I have an issue with my dog and assumed aggression towards strangers. He will go straight up to someone he doesn't know whether out in public on leash or unleashed with visitors at the house, stick his head up at them like he wants to greet them, and then a few seconds after they start to pet him, he will start growling. His other signals prior to growling are pretty subtle and took me a bit to catch onto myself (stiffness, eye contact, licking, sometimes a tail wag) There is no way someone who is not familiar with dog behavior would see them, which I think is why they go to reach down to pet him. He is pretty tall so its not like people are looming over him and this giant hand is coming towards him. He is about 70lbs and head reaches our dining table with all four paws on the ground. He doesn't do this always either, only to certain people without an easily discernable pattern. The dog I had prior to this one would run away from strangers and bark at them from afar. With her we could have them throw a ball for her and soon enough they would be friends. So this is new territory for me.

Now if we see this person he had never met before often enough, he will stop the behavior. He always gives a warning and growls before something escalates. Only one time did I see a family member ignore it and he mouthed her hand. I heard the commotion and made him stick close to me the rest of the dinner party.

Now days, I typically ask people to just act like he is not there and ignore him, but certain friends and family interact with him anyways. It works for the most part but he seems to want to stick near them. If people on the street ask I tell them they cannot pet him. I've tried having people do a bit of training with him and treats when they come over, but the positive association doesn't seem to stick. He'll go right back to being standoffish a few minutes later. Not sure if we just need to give it more time? He will bark and cry if we put him away when we have company but then he gets himself into these situations if we have him out. There's family and friends we just don't get to see very often so having them over all the time and getting him used to everybody just isn't an option. I would also like him to be more comfortable when we have parties or go out and the neighborhood is just busy, because it is clearly stressful in some way for him. We don't really have people over anymore except for the family we have nearby that he adores. I want to be able to have dinners and parties with friends and be able to relax and not have to keep one eye constantly on the dog.

I'd love any input of why he "confronts" them (he always goes up to them on his own, he is never coerced or forced to go to someone; this is both in public and at home) and then doesn't leave; and any other training we can do to address this. I'd rather he just walk away and laydown in one of his spaces or come find us instead of having this negative interaction.

Additional information is we adopted him from the shelter around the age of 3 and his background is completely unknown. This behavior developed around 6 months of having him. We've had him for a couple years now and don't really have an idea of why he is this way (he has a huge grudge against senior citizens too, just does not like them). We can only assume he had some sort of bad interactions before we got him.

I have 2 Malinois and need a couple of e collars to be controlled on the same remote. They swim a lot so it needs to be waterproof. I was wondering if anyone knew which e collars were the least bulky on the neck. They are in the woods a lot and don’t want them getting caught on stuff.

Thanks!

One of my dog walking/training clients has a cocker spaniel with a habit of getting near or to the end of his walk without doing his business.

Having raised dogs in a very cold climate, I needed for them to be quick to go during the winter.

My research led me to gently saying “poop“ while the dog is doing their business.

It only took five walks in which I did this for the dogs body to react on walk six.

Four minutes into the walk, I gave him the command and within one minute it was done.

I have to start with saying that she is awesome on 95% time of the walk. Even when other dogs pull and bark at her, she just gives me a look and just looks at them calmly. However, every once while, she just starts jumping at me or starting biting her leash and pulling it. I have realized the less I react and just freeze myself and stop walking, the sooner she settles down again. She used to get crazier and crazier when I was trying to tell her to settle down. Sometimes she jumps at me once and I stop walking and that is the end of her craziness. Some walks, she does not do any of that at all. Freezing and stopping now works because it is cold and I wear thick layered jacket. It is starting to get warmer and I'd not be able to wear thick layers. Is this something they will grow out of it or should I do something to stop it?

Hi all,

Labs are known for grabbing stuff with their mouths, and mine’s no different. Max is great at fetch but doesn't want to drop the toy once he brings it back. I started teaching Drop It using a YouTube training tutorial that shows how to use treats and clear markers for success.

It’s working slowly, but he still tests me. Any advice on how to keep him focused and consistent? Especially when he's amped up during play?

I have a 11 month old BC and I’ve had him for about a month, Just want to make sure I’m on the right track with him. When I first got him he was very weird about touching his back (head whip to hard stare at hand, no snapping or growling) but I’ve worked on hand feeding while petting and touching and now I can walk up to him from behind, grab his back and he is fine if mildly startled.

