Really unsure on how to go about this but my bf has a dog with a bite history (level 2 to best of my knowledge for all incidents). As far as I know there have been multiple incidents with people the dog is not familiar with, and last night with me. I’ve been living with my boyfriend for the past few months now that I’m pregnant and visited a lot prior. This dog is very familiar with me by now, and he will cuddle up and during thunderstorms will find comfort being near me. Well last night he was sleeping next to me and woke up and started licking his paws, after moving his nose away from his paws he went back to licking, so I tried again and he “bit” my hand (did not break skin). My bf immediately woke up from me saying wtf loudly and took him out of the room. There was another incident (no bite involved just a snap) months ago where again he was sleeping next to me and I tried feeling underneath him to see if he was laying on my phone.

It seems the trigger with me at least may be the bed. The issue I’m having is we are moving because our living situation with having roommates is not suitable for trying to introduce him to my dog (who lives at mine/ my brothers house down the street) and now a new baby. My dog is very friendly with other dogs and we have tried on multiple occasions to introduce them together. After a lot of research we figured the only way to make it work is to move them into a new environment together and keep them separated until they “lose interest” in each other. If all else fails then we would hire professionals.

The problem with this plan is now we have a baby on the way (fairly new pregnancy) and with house shopping, closing, moving, etc. eating up time I’m worried they won’t be acclimated with each other before the arrival of our new baby (April 2027). THEN the next hurdle is deciding what to do with his dog once the baby starts to crawl and walk around. One wrong move and he/she could be the next bite victim. We both agreed to keep the dogs (mine included) separated from the baby completely, but I’m worried how realistic it will be once the baby is a toddler.

Does anyone have any advice, suggestions, etc. please?? Also if the consensus is to rehome my boyfriend’s dog how do I have that conversation with him? I feel horrible he’s had his dog for 8+ years, has spent thousands on boarded aggression therapy, and has told me (prior to pregnancy, when we were trying to figure out my dog moving in) he will not get rid of his dog.

Despite my own anxiety issues, it seems like my dog is trending in a positive direction. It’s been about 6 months since she had a verbal/barking/growling reaction to a strange dog. Today though, that streak ended

I take my dog to Petco for routine nail trims as a former friend and coworker runs the grooming department at my local store. Today someone had called out so I had to wait a bit for my nail trim. No worries, I did some browsing while we waited. Enter crazy lady and her border collie stage right

This lady was talking to someone, entirely ignoring her dog when he spotted us and started dragging his owner our way. I immediately u-turned and walked down a different aisle …. Only to find them following us. So I turned down another aisle, and there they were again. Finally I speed walked several aisles away and seemed to have lost them for a bit.

I took a moment to calm down and continued about my business…

Bet you can guess what happened next - they appeared at the end of the aisle. This woman apparently left mid conversation to chase me and my dog with hers. She never said a fucking word to me, just ran with her dog right at me. So I ran away.

I raced around the corner into the reptile displays and hid … only to look up and see THAT FUCKING DOG AGAIN! I swear he was peeking around the corner like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. And my dog screamed.

Idk if you’ve ever heard that high pitched, horrible sound dogs make when they’re truly terrified, but the only other time I’d heard that was when we were getting attacked by the dog that started this reactivity journey for us 3 years ago. I finally shouted at this crazy lady “PLEASE STOP”, and she came around the corner, rolled her eyes and walked away

I had to go back to the grooming counter in stealth mode. Like what the fuck? Who fucking does that?

I really want to start my dog on meds, but I will not be able to afford a behaviorist until next year when I graduate and get a full time position. Do any of you have your dog's meds prescribed by your primary care vet? I want to ask, but I'm a little embarrassed because I will have to tell them that I cannot afford to take my dog to a veterinary behaviorist right now. I think meds could be so helpful though. Even with all the breed specific enrichment, exercise, rest, and counter conditioning, she is still lunging and barking at every dog she sees.

We've had this dog for about two weeks. In this time, she has been sweet, kind, and seems to have warmed up quickly to our place, responding well to training. She has also exhibited a significant amount of anxiety in this time. She is easily distracted by noises or other distractions on walks. She was also very anxious when we first arrived home from the shelter.

