Category: Top Dog

Our lab mix is 19 weeks old, we got her at 8 weeks.

We just introduced her to the gentle leader and… are having mixed results. Sometimes she’ll walk ok, but she’ll lay on the grass and rub her face on the ground constantly, mess up her leash by pawing at it, and otherwise seem uncomfortable. She also never uses potty while wearing it.

Thankfully, we fed her treats through the nose loop and she is fine putting it on, but once we’re outside it’s overstimulation city

I know it’ll take time, and it’s only been a few days since we started, but I’m hoping to get an idea of how long it took y’all’s pups to get used to it.

Is using it every time outside the best option, or should we do it only once a day then work our way up?

i have a 1 year old dachshund who is highly, and i mean HIGHLY anxious. he has had this high level anxiety for a lot of his adult life and we noticed It around 4/5 months. we have worked with several trainers and he is always ok in the sessions but still has such a high level of anxiety on a day to day basis. his main issue around anxiety is when It comes to two things: going outside and being triggered by the outside world (especially in nyc) ie other dogs, people, sounds. he is so fearful of his surroundings outside of our apt. the next is fear and lack of trust of anyone besides my my partner or i. we cannot leave/go on vacation let alone have a dog sitter take him out as he will stay in his crate and not eat, use the bathroom, or come out. he is in complete fight or flight mode until we come back and payin money to have him walked is useless bc he will not come out.

we are at the point where we have invested in a vet behaviorist and he is trialing an SSRI: paxil – to help with his baseline anxiety so that we can continue training and get his anxiety down so he can actually learn from the sessions. it’s only been 2 weeks on the meds and i haven’t noticed much of a change at all in his anxiety.

i lost my first dog a year ago tragically. today while on a walk, he was spooked by another dog in the distance and tugged/ran and the leash fell out of my hand. he ran away from me into the street and was running from those trging to catch him. thankfully and i don’t know what god was watching over me, but he was able to be caught and unharmed. i am a complete wreck as this experience could have ended much, much worse and i don’t know what i would have done with myself.

he is so uncomfortable outside of my apartment but he has so many great qualities. he just has such bad fear and anxiety that not only is difficult for him, but is difficult for us too as we are not only trying to work on this with him but are also still grieving the loss of our first dog alongside this.

if anyone has any advice or tips for a situation as extreme as this that would be much appreciated. at this point, i’m not sure what he needs. whether a board and train, daily sessions with an intense and very particular trainer, or something else. i truly feel like i need a very specific, best of the best trainer in NYC area that specializes in extreme anxiety and fearfulness. if anyone has suggestions please leave them below.

TL;DR – my dog Merlin is defensive towards my brother and is very aggressive towards him when he walks into the house, but avoidant when my brother is in the house. He is not aggressive towards anyone else in the household to this degree even though all of us live together full time. We need help on how to socialize him with my brother.

I have a dog (Merlin) who is a terrier mutt and is TERRIFIED of my brother and only my brother. The dog came from a very traumatic past (hoarding situation) and is fearful of new people, especially when they walk into our house. He has grown accustomed to myself and my parents since we live here, but somehow he has not reached that same level of comfort with my brother. This is to the point where if he comes into the house, Merlin with growl and bark and even try to bite at him. We have no idea why he hates specifically my brother so much, nor how to increase their comfort together.

For some additional context:

– once in the house, Merlin is fearful and avoidant of my brother—not defensive

– He only becomes defensive when my brother walks into the house (even if he leaves and walks in again a minute later, he still has the same fear)

– Toys/Treats have not helped him very much to create a positive interaction when my brother enters the house

– My brother lives in the house full time

– Due to being a terrier, Merlin also expresses herding behavior towards people which may explain the defensiveness

It is putting huge stress on the household to have them at odds for seemingly no reason. Our current theory is that Merlin had a traumatic past with someone who looked like my brother. We have tried to get help, but their tips weren’t the most effective (eg. Having my brother feed Merlin didn’t change much since he still shyed away).

Does anyone have any resources to help with this?

What software do you use to manage your business day to day?
Booking, payments, reminders, client and dog profiles, etc.

I’m also curious where things still feel clunky and what you wish worked better….such as tracking progress, session notes and follow ups, scheduling or cancellations, payments or packages, client communications etc.

Thanks!

I have a 3 year old, 60 lb dog who loves to pick up and chew on the smallest objects. She will occasionally chew on appropriate chew toys that I’ve bought for her, but she absolutely loves finding the smallest things (like buttons from clothes, the plastic ends of strings, small, flexible metal) and nibbling on them.

She is very well trained on dropping whatever is in her mouth on command, but then she looks for the next small thing to chew on.

Any suggestions on toys or other safe chewing alternatives that could maybe mimic the satisfaction she gets from chewing small items?

TIA!