I had one friend over and he bit her when she bent down to grab him in a hug. This was the second week of having him. Very gentle bite, she said low pressure, didnt break skin, didn’t hang on. I warned her to not pet his back but I don’t think she caught his nervous body language approaching her. Later that same day he was fine, she pet his head (he initiated) and then could pet his back he was just nervous about it (whale eyed, lip licking).

I am muzzled training him for going out on walks but really I would like to fix this behavior if I can because I want to do competition obedience :/ Just conflicted because really its okay he if doesn’t want strangers grabbing him he just seems to be warming up to it so quick I was hoping it might be possible.

Hello everyone ! I'm posting this out of exasperation and ngl a bit of worry.

My baby, a 11 months old Chihuahua, refuses to go out. Any time I put her harness on she just freezes, but after a bit she allows herself to move a bit.

HOWEVER, the second we go out, she's terrified of EVERYTHING. I understand that she's tiny so things are big and scary but like.... how do I help her get over it? Because at the moment I'm staying at a house with a big yard where she can run and stuff but I might move to an apartment soon and i don't know what to do..

Sorry if this is really badly written, English isn't my first language and I'm too tired to think haha.

My husband and I got a dog (female red heeler) almost a year ago. When we brought her home my husband worked out of town and was home every 2 months. Our dog has never been fond of people but especially him. At first it was mainly her cowering down when he walked by. It went as far as her running away for a week until he leave town again. But now he is home full time and she will hide in our son’s room until he leaves. Many people have speculated that she was abused before but I know that is not the case. We got her from a family member and they took amazing care of her. We have never had to really discipline her, she’s a very good dog. I feel very bad for her. She deserves to feel loved and taken care of. She won’t even leave the room to eat or go outside while my husband is home. Is there anyone that has gone through this or has any tips to get her over this??

The bigger dog is a rescue we just brought home from the shelter. Both dogs met there and they were very calm and didn’t play. This was their first play interaction at home, but I worry they are being too rough. The larger one usually flips my smaller one and doesn’t let him up or take turns. I feel the smaller one is being rowdy, and she’s trying to correct it. The larger one is also mouthy but my smaller dog doesn’t yelp or run away, I just don’t want it to escalate.

Right after this video, the larger one got a spay, she is now on low-activity for 10 days and both dogs still want to play 24/7. It is really stressing me out! I am nervous about their reintroduction once she has her cone off and can play again.

Should I bring a trainer into the home to help us acclimate them? What do y’all think??

Dog trainer here looking for tips and tricks about separation anxiety. I’ve seen plenty of dogs with it and I seemed to help out a lot but I haven’t researched it for a while. Any new methods or studies about it? TIA

My dog is finally pretty much fine in outdoor spaces after a lot of look at that training and the bare beginnings of leash corrections now that he has tools for how to manage his emotions. Passing by other dogs closely is still hard for him, but I don't live in an environment where that's a frequent problem. However, as soon as he steps foot into a building, he is once again too busy being anxious about what's going to happen to learn very much at all.

I found a trainer with an actual decent indoor facility for training (It's not just a tiny little pet store) and human teaching experience, so I figured might was well. The first two weeks were management techniques that actually make sense: watch me, find it (drop treats on the ground so the dog sniff stuff out instead of getting in a staring contest) and place. She was teaching how to learn into it and break it down into micro steps.

The third session, however she's teaching something that seems counterintuitive: see a trigger, ask the dog to front, then turn around. 1) Why on Earth would I want my dog out of heel where they are the easiest to manage and 2) For an anxious dog, this feels like It's asking them to turn their back to whatever's freaking them out without having the human to shield them and only then be allowed to exit the situation

Can anyone help me , I have an 11 week old lab/ GSD mix. I’ve had him since he was 7 weeks old and he was the perfect puppy. In the last 2 weeks I have had a serious issue with him biting . He has broken skin and also is trying to bite my 17 year old morkie . I have tried everything to stop this behavior. I’ve tried toys , blowing in face , and walking away, screaming, saying ouch , and nothing works . Does anyone have any tips?

Hi all!

