Dog Owners Frustrated by Reactive Behaviors

“This guy always runs to his box when he gets overwhelmed - as he is a shelter dog he gets overwhelmed quite fast :D In general that's a behavior I would appreciate, but it's getting worse recently often only if you say his name he runs to the box, meanwhile outdoors he isn't that insecure. So its obvious that we messed up a little and are now trying to figure out how to reverse this. Even during play time when I train the box command to send him there, afterwards he wouldn't come”

“I've heard people say that you should never correct a fearful dog, but this has made me wonder what the appropriate response would be if a "fearful" dog started lunging and barking at another dog to create more space. Surely the dog needs to learn that such behaviour is unacceptable, even if it's rooted in fear? I suppose some would argue that a fearful dog shouldn't be put in that uncomfortable situation in the first place, but unexpected/unavoidable situations do happen i”

“I’m hoping this community will have some advice because we are at a complete loss on how to handle evenings with our 9 month old Polish Hunting Dog who has recently found her insanely strong prey drive. This is my first post as a longtime lurker and it’s a long one, but I want to start by saying we have already worked with an obedience puppy trainer previously and have now reached out to a behaviourist who will hopefully help. For context, our girl came to us unexpectedly at 16 weeks old from a”

“My 1.5 year old mutt (mostly Aussie x Lab as per embark) tries his absolute best, but is struggling, and I'm just about 99% sure I'm the problem. How he got to us is a horror story on my part (answered an ad for berner x golden puppies, learned the hard way about byb pups when he didn't grow as expected. Will never make this mistake again, and heavily advocate for shelter or well bred, health tested dogs), and I'm sure means this guy has shitty genetics on top of everything. But,”

“I've been working with my 2.5 year old rescue, who is leash and barrier reactive to other dogs. We think she's mostly a frustrated greeter. We've been making good progress with counter conditioning and the Look At That game. So much so that she can pass by a dog at about 10 feet without losing it. In the past she would lose it if she saw a dog on a block or two away. We still have some work to do, but overall we've come a long way. Our problem is this strange migration of reactiv”

“Hi everyone so I adopted Enya when she was a month and a half old. Land shark through and through. She is now a year and 3 months old. I had to read and look at a lot of training videos to make sure she turned into a well behaved dog because she has a LOT of energy. Super smart, but very impulsive with her biting. Other than the biting, she's been great: never had potty issues, doesn't run away when off leash, comes on recall, has great relationships with other dogs (I socialized her a l”

“My dog is a 12 year old Rat Terrier mix. She wasn’t always dog reactive. She became reactive about two years after I adopted her due to being attacked by one dog and charged by another. I’ve worked with a behaviorist and trainer. I’ve also tried different medications. Nothing has helped. I’m just at a loss now. I’ve just accepted that she will be reactive for the rest of her life and there is nothing that really helps her. When I walk her, I try to keep lots of distance from other dogs. I try to”

“I’ve had my dog for 6 years. She’s a rescue, a Kangal mix, and I love her deeply. She’s also extremely reactive toward both humans and dogs, although she does have a few favorite people and dogs she genuinely likes. Her reactivity is especially intense in fenced areas and around our house, which she seems to treat like an extended garden that she has to guard. She’s also reactive toward cats. Over the years, I’ve tried a lot. She has been on medication, she has worked with professional trainers,”

“Hello, I am very nervous about coming on here with such a vulnerable situation but I am having such a hard time coming to a decision on what I should do with my fixed reactive/aggressive Pitbull(25%) German Shepard(75%) mixed 6yo female dog. A little back story, my dog, T has always been good with my families other dogs. Mind you we’ve always had quite a few dogs and she grew up with 2 dogs that we no longer have from her litter from birth to when she was about 4yo. She also has her companion wh”

“We rescued a 3ish year old pom/chi mutt about 2 months ago. She was confiscated from a hoarder /backyard breeder house, then was at a high kill shelter. So she has certainly been through the ringer. She is suuuper mellow at all times, including on walks, hikes, at the park, etc., except for she seems to have severe confinement anxiety and destructive separation anxiety as well. We just started her on Fluoxetine (Prozac) to assist with desensitization training for her separation anxiety. Because”

