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Hi yall! I have a lovely mutt who is about to be two who really is a good girl. She is smart, good with dogs and people, a great listener, fantastic hiker off leash. She has a good grasp of basic commands. What I deal with her is that she tends to shut down during training (especially indoors) and doesn’t think it’s “fun”- I have four dogs and she is the only one of the pack who gets very nervous when trying to work with her. All my other dogs seem to get excited and happy to work- even the Siberian husky!

For example, outside on a walk or hike she will go into a down stay with a lot of confidence and good body position. Inside if I ask for the same command, she sinks in on herself and tucks one paw under her body, and does not hold that proper “down” position. No amount of luring or attempts to get her to “untuck” seem to work, if anything it seems like she gets more shut down. She would rather roll over and show you her belly. She’s VERY willing to please typically but when she shuts down mentally like this you can see in her eyes a change.

She does have separation anxiety that we have worked through a lot this year. She is doing much better with crate training, but still seems to struggle at times when I ask her to go to her kennel. I will ask her to go to her kennel and wait while I ready her food and it seems like every day, despite consistently asking for this same behavior of waiting in the kennel twice a day, she will make multiple attempts to break her stay. I did use treats to teach this behavior at first but have weaned off them as it’s been a few months.

Mostly I just want to see her blossom into a more confident version of herself who does not shut down when we are trying to train. I’m wondering if there are additional tasks/commands anyone has had success with helping a dog become more confident. She is a very smart dog and I think encouraging her to work more and have jobs will help. I’d love to grow more as far as my training abilities go too, and I feel like she ended up my dog to push me to be better. Thank you all in advance!

Hello! We recently foster failed a dog and we also have a guinea pig in the home. The dog desperately wants to make friends with the pig. I’m trying to train her to ignore the pig/not stand up to see in the cage. She only does this occasionally but when she does, I say no, give her the off command, and when she disengages and gets down, she gets a high value treat.

My question is, am I rewarding her for standing on the cage? I just want to make sure she understands that the reward comes when she gets down and disengages with the pig.

Also, does anyone have any tips on training with a prey drive? She’s only been out of the shelter for ~3 weeks and she was previously abused/used for breeding so she’s not consistently playing just yet. Otherwise we’d be playing prey drive-y type games!

Note: The guinea pig is SAFE. Her cage is raised, I made a lid, and she truly has no survival instinct lol, she goes right up to sniff the dog, she’s used to our fosters, she doesn’t run or get scared. Additionally, if I notice anything escalating she’ll immediately be moved into our bedroom. The only reason I haven’t done so yet is because her sister recently passed away and I’m not ready for another pig just yet. Guinea pigs are very social animals so I want her to be in the man area of the house until we decide to get her a new friend.

I am located in Alberta Canada. I have been interested in working with service dogs for a very long time. Probably since I was a child. However, I just recently moved to be closer to my husbands job and therefore lost the one I was at previously and as I'm looking for a new job I'm really considering putting my efforts into working towards the goal of being involved with the training of service animals. Previously I have worked as a kennel attendant at abiut 3 different dog kennels / daycare. As well as the SPCA. And as a bather in a grooming shop. I have a ton of experience around dogs and cats and most animals really and a deep passion and love for them as well. I feel this is what drives my goal. As well as this would be really fulfilling to me because I am passionate about helping people who silently struggle. I have also seen first hand how an animal can save your life. That being said, I have no idea where to start. The more I look into it the more confused and overwhelmed I am because it's not straightforward. I'm looking on advice on where to start this journey and if there is any accreditation education for service dog training in Alberta? **I know there is a program in medicine hat unfortunately that is too far from my husbands job. Im looking for something I can do online or around the area we live which is like central Alberta.

My husband and I separated recently, and my 11-year-old dog and I just moved into an apartment.

He has never had separation issues before (had him since a pup), but since the move I can’t leave for more than ~30 seconds without him howling. He’s otherwise totally normal… eating, playing, napping, acting like himself when I’m home.

It’s heartbreaking and also really stressful because I start a new in-office job soon. (8 hours M–F). I can come home on my lunch break to let him out, but I fear the howling will start again when I leave.

I’ve read through the wiki and tried desensitizing, music, long walks, frozen Kongs/high-value treats, calm exits, etc. It’s only been a week (I know that’s not long), but I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this kind of sudden anxiety after a move… especially with an older dog who never struggled before.

We’ve moved multiple times in his life and he’s never had this hard of a transition, which is why I feel so lost right now.

If you’ve been through something similar, I’d really appreciate hearing what helped or how long it took to improve. I know I need to be patient but I’m honestly a little terrified about leaving Monday.