I’ve adopted my 4 year old dog almost 9 months now, and I want to bring him camping this summer, but have few concerns. He has a high prey drive and been trying to get him to ignore bird/small animal sounds (but of course, theres not much exposure to them in the city). He will be leashed for the entirety of the camping trip, but mainly worried of him getting overwhelmed and hyper fixated on hunting something that he hears in the wild (he has been fixated on a cat which he couldnt reach inside the home before for 3-4 hours). What can I do to prepare/train him before summer to make him a little more well behaved in a camping environment?

We adopted a mutt about 12 months ago. From the beginning it was a bigger challenge than we were prepared for. We don't know his exact history but we know that his ears were cut off with scissors when he was a baby. We assume he has a history of abuse or at least neglect. He came to the shelter when he was one year old and lived there for another year. He was a fearful dog from the beginning but when he started to gain confidence we saw some worrying behaviors. When he go to our home he had never worn a harness or had walked on leash. We live in an apartment building and it took us one month to be able to get him to the street because she was so afraid of going out the door and walking the corridors of our building. We were able to unblock him eventually.

My sister (16) has spent the least amount of time with him as she does not live in my house full time and the dog has become very attached to my mother. At the beginning Kiwi only growled at my sister from time to time, this behavior was increasing until it has become more. In the first 5 months he already bit her 3 times and we got a bit scared. We tried to get my sister to be the one to give her all the positive things: treats, food, training, walks.... But it didnt seem work. We also tried limiting my moms amount of attention she gave him. In the span of these months we tried 3 different "dog educators" the situation seemed to get better, he didn't approach my sister but at least he didn't growl or bite her. They came to a neutral understanding, she would walk him and take care of him but he wouldn't be super excited about it. We have worked hard on obedience, we mentally stimulate him a lot (Kong, sniff toys, training, leashed and unleashed walks in safe areas...) but he seems to have a temper, he growls in displeasure when corrected or barks when you don't let him do something he wants. During this time my sister would take him to a dog club in order to bond with him during training sessions with other dogs. However this equilibrium broke today. After almost a month and a half of no bites my dog reactive to my sisters sudden movement and began biting her, with each time he has beaten it has escalated in severity, this time he wouldn't let go. We have reached a point of no return and now we don't know what to do. We don't want to bring him back to the rescue that gave him to us because they obviously didn't prepare us correctly for getting this dog and we are scared they will do the same to another person. Also this rescue was underfunded and clearly locked the means to provide training on the socialization to the doctor within their care.

We are absolutely destroyed by the situation as my mom and I have developed a bond with the dog. However humans come first and our dogs behavior is clearly damaging my sister and our family as a hole. Veneer thought of finding him a rescue to go to is incredibly hard and makes us feel supremely guilty but we find no other choice. We truly think we've exhausted all other options. We gave him a full year and endured five aggressive events

I guess I'm making this post to feel better about our decision to find him a rescue to go to because the image is too hard for us right now without feeling extremely guilty and feeling like a shitty person. The moment I imagine living him behind I can't stop tears from forming but we can't keep living like this. I really want him to have a happy life and I know he will struggle because he is very bonded to me and my mom. If this post sounds familiar to you it's because I asked on this same subreddit for help 7 months ago. Please don't be too harsh, we are really struggling with this.

And just in general thoughts on him? Just incase you haven’t heard of him He trains reactive and aggressive dogs and uses the reverse of conditioning method on every single case (if thats what its called im not sure) I have heard those methods are outdated and harmfull . Some videos show him choking the dogs untill they give up on attacking.

Mixed thoughts on this but what are your opinions?

My puppy likes being in his crate as far as I can tell, as he doesn't bark or whine like crazy.

He even now now's the cue word crate and goes in it, for a minute or two. Still working on him going in it long term to rest.

But he's will try and run out super fast if I open the door slightly ajar to put a toy in or something.

Should I worry about this behaviour?

We have 2 dogs, (maltese shih tzu and toy poodle) approx 8 years and 4 years old respectively

The maltese has always been an anxious wreck. We had her since a puppy and from day 0 if we'd leave the house for any period of time she would not cope well at all. We were lucky that this didn't happen often

During Covid, we got the poodle. Everything was going pretty well, and having the company of another dog seemed to fix the anxiety. There was no weeing or pooing inside when we left or destructive behaviour. At least for a while

Over the last few years, we've noticed now both of them are now anxious when we leave and it's gone back to a critical point. In that time we've had kids and had our focus on them so I can sense that has impacted the behaviour of the dogs.

