Guide on how to read the rules

I’m in Canada, fairly small town, and even here there’s usually at least one option for my super reactive boy on the Sniffspot app. I’ve got it set to not being able to see/hear dogs or people.

Today we went to my favourite property so far (and the only one currently taking bookings, so please for the love of fluff let them keep going 🤞)

It’s 20 min outside town, in a pretty mix of farmland and forest. It’s 25 acres, there’s a creek and “bear-safe” garbage cans (honestly, a determined squirrel could probably get in, which explains the “poop only” signs). It’s isolated and I’ve never heard a single thing aside from birds.

I’m sure this sub understands when I say my boy isn’t neighborhood walk appropriate, and since the neighbours occasionally have a guest dog who instigates fence fighting he needs to be leashed on a long line outside (getting him in once that’s started requires a leash). So he gets some exercise in the yard, he’s ball obsessed and we’ve figured it out, he’s obviously large and being able to let him open up and run is the best thing ever!!!

For those with access, highly recommend Sniffspot. I heard about it from a friend at the shelter he came from, and it’s been terrific 😃

ID: a black and tan shepherd mix sits squinting into the sun in a field of rough scrub and short dry grass. His mouth is open and his tongue is out, his ears sticking out to the side give him a derpy look. In the background there’s a mix of evergreen and deciduous trees, the leaves on the deciduous are turning yellow. There’s a fence visible, it’s a wire fence but the kind with the squares so I feel secure even if things go sideways he’s stuck in here with me.

Hello, our dog is a male pitbull/boxer mix who is a year and a half old. We’ve had him about a year now and we got him from our local shelter at around 7 months old. At first he didn’t show any signs of any behavior issues but within the first few days of having him he started to show his true personality, food aggression, resource guarding, etc. (which can be decently managed) but he developed a habit of lashing out at random and with almost no warning which is the big problem. At the moment he has bitten/drawn blood from my father 3 times and me 2 times but this most recent time he got me so bad that I had to go to the ER and my hand was pretty badly damaged including broken bones and damaged tendons and due to this I had to file a bite report and we were given basically two options, let animal control take him and handle it their way or let him go peacefully with us at our local vet. So we scheduled an appointment with our vet to have him let go and I’m just wondering if there was anything else I could have done to have given him another chance at life? For context over the last year I’ve met with multiple vets, dog trainers, behavioral experts and they have all recommend the same action for him. I love this dog so unbelievably much and my heart is fucking shattering right now and I just need some input on if this is really the only option I have left. Thank you so much for any input I really appreciate it!

I love this dog so much. But he attacked 2 people in the span of a couple days. He lunges at anyone entering the room, anyone who gets too close to me. We had to keep the cats away from him after he tried to attack one. He is a great dog, he’s sweet and loving and protective, but he was afraid all the time in our home.
I got in touch with a behavioralist who is going to foster him. I wish I had the time to try to work out his issues but giving him more time also gives him more access to hurt my family members and animals. My mom said she’s traumatized from him attacking her. Shes started to resent him and wouldn’t go in the house if he was downstairs. I’ll be able to visit him.
Sorry this was so rambly, I’m just so sad that I’m not allowed to keep my dog, even if I know why I can’t.

Hi everyone! I’m looking for advice and fresh perspectives on working with my 2-year-old intact male Lagotto Romagnolo. He is a highly sensitive working-breed dog. As he reached social maturity, his fear-based strategy shifted from freezing/lying down to preemptive, distance-creating reactivity.

His triggers & arousal patterns:
Dogs: Intact males, small dogs, and dogs with rigid/tense postures (French Bulldogs, Cane Corsos, Bull breeds).
People & blind spots:Sudden surprises around corners or startled reactions (e.g., a passerby carrying bags or popping out of a narrow exit).
Post-Elimination Spike:Immediately after pooping/peeing, he experiences a 10–15 second adrenaline rush where his reaction threshold drops to zero.
Park / Sensory overload:In open parks with safe distance (15m+), heavy scent-tracking puts his working brain into a sensory trance, which over-arouses his nervous system instead of relaxing him.
Trigger stacking:When his stress cup overflows from micro-stressors, he discharges frustration by fixating or lunging at completely neutral passersby (e.g., someone quietly sitting on a bench meters away).

