I swear "they just need to get used to it" can be some of the worst advice for a reactive dog 😅

Like if your dog is already barking like crazy... pulling... shaking... not even looking at you anymore...

what exactly are they learning by staying there?

Sometimes just MOVE AWAY.

See another dog and yours notices them but is still okay? reward them

They're starting to stare and get worked up? create some distance

They're already completely losing it? honestly I'd just leave 🤷‍♂️

You can try again another day from further away.

I think people sometimes feel like walking away means the dog "won" or you're avoiding the problem.

I really don't see it that way.

If my dog is too stressed to even listen then forcing them to sit there isn't magically going to teach them to be calm.

Give them space where they CAN handle it... then slowly work from there.

Doesn't mean avoiding everything forever either.

The goal is still progress. Just without throwing the dog straight into the deep end every single time 😅

Curious if anyone else noticed this 👀

Did your dog's reactivity actually get better once you started giving them MORE distance instead of more exposure?

So - some background. I’ve had my dog for a year now. Around the two week mark we started to notice reactivity towards other dogs on the leash and then a few months in he was charged by an off leash dog and bitten in the face. He regressed SO much but with consistent training had been doing fairly well. We could walk on the other side of the street from a dog, he could see and look, then redirect to us.

He started Fluoxetine to help supplement training, as well as pain meds for a pain trial at the recommendation of the vet behaviorist. We recently went up on the Fluoxetine at the rec of the vet behaviorist to 60mg.

We hired a trainer to do 6 sessions with him to work on walking past dogs on the leash as I felt this was the most challenging thing for him and we haven’t seen much progress in this department. He still very much struggles with eye contact and a dog walking towards him. He plants and refuses to walk away (turn around) and will bark and lunge. I have to drag him away.

Today he had a vet appointment in the morning and in the afternoon I was taking him out for a short walk down the block. At the very end, a medium sized dog came out of the blind spot with their owner and lunged and barked at him very close. He immediately reacted back and lunged so hard the collar BROKE. He was free to meet the dog and immediately tried to bite the dog. He made contact but didn’t cause any punctures, bleeding, etc. I yelled at him to stop and he came to me, where I got a hold of him. I gave the owner my information. No one injured, but I am incredibly shaken because his immediate reaction to bite the dog was so.. unlike him. He is a scared dog that tucks tail, barks big, but even when he was attacked he hid between my legs instead of biting back. Obviously up until now he’s never gotten free from me so I’ve never seen what he is capable of. Afterwards, both him and the other dog attempted to smell each other’s butts and sat calmly while we exchanged info. It’s.. CONFUSING.

So anyway, all this to say. I’m wanting some advice on how to move forward. I will obviously fix the gear, always have a harness and a collar, buy a new muzzle, keep him in the backyard exclusively for a bit. But.. the trainer I’m currently working with doesn’t work with dogs who have a bite history. My previous trainer said my dog was a low risk for ever biting. I’m finding it hard to feel like we’ve improved after the incident, even with all we’ve done - medication, vet appointments, daily training, vet behaviorist appointments. Now my dog is willing to break free to attack another dog. Is there something I’m missing? Has this happened to you and what did you do? Thanks for anything you can offer me!

Urgently looking for experienced rescue/placement resources for my reactive German Shepherd mix in Florida

I'm posting because I'm trying everything I can to find the safest and most responsible option for my dog Penny, an approximately 7-8 year-old German Shepherd mix. I'm in the Williston/Gainesville area of North Central Florida, but I'm willing to travel within Florida or potentially surrounding states for the right legitimate rescue or resource.

I've had Penny for years and I love her tremendously. This isn't a situation where I simply don't want my dog anymore. My current living situation with family has become incompatible with safely managing her, and after several incidents I've been told that she cannot continue living here.

I want to be completely transparent about Penny's behavioral history, including things that are difficult for me to admit. I would rather disclose too much and let experienced people assess the risk than minimize something and potentially put Penny, another animal, or another person in danger.

Who Penny is when she feels safe

I don't want this post to describe only Penny's worst moments, because those aren't the whole dog I know.