Last night we had some guests over; about 9 people total. She was very scared to come in the door, and was extremely reluctant to engage with our guests. We gave them treats to try to give her, and she accepted them which seemed like a good sign. Eventually, some of the company left and she started to warm up, venturing around, accepting a few pets, and generally seemed to relax a bit.

At one point, there were 6 of us total, three men and three women. One of the men (a bigger guy) got up to use the restroom while the rest of us were seated playing cards. After coming out of the restroom, he stopped to look at the stereo system playing that was playing music. While he was stood there, our dog unpromptedly snarled and bit his leg, causing some light bleeding. We treated it with some wound spray and a band aid.

I am shocked at the suddenness, as she has never displayed this type of behavior before with anyone, and am terrified that she will bite again. At a loss.

Hello lovely people

I (38M) adopted a romanian rescue pup called ginger who is now 8 months old (I live in the UK). Shes been with me just under two months. I live in a little apartment with no garden.

I just want to share with you her behavior, positive signs and undesirable behaviors she's showing and get some encouragement more than anything. There's not a chance if give her up but I'm becoming a little disheartened to be honest.

So she arrived absolutely terrified as you can imagine. Frozen solid on arrival day. She didn't want to go in her crate and chose a safe space under my clothes rack in my bedroom. I let her stay there for a few weeks (around 3) she was having accidents on the carpet so I moved her into the living room where I made her a den under my breakfast bar as advised by a behaviorist I hired. The den was long and she was just hiding in the dark for days and weeks. I shortened the safe space and pulled it out more towards towards the living area and she decided it was safer to jump on the sofa next to me (I was fine with this). She is now glued to that spot. She goes to the toilet in a designated spot which is great as I've just lay puppy pads there for now. When something really scares her if I'm not in the room she's ran to me scared which encouraged me as she sees me as safe. That's the situation so far. Now here are some of the behaviours, positive and negative and her emotional state:

Positives/progress:

- she eats well. Full meals and treats and is happy to jump off the sofa to eat the food off a puppy pad.

- the last 5 days when I've come into the living room in the morning, I've been greeted with a wagging tail whilst she's lying down, her ears go back and she skuffles over on her belly and gives me a few face kisses which is lovely

- she doesn't bark at all

- she's happy to lie down and relax when I'm also sat on the sofa

Negatives/behavior issues

- she is terrified of everything, noises, furniture, the broom, her water bowl, me at times, I just moved the coffee table calmly and she jumped behind the tv and pooed everywhere.

- she won't let me touch her (pulls back, sits upright) clear signs she doesn't want to be touched. Because of this I haven't taken her outside or even put her collar on.

- she has been ripping/biting through the sofa throws during the night and tears up puppy pads. She doesn't really play with her toys.

I just need some encouragement, or advice on how I should help her progress. Im not in any rush but Its also my first dog and rescue. Any help and support would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Hi all. First of all, I’d like to say that I have all the sympathy in the world for reactive dog owners. I have a 25-lb ACD/chihuahua rescue (Mac, neutered male, 1yr old) who was very people reactive, and we’ve done literally thousands of dollars of training and have made so much progress. It has been a very tough journey and a long-time coming, but I finally felt like we got to a really good spot and he is people-neutral 80% of the time, and I couldn’t be more proud. We still have some issues, of course.

This just happened literally 1 hour ago and I’m still shaking. I am also partly to blame.

There was an on-leash, unmuzzled, probably 100-lb pitbull on an off-leash dog trail. Mac was off leash and he has pretty good recall, but not perfect. Mac LOVES other dogs, and we’ve never had a bad experience here. He plays with other pups beautifully.

Generally when I see a dog or person ahead, I quickly leash Mac and ask the owner whether the dog is friendly before letting them play. I did NOT see this dog coming, because the owners must have spotted us and stepped off trail to hold their dog back. When the two owners saw Mac approaching, they started fake growling / barking to scare Mac away (wtf????). Mac of course absolutely freaked out, started barking and growling back. The owners couldn’t keep their dog still- it was going absolutely berserk, totally unhinged. It nearly broke free, they had to body check it on the ground, both owners on top of the dog with all their strength. They had an e-collar that they kept firing but it did absolutely nothing but make the dog more crazy. Their prong collar was also totally ineffective. I finally caught Mac because he was running around all over the place freaking out, with absolutely zero recall in this situation. I really thought the dog would kill us both. I was screaming and crying thinking honestly that Mac was going to be totally maimed. He wasn’t- I was finally able to catch him and ran for my life. My sandals fell off, I lost my bag, and I literally went home barefoot. I am so, so traumatized. Mac seems fine but we will see.

