Blog

I rescued my dog about 4 months ago and she is just absolutely terrified outside. We don’t know her past but she is now to the point where half the time I take her out she doesn’t go to the bathroom and is just terrified and trying to get back into the apartment (we live in a big city). I’ve had to go back on my own anxiety/depression medication because she makes me cry every single day and I feel like an utter failure and wake up with anxiety attacks everyday. We’ve done tons of training, us and with a professional, and she’s on week 1 of anxiety meds (I know these take a while to kick in but who’s to say if they will even help). She’s still nervous in the suburbs but was so much better than she is here in the big city. It’s been a few months and I feel like she’s getting worse, not better and I just don’t know what to do because I’m starting to hate my life and the idea of rehoming her is awful because she’s the perfect dog inside and I love her but I can’t tell if this is worth the pain for both of us

I have somehow, and I don’t know how, trained my dog that when I open the back door and he’s outside waiting to come back in, to just wait for me to ask him to come in?

I know this is crazy but is there any way I can train him to just come in when the door opens instead of waiting for me to “release” him? No commands, no motions, just please come on in.

He’s 6lbs so there’s no issue of him barreling in. He’s a super obedient and polite dog , super smart. I just want to be able to open the door and he walk in if he wants to lol

My one year old husky is the absolute sweetest dog I have ever had. She's extremely cuddly and affectionate and absolutely adores other dogs and people. She's never shown any signs of aggression, and hasn't even so much as ever growled at anyone or another dog before.

I also have a 1.5 year old male dog and a young 5 month old puppy. She's always loved both of them and they all play together all day long. She adores the puppy and plays with her, grooms her, cuddles with her, etc. There's never been any conflict between any of them whatsoever.

On Friday night, she was playing together with the puppy and, completely out the blue, started acting aggressively towards her. Chased her snarling with hackles raised and stiff posture and backed her into a corner and towered over her. The puppy was terrified and rolling on her back and acting submissive and trying to lick her.

I separated them immediately. Now she randomly alternates between being friendly and wanting to play with the puppy and acting aggressive to her growling and hackles raised. She's also started acting like this with my male dog today. She's also started obsessively sniffing the puppy's bum and pacing around sniffing the ground.

Seems completely normal aside from has been more tired and sleepy than usual since Friday morning and licking herself more than usual. Just earlier this week she went to her training classes and was extremely friendly with all the other dogs with no issues so this has been completely out of the blue. Any suggestions as to what it could be and how to deal with it?

We bought some training treats. We were hoping to use them to help with training. We bought some treats labeled as training treats, but our dog was not at all interested.

Any recommendations on a (yummy) treat that would motivate most dogs during training?

I have a six month old female standard poodle, Josie. Well-bred, well-socialized, good manners. I think she is entering her adolescent fear period, which is maybe relevant–some things outside our home have been startling her that haven't before, such as loud trucks on walks. We have three cats and she takes correction from them perfectly. She plays with the neighbor dog, a retired show lab breeding mom, and she takes the lab's very gentle corrections well too. Immediate back off, lay down, occasionally belly up, to both the lab and the cats.

My parents just adopted a 3 year old Boston terrier/Chihuahua mix (mostly–they did Embark and he's 35% each of those, plus a bit of Aussie, daschund, and "supermutt."), Russell. He was surrendered to the shelter by a family who said they had 3 kids, 3 other dogs, and 4 cats and he wouldn't stop pooping in the house.

Russell has been with them 3 weeks and is mostly a very calm, lazy dog. He has not had any accidents inside. Two incident prior to today made me a bit wary. First, my 7-year old was rubbing his belly and ended up near a tender spot (skin infection from the kennel, they later found out). I saw whale eye for about two seconds and as I was telling her to stop and move, he lifted his lip at her. That was it. She moved, incident over, seemed to me like appropriate warning signs for a dog who didn't feel well.

That night after we left, my dad startled him from sleep and he went after my parents' cat who was right there. Listened and stopped when my dad yelled. Other than these two things, he has seemed very chill.