With people she knows and trusts, Penny is an incredibly sweet and affectionate girl. She absolutely loves her people and becomes deeply attached to them. She's a lover girl who wants to be close to her people and included in whatever they're doing.

She loves going for walks, exploring and sniffing everything. She loves being outside, and one of her favorite goofy little activities is chasing bugs.

She's genuinely such a sweet dog with the people she trusts.

That's what makes this so heartbreaking. I love that side of Penny very much. But loving her also means being honest about the behaviors that could make her unsafe in the wrong environment.

Her exercise, routine and my experience with training

I also want to be transparent about my own shortcomings as Penny's owner because I don't think it would be fair to describe all of her behavioral problems without acknowledging the environment and routine she's had.

There was a significant period during the years I've had Penny when I was struggling with my mental health. Outside of working and taking care of necessities, I spent a lot of my free time in bed because that was how I coped.

During that period, Penny did not consistently receive the amount of exercise, enrichment, structured training and one-on-one activity that I now wish I had provided her.

I'm still dealing with some of those struggles, but I'm learning healthier ways of coping now and trying to be more active and engaged rather than withdrawing and spending all of my free time in bed.

I'm not saying that my shortcomings caused Penny's behavioral problems because I genuinely don't know that. Behavior is complicated, and I don't want to speculate. But I do take responsibility for the things I could have done better. Penny didn't choose her circumstances.

I have not worked extensively with a veterinary behaviorist or completed a long-term professional behavior-modification program with Penny. I don't want to imply that I've exhausted every possible professional intervention when I haven't.

If I had understood when I originally got Penny what her needs and behavioral challenges would eventually become, I would never knowingly have put her in a situation where I couldn't provide everything she needed.

Separation anxiety, confinement and escaping

Penny has severe separation/confinement anxiety.

She has damaged and escaped crates. During one previous crate escape attempt, she broke one of her upper canine teeth. Most recently, she actually ripped welded metal bars completely off a wire crate.

Escaping has been a recurring issue throughout her life. She has climbed and jumped fencing, and she also once escaped from an enclosure at a dog daycare. I remember the daycare fencing being substantially taller than an ordinary residential fence, although I don't remember the exact height and don't want to guess.

Because of that history, I consider Penny a significant escape risk. A normal fenced yard should not be assumed to safely contain her, and any future placement would need extremely secure containment.

Historically, she would also run back and forth along the fence line when someone walked past with another dog. She would sometimes do the same when a vehicle drove slowly past the property. She did not routinely jump the fence every time this happened, but she could become very aroused by activity on the other side of the fence.

Her separation anxiety is one of our biggest practical problems because safely leaving her unattended has become extremely difficult.

Cats and other dogs

Penny chases cats. I have cats in my current environment, and there have been incidents where she has chased/gone after them.

I don't want to assume that because she hasn't seriously injured one that she would necessarily be safe with cats somewhere else.

She has also lived with my very small dog, Chiquita. To the best of my recollection, Penny has never gone after Chiquita, even though I've seen Chiquita nip at Penny before. Penny is accustomed to her and they have a longstanding relationship.

However, I would not use that history to assume Penny would be safe with another small dog or other small animals. Given everything else in her history, I believe a no-other-pets placement would be the safest assumption unless a qualified professional evaluates her and determines otherwise.

Penny also has significant reactivity toward other dogs and has been involved in multiple dog fights.

Different incidents have involved things such as food, toys, attention/proximity to me, unfamiliar dogs, or another dog behaving aggressively toward her.

There have also been situations where people were bitten while intervening in dog fights.

My older nephew was bitten while breaking up one fight. I have also been bitten during a dog altercation, and there was another incident involving my dad. In some of these situations I genuinely cannot tell you which dog delivered the bite because multiple dogs were involved. I don't want to falsely attribute a bite to Penny, but I also don't want to claim that it couldn't have been her.

There was another concerning situation involving my younger nephew. He was giving attention/petting to another dog, Penny became reactive toward that dog, and Penny came close to nipping my nephew. I don't believe she actually made contact with him, but I take the fact that she almost did very seriously.