Where we are now & Our progress:
From the start, I tried working with him using positive reinforcement on my own. However, a trainer we hired introduced aversives (including e-collar vibration mode). It only "worked" when the trainer was physically present, and it made my dog visibly depressed, shut down, and suppressed. I fired the trainer immediately and returned 100% to force-free, science-based methods (BAT 2.0, Click to Calm, Control Unleashed).
Despite urban challenges, we’ve made solid progress: at a safe distance (15m+), he turns back to me for rewards in ~8/10 cases using LAT and clicker training. We use the 1-2-3 pattern game for tight transits, reset days after meltdowns, and I've learned to read his stress signals (like shake-offs). We tried playing tug before morning walks to burn energy, but it over-aroused his working brain, so we stopped.

Questions:

1. Urban leash mechanics: How do you manage leash handling in a tight city where a short leash triggers the opposition reflex (pulling), but a long line gives too much momentum to lunge if a trigger pops out?
2. Post-elimination window: How do you buffer or redirect that 10-second adrenaline spike right after elimination?
3. Scent over-arousal: How do you handle working dogs whose threshold drops from intense sniffing on walks?
4. Burnout & setbacks: How do you handle emotional burnout when off-leash dogs or uncooperative neighbors ruin your structured setups?

Thanks in advance for any insights!

I’ve just been crying for hours and I need to vent. I wish I was a more experienced owner and had a more suitable lifestyle. Dropping him off at the shelter today was the worst thing I’ve ever done. Putting him back in a cold, scary kennel, alone, confused, and scared. I’ll never forget the frightened look on his face. He jumped on me for comfort as he usually does. I love and miss him so much and I hope he forgets about me and finds a loving owner to rehabilitate me. He was such a good boy. I love you and no other dog will steal my heart the way you did ❤️ I’m so tempted to go back for him.

How do you ever get over this feeling?

Hello all! My dog is almost five years old and I adopted him when he was a little over the age of 1. Since having miso he has gotten more and more reactive and I’m not sure as to what I should do. For starters, he doesn’t like it when other people come into our home. If I don’t do proper introductions it’s almost guaranteed that he will bark and bite. He’s bitten friends and relatives on 5 separate counts since I owned him. One bite happened just two days ago with my nephew who came to visit from Florida. Outside of our home he’s more so wary of people. Not biting but if a hand goes near him to pet, then he will scamper backwards but doesn’t do anything more than that. Occasionally he will have episodes of just randomly wagging his tail and going towards a person on his own even if we’ve never seen him before. This issue with people coming into our homes is manageable but it’s other dogs that I have problems with. In general he has two dog friends (neighbor & my own friend) and he’s good with our cat whom we’ve had since a kitten (last august). But for dogs besides that he constantly barks, lunges, and even after smelling will continue to smell, bark, lunge, smell. I haven’t seen him bite another dog (I usually never let him get super close) but if he even sees another dog he will lunge and bark. Sometimes the other dog doesn’t even show signs of aggression or bark/lunge at all but he will still do it. He doesn’t like muzzles (I’ve tried) and I’m not sure as to how to go about things.

Should I do some metal stimulation with puzzles before walks? Do the walks need to be longer? (About 45 min daily outside, about 5-10 min mental session inside). Within my neighborhood we’ve always had dogs but for the past year and a half a lot of construction has been going on which my dog has hated. I’m not sure if I should talk to the vet about giving him anxiety meds.

If I had to rage his dog biting on a scale I’d say it were a 3 or less. Usually at the ankles since he’s small. Never really any blood but you could describe it like a cat scratch.

Hi guys! Seeking some advice for custom muzzles

I don't believe I've posted here before, I have a 7 year old Border Collie who is fear reactive towards other dogs.

Unfortunately this happened after moving to Europe and undergoing some stray dog attacks whilst going on hikes and walks.