My partner's dog (85lb Saint Berdoodle, 6yo) moved in with us 5 weeks ago. He's lived his whole life at her family's house with other people (or other dogs) always around. Seems like he's never really been left truly alone until now—we're in a 1BR apartment, just the two of us.

We didn't notice anything regarding separation anxiety / hyper attachment until we both went in-office for the first time, and we caught him on camera howling and barking until he tired himself out after a coupe hours.

Since then, we've been training for 2-3 weeks now —short sessions daily (picking up lunch, hanging in the apt lounge, etc.), leaving before he gets upset and coming back while he's still calm.

A couple observations:

• In general I've noticed he's completely glued to my partner, following her everywhere—always watching the door when she goes into a different room.
• I try to take more of his feeding/walks/play time so he bonds with me more, and have my partner backing off from him a bit when I'm home.e
• Notably, when I'm taking care of him myself: he can last 30-40 min without any sounds
  • Whereas when she's taking care of him herself: he lasts seemingly much shorter
  • If both of us leave, it's only a few minutes that he stays quiet before he starts whining
• He stays glued to the door (nose down, or sitting alert) listening for us (usually doesn't bark at neighbors passing by)—when we return, he is visibly excited and almost always goes to his food/water bowls.
  • We also try not to interact with him when leaving / returning home, trying to normalize us coming in and out and making it seem like "not a big deal"

My main questions:

• Is this normal progress for a 6 year old dog learning to be alone for the first time?
• Any further insight/advice would be much appreciated, thanks!

It seems posts here / megathread comments are regarding puppies rather than old dogs, hence created a separate post—we do plan on talking to/hiring a trainer at some point

Sorry if this is long but I want to give as much context as possible.

Our dog is a border collie x. We got her near the end of 2019 from the rescue when she was around 2 and a half years old, so she's around 9 now.

When we first got her, her big problem was reactivity to other dogs. The reactivity was excitement-based rather than fear-based: she'd lunge on the lead at other dogs and get very wound up, but she wouldn't bark or cower from them or anything like that. Thanks to training though she's gotten a lot better over the years.

She had no problem with people though, even strangers. She would love when random people on walks wanted to pet her or when people came into the house. That changed probably around 2-3 years ago when she had 1 bad vet visit. The vet took her into a room so we couldn't see what was happening, then the following week we had another visit and she was completely terrified, trembling etc., and the vet was quite heavy-handed with her. We didn't think much of it at the time because we just changed vets, and lots of dogs are scared of vets, whatever.

But then we noticed she was scared of strangers in general. It's fine if we're just walking past them on the street but if they go to talk to her or pet her she recoils away from them, and kind of turns her back on them like she doesn't want anything to do with them. She also started to bark at strangers (e.g. tradesmen) coming into the house. Our way of dealing with this was just telling them to ignore her, which worked pretty well. However one time we hired a dog walker who didn't ignore her, tried to talk to her etc., and she was barking at her and actually started trembling — but then warmed up to her after about 10 mins.

The other thing to mention is the fireworks at Halloween time. We can't really remember what she was like with the fireworks when we first got her, but in the last few years we've noticed she's been quite scared of them. When she hears them, she kind of just cowers up next to your feet, and sometimes she'll even sneak into the bathroom and lie in the corner. We had heard of other dogs who completely freak out from fireworks so we considered ourselves lucky.

Now, finally we get to the important part lol. A few times when walking her around Halloween time, we'd hear a firework go off in the distance. She'd instantly get very scared and refuse to walk any further, digging her heels in the ground, and even just completely lie down until we turn around and head back home, and sure enough she would walk really fast and pull us on the end of the lead all the way home. Whenever this would happen we'd think: fair enough, fireworks are scary, and there's no point trying to force her to continue the walk when she's scared and doesn't want to go. So we'd just head home.

But then something weird started to happen: sometimes when walking her she'd get this same fear-response as if she just heard a firework, even though we didn't hear one. At first we thought maybe she's hearing them when we can't (this would have been around New Years), but then we were pretty sure there were none gong off. And it would happen very randomly and at very random locations; we started to think it might be various noises like cars going by, car alarms, just weird noises in the distance?

These fear-responses would happen more and more frequently and now, as of writing this, my dog can't get past the front lawn of the house without getting scared and refusing to walk further.

I want to try give as much detail as possible: at first we thought it was certain locations she was scared of, but then there were some days where she wouldn't react to that location at all, but a different one. Before this week, we think there was always some kind of sound happening when she started to get scared, even if it was just a car going by, but now in the last 4-5 days there's definitely been no sounds that could have caused it. She also has no problem going out the front door to begin with, but once she's out there she'll get scared at some random location (and this location has gotten closer and closer to the house over time).