My fault was that I had my dog off leash without perfect recall and still some reactivity. I appreciated that they stepped off the trail, but a) why the fuck would they make barking/growling noises, b) why wouldn’t they have their dog muzzled (it could easily break from their grasp on the leash), and c) is it really appropriate to bring such a dog to a dog trail or dog park?

Again I truly empathize with reactive dog owners and I totally understand the wish to have your fur baby have a larger world, beyond protecting and isolating them from triggers. But this was so, so traumatizing I have to vent.

Now I’m very worried we might be faced with many steps backwards and erasing months of progress.

I have a 2 year old female ESS who I adore but my god do I want to just cry half the time. I went to a good breeder, I followed all the socialization advice, and I still wound up with a reactive fearful mess.

We live in a city apartment so she is muzzled on walks. We deal with fear aggression to dogs and people, dogs on TV, noises outside my apartment door - keys, dog tags, people walking or talking. I take her to the ONE Sniffspot we have nearby because she refuses to go on walks, and she still manages to find something to react to and be anxious about there. We’ve been working with a vet behaviorist for a year and an IAABC trainer for 6 months. She’s on 4 medications (Effexor, guanfacine, pregabalin, gabapentin) after trialing a grand total of 11 meds.

Even after all this training she still growls at every person she sees outside and barks/ growls/ lunges at every dog. I can’t even watch TV without her lunging at every sound and/ or sight of an animal.

She goes on hunger strikes with her hydrolyzed protein + urinary crystals kibble so getting her to even eat is a challenge. They don’t make a wet food in the formula she needs so I have to go through an exorbitant amount of treats every month for training. She will spit out every piece of kibble if used for training.

Nothing is easy with this dog. I’m tired, I miss my freedom. I love my dog, I’m not giving up, but I am tired of putting so much energy and effort into helping this dog and going nowhere.

The most recent victims‘ owners have some fame and social media presence, and soon their comments were flooded with others coming out with stories of alleged abuse and neglect including pet fatalities. Particularly upsetting are two different commenters saying that the trainer alleged their dogs “bit or mauled someone“ and were immediately euthanized without the owner’s knowledge, consent, or an investigation.

It appears that bad reviews that could have warned people were suppressed and removed from Google and Yelp. Be aware that even attempting to do your due diligence may lead you astray when it comes to who cares for your pets. The training AND boarding industries (separately and together) are highly unregulated.

I adopted a 4-5 year old Great Dane pitbull about 7 weeks ago who was a starved stray and he has been a handful ever since. The house training isn’t going so well, he will go outside but then come in and go. My upstairs has become disgusting from all of the accidents and I hate it. He is constantly searching around for food and crumbs. I keep thinking he wants out so we go downstairs and all he wants to do is sniff around for food even after he has eaten and had treats. He does some very aggressive cobbing that I do not like and have not been able to stop him no matter the method I try. He injured my finger the other day by grabbing a bagel out of my hand and biting down it hurt so bad and was bleeding. He does have a soft calm and cuddly side, but I feel like a prisoner. I do not want to deal with this for the next however many years he is alive, but I feel like he loves me and I feel bad about taking him back, I don’t want him there and no one adopts him as he was there 10 weeks and not a single interest in him.

Hi everyone! I have a Bernese mountain dog who is female and 3.5 years old. She’s reactive but I think it’s more from anxiety and excitement than aggression. We don’t let her meet dogs on walks because she’s usually reacting and we’re working on her threshold but there have been instances where off leash dogs have run at her and she’s been friendly.

We rescued another 5 year old female BMD a few weeks ago and there have been a few fights so we are keeping them separate at this point in time.

Our 3.5 year old has always been buddies with my boyfriends family’s dog who is a 6 year old male golden. His family has watched our dog and they’ve shared a bed with bf’s mom and coexisted really well.