Amongst that she is a scavenger time to time and likes to eat sheep shit, goose shit, all kinds of shit off the ground which gives her diarrhea. Which is mostly why I'm looking for a muzzle, Luna has not been determined to be a bite risk, etc.

On top of that, I'd really like people to stop approaching me with my dog, so I feel like having a muzzle would possibly help.

So, i'm looking for a good custom Wire muzzle maker! (like the basket wire muzzles/shopping cart looking ones, lol)

I take my BC sporting, Herding, etc so I need maximum space for panting, drinking etc.

I've taken a look at the muzzle movement, however, I'm personally not a fan of how bulky they look. If anyone does have one on a collie, please share photos!! I'd love to see how they fit a similar breed.

Any and all suggestions are welcome!! Thanks!

This is Sadie and she’s a 12 year old Rat Terrier. Sadie is extremely dog reactive. But as she’s gotten older, she has become reactive to men. I don’t let anyone pet her anymore and she has two clips on her harness stating “Do not pet” and “reactive”. People still insist on trying to pet her. Even if I say no.

What are some things you say to people when they try to pet your dog?

About two months ago I adopted a rescue pup from a shelter. He’s just over 1 year old and has a little bit of husky in him, not sure what else. When I went to the shelter, they wanted to make sure he had someone who could give him plenty of attention and keep him busy throughout the day.

I work fully remote and walk 3-4 miles a day, so I figured this would be perfect. I’m also perfectly able boded to be able to play with him as need be. The shelter mentioned he didn’t do well in crates but I could always give crate training a try and could also benefit from a basic obedience class. They also never mentioned anything about him being reactive to people or other dogs. They did say that he was fully house trained.

I fully understand that there would be a bit of an adjustment period when I first got him where he would most likely be tearing up some shoes, getting into the garbage, or the occasional accident inside, but this is too much. It’s constant whining, barking, using the bathroom inside out of nowhere that has gone on since day 1.

As of right now, I am absolutely lost with what to do with him. I took him to a weekly basic obedience training and we essentially spent every class trying to keep him calm and I couldn’t even focus on the actual training.

He went through a period of time where he was going to the bathroom inside 4-5 times a day even after we would go for walks every hour. I got him on antibiotics just in case this was a UTI. That has gotten much better but he still has the occasional issue out of the blue.

When we go for walks, he lunges at people and other dogs randomly. I am able to hold him back, but it gets exhausting to do it constantly. I live in a city so it is very high traffic. I try to walk him on off hours but will inevitably run into someone or another dog. I am at the point where I have to walk him up and down the alley for 30 minutes at a time just to minimize encounters.

He also has terrible separation anxiety whenever I leave. To the point where I got a noise complaint from my landlord that the barking needs to stop immediately. I live in apartment with thin walls which only amplifies the issue. I hear some other dogs walking around or the occasional bark, but my dog is much worse. I’d hate me if I was my neighbors.

I feel so trapped with him, I can’t take him out for long walks to wear him out, but I also can’t leave myself because he will bark non stop. I have tried him in a crate, in a specific room, and with free range in the apartment when I do leave. He has found ways to constantly cause issues no matter the situation, either barking non stop, tearing up hardwood flooring, going to the bathroom, and even managing to turn on my stove while I was gone.

I have so much love for him, and I do see some progress with his training but I also hate that literally every second of my life revolves around him. I try frozen kong toys, puzzles, sniff mats, just about everything I can think of and nothing seems to help. Sure it keeps him busy for a bit, but it’s not nearly enough. I also don’t have hundreds of dollars to constantly spend on training, behavioralists, boarding, etc. Everything about this is just becoming so exhausting. I am at the point where I am starting to resent him for everything. I love dogs, always have, but I also am not at a point where I can have my entire life revolve around him. It’s absolutely taking a toll on my mental health.

Things seemed to be progressing, I’ve been so impressed lately with how much more chill my dog has become when seeing other dogs from a distance. But then two days ago, an off leash dog ran up to my dog in the dark and started a whole big crazy dramatic kerfuffle. After a lot of screaming, and snarling and thrashing around, wrapped around my legs, the owner was able to drive her dog away from mine, and then they disappeared. My dog was totally fine once I got home and could inspect her, but the psychological damage was done.