Today I brought Josie over for the first time. In restrospect, I realize that I did two things wrong–i should not have brought my kids and we should have met on neutral territory. We all just assumed he'd be chill as usual, he'd issue normal warnings/corrections as needed to Josie, she'd listen as she always does, and that would be that.

We had them meet in my parents' fenced back yard, off leash. I think Josie did everything right. Stood back, tail wagging and ears forward, let him approach, let him sniff her. He allowed her to sniff him back for a moment and as she started to play bow, I saw him stiffen and he lunged at her. She immediately retreated, tail between her legs, and he chased her, growling and snapping. She ended up on a patio chair (higher than him) and he stayed below and would growl and lunge/snap any time she moved.

My mom then leashed him and I took Josie farther away in the yard so he could just watch her for a bit. He went back and forth between what appeared relaxed watching vs vigilant staring. He would growl and lunge if she got within about ten feet.

Notably, he never actually bit her. He seemed more anxious than like he was picking a fight. Lots of panting.

My primary two concerns are 1. He didn't let up when Josie submitted and listened to his corrections. She was not pestering him or being annoying puppy in any way. The over-correction worries me 2. He was moderately better when I asked me mom to go inside and have my dad hold him. He has chosen my mom as his person and I wonder how much of this is him resource guarding my mom

Mostly I am worried about what this means for my kids. It's very easy to just not bring Josie to visit my parents, but they take a kid for a sleepover once a week. They behave well around dogs, and my parents do supervise, but my mom can be a little rose colored glasses and if this is a dog that overcorrects and guards her, are we looking at a situation where she's going to supervise as he bites one of my kids? She didn't notice the whale eye before he raised his lip to my daughter. Because I did, daughter was already stopping petting when he showed his teeth, but what if she hadn't been?

Idk, I just can't decide if I am being overprotective and overreacting or if I am right that these are red flags to be seriously concerned about. Especially given the surrender situation–its clear he doesn't actually have housebreaking problems, so I worry he was surrendered because he bit a kid.

hello!

my fiancé (M) and i (F) got a dog, willie (german shepherd mix), in early july from a rescue. he was 6 months old at this point (now 10 months). he originally came from texas and was a transfer to the rescue from a shelter down in texas where they removed his left eye. we do not know what happened to it in order for it to be removed as no one at the rescue knew either.

we have another dog (zuri, 5 year old female, mutt with her top breeds being boxer and chesapeake bay retriever) as well.

when we got him, we lived in an apartment. he came already crate trained and uses his crate has his safe space. he adores zuri but zuri doesn’t always feel mutual. zuri corrects him when he becomes too much and he takes it well. she never does more than snap. sometimes, he will bite her on the leg or somewhere sensitive, she corrects, and he will yelp but be fine within a few seconds as zuri rarely makes actual contact. in the apartment, he would get walks at least twice a day, totaling in 1hr15min minimum, and go for potty breaks every few hours.

he showed significant signs of submissive peeing and would shut down for a while afterwards. for example, if he chewed up a toy and we cleaned up the stuffing in front of him, he would pee. we did not even acknowledge him when this would happen. at the beginning, we would pick it up and pet him. immediately, he would pee once he was touched. if we don’t touch him when he knows he did something he was not supposed to do, he shuts down and becomes a shell of a dog.

when my fiancé would come home or try to take him out of the kennel in the morning, willie would refuse to come out, tucking his ears and cowering. i sometimes have problems with him coming out when i get home but it’s nowhere as bad as how willie responds to my fiancé. we do not touch him when he’s like this and use a very soft or monotone voice. since we lived in an apartment, he needed his harness on to go outside. every morning, even when we did not say anything and moved slowly, he would cower at the door, tuck his ears, and pee. one of us would take them out and the other would clean up the pee to avoid him seeing us clean it up. during the day when we were home, we were able to get his harness on no problem and take him outside. when he started showing signs of shutting down, we would immediately take him outside to use it as a reset. this worked well for a while.