“TLDR: My slightly anxious dog is extremely anxious and defensive and barks excessively around my toddler nephew all of a sudden. Any ideas on how to help him? Sorry for the long post. I’ll put some of the less important details in a separate paragraph towards the bottom if you want to skip that, but I don’t want to leave it out in case it makes a difference. I originally tried to post in r/dogs , but it suggested this subreddit might be more appropriate. I have a somewhat anxious 6-year-old mixe”

“I have a 5 month blue heeler pup, we've had him about a month. He is incredibly smart and motivated to learn but by the time we got him he was already developing leash reactivity We didn't get him super young and his previous owner wasn't taking care of him how they should've, and now I find I'm behind on some skills. When I started walking him young he would not be able to focus on anything else than pulling and lunging at other dogs when on lead. He's been going to dayc”

“So we have had an Italian greyhound/chihuahua mix (male) for almost 6 years now. He’s around 8 we don’t know the exact age. He was always a bit of a grump to everyone except one of us who he chose when we first got him but it wasn’t anything too crazy he just had a preference as to who he appended his time with (although he rlly only likes going on walks with his person). We had always said that he seemed like he wanted a playmate because whenever he was at the dog sitter while the family was on”

“My rescue has been reactive for the three years I've had her, and somewhere around year two she started doing this thing where she freezes and stares at the ground right before she would normally bark and lunge. At first I thought she was about to escalate and I would brace myself, but she was actually selfinterrupting. Like she figured out on her own that if she looked away from the trigger she could hold it together. Nobody taught her that. It just showed up one day. I've talked to a f”

“used to be gone 45 days at a time doing longhaul. my dog koda is a reactive rescue, cattle dog mix, does not like strangers or other dogs getting in her space. when i was gone that much she was basically just surviving at home with a dog sitter, no real structure or consistent training. i felt guilty about it constantly but also just exhausted from driving, so i'd get home and not have the energy to do threshold work or anything real. now i'm doing local routes, home every night, and it&”

“Thanks all for the tips! She did sooo well this past week. She did have some moments and we didn’t run into any dogs in the elevator - but I walked her odd hours for the most part. submitted by /u/yoona__ [link] [comments]”

“I have a 5 year old toy Aussie who has always been reactive and snappy, and unfortunately despite going to trainers to try to curb the behavior it hasn’t worked out for multiple reasons. He is smart and has been trained to sit, lay down, stay (lol with an Aussie), but the reactivity training just didn’t stick. We thought we had somewhat figured out how to work around and live with these issues because otherwise he is so sweet and loving, but recently the behavior has gotten worse and my husband”

“Hi all, I'm new to this community but I'd love some advice. I have a 7 month old english cocker spaniel who I adore, but walks are a nightmare and I'm struggling to handle it. I know she's still young, but I'm not sure how to help her and I want to get help as soon as possible so that we can enjoy our walks together without me worrying that we're going to see another dog at some point while we're out. I will be speaking to a trainer/behaviourist (maybe multiple) but I”

“My young male whippet acts strangely around puppies! It's almost like it invites hyper arousal? Has anyone else experienced this? Our neighbour across the street has a young beagle (3 months) and we met him this morning (I think it's important they know each other so we avoid conflict/barking etc). Today we did a 2 minute on lead greet and my dog went between stiff body language with slightly telling off behaviour to being a bit too OTT with initiating play (play bows, growling, play bar”

“Please see my previous post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/reactivedogs/s/5TVeMHhsEt Update on my dog, his behavior has been escalating and im feeling just horrible about this situation. I mentioned in my last post that he has a history of eating non food items. Previously he ate sheer curtains, a shawl, and gnawed on door frames. The shawl had to be removed via endoscopy. About 10 days ago with no warning, he ate about a foot of a bootlace. I was able to get him quickly to the emergency vet whe”

“I adopted this beautiful stray 2 years ago, I'm sure she was attacked my other dogs, when I found her on the street she had bite marks etc. I don't think she's aggressive I think she's scared. When I first adopted her,It took her a couple of months but she eventually became bff with my first dog. But every time we go for a walk she goes insane when another dog gets close to her or her brother. She lounges, growls, her hair hackles, she goes into this sort of "attack" mo”