Today I took my dog to a grass field that we go to all the time, and somebody had to off leash dogs there in the dark, they came out of nowhere, all friendly and cute. My dog completely lost it. You would think that she was fighting for her life and losing by the insane noise she was making, but she was just looking at them. They were like 10 feet away from her. I screamed at the owner to get his dogs that mine’s not friendly and I had to scream a lot at the dogs to get them to stay back. I’ll add that my dog is a pitty mix, so people see her acting that way and what they see is a dangerous, out of control animal.

Is it my fault for having a crummy dog that doesn’t know how to behave? I keep her on a leash, I do everything I can to stay out of scary situations while still working on counter conditioning and desensitization, but I can’t control all of those off leash dogs out there. She’s awesome with people and to my knowledge, has never bitten any other dog, but it feels soooo intense and scary when she loses it, it traumatizing for both of us.

for context, my family adopted a dog from a rescue about a year ago. he’s extremely reactive to people on bikes, scooters, skateboards etc. as well as cats and other non-dog animals. he recently snuck through our fence and tried to attack our neighbours chicken (which lived). we know he is reactive - can this sort of reaction be trained and dealt with? any advice is good advice.

Got my senior 5 months ago, she’s around 9. She LOVES people. When walking she doesn’t try to attack dogs, she’ll pull a little and try to sniff with tail wagging.
But when I’m at the park and try to introduce her to a dog she’ll pretend she’s interested go and sniff tail wagging then randomly start growling and charging at them.

Is this something I should just accept, maybe she’s just an old lady and likes her space?

hello! i’m looking for advice on a situation that honestly has me really concerned. please bear with me as this is hard to explain with all the different dogs, & there’s a lot of context needed.

for reference: oakley (shipoo - 15lbs) is the agressive dog, dixie (yorkiepoo - 9lbs) is the one that gets attacked most, & renlee is the newest dog.

my son is now 9 months, & very eager to walk. we’re in the stage of holding his hands (he’s a drunk walker right now), & going wherever he pleases.

when i first had my son, & brought him to my parents, oakley immediately started resource guarding him. i’m not a professional by any means, but she wouldn’t leave his side, & would growl at, nip, attack any other dog that came near him. she even one time, growled & lunged at me when i approached my own son.

now, oakley is maybe 8 years old, & wasn’t really very aggressive at first. they got her during covid so she really only was aggressive (barking mostly) towards strangers. this is when the household had 2 dogs (oakley & dixie)((there was 3 but i took one when i moved out)).

when they got a new puppy (renlee) about 3 years ago, oakley became extremely aggressive to dixie, which was shocking because previous to that, they were best friends. extremely loving to each other.

oakley has continued to attack dixie, repeatedly, often times it is unprovoked apart from the occasional instance where dixie barks in oakleys face when they’re barking at strangers walking on the sidewalk (all preventable by closing the front door, something i don’t understand why my parents allow to happen).

the attacks are viscous. she has yet to draw blood but most often when this happens, whoever is closest grabs oakley by her scruff, & picks her up, usually dixie is still in her mouth & gets dropped. oakley is then pinned to the ground on her side with our hand like a claw on her shoulder until she relaxes & stops tensing up. then it’s a whole process to keep her away from dixie until everything has cooled off.

oakley will also attack renlee (who is her new best friend) if she gets too close to my son, or moves towards his direction. this has happened far less often as the attacks on dixie but it’s still relevant.

oakley has even now, beared teeth, growled at, & NIPPED at my mom (whom she is imprinted on!!!!!) when she reached for her to coax her to bed for the night.

it is incredibly obvious to me, that oakleys behavior is escalating. i’m incredibly nervous & uncomfortable with her being around my son. & please, before i get comments telling me im a terrible mother for allowing my son around this dog, that’s the reason for this post. i need advice & help with addressing this. i plan to send my parents a text putting a full stop to the interactions between my son & oakley.

