Category: Top Dog

Would love to hear some advice to help our pup, who I believe to be completely overstimulated this Christmas.

We adopted our boy 5 months ago, and we believe him to be 2 years old (but potentially could be younger too). He struggles with overstimulation and frustration.

We have been working with trainers to do a lot of work around this. We do lots of impulse control training, walk him on a long line, we scatter feed him and to the best of our ability give him a structured routine.

But this Christmas has been hard. I brought him to my parents house for the holidays and although he was fine for the first 5 days, he has since begun to struggle. His behaviours are totally unusual for him and include:

• difficulty in relaxing / settling
• stealing objects regularly
• stealing food
• barking more (even when his needs are met )
• when playing with the other family dogs, suddenly going too far – showing teeth etc
• nipping
• nipping when putting on his harness or lead
• resistance to go into his crate

We have decided – it is best to remove him from this environment which is clearly over stimulating him – but it would be great to learn of ways to help him cope better for future visits.

At home he is crate trained – but was getting more worked up whenever we removed him from the main goings on around the house during this holiday. Would a good chew toy in the crate be a good idea? Should we practise teaching him to settle specifically?

Willing to hear all ideas to help our boy feel calm, comfortable and confident. Am aware this is something we need to start training at home before moving out to new environments

I have a 1 yr 3 month old doberman pit mix, and he is well behaved for the most part but we hit a wall with training him very early on, as he seemed to be completely uninterested in any kind of treat. Not the squeezy tube of flavored stuff, not soft or hard training treats, not any kind of freeze dried organ meat or anything, no milkbones or anything, not even any human food like chicken really, or if he does accept a treat, he examines it and plays a but with it before /maybe/ eating it. This makes it very very very difficult to train him any further and it is beginning to become a problem as he gets stronger and bigger. He is housebroken and knows sit and give paw and come here but that is all. Any advice?

Hi there, I have a nine week old golden retriever that I've had for a week and he's having meltdowns whenever I'm eating. Is this normal? I have started putting him in his cage when I eat because otherwise he is constantly barking/growling and jumping on me. While in the cage he whines loudly and does a tempertantrum, pawing at the cage, falling over (he's not very well coordinated yet), panting, etc. Is this a huge issue, or will he learn over time that I will not be sharing my meals with him?

I’ve been trying to bell train a mini daschund for a while now. At first I would push his nose into the bells but I read online you have to train the touch command first and then associate with going outside using a word like “potty”.

So that’s exactly what I did and he learned the association super quickly. Touch bells, get treat!

Eventually I started making him touch the bells every time we went outside saying “let’s go potty” as he does it. He’s great at it. But I don’t think the association ever fully clicked.

He did stop having accidents inside the apartment but sometimes has them in the hallway going to the elevator.

But it’s weird. It doesn’t seem to be like he’s doing it because he thinks it’s an appropriate place to pee/poop. It’s more like he can’t hold it. He’ll do a gentle sprint and then usually pee/poop A LOT. This is where it gets weird. He will give no cues whatsoever. He used to but now he doesn’t bark or circle around. He will lay next to me up until I decide to go outside and then he has an accident in the hallway. It’s not every time but around 1-2 times per week. He’s also not using the bells to indicate going outside. He’s 1.5 years old.

Some questions/thoughts I have:

Is the bell being about 3 feet from the door too far away to make the connection?

Is living in an apartment killing the association with potty since there’s a decent time gap before he goes? Between ring bell, put on harness, go down hallway, down elevator, and finally outside it takes a good 1-2 minutes.

Is the time to put on the harness killing the association after he rings the bell? He will do it on his own but only if I’m near the bells. It seems more like a boredom thing than a going outside thing?

Is fear of harness potentially hindering training? Because he is 100% afraid of the harness right now or doesn’t seem to want to put it on. He will approach and even play with it when it’s on the floor but he will run to the corner when it comes time to put it on and go outside?

I feel as if, my dog (2 and a half) will never be able to go off leash. He’s such an angle, often checking in, usually close ish to me, loves his recall cues, yet whenever I feel super confident to let him off leash, something always goes wrong.

On occasion, well actually many occasions he decides to chase a scent, probably one from a dog. Usually if he’s only 10-15 ish meters away he’ll come right back the second he hears his recall, but other times he’s just goes and goes and goes and then stops listening, I don’t believe it’s a my voice it’s strong enough problem, it’s more of a, he’s just choosing to ignore me at big distances problem. Now he’s always come back, but Iv been fairly lucky that nothing else (like a dog) has popped up at the park while our dilemma unfolds. So if I just run the other way eventually he comes back. But one day we won’t be as lucky.

I have a 20m long line, which he’s actually on pretty much most days, so it’s not as if he’s lacking freedom. I fulfill him in lots of different ways as well. Like finding a ball in long grass, those sorts of things. And I think that does help lower the chances that he will run after a scent, but it still does happen when he’s already been heavily fulfilled.