“Our girl Dot has been part of our family for 6 years of her life. We adopted her from a shelter when she was about 6 weeks old. She never had any behavioral issues until she turned 2. It started with aggression over toys towards our other dog, and then escalated to random spurts of aggression towards her at any time. My husband and I decided to send her to 6 weeks of dog training to help with her behavioral issues. The trainer told us she was in the top 3 most difficult dogs he'd ever worked”

“Hi everyone, I was hoping someone might have tips. I have a 4 year old Dalmatian, she is reactive. She has not always been this way, it just seemed to happen over time. She was socialized very young, even at a year old she was still playing with other dogs, but after my wife and I left for vacation we came back and she wasn't the same the next time we took her to the dog park. Fast forward two years later and she is still having the same issues which are barking at all dogs, if she is close”

“advice needed. So we got our dog the beginning 2019. I was 15 at the time. He was around 5 months old. He is a pit lab. He was a stray who just showed up one day and we kept him because he was clearly house trained and no one came to claim him. His behavioral issues didn’t start until two years ago. My cousin would get dropped off at our house after school and my dog did not like him whatsoever. I still don’t know why. One day my cousin who was 8 at the time was eating a slice of pizza at the ta”

“Hello, I've seen a few posts here about reactive dogs and a lot of helpful comments, but I felt like some advice were just not applicable to me so I want to share my story and if anyone has time to give advice it will be highly appreciated. I got a Chihuahua as my first dog, we took him when he was about 12 weeks old. He was always fearful and I worked a lot on his confidence. He didn't want to leave our backyard, he was shaking after you put harness on him and he would not want to walk”

“I’m so sad about my dogs reactivity. We adopted a Cavapoo from a reputable breeder with many years of breeding and highly positive reviews from many people. We seem to have gotten the one pup that just has the most fearful temperament ever, and it’s so disappointing :( As a young puppy he was so fearful but he would just hide. We took him to puppy training classes and introduced him to lots of family and a couple friend dogs. None of that seemed to help him, as his fear has turned into reactivit”

“Hi everyone, I’m writing this exhausted and hoping for some insight. Our girl Penny started daycare once a week a while back, but unfortunately developed leash reactivity to other dogs (barking and staring). We hired a trainer, and after just two sessions, we've seen tiny improvements using her tools. On Saturday, we walked through an area packed with dogs, and she was incredible, ignoring some of dogs without a command or ignoring them while on heel!! It was a glimpse of what she could beco”

“My dog is a border collie-pit mix (basically; he's ~ 70% border collie, 10% dogue de bordeaux, 10% staffy, 10% mcnab) who I got at 10 weeks old. He was an absolute angel for the first 4 months, besides obviously being easily frightened and startled, and then he snapped at a kid and actually bit her, breaking the skin, when he was around 6 months old. I had him neutered around one year. Luckily that kiddo was not seriously hurt, but my dog's fear of children and aggression towards them ha”

“Hi everyone, I apologise in advance for how long this post will be, but I am hoping someone else has been in this situation and may have some advice for how to proceed. I have an 8 month old female corgi (spayed). I have had her since she was 9 weeks old. She has never been a people-dog, and I put a lot of effort into socialising her early (taking her to cafes prior to getting her full vaccines etc) thinking that was the right thing to do, and I put a lot of her earlier introvertedness/nerves do”

“My dog - a 1 year old massive yellow lab - is very reactive to the front door when it's opened and can't control his energy. We have an keypad doorlock, which makes noise when we input our password to come in - this is usually the trigger. We have a dog gate (that we need to replace because he often can just tug on it to get through) that prevents him from running up and jumping on us at the door, but he will start to pull out the cushions and rip up the couch out of excitement. We'v”

“Hello! I have a 3 year old dog who I adopted about a year ago. He’s a lab staffy mix and super sweet. I delt with a lot of separation anxiety at first with him, but was able to crate train him and start him on Prozac to help. He does great now and doesn’t even need to be in the crate when I leave him home alone. I work night shift and go out of town sometimes and am lucky enough that my apartment has its own dog daycare where he goes a few times a week, it’s only roughly 5-7 dogs, many days less”