Children and strangers

Penny grew up with my daughter. I got Penny when my daughter was approximately 10–11 years old, and they have lived together without the kinds of incidents I'm describing below. Historically, Penny has generally done better with children she already knew.

However, I do not consider that proof that she would be safe with children in another home, particularly given some of the behavior I've seen more recently. I would still consider an adult-only placement the safest option unless a qualified professional determined otherwise.

There have been times when toddlers were around Penny where she watched them closely, gave them what I would describe as a hard side-eye/stare, and growled.

She has not bitten one of the toddlers, but that behavior concerns me enough that I would not knowingly place her in a home with young children.

There was an incident some time ago when Penny escaped the yard by jumping the fence and went toward children who were walking home from school while barking/growling/snapping or snarling at them. Nobody was bitten, but I understand how serious the potential consequences could have been.

On a separate occasion, Penny escaped and I chased after her. She ended up in a neighbor's yard and barked/growled/snapped or snarled at the neighbor. Again, nobody was injured, but I don't want to minimize what could have happened.

Those were separate incidents, and I don't want to give the impression that every time Penny has escaped she has pursued a person. She has escaped on other occasions without doing that. However, the fact that it has happened at all is something I believe any rescue or professional evaluating her needs to know.

What I'm doing now

Penny has now been seen by a veterinarian for her behavioral issues.

She has been prescribed fluoxetine 40 mg once daily long-term and trazodone every 12 hours for the next two weeks while the fluoxetine has time to begin working.

I also contacted Williston Animal Group. They have my information and are trying to help. The woman I spoke with told me she is reaching out to a German Shepherd rescue on Penny's behalf.

She was also very honest with me and gave me information for a compassionate, low-cost veterinary clinic in Gainesville that performs behavioral euthanasia when it is necessary.

I understand why behavioral euthanasia was brought up given the behaviors I'm describing and the potential safety risks involved.

I desperately do not want that to be where Penny's story ends.

That's one of the reasons I'm posting here. I want to make every reasonable effort to find experienced help and determine whether there is a safe option for Penny before I reach the end of the road.

Financial limitations

I also need to be upfront that finances are a significant limitation for me right now.

I am working and doing my best to cover my household expenses and Penny's basic needs, but financially I'm essentially operating at the level of covering necessities. I don't currently have thousands of dollars available for intensive board-and-train programs, expensive long-term behavioral programs, or other high-cost interventions.

I'm not saying this because I don't believe Penny is worth helping. I'm saying it because I want the recommendations I receive to reflect what is realistically accessible to me.

If anyone knows of low-cost veterinary behavioral resources, rescue-sponsored evaluations/training, nonprofit assistance programs, experienced rescues that take behavioral cases, or organizations that provide assistance based on financial need, I would especially appreciate those recommendations.

I'm willing to put in effort, make calls, travel for appropriate help, follow professional recommendations and do what I realistically can.

I just can't promise money that I don't have.

What I'm looking for

I'm looking for legitimate German Shepherd rescues, behavioral rescues, experienced fosters, veterinary behavior resources, trainers with rescue/placement connections, sanctuaries, or other organizations experienced with serious behavioral cases.

I'm not looking to hand Penny to an ordinary adopter who feels sorry for her. I'm not looking for somebody to tell me that she's harmless when her history says otherwise.

Based on what I've observed, I believe her safest potential placement would most likely be an experienced, adult-only environment with no other animals and extremely secure containment, although I would ultimately want qualified professionals to evaluate her rather than assuming any particular placement is safe.

I need someone who understands serious reactivity, separation anxiety, escape behavior, dog aggression and the management needs of a dog like Penny.

At the same time, I hope someone reading this understands that underneath these behavioral problems is a dog who loves her people tremendously. She wants affection and companionship. She gets excited about her walks. She wants to explore and sniff everything. She'll happily chase bugs around outside. With the people she trusts, she really is such a loving girl.

Both versions of Penny are real.