since he is so submissive, we do not physically correct him (nor do we with zuri because she has a history of abuse as well). the most we will ever do is say “no” but even then, he will shut down and go to his kennel for at least 10 minutes. we learned that if we make a BIG fuss of zuri, he comes out rather quickly and be a happy puppy.

about a month ago, we moved states and into a house. both zuri and willie love having a backyard. he was doing well for a while as i am home with him throughout the day as my fiancé goes to work. in the mornings, it takes me a very long time to get willie out of his kennel. i still try to take them on morning walks, but it is often only me and zuri. he comes out of his kennel maybe three to four times a week for these walks. about half that time, he will come out and shut down on the couch. i’ve tried taking zuri out front and closing the door. this sometimes gets him to come to the door and be excited to go on a walk. when it doesn’t, he goes back in his kennel and i leave him there until zuri and i return. when zuri and i come back, i open up his kennel door and the door to the backyard and zuri and i go in the backyard. it takes him up to 15 minutes to come outside. when he’s outside, he normally comes up to me, scared. i pet him and talk to him during this time. then, as if he decides he doesn’t want to be afraid anymore, he becomes a happy pup, plays with zuri, and goes potty. for the rest of the day, he is great and does not display any negative behaviors.

when my fiancé comes home, both dogs are VERY excited and everything is good. however, last week, as my fiancé was coming home, i was laying in bed. the dogs got excited and my fiancé came and laid down with me in bed. both dogs followed. willie has a habit of standing over my fiancé which seems to be a guarding behavior more than anything. but this time, willie stood over his head and started peeing (he was outside not even 20 minutes before this) my fiancé got up quickly which made willie think that he severely messed up(which he did) and has been shutting down and peeing a lot more like when we got him ever since this incident. now, willie is excited when my fiancé comes home (first 3ish minutes) and then shuts down for about 15-30 minutes after that. when my fiancé sits on the couch, it takes willie a while to warm up to him before willie is all over him, cuddling, and being a happy puppy.

to get him outside after both of us come home, we both sit outside. oftentimes, he will come up to my fiancé, tuck his ears and pee once my fiancé touches him. when this happens, my fiancé stops petting him.

my fiancé does not correct him nearly as much as me. i have always been harsher on his behaviors and tell him “no” a lot more frequently. but, he is not afraid of me and seems to understand that i am doing it to correct him rather than punish him. when he sees my fiancé, it’s like willie forgets who he is and just thinks he’s there to beat the living shit out of him. we are wondering if he has brain damage from whatever happened to his eye that made an everlasting impact because neither one of us can explain these behaviors and how easily he shuts down. i don’t know if he will grow out of this and moving states just set us back another 3 months when following the 3 day, 3 week, 3 month rule.

obviously willie has seen a substantial amount of abuse in his short life before us. he submissively peed at lot when we first got him. to rule out any underlying health issues, we got a urinalysis and it came back normal. so, his issues are definitely more behavioral. does anyone have any tips i could try to help him get over shutting down? he is not treat or toy motivated unless he’s in the mood for either and does not have a high drive.

Hi everyone, hope you're all having a lovely day.

My family and I adopted our 2 year old boy from a rescue shelter about 6 months ago. He came with his issues and I worked so hard to build a routine and did so much research with him.

When my grandfather lived with us, he would yell at doggie a lot and as a result he would have a lot of accidents. Once grandfather left the issue cleared up. Hes a super smart dog, we live in a really bad climate so he knows to go to the balcony for potty where we have things set up for him (pup pad, scent spray).

I figured that me not being harsh and yelling was the key and that was working for a while. However these days he's been having more and more peeing accidents inside and its so discouraging. When he had other issues (barkinf at people at door etc.) The only Thing that worked is my uncle being firm. That is genuinely the only thing that made him stop. He would be super strict, push his butt on the floor and make him sit. So now being firm/strict does work? I dont understand.

I just need help. Im so tired. Thank you for reading.