“Hi guys! It’s been a while since I posted here since the last few months been pretty good. I have an olde english bulldog, for you who know, it is a pretty strong breed. She is 5 months, turning 6 months in a week. I am alone with her so my goal from the beginning was to train her from day one since I knew that being alone with this kind of breed will be a pain in the ass if not trained. She’s been so good with training, a bit stubborn (typical bulldog) but she catches on to stuff that I learn h”

“I adopted a 2.5 year old hound-ish dog from the shelter. I was told by the shelter that he is very easily excitable, jumpy and mouthy, and that he'd require a lot of work. They never mentioned that he is reactive and at that stage I didn't even know what a reactive dog meant. It's been 3 months since I've gotten him, I definitely love him and I want to keep him forever but it's been so overwhelming. The trainer has been coming in once a week for the last one month, and she ha”

“I haven’t had a dog of my own since I was a child, so if I were to get one myself, I’d definitely get help with puppy training but this is an issue with a grown up dog we are sometimes watching. We’re a family of five with three kids aged 4–13, and for the past couple of years we’ve looked after a friend’s dog for weekends about once a month. She’s now seven and is a Portuguese water dog/poodle mix. She probably hasn’t had much training and isn’t particularly well behaved, but she’s very friendl”

“I understand that dogs aren't as complex as us but I have a dog, will be 3 this year, who seems to clearly pee when he doesn't get what he wants. I got the dog for my son, who does a very good job taking came of him, however in the middle of the night the dog will wanna chew and chew and chew, so my son takes the chews away so he can sleep. This usually leads to the dog begging to leave and jumping up and down at the door until usually I get him. If I don't get him cuz I'm asleep”

“Hi all, I have a reactive, anxious, separation anxiety Great Dane. Originally we worked with a trainer who used e collar, he got better, then his reactivity worsened and has been that way for over a year. Kept following up with the trainer, attending weekly group classes, he never got better. I worked with that trainer for about 2 years and since nothing seemed to be helping I stopped going there about 6 months ago. Instead, I started seeing a vet behaviorist and force free trainer. Well honestl”

“Looking for support from people who have been through something similar. Please be kind, we love our dog tremendously and are not making any decisions right now. We have a young lab with significant anxiety/fear-based reactivity who was recently evaluated by a veterinary behaviorist. She has started daily anxiety medication that will take several weeks to work, plus gabapentin in the meantime, and we're following a pretty intensive management/training plan. But we're exhausted. A major i”

“A bit of context & info i think is important I am a teen , try to be respectful please . She is muzzle trained , used to prong and ecollar aswell as a gentle lead . She has cues such as ; Leave it , Look at that ! , Focus , Lets go ! My SDiT is a pitsky ( husky x pitbull ) and has been training with me since i first got her , at 4 months . Unfortunately i brought her to dog parks when i first got her since the shelter promoted it for whatever reason and had one connected to their shelter . I”

“I've just rescued a dog. She is just under 2 years old. Labrador cross (staffie, boxer, rottweiler we think) she is a wonderfully social dog. We have 2 boys (13 and 14yo). She was great with us all at rhe centre playing with the boys. She has been great with them all day other than when they were playing xbox on the sofa and she climbed on to their back/shoulders. She did it once to each. We were able to get her off by calling and then she sat with them on the sofa for the rest of the day. I”

“Hello! I adopted a puppy three months ago from a foster from the south. I have been struggling to train him due to extreme fear and anxiety. I’ve hired two trainers who have helped in some way, but their advice is primarily centered around positive reinforcement, which is hard for him because he will not accept treats in scary situations (men, noises, cars, small children, etc). I’ve tried high-value treats such as cheese, hot dogs, chicken, and Kirby pouches but eventually he gets tired of them”

“Like the title says - we've been at the brink of giving the puppy away at various time. We've picked up a "needy" dachshund - would wake up at night, throw himself at dogs, eat anything on the ground (not even in the house, literally would start eating grass and not stop). It took him getting to about 8 months that we really could see ourselves with him in the future. He's not perfect, not always reacting to training, but we found our own ways to adapt and bring him to our”

“Hi! I’m looking for help on how to talk to the owners about better managing their dog. I know it’s sensitive, so I want to know how to do it right. My neighbours across the street from me have a highly reactive small/medium dog that they bring outside to play at the front of their home for about half the day, every day, unleashed. The owners are always out there with him but don’t manage the reactivity. We live on a regular street with houses very close together, no fences around the tiny grass”