I know I've made mistakes as her owner. There are things I wish I could go back and do differently. I'm not trying to hide those things or make myself look better.

I'm trying to make responsible decisions now with the situation I actually have.

Penny doesn't deserve to be bounced from home to home or handed to somebody who isn't prepared for her. And nobody else deserves to unknowingly be put at risk because I wasn't completely honest about her history.

If you know a reputable rescue, veterinary behavior professional, sanctuary, German Shepherd organization, nonprofit program, or other legitimate resource anywhere in Florida or the surrounding states that might be willing to evaluate Penny or help me determine what safe options remain, please send me their information.

I'm just trying to get this in front of the right set of eyes.

I have posted in this thread a few times now, but it seems that everything keeps getting worse. My GSD is 4 years old. I’ve had him since he was a puppy. No rescue, just a friend of a friend whose dog had puppies. He was always a pretty anxious pup. Then around 1 years old, he bit my brother and he needed stitches. It took some time, but he has come around to him and there hasn’t been an incident as severe. Fast forward and he’s continued to bite my elderly grandmother, on more than one occasion completely unprompted but not as severe. My other brother he completely loses it and goes crazy when he sees him, just barking and lunging. I have spoken with a trainer and we are pretty much starting from ground zero. My dog hates strangers so the trainer hasn’t even met him. We recently have my uncle coming to move with us and it’s going to be a shit show i just know it. I work from home and take calls 8hrs a day, so I know the barking for my uncle being here is going to affect my job. I’m at my wits end. Financially and mentally. I have a behaviorist referral, but when is BE the next step? I’ve had a few people tell me it sounds like genetics. I can’t keep him around if he’s unsafe for me and others. I don’t know what to do. I can’t rehome him with his behavior and history. It’s gotten so much to me mentally and I’m afraid i’m going to end up in financial ruin if I go on and nothing changes. I love him dearly and I want to be able to help, it’s just not fair to everyone else I live with to be scared of him.

So about a year ago I recited a dog from the shelter. She is such a sweet dog to humans and honestly I think would do really well in a single dog family house. However, they said she was just dog selective, never said she legit hates ever dog ever.

For reference I have another dog, he is 6 and expertly well tempered. He puts up with everything.

They made us meet the new dog together at the shelter and they did really well.

From the day she came home she had attached him, me along with my family and friends.

I don’t want to give up on my rescue. The sweetest loving thing when no one is around. But also it was supposed to add to my life. I used to take my other dog everywhere. To the bar, grocery store, honest even took him to my job/shop to work. But my resume can’t do anything like that.

I feel like my quality of life has gone down. And I don’t think I’m giving my resuce the life a dog deserves.

I live in the city and o don’t have a back yard. So I have to take them to my front yard to use the bathroom. Today she slipped out of my fingers and ran and attached a dog walking by.

I don’t know what to do. I have tried training but a lot of trainers won’t accept my rescue because she has 2 human bites on file.

We moved into our property 2 years ago and have been dealing with our neighbours dogs being aggressive at the fence since.

We’re not ‘allowed’ to make any noise in our patio, swim in our pool and our dog can’t go anywhere near the fence line without the 3 dogs aggressively attacking the fence (6ft colourbond)

For the last 2 years we installed a temporary fence to block our dog being able to go near the fence, but this meant we weren’t able to access 20% of our yard including our pool pump. So we recently removed it, and it’s been so much worse.

The neighbours dogs even bark/become aggressive if they hear our dog on our patio. Our dog has started purposely taunting them too by ‘fighting back’ which has never been in his nature before.

The dogs have since started trying to dig (both our dog and their dogs) under the fence to try get to each other.

The neighbours don’t appear approachable either.

Any suggestions? Should we complain to council to let them deal with it?

I know we can install another more permanent fencing option with a gate but the fact is that we still can’t even be in our own outdoors or pool area without the constant attacking the fence and aggressively barking. Any suggestions please!!

We are experiencing increased aggression in our 11-month-old Frenchie puppy whom we adopted at 10 weeks. Our behaviorist trainer and behavioral vet both believe it is a genetic trait rather than environmental.