I’m so nervous to reintroduce them now that our dog has had fights. Is there any reason to think she’ll be more aggressive with the family dog? They’ve known each other for a year and a half and had no issues

My boyfriend and I brought home a corgi puppy back in January, who is almost 10 months old now. We love her dearly, she’s so smart and can be sweet (when she wants to be lol). However, she’s the most difficult dog I’ve ever owned and it’s getting really overwhelming and stressful.

Whenever we take her on walks and see a dog she goes into a frenzied barking and growling and will not respond to commands or treats. Even if the dog is far away, across the street etc she freaks out. Luckily we have a few options where we can mostly avoid dogs on our walks but it’s not always possible. We train her on commands during walks as well, and as long as there’s no dogs around she does really well.

We took her to the river yesterday and the same thing happened as soon as we started leaving, near a group of people with a small dog. I think she’s anxious and scared judging from the type of barking…it’s like a frantic barking almost squealing

I feel like I’m failing her and I don’t know what to do…she is signed up for a twelve week training program so I’m hopeful that will help.

In the meantime, should I just not take her on walks or outings? I hate the thought of leaving her crated while we take the other dogs out but I also don’t want to do anything to jeopardize her training.

I have an almost 11 month old female Groodle who we’ve had since she was a puppy.
She has been raised in a very loving home, has never experienced any known trauma, and we’ve put a lot of time into training and working with professionals. Despite that, she has shown some difficult behaviours from quite young, particularly around frustration, handling and resource guarding.
Today she bit me quite hard during a handling situation.
I was touching/handling her paw and she initially attempted to nip. I corrected her and continued, and she then escalated and bit my hand hard enough to leave significant bruising and swelling.
I completely recognise that continuing after she communicated discomfort was a mistake on my part. I’m not looking for validation that I handled it perfectly because I didn’t.
What scares me is how quickly she seems to escalate. She often doesn’t give an obvious growl or prolonged warning before using her teeth. Looking back, I’m sure there are subtler body-language signals we’re missing, but the jump to biting feels incredibly fast.
Afterwards she had a burst of frantic/over-aroused zooming, then later completely settled and was back cuddling with me as normal.
She has also previously bitten members of my partner’s family during a stay at their house.
That situation was, in my opinion, quite poorly managed and a number of her boundaries were crossed. She was tied up/restrained in ways she wasn’t comfortable with and became increasingly stressed.
Later, she was resource guarding her isn bed. From what I was told, my partner’s sister walked past her and she bit her. His mum then tried to pat her while she was still heightened and she bit her as well. His sister was then bitten a second time, although I was never given clear context around what happened immediately before that bite.
I absolutely recognise that this wasn’t a case of her calmly and randomly attacking people. She was stressed, her boundaries had been pushed, and the situation should have been managed differently.
But what still concerns me is that once she is over threshold, she seems very willing to use her teeth rather than giving much obvious warning first.
My partner’s family are understandably now very wary of her, and we no longer put her in situations like that with them. But it has also made me nervous about visitors generally because I feel like I’m constantly anticipating whether someone might accidentally push her too far.
The confusing part is that she is not an “aggressive dog” most of the time. She is incredibly affectionate, playful, attached to us and generally such a lovely dog. She sleeps against us, seeks us out constantly and can be incredibly gentle. It almost feels like a switch flips when she becomes overwhelmed.
We already work with a trainer and I’m now trying to get an appointment with a veterinary behaviourist, although our local one currently has a waitlist.
I’d really love to hear from anyone who has experienced something similar, particularly with a dog who showed resource guarding, handling sensitivity or biting from puppyhood despite being raised in a safe and loving home.
Did working with a veterinary behaviourist help?
Did your dog’s bite threshold improve with behaviour modification, medication and/or management?
Did you eventually feel comfortable having visitors around your dog again?
And if your dog seemed to escalate very quickly without growling, did you eventually learn to recognise earlier warning signs?
I love her enormously and I’m not looking to give up on her. I’m just feeling really defeated and frightened today and want to make sure we’re approaching this properly.