My boyfriend's 8-year-old Beagle just moved in with us 3 months ago. She was an outside dog for all 8 years, being tethered outside during the day and in a kennel in the garage at night. She has had no training until I came here.

When my bf moved into his apartment, and I moved in soon after, we went and got her. Our landlord made it very clear that the house cannot smell like dog/dog excrement. There was a brief moment where her anxiety spiked for 2 weeks; she was put on meds (she hasn't been on them for about 2 months), and everything was fine. She would go outside fine, eat fine, everything was fine. FOR A MONTH IT WAS FINE.

For whatever reason, she has stopped pooping outside. She will do everything but poop. She'll pee and pull on the leash like she's trying to choke herself out; she'll freak out at rabbits, squirrels, other dogs, and kids on bikes. Worst of all, since she's a Beagle, she'll find a track she likes, and she will actively choose to keep sniffing over pooping. She'll go 24+ hours without going, and then wind up pooping in the house while we sleep.

I wish I were kidding. Not to put too fine a point on it, but she will start pushing, just go to squat, and then decide that the scent is more important, and keep walking, meanwhile its 10 pm, below zero with 25 mph wind, I've been outside for 30 minutes, and I'm about to lose my mind.

No, anti-potty spray in the house does not work.

No, she is not sick

No, it's not anxiety. It's the same walk on the same route at the same time 3x a day every day.

No, it's not her food. She gets fed 2x a day, once in the morning, once at night, a cup of Healthy Weight dog food. She's had no adverse reaction to it, and she was on it the month that she was acting fine.

No, she's not stopped up. She has no issue going when she finally decides to go.

No, my bf can't really help, he works 12-hr shifts and doesn't get home until late, so it's really up to me to actually train her.

Yes, I have tried treats, but she has no interest in me or the treats while we're outside. This dog goes nuts for chicken in the kitchen, but once we're on a walk, she ignores me like I'm a creep following her on the street.

Yes, I do drag my feet when we're outside to the point where I'm out there 45 minutes per trip, and she still doesn't go. She'll pee, but that's it. Other than that, I'm fighting to keep my shoulder in its socket and hoping I don't chip a tooth tripping over her.

It's to the point where I'm in bed, hearing her wander around the living room, and I'm making myself upset because I'm worried I'm going to wake up and there's going to be dried dog poop all over my living room again. If I'm doing something wrong, someone please tell me, but I'm just so frustrated and overwhelmed.

TLDR: My 8 y/o Beagle wants to sniff everything and scream at squirrels instead of pooping, and I don't know how to fix it.

Edit: changed one word because reddit says this post was hidden but won't tell me why. Idk how this website works

Hello everyone!

Thank you for this wonderful forum. I am starting my 3 yr old dog on some noise desensitization techniques using recorded audio that I place around the house (a la some of the advice from the Kikopup videos and others).

For folks who have succeeded in reducing / eliminating reactivity to sound, I have some questions as I am ramping up that were not quite answered in some of the videos — any / all advice would be hugely appreciated.

1. How do you manage a noise desensitization scheme when the noises are random — e.g., the dog isn't responding to a door bell, but to a wide range of noises that the dog will hear outside a house or apartment. Do you just collect as many of those noises as possible, or is there a twist on the desensitization scheme that you implement?
2. Where do you place the audio? Do you place it near the dog, or near where the provocation would usually occur? (e.g., closer to an outside wall or door)?
3. What non-adversive steps do you take if the dog does start to bark?

Any tips from those that have gotten to the other side and seen it work would be fantastic — even if just by way of encouragement to someone just getting started.

Thanks!

In October I took in my neighbors 8 y/o dog she had since 6 weeks old. She was very over weight, becoming incontinent and needed help walking up and down the 2 steps on the porch. I figured it was kind of a Hospice situation and was happy to help since my neighbor was moving 9 states away.

Well, long story short we discovered via a few vet visits that she has severe hypo-thyroid is and a few pills a day and we are losing weight, continent, going for lengthy walks, and living our best life together now. Which puts me in a weird spot now.

I did zero research really before taking my baby girl in. And she does respect the yard boundary. She is very respectful and polite on a leash. She is housebroken. Basically she’s a really good dog, but she is easily bored because she’s a very intelligent dog. I’m just not really sure with her age and you know we do have some joint issues because of trying to lose weight still, What kind of training I could actually do with her. I am really wanting to just get some ideas of what anybody thinks or should I just kind of let her continue living life as is and try to figure out some puzzle games or something to entertain her with. She is eight years old and with her breed mix 8 to 12 is about as far as we should expect. The vet however has stated that she is so healthy now they wouldn’t be surprised if we get much longer than that. I would like to have her living a fulfilled life, especially since she has one now when the last 4ish years she has had zero drive, joy or motivation due to the undiagnosed thyroid issues.