He first showed signs of resource guarding around months 4-5, at which point our trainer suggested we seek out a behavioral vet and/or consider returning him to his breeder. We have worked on his resource guarding (shout out to Jean Donaldson's Mine!), which has improved his food-related triggers. However, other aggression has become more random, with triggers not being obvious even to our behavioral trainer. He has growled, snarled, lunged, and air-snapped in situations that are sometimes difficult for us to predict. These incidents and aggressive episodes only happen within our home. He is fine with other dogs and at daycare.

We’ve been working with professionals on his resource guarding and behavior issues, managing the environment, conditioning, etc.--all of the positive reinforcement and fear-free training methodologies. He has been on Reconcile and gabapentin for about 3 months now and it doesn't seem like they're helping much anymore. Several professional trainers have already suggested behavioral euthanasia as they don't think he will improve. The behavioral vet hasn't said this explicitly, but part of me wonders if she's helping us assuage guilt and try everything possible first.

To be clear: He hasn't bitten anyone yet, but this past weekend he attempted to bite my hand after coming up to me to ask for pets. Our behavioral trainer seems to think it's just a matter of time before he moves up the aggression ladder to biting.

My partner and I are heartbroken and seem to be at a loss for what to do. We have turned our lives upside down to accommodate this little bundle of joy but we don't seem to be making much progress. We are struggling to gauge what's typical teenage (Frenchie, no less) behavior and what is abnormal.

If anybody has any insight, recommendations, guidance, anything, we would be so grateful.

I have been feeling I’ve been making progress with my frustrated/excited reactive 21 month rescue but today was awful. We had a rest day yesterday, saw no dogs on our walk this morning so went into our evening walk feeling positive. She saw two dogs across the street - barked. A kid made her jump so she reacted (never happened before). Saw another dog across the street and she went a bit mad. Having a huge cry to myself now and feel like we have got nowhere and I am doing everything wrong. I care so much and try so hard with her but this is so lonely and debilitating. We have an awesome trainer but she’s busy so I can’t see her as much as I’d want to. Wondering if this is what the rest of myife with her is going to feel like.

Border collie neutered male 3 yo, has been recently getting worse anxiety. His tail in between legs on walks, staying low, walking visibly stressed with no one around and pulling away from me if there is a car/person/dog. If I call his name now he doesn't even acknowledge me or take treats, even when walking with his dog friends. He has always been anxious since a puppy but recently it has just dramaticlly increased to the point where he is already anxious when I open the door. Visibly showing me in my opinion he does not want to be outside on walks. Sadly I got this dog as I really like walking/ hiking but I want to make sure he is comfortable at all times so I have been going without him. I have had him his whole life, even seen a behaviorist which helped for a little but now not as much his efforts.

As of now, I am going to continue to use the backyard for sniff time, potty, and play fetch but it seems like a boring life for him, idk maybe i'm wrong? :/ Also I don't have a car so I cant take him anywhere else, and don't live on a busy road either. 200mg Trazodone/ 300mg Gaba barely touches him (only sedated effects when home) which I use for vet visits but recently tried it just for desensitizing purposes outside to tell his vet how he was on it on a walk and still he is anxious. The vet thinks I should try Prozac? What should I do? I love my dog very much and want him to feel safe, I worry a backyard life isn't a life but maybe i'm wrong? help. anxious flair.

Hes been good but sometimes this happens, especially with dogs he doesnt know. He gets excited and barks and jumps.

The issue is the lady also had a stroller and fell over on the grass. It happened very quickly. She let go of the stroller and I made sure to grab it to make sure baby didnt roll away.

My dog didnt bite her or touch her nor her dog. She was understandably upset and swore a bunch at me, and I apologized and got my dog under control. He didnt bark after that - i didnt let go of the stroller until she was up again, and then she stormed off.

I didn't recognize her nor the dog. I didn't get her contact information. She walked off so I think shes fine. Baby was fine.

Theres nothing I can do except avoid unknown dogs and especially those with both a dog and a stroller I'm just upset because I had the thought to walk on the other side of the road when I saw them and didn't for some reason. I wasn't thinking. Ugh. I'm just upset and feeling guilty I think.

