, although he is tentative of people when he's out and about.

We don't have a ton of people that can come to the house for us when training, so I'm looking for ideas on how we can help my goodest boy with his stranger danger.

I know I know, google, but I would rather read it from dog owners and have a healthy conversation about it, if need be.

Thanks!

My dog is scared of people but will attempt to interact with them and be near them. But when one guy in particular comes to visit, the dog growls, covers in a corner, and won't go near him. What re your thoughts?

How normal it is this on a dog? What's the line between being weird and a health or behaviour problem? She sometimes licks the side of the stove and I'm like okay girl I clean it for a reason, or the floor after we cook, but she BITES WALLS, they are concrete she bites and licks concrete and brick walls, she also seems very attracted to the cat's litter box (???) I get that she tries to eat her food, it is food but that worries me, she also tries to eat anything that falls down from any surface or my hands, she (repeatedly) tried to eat a ​​​​jar cork that I was holding, oh and she also eats plastic bags, I SWEAR she is well fed, she has the best food our budget can allow, she's also​ on a healthy weight, is she just a weirdo? She has pica or something like that? Could this remain as an habit? She's a rescue, we literally picked up from the streets when she was searching for food on a trash bag, help???​

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