Blog

He is a tripod. We adopted him in October and he had recently had his leg removed. He’s still healing and it’s to no fault of his own. I see him trying different methods and he hasn’t found one that works for him. The smell doesn’t go away with the wipes we use and we’ve been giving him extra baths (stitches are healed so vet said ok). He’s a very good boy and he’s trying.

I have a client who is very tied to the idea of fear induced training. They do not wish to transition to a clicker/reward based, while they listened to me they still feel they are right in getting results through fear and control.

E.g. small/ medium sized dog 9kg. Is reactive to people walking past home and sounds. When dog lunges to go bark dog is picked up by the scruff of their neck and suspended in air, stared down and slowly placed on the ground when owner believes they are settled, if dog tries to lunge again dogs is picked up by scruff and same process repeated. Kind of like a slip lead approach but to my mind much more fear based and unnecessary.

There is no success in this. Dog is only calm some of the time when owner is around and never when they aren't.

How do you overcome this with clients? How do you deal with the emotional toll? I honestly can't bear it but dont know where to turn or what actions to take. Dog is dependent on owner and anxious when out of sight.

In Australia for reference. Local council can't take action as dog not in obvious harm and its my word against theirs.

Hi, I seem to be posting here a lot recently (first time single dog mom and my anxiety is off the chart these days lol). I have a 11 week old miniature poodle beagle mix and training has been going great.

Potty training has been great same with crate training! She barely has accidents inside, maybe one or two a day but mostly dry days! She has only been whining for a minute or two when in her crate and then settles until it’s time to be let out. I can leave her for three hours and she just sleeps until I get home. We’ve had no accidents in the crate for a while! Given her age I am impressed and could not be happier.

I am driving an hour to have my parents watch her for 5/6 hours, as I made a commitment to be somewhere. They are both very experienced with dogs and puppies, I do trust them and my puppy knows my dad and his dog very well.

I have a puppy car seat for the drive and a carrier for while she is there. I am packing her toys and her blanket plus her favourite treats.

I am just scared this is going to stress her out a lot. She’s fine with me not being around but I’m scared to how she will react to an unfamiliar home and some unfamiliar people/pets.

We are finally starting to connect and I do not want to ruin that

After I pick her up and bring home will she be any different or regress in the progress we’ve made or mad at me?

I am just overreacting and everything will probably be fine, right?

It used to have pink all over it, but it’s been well loved over the years. It also squeaks https://share.icloud.com/photos/00aYz4ETgabb00ujlu-FA3DNw

Hello! I'm giving a lot of detail, my main concerns are bolded at the end.

Notes on the dog: he's 2 years old, 70 lbs (which is his healthy weight), and untrained (but not feral, he was surrendered by his original owner when he was about 1, when their financial situation changed). He's my first foster.

I picked up my first foster on Tuesday afternoon (11/13). He was described as housetrained and knowing "a few" hand signs, though talking to the surrendering adopters (they signed the surrender papers after 3 or 4 days, kept him until I could pick him up on day 13) they told me he had zero training, but was both crate-trained and house-trained. He spent a few days at an overnight doggy daycare before I picked him up.

I'm familiar with the basics of training a deaf dog. We've gotten a few sits successfully, and he's largely stopped jumping on me for attention. His previous foster used a knocking motion for "good boy," and I'm using some modified ASL for "sit."

About the marking/accidents. Wednesday morning, his first morning, I feed him and he marked the corner while I was eating breakfast. I interrupted him by moving him by the shoulder (aimed for quick without being painful) cleaned up, leashed him, took him for a walk. He had no issues for the rest of the day, despite me having a long work day (coming home for my lunch and dinner breaks to walk him).

Today, I walked him right away, before breakfast. Then we did a quick vet trip to have his paws checked (they were red and irritated). He has allergies but is fine. I also picked up a larger crate from the rescue, since the one I had on hand was just a bit too small. He was showered with treats during the check, but manhandled quite a bit since he is entirely untrained.

We came home, and he had an accident while I was setting up the crate. I was too slow to fully interrupt him, but I moved him to his pen while I cleaned up, then took him outside for a walk. Then I left for work (evening shift today, so I could make the vet). Came home for dinner, walked him. My roommate came home about an hour after I last walked him, mostly ignored him while they were making dinner. He peed on the door to the outside.