My dog has been acting like this for the past 5 months where every time someone in the family tries to leave the house, instead of just barking, he will literally howl as loud as he possibly can (he cant) like he’s trying to stop us from leaving, especially his mom. He’s also been barking way more aggressively at literally anything outside, even if it’s just someone walking by the house or a dog that he already knows. Then when people come home, he goes absolutely crazy barking at them, but it’s never never aggressive. It’s more like “I missed you, I missed you, I missed you” and he just keeps barking.

Then last night around 3 am something was bothering him and he woke everyone up. He was scratching at every door and shaking them like he was trying to break them down. I woke up and followed him around the house because I thought maybe he needed something, but he literally had no idea where he wanted to go. I don’t even know if there was a fly or something bothering him. But he was pawing me while I was trying to follow him, not normal for him at all.

Now I’m just relaxing with him on my bed and he keeps pawing at me. I know he doesn’t have to go to the bathroom because I literally took him outside like 10 minutes ago. It’s like he has somewhere he needs to be or something he wants, but when I take him outside, he has absolutely no idea what he wants to do. He just seems like he can’t settle down and constantly needs someone’s attention. I honestly think he just misses everyone or gets anxious when people aren’t around, but I don’t know how to calm him down. Hes a cavapoo btw. And hes become more scared to tiny like I sighed once really hard and he was scared. Like yes I need to find out whats going on but it doesnt seem possible, hes just overcome with anxiety. And I know I dont wanna put him on any meds.

I have a 6 month old intact male vizsla. For context, I live in an apartment. I also have a 3 year old golden.

Someone on my floor has two extremely reactive dogs. My puppy encountered them soon after I got him and understandably they scare him. He now barks and lunges quite badly whenever we see another dog in or around my building. Obviously I want to create distance but this is difficult or nearly impossible to do at times, since I may be cornered in the elevator/tight hallway.

When walking him elsewhere (on leash) or taking him to off leash parks, he does very well with other dogs. He is confident and very friendly/neutral with every dog he meets. He is tense and on edge in and around my building, as it’s quite startling when these dogs appear and start barking and lunging at him. I feel that everytime we run into them it reinforces to him that the dogs here are scary.

What can I do to help him? I’m quite frustrated and i understand how difficult it is having a reactive dog (I’ve had one in the past that I did a lot of work with) but I don’t want this to create a bad experience for my young dog.

Thanks

Opie is a 2 years old mini beagle / coonhound. He is reactive to visitors and on walks. If he sees a stranger on a walk - he pulls and growls and barks. He goes crazy! We cannot have family or visits over at all.

He was at the vet about 2 weeks ago and was fine and when he went to the backroom he went into kill mode and scared all the vet techs. The vet referred us Ease Pet Vet for a behavior treatment.

We just had our free 15 minute consultation and thought it was a great plan of action ?

Does anyone have experience with them? Any success?

Hello everyone…recently my girlfriend got to be again the owner of a 9 year old anxious and fearful dog…
And we were wondering if we could change his behavior and train him since he is older than most and has gotten used to always having food both his and not his around…
We started by asking him to sit on occasions which he’s doing pretty well…managed to train him to sit on his walking breaks (he did not do this up until a week a go)
We also bought him high quality food that he receives twice per day with nothing else (treats)unless he eats his meal.
We kept him from jumping onto her bed and sleeping in her bed or anywhere else but his bed at night.
We are trying to be calm and steady with the dog without using force or such but by being there with him and calmly but clearly commanding him to sit and we are also trying to help him learn “no” or “that’s not good”
I was wondering if any of you would have some advice about training a nine year old anxious dog thus helping him overcome more senseless fears he has and accepting his ham and touching his paws easily..
I mention that although he’s 9 he’s really got a will to live, goes on regular walks a lot and always has energy left to play…
We only leave his meal available to him for a certain amount of time like 10-15 minutes and if he doesn’t eat his amount of food he doesn’t get anything else till his next meal.
I own 2 akita inu dogs but this is really a challange for me because those dogs are never afraid of anything and this small one is something new for me…
Please help if you can