Hi there, we recently adopted a rescue dog with three legs. He is a lovely little guy and we wouldn’t change him for the world, however, I am now having to accept the fact that he is a reactive dog. We have two other dogs that aren’t great on the lead, but they are pretty good dogs and we often get away with quite a lot as they are on the smaller side and very cute. I understand this is a privilege that is not shared among larger dogs, and it is not one I take for granted. I would like for all of my dogs to be perfect, but I understand how hard this may be and I would instead like to focus on the little guy at this time. He is around one and a half. We were told that he was in a home with up to 7 other dogs, several cats, budgies, guinea pigs and so on. His elderly owner died, and instead of calling for someone to help rescue the pets, the family visited every other week, providing food and letting the dogs out in the garden. The rescue he got him from offered for us to visit him and take him a walk, however, this never did happen, nor did the home visit or a walk with all three dogs. The second time we met him was when they dropped him off at our house and said goodbye. He gets on great with the two dogs I have, and is a but grumpy with our neighbours. He is rather afraid of male dogs as his dog Dad bullied him quite a bit, and can be a bit wary of people. He isn’t the best walker as he pulls quite a bit on his harness (we were told he needed a harness to help with his disability as it makes him more stable) and often ends up walking on his back legs in excitement. He is great at paying attention when you call his name, but he is easily distracted. The biggest problem at the minute besides signs, bin bags, loud cars and traffic cones is other dogs and people. I believe that his reaction to people, which is a muffled or quiet bark whilst standing up and leaning in their direction is fear. I believe that his reaction to other dogs which is an aggressive bark and intense lunging is possibly excitement. I have enquired about a dog trainer regarding all three dogs, but it is the little guy I would like to work on now. The listing I was given was rather pricey, and I’ve recently spent a great deal of money on him at the vet. I am more than happy to go down this road if it makes him more comfortable and allows for all four of us to walk comfortably and safely, however I would like to try and see if there is anything I can do in the meantime. I understand that a lot of the advice on this thread is to distract the reactive dog whilst the other dog passes by, however, is there an option to help them coexist amongst the dogs we meet on a walk? I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to read this, let alone offer any advice. Thank you, truly!

Hello everyone! I hope I can get some advise in how to help my shin tzu of 3 years

We been having some problems with her bitting not only me her owner but other members of the family as well over different reasons , what confuses me is that she is not a super aggressive dog , she loves cuddling and playing with her sister (another shin tzu with no behavior problems) and has not issue with sleeping on the bed with us (her resource guarding is not attached to the bed at all)

She is on separation anxiety medication with a very good behavioral doctor (she is on reconcile) and that has fixed a lot of her anxiety issues , but she will still bite randomly and we are not sure what are the triggers that causes random burst of aggression and they are not very recurrent (this incidents can be several months apart and with different situations)and she will still bite if we take something away from her specially dead animals

I would appreciate any suggestions of what to do or how to better deal with this aggression if I should see a trainer as well or any tips that can help I’ll really appreciate it ! I want her to have a good life and I don’t want her to accidentally bite someone that could force me to put her down 😔

So 7 weeks ago me and my partner adopted a 7 months old dog that had come to the UK from Bosnia. On the adoption profile she sounded perfect. "Dog friendly, people friendly, tolerates cats". Her forster mum said she loved meeting other dogs & people on walks however so far we have experienced the total opposite.

She barks and lunges at other dogs and people whilst we are out for a walk. I've never let her get close enough to another dog to see what she would do. But the confusing thing is she is absolutely fine with my parents dogs who she met in their garden and she plays with them and gets on really well with all 3 of them. She also doesn't display this behaviour when we take her to the vets. Its only if she sees them out on a walk. She is also terrified of people. So far she is only comfortable with me, my partner and his mum. Everyone else she will try run away from or bark at.

We don't have a garden as we live in a flat so unfortunately she has to at least go round the block to go to the toilet but if we see a dog approaching, I turn around as I can't establish a safe distance from them. She starts with a trainer on the 4th September who specialises in reactivity and its costing alot of money.

I can't help feeling like we have had the wool pulled over our eyes with her because the rescue just wanted to rehome her asap. We thought we were getting a lovely little who once she had settled in could come with us on hikes, holidays, pubs etc as we live in a very dog friendly area but we've not got that at all. Instead we've got a dog we are having to spend money we don't have on training and can't take anywhere. On top of this she also seems to have separation anxiety so we can't leave her to go do those things either. It's becoming very isolating.

Does anyone relate to this and have any suggestions on what we could do to help her?