I know this is a lot of detail, and I know there are a lot of stressors that could make this genuine stress-related accidents. He has been moved around a lot. His paws are itchy/sore. I've reached out to the previous foster to see the exact details of his house-training (was he going on a matt? Did they have a doggy door he could use whenever, instead of waiting for a walk?).

My main concerns/questions:

– am I accidentally teaching him that peeing inside = fun walk time? He is *very* quick with patterns, incredibly intelligent, and very attention-seeking. I play with him during my meal breaks as well as walking him. I ignore him while I clean up his accidents.

– my roommate and I signed up for a house-trained foster. I would really, really, really hate to move him again, because that is almost definitely contributing to his issue, but we live in a rental and both work full-time–we just can't house-train a dog. Plus, my roommate hasn't signed up to be backup-foster-parent; they just like dogs. How long should I give him a chance to "prove" he's house-trained?

– experienced foster-parents: how common are accidents with newly arrived fosters?

I apologize if this is somewhere in the Wiki, I'm feeling rather anxious/urgent about it and didn't see anything specific when I skimmed it.

I need help with my dog’s potty training because I feel completely stuck.

I have a 1.5-year-old neutered small dog, and I’ve been doing the tether/umbilical method with him for seven months straight. The ONLY reason he’s been accident-free is because he is physically tethered to me at all times. That’s literally the only setup where he won’t go in the house.

The problem is, that’s not realistic long-term. At some point you’re supposed to give the dog more freedom. But as soon as I do that — and I mean ANY inch of freedom — he will go inside the house. If I’m not physically attached to him or staring at him, he’ll slip away and poop (and sometimes pee). It doesn’t matter that he knows how to go outside and actually goes immediately when I take him out. He’s gone WEEKS with no accidents, but only when tethered. The second I try to move forward, he has accidents again.

And it’s not because I wait too long. I take him out every single hour. He still finds ways to go inside, even if he just went recently.

He also seems to have certain “triggers” that make him go inside even if he just went outside: if he jumps off the couch and runs around the corner, if there’s stress or raised voices in the home, if I’m focused on my puppy and not him, if it’s raining or cold, or sometimes completely out of nowhere even when nothing stressful is happening.

This past week, after trying to relax the tethering a little, he’s now had several accidents again and it feels like we’re going backwards. And honestly, seven months of being tethered constantly has made him more clingy and anxious than he used to be, so I’m scared I made things worse even while trying to do the “right” thing.

For what it’s worth, I don’t scream at him, I don’t punish him, I clean everything with enzyme spray, and I crate him whenever I can’t watch him. I’ve done everything people say you’re “supposed” to do. I’ve done so much research and I feel like I’m doing everything right, and it’s STILL not working.

I’m looking for advice from anyone who has had a dog who is only accident-free when tethered, and immediately starts going inside again the moment you try to give them any freedom. How do you actually transition off the tether without constant setbacks? And is there a totally different approach I should be trying at this point, given his age and how long we’ve been stuck here?

I adopted some kind of Aussie shepherd mix (1.5yo, neutered male, 80 pounds) about a month ago and he very inconsistently goes OFF on dogs when we’re on a walk, but only some dogs. A few points here:

1. He does not react much to dogs who bark at him from a balcony or fence

2. He lived with one or two other dogs with his old family and appeared to get along with them fine

3. He was kenneled with another dog while at the shelter and he also got along fine with that dog, as well as other shelter dogs during group playtimes. He was also not a huge barker at the shelter from what I saw and what I was told

4. There is no real rhyme or reason to which dogs set him off. He’s slightly more reactive towards dogs closer to his size, but he also goes off on some small dogs. Some dogs he only barks at if they bark first, other ones he sees and will almost immediately start growling and barking even if they are ignoring him

5. He’s played nicely without any growling or barking with at least two other dogs while he was still on a leash

6. He hates just about any dog that lives in my apartment complex. If he hears them passing by in the courtyard, he will rush over barking.

None of his barks seem like the angry, ears flattnes back, snarling type, and he will shut up and calm down after a few seconds and it passes, but he’s big and I don’t want him to scare people or get into the habit. Also it’s embarrassing as hell and sometimes I don’t have the means to cross the street or turn back where we came from.

Right now, I basically either cross the street or turn the opposite direction or get off the sidewalk to walk on the other side of parked cars while there is still a good distance and he’s usually fine once we do that. I’ve also tried to redirect his attention with a high value treat before he even starts barking, but he does not respond to food once he sees something on the street that his attention latches onto.

Any tips on what else I can do?