When I google solutions for this problem a lot of it seems to be about finding the "trigger" and desensitising her to it through treats. The problem for us is there is no clear trigger; it happens very randomly. It's as if the fear just gets into her body from nowhere.

I want to mention one other thing: my mum got a soup maker for Christmas and she's scared of that too lol. Now fair enough it's quite a noisy thing, I'd be scared of it too, and if the problem were just that she went upstairs away from the noise then that would be fine. But no: she'll actually refuse to come back downstairs for hours and be afraid of the kitchen entirely. A few times she has asked to go out the back garden and she actually hid in the bushes, and it can take a while to get her to come back in! Thankfully so far we've been able to coax her with high-quality treats, but still, it definitely seems like she's a bigger scaredy cat in general than she used to be.

Anyway, for the past 1 or 2 days I've been trying to fix this by taking her out on a walk like normal, and once she gets scared (which at this stage is only a few metres from the front of the house) I started giving her high-quality treats, getting her to sit, lie down etc. She's able to follow the commands well enough, but she still has no interest in actually walking, she just wants to go home. I've tried walking a few steps in the direction she doesn't want to go and then getting her to "come", and I've been able to get her a few yards down the street that way, but it's not really a walk lol. Sometimes I'll get her to "come" and then as she's coming towards me I'll take a few steps back, and she hesitates, as if she knows I'm trying to "trick" her.

So to finally wrap this up: the most immediate problem is her refusing to walk, but there's also the worry that she's just become a big scaredy cat in general. It makes us worry about people coming to the house like tradesmen, since she's already barking at them and her fear seems to be getting gradually worse over time.

Any advice? Is there anything more concrete I can do other than just coaxing her down the street with treats? We were thinking of desensitising her to the soup-maker in the hope that it might improve her fear in general, but there's a worry it might just improve her attitude to the soup-maker and nothing else lol.

Sorry this was so long 😭 Happy to answer questions if more details are needed

I live with my boyfriend and he has a fox terrier cross. He got the foxy as a puppy when we were already living together. He is a small to medium sized dog. He is in tact and a fiercely jealous and territorial dog. He will guard me, other people, dog beds, human beds, couches and above all else my boyfriend. One of my biggest struggles is that the resources he guards, are interchangeable based on who he is with and what environment he is in.

He's bit my greyhound aggressively enough before that my greyhound had to get put under anesthesia to have the wound repaired. He growls and nips people and dogs if he decides he is guarding something or someone. He's really really mean to my greyhound and it breaks my heart because he is such a gentle old soul.

I've asked boyfriend to take him to a behavioarlist. He wont. I've asked him to get him neutered and he said that wont make a difference. He mistakes his aggressiveness for loyalty, and thinks he has it under control by smacking his bum when he is aggressive (which I have read is the opposite of what you should be doing)

For years I've been saying he's really going to hurt someone some day. Finally it happened, and it was me. I went to hug my boyfriend goodnight while he was lying in bed and the dog bit my face, drew blood and I had a black swollen eye for a week. (I got a tetanus shot). Just this morning, I went an hug my boyfriend from behind, and his dog jumped over the couch and ran across the living room at me. It really scared me.

What I have been trying to do with the foxy, is not allowing him on beds or couches, and removing him from situations when he growls or tries to guard something. If he doesn't stop I put him in his kennel outside.

Does anyone have advice on what I can be doing? I feel like it's an uphill battle, especially when my boyfriend isn't as strict with the rules I've tried to put in place.

Any support would be appreciated! I am really worried this dogs behaviors are going to get worse, and ultimately he will hurt someone to the extent he will need to be put to sleep.

Hi. Two weeks ago we get a new 2 month Boston terrier puppy. We have a 5 year old Boston already. Our older Boston was very nice to her at first – sniffing her playing with her. We keep her in a large pen and he sniffs around her and we thought she was getting comfortable with her. We tried introducing toys, but our older Boston was guarding and did not want to share with her so we stopped and give them individual play time. She also got near him eating and he warned her with a snarl – and she backed off. Last night she was walking out of her pen and was just walking near our olders dog bowl. Unprovoked he jumped on her latched onto her neck and would not let go. He cut her ear a little and she was extremely scared. We are trying to understand if this behavior is normal of our older dog. We keep then separated, they eat separately, he plays well with her but after two weeks he is extremely guarding of his toys and food to the point of attacking her. Is this how this goes with an older dog and puppy? Will he stop being protective over his things?