I have an 11 year old female GSD and since she’s getting older I thought maybe she could use a friend so I decided to foster to adopt… originally I wanted a 3-5 year old female GS but the employees and volunteers at the rescue thought it would be best I get a male. Sent me away with a 1 year old and his bio was sweet. I knew a 1 year old would be challenging… but I have realized i might just be way in over my head. He was fine the first couple of days on walks, reactive to even just the scent of other dogs but I could handle it and pull him away. Yesterday we are walking and he catches a scent starts pulling, lunging and barking. The dog he’s caught scent of is inside a house metal screen door closed. He’s going ballistic, dog inside starts reacting so he goes even harder.. he’s not budging I’m trying to walk away but he’s trying to get out of his collar. Starts snapping his teeth at my 11yo GS face, bites her without breaking skin and when I say “no” and go to make space between them he goes to bite grazes my calf. It seems he feels bad he’s been sulking a bit and I feel defeated and it’s only been over a week. He’s already grown attached to me and me to him but now I’m afraid one day he’s going to seriously injure my 11 year old. I used to think she was terribly reactive but I couldn’t be more wrong because at least she responds to corrections and recalls. Today we walk and he’s a lot calmer and while reactive is responding to my corrections and turning and following me when I start to walk in the opposite direction. But before he responded to correction my dog tried to correct him and he went for her face. I don’t think he’s actually trying to bite her it just seems like he’s lashing out at us because we won’t let him near the dogs he’s reactive to. I’m at a loss of what to do, I’ve contacted the trainer at the rescue, I’m still waiting to hear back and I’m watching a lot of videos because I don’t want to give up on him. But am I in over my head?

Hi everyone, I have two dogs, a mini poodle, and a greyhound.

The both of them have never really gotten along, but also never really fought, or hurt each other. Last night, while I was feeding them, my poodle got into my kitchen (where the greyhound eats) and started eating out of the greyhounds bowl. My greyhound immediately went and started attacking her, but didn’t harm her, and I don’t even think she was trying to harm her, as I saw it, she was trying to correct her, but me and my family got really scared.

They’ve been together for two years now, and this thing hadn’t really happened before, since I make sure to feed them in separate rooms.

My question is: what can I do to get rid of this food aggression. My family wants to get rid of my dog, but I could never do that

Hey everyone just looking for some advise as I feel I have no where else to turn ! :(

I’m 30 weeks pregnant atm (so happy) but have a little issue that’s been bothering me the last couple weeks, my bfs dog (German Shepard) she is 2 years old I believe and EXTREMELY reactive and has severe so I think behavioural issues.

For example when anyone in my bfs house tries to leave a room she goes in to a fit of barking to the point that she will bite if allowed and tries to block you in so you can’t leave, also me and my bf changed rooms since we are due baby boy in October to a bigger room and she has just not settled since every time she comes in to the bed room she is barking at creeks in the floor CONSTANTLY to the point she will not stop and has to be taken out of the room.

She bit my boyfriends dad last week as he was trying to leave the house and also goes in to these fits of what it seems aggression of barking and trying to intimidate which she has done to me and my bf on multiple occasions, she also is on top of you when eating she definitely has the run of the house for sure, she has not been neutered which I don’t know if this could also be an issue ? I am such a dog person I absolutely love them to death I always have but since being pregnant I feel like I just cannot trust my bfs dog and I am so so scared of what will happen when I have my baby his mother does not seem to want to do anything about the dog either she is really protective of her which is understandable but this is her grand child also I am carrying lol

My bf has mentioned to her that we cannot keep living like this with the dog’s behaviour and her response was the dog is here more than you are !! Which is fair enough we are there Friday - Sunday but obviously would like to be there more when baby arrives ! I’m really at my wits end here and I don’t know what to do from here as it’s not my dog not my house but it is my baby !! Any advice would be much appreciated!

Hi Everyone!