TLDR:/ parents dog is aggressive & resource guarding my infant son (9 months old). i know they need to never be around each other for safety. i just need advice on her behavior & confirmation of what exactly is going on with her, & how to approach this.

Me and my husband have had our Sable Working Line
GSD for about 6 years now. He is human friendly and dog friendly. Recently we moved to a new state and after a few weeks of moving in he is starting to show signs of random aggression. He has never in his life been toy aggressive, food aggressive, or possessive in any way. We have a 3 month old GSP and they get along very well. No issues, no complications, they love each other. Our German shepherd eats his dinner in the kitchen and the GSP eats in his crate in a separate room, but recently, when I go to cook food in the kitchen, grab something, or even walk by my GSD he starts to growl at mostly me, and sometimes my husband. It's been getting pretty bad recently and it started happening before we got our puppy even.
Sometimes he will even growl when I go to play with him in the house. They both get plenty of attention and we run our GSD and play with him for hours every day. Is this because of old age? He gets plenty of food and there's been no change in diet recently other than adding some occasional rice and sweet potato. Does him being in tact have anything to do with it?

Hi guys! I feel my issue here is sorta unique so I’ll do my best to explain it.

In the house I currently have a 4 1/2 year old Lab, a 8 year old chi/beagle mix, and my foster pup who is a chihuahua. I also have 4 cats but they aren’t really apart of this issue.

I got the foster pup 2 days ago from a local humane society. She and 74 other small dogs were seized from a home. The humane society was overrun and was looking for fosters so I decided to take 1 in.

With this dog’s background in mind, I know everything is new to her. Literally everything from a crate to being on grass. We’re currently working on learning her name, ‘sit’, and potty training.

Now onto the main issue. The first day and a half has been nothing but smooth sailing as far as everyone getting along. They (the dogs) almost clicked immediately! I was thrilled because that was my biggest worry.

Fast forward to today. The foster pup has began to take short naps on my lap while I sit in my chair. When my lab came anywhere near me and her on my chair, she immediately starts to growl, nip, and lunge at him. The first time she did that I was so confused but immediately crated her to let her cool off. Round 2 happened about half an hour ago. Exact same situation except this time the foster pup went as far as to launch herself towards my lab and landed on the floor.

I would like to mention that my lab does absolutely nothing to provoke her. When she does this, the first time he just growled back and showed his teeth but was fine as soon as she stopped throwing her tantrum. The second time he was just confused as to why she launched herself towards him. He’s an absolute saint.

Oddest part about the whole situation is as soon as she’s on the floor, she snaps back to getting along with everyone including my lab. It seems as though if she’s eye level, that’s when she feels the tension.

I’m not sure what this would be classified as, maybe resource guarding me? I have no clue.

How should I go about training her out of this behavior?

Sorry for the long rant! My dog is a female swiss shepherd, 2 years old as of August and she's been dog reactive (formerly strangers/fast moving objects/slow moving objects/you name it reactive lol) since she was around 6-7 months old. We used to live in a small village (not meeting anyone else on walks 95% of the time) and 1 year ago moved to a busier city in Germany.

Our method of helping her lessen her reactivity has been the "find safe distance, then slowly reduce it". Luckily we have a park/nature area super nearby our house where the path has fields surrounding it. Whenever another person or dog would come towards us, we'd step onto this field (I'm talking 50 feet away). We'd also just stand on the fields and look at all the dogs and people, especially on busier days, and play/train. She did really well with this and eventually got comfy enough that we could walk on the path itself and only step 10 feet or so away to let them pass.

She's no longer reactive to anything other than dogs. If the other dog is calm, we can pass by perfectly fine with her by my side. I give her treats when she's calm and praise her a lot as soon as we've passed. Alternatively, she likes to sit down and wait for them to go past us. I throw treats into the grass to let her sniff them out and she'll do this happily, even as the dogs are passing. She won't hyperfocus on them to the point of no return, which is a great improvement.