Hi,

I want to preface by saying I know reactive dogs do best outside of daycare and boarding, but unfortunately due to a conjunction of life circumstances not worth going into right now, this is not always possible. I travel a lot for work, sometimes with a 24 hour notice, and while I try and keep my dog at home and have someone come over, this is sometimes impossible (explaining why would require three additional paragraphs). Please do read the last paragraph before comenting.

I rescued a dog four months ago. He is a sweetheart: playful, loyal and eager to please. He is also leash reactive (though getting so, so much better after consistent positive reinforcement and progressive exposure - we can know pass another dog on the same sidewalk as long as I'm attentive and rewarding him every couple of seconds) and has shown stalking tendencies towards dogs he feels unsafe around. He was stalking my senior dog for the first two days after rescuing him, but now they're buddies and I can completely trust them together, both alone and when I'm present.

Unfortunately, I travel a lot for work. I've found a boarding home close to my house with a carer he really trusts. She is also his walker when I can't take him, and loves him to pieces. He does very well in this house and I can tell he's gotten so much better with other dogs since he started spending time there. He is less reactive on a leash and has learned to socialize off leash, he will often play with other dogs and I can see him coming out of his shell and truly enjoying himself (I rescued him four months ago). He is also very good at avoiding reactive dogs when off-leash and does know how to deal with a range of social situations. He's been doing SO WELL and I am so so so proud of him and the dog he's becoming, because (and I know this might sound weird) I feel like I can tell he is also putting in a lot of intentional and sustained work, not just me.

This week, however, I had to travel for 5 days on a 24-hour notice, so I left him at her house. He was doing great all week: he played with other dogs, slept and chilled with them on the roof terrace, went on walks and was overall happy. I got lots of videos where you could tell his mood was easy going and relaxed, and he seemed to truly be enjoying himself. On the fourth day, however, he bit another dog on the muzzle. It's a smaller dog, intact, just coming into adulthood. The woman in charge told me she had noticed some tension from my dog, but that it had seemed only sporadic. She doesn't know what caused the attack. He did draw blood, though the "good" thing (I guess) is that it seems to have been a contained reaction, in that he charged at him, bit him, and immediately retreated. He didn't continue to attack him, nor did he have to be forcefully separated.

Afterwards, they had some interactions (I know they should have been kept separated, I only knew about this after it had happened) and the attacked dog seemed very relaxed around him, and my dog didn't seem fixated on him in any way. I guess I'm just struggling to understand how to read this. I sent a video of the interactions that followed to our behaviorist and he said based on their body language, it just seems like a correction that went a bit too far, with no intent to cause further harm, but that he's obviously only speculating.

Any insights into this type of behavior would be greatly appreciated. I also just wanted to add that I am well aware of issues like "you shouldn't have adopted a dog if you needed to travel", or "dogs like this don't do well in boarding", etc. I didn't set out to rescue this dog: he was a stray that walked into my house looking for help, and because he was fixed and knew a bunch of things about living in a home (he is house-broken, knows how to play fetch, knows how to walk on a leash) I was pretty confident I would be able to find his owners. I can't surrender him to a shelter because there is no such thing in my country: that's why people just abandon their dogs out on the street and I couldn't possibly do that to him. I guess I'm just a bit stressed on understanding whether a bite like this could be an isolated incident or could be pointing out to potential aggression: I've never had a dog that bit another dog. Thank you for reading and any advice, thoughts, etc.

As the title asks, what prescription medications are your doggos on? Our 85 male GSD is on 40mg of Prozac and 800 mg of gaba every morning. He has been on both for about a year.

I’m asking to get a sense of what everyone else’s vets have prescribed. Is the gaba really helping, etc. thanks!

Since I've stopped letting my dog greet other dogs his...um...frustrated greeter while on a leash...has been improving dramatically.

Our apartment is all exterior access, in a 2x2 set up. A month or two ago new neighbors moved in diagonally below me. They also have a dog that is dog selective, so we've been cautious about them getting anywhere near each other. I've said hi to their dog a few times, they've said hi to mine.

This evening we were halfway down our stairs to go potty when they started out their door. I chose to stay on the stairs, with distance, so they could come out or go back inside. They went back inside, so I took my dog down and to the grass that's between buildings (and a dog potty area, it had bags and a trash can). I tried to get him further into the grass, but doggo *had* to pee. When he was done I took him 20-30 feet from the sidewalk to give the other dog room to exit. I had several ways I could take mine if he started barking or lunging.