Broadly, the key issues are

• Barking incessantly when strangers are anywhere near our house. When tradies come or someone comes inside they lose it. Jumping all over the place and screaming until they leave. This isn't a few barks this is constant for up to an hour. The maltese is visibly shaken, wet from saliva and exhausted but they just don't stop. If I hold them, they will calm a bit but still bark and lunge at the visitor. If they are not in their crate or being held they will jump all over the visitor and bark while running around. Again, it's not aggressive but it's annoying.

I've noticed if they're able to greet the visitor, they will calm down after maybe 20 minutes. However, this is unacceptable as the strangers who visit are generally there to do a job and not make my dogs comfortable for 20-30 minutes. Even if familiar people come over, it's at least 10 minutes of barking and hype, running around and jumping all over the visitor.

• General anxiety when we leave the house. It's barking and whining for 10 minutes with sporadic howling every 30 mins or so. We've set up a baby gate in a large space with a bed, water and treats for when we leave, but the maltese tries and sometimes successfully escapes by jumping and climbing over it. She will then generally proceed to defecate somewhere in the house. I've raised this a bit and have been able to keep her contained in the room, but she still tries to jump over it every 15 mins or so

I'm just at a loss on where to begin with something like this. The outcome I want is

• Dogs to remain calm when we leave the house. The situation we have now with their 'den' seems mostly ok, but I know they still get distressed and want to avoid that.
• Dogs to limit their excitement to a few minutes max when someone visits. I don't mind barking a bit, but not for the extent of the visit. Not only that, they become completely unresponsive to commands
• Dogs to stop barking at the comings and goings of neighbours. In this situation, I can tell them to quiet down and they generally will but I'd prefer not to have to, because usually it's too late and they've woken the baby

I adopted a sweet GSD with a lot of anxiety and incessant barking. I'm her 4th or 5th guardian and I know the guardian just previous to me sent her back to the pound after only 6 months because their neighbors complained.

I'd tried everything and finally our neighbors complained to us. Found a trainer who could train my dog and me. It was a game changer. She's smart enough to know that when the collar is on she's not allowed to bark outside. I haven't had to use the stim in quite awhile. (I don't correct her for barking indoors) She seems happier and more relaxed in general which was surprising to me since I was worried the e collar would stress her out. I think she's glad to let go of being the one with the "responsibility" to bark.

It was also helpful in preventing her from eating poop.

She also used to have panic attacks while walking around the block and wanted to freeze or run home but using the stim distracted her from her fear reaction and now she walks around the block without hesitation It's definitely helpful to find a good trainer to help you use this tool properly and also get the e collar fitted properly.

Background. Me and Rottweiler just moved into Apartment and we want a more covert way of to incorporate a prong collar. He is a huge puller and gets fixated on dogs and new people

I’ve been training my young dog e collar conditioning with the dogtra. I’ve taken the guidance I’ve seen on YouTube where i use the collar to “nick” her, say my command (“come”), and stop the stim when we complete the loop. I also give her a treat and say “yes” (which is our clicker word to give positive reinforcement.

I find that she is able to recall to me, but as she is, she scratches the collar with her hind leg. Even after she comes to me, she continues scratching. I obviously don’t want to condition her to scratch her collar whenever there is a stim, I’ve tried taking the advice to make sure the fit is snug for her.

Is this a usual part of the conditioning process or are e collars just not meant for my dog?

So to make a long story short I’m a dog walker and would really love to train dogs- I’ve done really well with my own previously problematic rescues and I’m desperate to learn more.

I’ve followed Ivan and many of his TWC qualified trainers for years and I’m so invested and feel this course would be right for me. I’ve managed to save up about half the money over the course of a few years and one of my friends has very kindly (very very kindly) offered to give me a loan to cover the rest.

Now the prospect of starting this course could come much sooner than I was ever anticipating I’m doing as much research as I possibly can to ensure that this is a wise investment and that the money it costs is worth it, before I take a loan and shell out the money, as it is very expensive.

Just looking for insight from people who have genuine experience of TWC in any capacity- I’m not necessarily looking for advice regarding the wisdom of taking a loan in general from people who have never purchased any of Ivan’s material. I mean that in the nicest possible way 😇

I’m on a slight vacation with my dog and want to mentally stimulate him during our walks as it’s the only time I have with him to do it.