“hi everyone! my (26) mom (64) adopted a puppy (female, yellow lab, 5 months currently but adopted at 12 weeks) who we named Brigitte and lately she's been yelling at her a lot (which I always tell her not to do because the dog doesn't learn from yelling or being mean) and then my mom told me what's been happening. Lately, Brig has been randomly deciding to jump on my mom and bite her and scratch her and it's resulted in a lot of injuries and bleeding, not to mention my moms cloth”

“Hi all, here’s a bit of context - I’ll try to summarize it. Monday - adopted an estimated 7 yr old corgi at rescue, from puppy mill. Mon- Thursday morning - Corgi was peeing and pooping outside, doing awesome. Thursday: I dropped her off for the spay at the shelter, she was extremely exhausted, panting and breathing heavy. Came back a different dog. Friday: she peed once in the AM, didn’t go the rest of the day. Called Emergency vet at night, told me not to worry, sometimes it takes awhile, to c”

“We recently brought a 9 month old rescue from a kill shelter into our home. He definitely had some trauma we are unsure of, he has a huge scar going half way down his back - although he is not reactive when we touch it or pet him there. He is generally just a goofy, big puppy still learning how to be a dog and loving freedom outside of the kennels and shelters he was in. We already have 2 established dogs, both of which were trained using an e-collar. We started to use the e-collar on the new pu”

“Hello everyone. My family is really struggling with our 10 month old Cockapoo. He constantly barks, cannot be left alone, and has constant energy. Despite hiring training, he barks suddenly and aggressively with no cause (windows closed, no TV on, just me in the room with him). He barks constantly to the point where we can hardly leave him alone unless he's sleeping, since the neighbours have complained. He's extremely restless, and hardly sleeps. Can someone please point to resources, o”

“Our 6 month old pit mix does a herding type crouch when I have her outside & my daughter decides to join us after we are already walking around. She waits until my daughter gets right up to us then jumps out of the crouch and gets the zoomies. Should I stop her from doing this, could it become aggressive? submitted by /u/Ok-Location-5547 [link] [comments]”

“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 a”

“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 sta”

“Hi, For context, I have a female working cocker spaniel who just turned a year old this month. She is an absolute dream at home, and is very clever. However, her issues are starting to wear me down. She is scared of anything and would bark, and I mean like the leaf falling from a tree freaks her out - hair on her back raised - this also happens when she sees a person she is not sure of. This is worse when she sees a dog. This started at 8 months but no matter how much we train her, she is just f”

“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 o”

“We just moved to a new state and have not got set up with a vet yet. My dog is a pain in the butt to do vet visits. She's reactive and doesn't take to new people messing with her especially when she has something wrong. She requires night before and day of gabapentin and tramadol and a muzzle for visits. So I'm really trying to avoid going to a vet at the moment. Dog, female, spayed, approx 4-5 years old. Has redness and swelling to the skin fold area just posterior to the vulva. The”

“My rescue I adopted around 6 months ago is an anti social, reactive nightmare. When I first got her she would fence fight the neighbors, lunge at cars and I swear she would bark at her own echo. Worst of all, she hates guests in the house. I have a good set up for putting her away now, which has really helped, a decent sized pen in the basement I live in that’s quiet and out of the way. So tonight when she was being an ass I put her away and she calmed down, but before that she was doing really”

“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”

“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 wal”

“Hi! I have a rescue English Shepard mix who is reactive to pretty much everything. We have worked with 3 trainers since we got him 5 years ago and he is on Prozac. He is a lot better than he used to be, but still very reactive. He has destroyed our front door because he jumps up, scratches, and barks anytime he hears a car outside or there is a delivery or trash pickup, etc. We obviously tried training him to stay on his place when someone rings the doorbell, but it just never worked out. We als”

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“We have a 13 year old lab, she's a sweet old thing, bit wonky on the back left like most labs of her age and she's always been a bit vocal for the usual things (postman, people being noisy outside, occasionally at thunder or fireworks) But, as she's got older she's become progressively more deaf. She can hear if we shout, but it has to be fairly loud. There may or may not be a correlation but it seems that since this started, she's started barking at nothing, constantly. Most”