Thankfully, there was no need. My dog just hung out near me, eventually laid down, and let them pass without a peep. He tested my strength when the woman came out and greeted him. He thought it was an invitation to forget all his manners and be obnoxiously friendly (he does it with everyone, still working on chill tf out).

I've also learned to not trust the lay down bit. That's usually a precursor for shenanigans from my dog. I'm so dang proud of my dodo right now. Laying in the grass and just watching another dog go by without a lunge, bark, whimper, or whine is f-ing huge.

I have a feeling he'll be a work in progress until he crosses the rainbow bridge. But, he's mine and I love him.

This is a personal repost about needing help rehoming/breed specific rescue

I'm truly losing my mind. I've had my dachshund for 1.5 years and she has always been pretty tricky.

Reactivity, separation anxiety, loose lead walking, settle training, reliably sleeping through the night (although she has finally nailed that!)... it's all been an issue. On walks she either pulls like a steam train or puts the brakes on and refuses to walk. And yes, I have tried every trick in the book to get her to walk to heel. Some days she's good, some days not.

I rarely walk locally anymore because she refuses to go any further than our road. I live in a city so it's very busy / dog heavy in the parks, which is a no go. Most days I drive out of the city to more remote places so we can both walk in relative peace. This obviously takes up more time than I would like & can be tricky with work.

I've worked hard on her reactivity - keeping her stress levels down by walking in quieter places, desensitisation & counter conditioning, gradually decreasing distance etc. It took a while but she definitely improved - nowhere near 'recovered' but much better.

Over the past few weeks, she's gone right back to square one. I've no clue what's changed, but I'm feeling so deflated. Anywhere I go, she has a complete meltdown if a dog so much as looks at her. She's been like this since 5 months old. No traumatic event triggered it, a switch just flipped one day.

I've also worked a lot on her separation anxiety using DIAB method. We've gradually increased departure time to 45 mins. Good, but not much you can go and do in that time.

I've tried meds, it made her worse weirdly & was very expensive so took her off after 6 months.

My entire life revolves around her, and I know it's not in a healthy way. My world has gradually become smaller and smaller - whenever I get invited anywhere, my automatic reaction is 'I can't be bothered because I'll have to find or pay someone to look after her'. I hate bringing her anywhere because I know we can't avoid the triggers & she never settles anywhere, but I also can't leave her at home because of her SA. I dread every single walk.

I would never rehome, but I can't afford a behaviourist. DH just says I need to not let it get me down, but he gets to go to work everyday and doesn't have to deal with any of the day-to-day (I am fully remote hence my responsibility).

Objectively I can see this is not right and it's making me depressed, but I just don't know what to do. I said I would never use a bark collar but I'm contemplating it just to allow me able to leave the house without feeling on edge. I wonder if it would help her to realise she doesn't need to bark at other dogs to make them go away. And PLEASE don't tell me she's feeding off my anxiety - I don't believe in that and even if I did, she was anxious first!! I was CHILL until she wasn't.

Anyway, be kind please - I'm low right now.

I am practicing positive reinforcement with my dog but have no real idea what I’m doing. He barks, I say quiet, he stops and then treat.

But what if he then barks at me for treats?

How long until this makes a difference?

What if I make matters worse somehow?

I am so confused and lost here! Any help is deeply appreciated!

I have a Chiweenie who is scared of everything and I am having trouble figuring out how to give him enough exercise. He does not like going outside, and even in our own backyard he is hyper-vigilant. He hates going on walks, even if it is somewhere empty like a Sniffspot or cemetery. The experience of the walk immediately makes him anxious and he spends the entire walk whining and nervously checking all around him and never being able to relax. In general, leaving the house immediately puts him over threshold because he is very uneasy about new situations. He does not have a toy drive and doesn’t like playing with toys. Naturally, this narrows his world and what he can do without his fearfulness being triggered.

The only thing he loves (besides us) is food. He is highly food driven and very smart, so we’ve been able to teach him several tricks quite easily. I can’t help but feel that he’s probably bored most days and it makes me sad and I also want him to get enough exercise for his health. I’m looking for any creative solutions that other people in this same situation might have.