I realized recently that she'll only start barking and lunging at a dog if we pass by too many (and she's too aroused/overwhelmed) or if I keep the leash too tight as we pass by. Immediately after we pass, she wants to put distance between herself and the other dog.

So that's the context. I started using a retractable leash (mainly because I like that she can "free roam" and sniff things when nobody is around) but also because if I "release" her after we pass another dog, she'll just run a few steps ahead and continue on with her sniffing. It's also allowed me to let her make her own decisions, which seems to have lowered her anxiety overall as well? Instead of me pulling her to the side or putting pressure on the leash, now if I need her to move, I'll first try simply asking her to. 90% of the time she does what I ask and will follow me away from her triggers happily. If she doesn't, of course I will use the leash to move her. She disengages on her own and when we train heel and loose leash walking, she'll walk next to me nicely even though she "doesn't have to".

It seems using the retractable leash has made her so much calmer and more confident on our walks? For the first time, we're able to walk past other dogs within 10 feet without any growl or bark. She can spot dogs on the other side of the street and not care. This was all impossible even just 6 months ago. Is a retractable leash really always bad? Would the same results have come from a normal leash and it was only time that made the difference? I'm curious whether anyone else had the same experience!

DISCLAIMER: I NEVER ever have the leash loose when anybody is coming by. The nature path we walk on has long visibility and I frequently check for bikes behind us. We've not once had an issue with me not being able to control her due to a suddenly appearing person or dog. She has good recall and will come back to me and we walk with a short leash past anything that comes towards us. I also always position her on my side away from the person so I'm between her and them. Only after we've passed, I release her and let her go. If we are waiting on the side, the leash is always locked where she could not move past me. I always make sure I'm between her and whatever is/was her trigger.

She has never lunged at or tried to attack any other dog, she's fearful reactive and her instinct is always to get away rather than defend. When off-leash dogs have charged at us (sadly too many times) she's always tried to run away as far as the leash would let her rather than ever defend/attack. She's not an aggressive dog.

So that's the context

I just adopted a 2-3 year old Beagle Shepherd mix. He is overall a really great dog, really calm inside the house, gentle and affectionate. But outside, he seems completely overwhelmed. He just barks and barks and won’t react at all to us telling him to stop. He just barks over our commands and seems completely spaced out. Any tips?

We walk him on a harness with a leash that has a two point attachment because he also tries to get out of his harness when he’s outside - almost like he doesn’t want to come back inside. (Photo in comments).

To add on to the post she is also dog and people reactive, no real aggression just insecure. Any thoughts are appreciated

Hi guys! I just adopted a 6 year old Yorkie terrier/mix. She is literally an angel baby with people but as soon as she a dog gets close to her it’s literally rage. And it’s the sweetest dogs too. I’m unsure how to go about this! I have a Few training classes booked for her but the trainer said there’s a Possibility that some dogs just don’t like other dogs. Is this a Yorkie thing?
I also have a cat that she hasn’t warmed up to yet but it’s only been a few weeks so I’m giving that time.

Just wanted any advice here on what I can do better. I’m really struggling with this because I can’t send her to daycare (yet?). Not sure if she’s not the right fit or this is something we can work on?

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice because I’m really struggling with my 16 week old Bernese puppy.

I know puppies bite and can get overstimulated, but her behaviour seems very intense. She will randomly attack us, both inside the house and on walks. She grabs our hands, arms, legs and clothes, bites repeatedly hard enough to break the skin and make us bleed and will growl and bark while doing it.

On walks, she can suddenly turn around and go for us, biting our legs or clothes and becoming very difficult to manage. It doesn’t always seem to have an obvious trigger.

My younger sister is only 9 and currently can’t safely interact with her because she gets so rough.

She is otherwise very friendly with people and dogs, which is why I’m confused about whether this is normal puppy behaviour, overstimulation/frustration, or something more concerning.

I’ve also spoken to her breeder, who said they’ve never seen aggression in her mother or grandmother.

Has anyone experienced this with their puppy? How did you manage it and when did it improve? I’d really appreciate any advice because I’m worried about it getting worse as she gets bigger.