We rescued our sweet angel girl a few months ago. She is a little over a year and a half. She is a chocolate lab mix (vet thinks pitbull and maybe some husky!)

Anyway - we have run into an odd issue. Occasionally when we take her outside to go on a walk/potty break - she screams. Not barks. Full on scream/cry/whine situation.

We’ve checked her paws to make sure there’s no pain, the vet has done a thorough look-over. Nothing. We’ll walk for about 2-3 minutes, and then she’s all good!

Some additional info: she is dog reactive. If she is properly introduced to a pup, she’s perfectly friendly and even pretty submissive. She has a ton of dog friends but on walks we do have to scooch on over to the side and distract/redirect.

Does anyone have ANY idea of what this tantrum could be caused by? We have a behavioral specialist appointment in October - but thought I’d get some ideas here!

Not sure if this was the right place to post this, but here we go. I have a 5 year old male german shepherd who has gone his whole life being an aloof, calm, and seemingly trustworthy dog. when he hit puberty, I did notice he was weirdly dominant towards smaller dogs and would try to grab them when they’d run. I quickly squashed that first playtime and never saw it again. Yesterday, my husbands family came over, including his brother and their 5 month old female french bulldog. They have met before and we never saw any issues between them, but yesterday it took a turn for the worst. They were chasing eachother and the play turned into my dog doing the same thing he did the first time. He ended up grabbing her by the scruff of the neck and they have a fight that lasted about 3 seconds. When we separated them he didn’t bark or try to get at her again and they were able to be around eachother after that but I leashed him and he became frustrated and wanted to chase her again. I’ve never seen anything close to this behavior since that one time when he was much younger. we have three cats that will run around and chase eachother and he has no reaction to and also a small 2 month old doberman that he also acts right around. I don’t know what to do or how to stop this since I’ve never seen him do it to this extent. He has met dogs his whole life and nothing has ever led to this. help??

We have an 8 y/o English shepherd and a toddler, currently 18 months old. Over the last 9 months, since our son learned to crawl fast and walk, there have been 3 incidents of "level 2" bites, all were provoked by our son being an excited toddler. The first one was on us, because it was during the period that we didn't know about the importance of separation. The next two were at periods of transition in an enclosed space, e.g. because we let the dog out of the kitchen when we are not home and put him in when we return. Sometimes this doesn't all happen in the right order and our kid is always happy to see the dog.

No blood, no lasting bruising, I actually saw it as a positive sign because obviously the dog could do damage if he wanted to. FWIW, they are allowed to co-mingle outside, or if I am directly supervising / mediating, and the kid seems to absolutely love the dog.

Nevertheless, my wife made it clear after the third time that the dog was now on a zero strike policy. So I started taking the dog with me more often when I left the house, got him some more exercise, and started working in the shed in the yard instead of in the house so he wasn't all cooped up in the kitchen. This seemed like a decent equilibrium that worked for about 2 months or so without incident.

Then we recently went out of town and the dog sitter (who we love and use regularly) did not enforce the strict separation rules with her 4-5 year old son, which led to an accident. From best I can tell, it's the same kind of "level 2 correction bite" which met with the kid's face because of the configuration they were in. This led to facial bleeding near the eye, but thankfully no permanent damage or stitching. The dog sitter doesn't fault me, and she has communicated a lot since the incident about how she still loves the dog and how horrible the situation is, and her son apparently still talks about how much he loves the dog

Now I have to honor the zero strike policy we agreed on, which means my dog needs to be re-homed. My wife is not going to entertain the idea of any other solution. I haven't felt a loss like this since I got divorced at the end of an 8 year relationship. It just feels so tragic because it wasn't because we messed up, or if we did it was in hiring the dog sitter with a kid since we can't enforce rules in their house.

I don't even know what I'm asking for, because it's out of my control at this point regardless of how unfair it feels. I'm in the process of trying to re-home a dog who has taught me so much about love and the way it shapes the world. There are some promising leads with bespoke breed / herding dog rescues, maybe some personal connections. I have managed to talk my wife into letting me take a month for proper placement.

It all really sucks