When he’s on the long line, and off chasing a scent, he pretty quickly hits the end, so he jolts and rushes back. Or if Iv recalled him and he ignored it, I have the leash to pull him back in, But when he’s off leash, there is not a leash to reinforce anything. So if he ignores me, there’s nothing I can essentially do. If I run the other direction ofc I have to reward him when he gets back as to him, he’s forgotten he ran off, so if I put him back on leash or something for coming back, he will not understand, if you get what I mean!

I just feel lost. How can I train him to come back when chasing scents that far away, when he has to be off leash in order to get that far away. I could yk drag 50m of long line to the park. But 1 it’s impractical, and 2 Iv never known anyone else to need such an observed amount of leash to teach recall.

Is my only option to recall him as soon as I notice him started to get a scent and then keep him close to me for 10 mins and then release him again in hopes we have passed the scent or he’s forgotten about it? What happens when he shoots of faster than anything, or I recall to late?

For some more background information, he’s become amazing at ignoring birds, on the odd occasion he will chase them, but that’s always happened in a safe area or he’s never hit the end of the line and has come strait back. But training him to ignore birds, which I can see, is a lot easier than somehow training him to ignore a scent that’s right under his nose that I can’t see.

Any help or guidance would be appreciated! I’m happy to keep him on a long line, apart from the scent chasing 20m is plenty for him, it’s more just a practicality thing for me, if that makes sense! 🙂

I'm trying to train my puppy (4 months old) to ring a bell to go downstairs to potty. I use a small patch of grass, but he'll go even on a pee pad if its in the same spot. Ideally, I want him to think ring bell -> alert human -> go downstairs -> go potty.

The reason that I want him to learn bell = potty is so that I can clean his paws and poop after he goes downstairs and eventually, I'd like to bring him outside anytime he needs to potty and I want him to be able to let me know that he has to go.

I've pretty much gotten him to go to potty downstairs 100% of the time now (finally). He will always make his way downstairs to go potty. However, the problem is that he isn't spot on with the bell ring. I think he just associates the bell with "downstairs." Sometimes he will ring it to go potty but sometimes he rings just to explore downstairs. He occasionally likes to go downstairs to explore. It's not a big area but it is where my front door and shoes are so I imagine there is lots of smells that he wants to sniff. Sometimes he doesn't ring at all and just goes downstairs. Sometimes he stands at the top of the stairs staring at me until I go ring the bell for him and he will go downstairs when I do. Lots of variance lol

What is the best way to train him to 100% of the time ring bell -> downstairs -> potty? I thought maybe training him by making him ring bell, going downstairs & treating a bunch of times but then I fear he'll just learn bell is downstairs.

Any advice appreciated, thank you!

TDLR: I want my puppy to ring a bell to go downstairs to go potty. I want him to only ring the bell when he needs to go potty and never to just play or explore downstairs / outside.

Okk so im 15f and I have 3 other sisters. Im the second oldest ana 18f is the oldest, ta f13 is the thid and ja is the youngest 9f. My dog Isaiah is a husky/lab mix, and my gigi got him a huge bone for Christmas. When my sister's or parents get close he would growl at them. But when I go near, he doesn't care. He would show it to me, give it to me, and even let me take it. Heck he waits for me to sit down to eat it on me or next to me. When im near he usually stops growling at the other person. For context my big sister has been to college and is here for the holidays.so he's been on edge with her a bit. ta will usually get him riled up and when he nips/bodyslams/and barks she will correct him by hitting him. She doesn't hit him so much but still riled him up. She dose this when shes bored. All my sisters disregard his warning like him growling or just being uncomfortable. Especially ja. I have to basically scream at her to get away from him when he's LITERALLY GROWLING. Now I when I was 14/13 I was ignorant. I would hit him when he destroyed something or when I was walking him and he would jump up and nip my sleeves on my coat cause ta would hit him with it however i still was the one that mostly fed him and give him water and play with him. My parents didn't really care. Didn't train him and didn't bother to learn. This year things changed when I dislocated my knee and needed surgery. During that time I reflected and decided that what I was doing wasn't working and started looking up dog training videos. For the last five months I have been taking him on regular walks and one extra long walk. I started training him, using towls and peanut butter for a sniff mat of shorts, when we didn't have treats I would make them(they were surprisingly), I got him treatment for a Hotspot that was bothering him and I brush and cut his nails. reacting to things which I reward him for it. I dont understand the resource guarding to other people but me. I used to do bad things to him. He should hate me. I don't think I deserve it. Thanks for getting this far and even more

I have an 11 month old golden doodle (Mac) that is aggressive with non-food items. My wife and I have a 3 year old son that feeds Mac and touches his food consistently without issue while he is eating (same with me and my wife). However, we have a lot of small toys, socks, etc. (dangerous to swallow) around the house that Mac will hold in his mouth and get aggressive/possessive when we try to take them away.

I have been trying the “pack leader” approach of mimicking a nip on the neck with my hand and saying a stern “no” to assert dominance and claim the object, but I know there are other methods of trading the item for a higher value item (treat). What do you recommend in this situation…especially with a toddler that will likely try to pull his toys out of Mac’s mouth?

Side note: I have not seen any aggression toward our son. I just worry about the time Mac is overly possessive of a toy.