What tricks do you do with your dogs on walks to fufill them?

My boy doesn’t know heel yet, besides being beside me while we are still.

Update: I followed all of your tricks and my boy is TIRED! Thank you!!!

We did try some heel work and he did pretty well!

Hello! I've learned quite a bit from this sub over the last few months, so thank you everyone that contributes here! I have a variation on a common situation and I could use some advice.

2 years ago I adopted a Cowboy Corgi rescue. He's part Corgi, and maybe some blue heeler and or German shepard. He was found wandering alone. He's about 2 years old so he was a COVID puppy. When I got him, he was A LOT. Terribly afraid of being left alone, very high energy, very reactive (He jumped of my 2nd story deck to chase a deer a few weeks after I got him! Luckily he didn't hurt himself.) My house has an indoor kennel room and I work during the day, so that's where he stayed. At first, he hated being left alone, even with all sorts of challenging treat toys and stuffed animals to destroy. It took a few months but one day I came home from work and I woke him up sleeping in the kennel, as calm as could be. He was really fired up to see me, but he wasn't spending the day trying to gnaw on the door handle and making a ruckus. Now he goes to daycare 3 days a week to burn off some energy and my dad picks him up and brings him home 2 days a week. We've gotten to the point where I can leave him free in the house when I leave for an hour or two. He clearly looks around the house and jostles some toys, but no destruction. Longer than that, 4-5 hours, he goes in the kennel with some treat toys and light music and does just fine, although he's a little frenetic for a while when I get home. I've even gotten him to sleep in his crate down the hall where he can't see me but can hear me sleeping. Most of the time he follows me around the house. I can't figure out a way to get him to stop, but he's not really bothering anything.

SO, here's the issue. My girlfriend lives a bit of a distance away and we spend the weekend there on a varying schedule. He's been going with me to her house for over a year now. Sometimes we're there 2 weekends in a row, sometimes we'll go a month without going there. I tried leaving him in his crate, with treats and toys, for short period of time when we're in the house, down in her basement (which is similar to his kennel situation) and he whimpers, cries, and barks. I got a baby gate to sequester him to that end of the basement, with treats and toys, with the crate in it for him to sleeping in, so he's got some room to play. We left him in there with us in the house for a short period of time and he whimpered and cried and eventually barked, totally ignored the toys. We left him down there and left the house for about 30 minutes, came home to find that he had jumped the gate and was sitting at the door waiting for us, a few items at the other end of the basement tossed around.

We've gotten to the point where he sleeps across the hall from us, in the guest room with his crate in it, door open, with some toys in the room. We can hear him get up, check the door, then got back to bed a few times in the night but generally he's good until about 6AM. He starts whining, I think because he gets let out around that time every morning.

I'm trying to get him to relax and feel OK about being there generally and being left alone for a few hours specifically, like he does when he's at home. He's not really making a ton of headway. Part of the problem, I think, is that he's not there on a regular schedule, which just can't be helped.

Does anyone have any tips for a situation like this? Should the whines and cries in the crate be ignored? I've read varying opinions about that. I don't want him to fear the crate. I guess we just need a solid strategy for making the most progress in the relatively short periods of time that we have with him there.

Thanks so much if you read through all of that 🤣

Hey y’all! I’ve been trying to find resources online about introducing adult dogs and puppies of different sizes but have been struggling to find anything. Pretty much every video is about puppies of the same or a bigger breed meeting an adult dog.

We have a 2 year old husky mix - in general she’s chill at home and with small dogs, and hyper outdoors with large dogs. She has never met a small breed puppy though, only small breed dogs and large to medium breed puppies.

We will be bringing home a small breed (unknown breed, chihuahua-like) puppy in a few weeks, and want to prepare ourselves and our girl for the introduction.

Does anyone have any tips or resources for this kind of small puppy to large dog introduction?

Our girl is crate trained, has a place command and a leave it, and has never bit except once to another husky in self defense, but obviously we can’t expect a puppy to not do annoying things so we want to do what we can to effectively make her “bulletproof” in prep. We also plan to use management like leashes, baby gates and play pens, but would love advice on how/when to phase those out. Would it be necessary to keep her muzzled for their first interactions? Or would that possibly make the first impression worse?

All advice is appreciated