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Hi, one of my American bulldogs hates the leash and collars. I got him from a girl i follow on Instagram who had a litter about 4 months ago. I’m not sure if he was tied up all the time, hit with a leash or if that’s not the case at all..maybe he just has never been walked. I have a big backyard so he’s able to run, sniff, and walk as he pleases. I have another American bulldog who loves walks and I’d love to walk them both together. If he even sees or hears the leash he tucks his tail and runs into his cage. He’s terrified of both the leash AND the collar. I’ve tried letting him sniff it but, he’s terrified. He runs and hides wherever he can when he sees it and he’s genuinely scared. Any advice?

but absolutely loves them when we actually leave the house onwards.

She tries to hide in her crate or under the sofa and looks very timid as soon as she thinks a walk is starting – boots out/reaching for harness/getting her treat bag ready.

But as soon as we’re ready to go, she’s out the door wagging, sniffing and having a great time.

Why?

My puppy is a white swiss shepherd from amazing parents. We got her at 8 weeks of age and everything was ok for 1-2 weeks, when the terror started.

Crazy amounts of biting, bite-jumping and full-blown attacking that lasted for months. No method helped.

Especially annoying, and what lasted the longest, was the leash biting. On walks, she would bite and tug the leash at the sign of any excitement. When, after some months, I managed to teach her by clicker training that the leash is not to be touched, she targeted my sleeves. She ruined several jackets of mine.

Also, when she was several weeks old, she started to bark at any stranger who would look at her, or address her. She would jump and bite anyone who approached. She would also sometimes bark at and attack driving cars. It was a disaster. I honestly thought she was insane.

She destroyed our carpets, walls, furniture.. She had a crazy amount of drive to bite everything and anything. And so many tantrums.

I talked to so many white swiss shepherd owners, and everybody said their dogs were angels. Only mine was a demon dog. All this time, we went to a dog school, working with a positive reinforcement trainer. Our trainer was of SOME help, but mostly the help with information and morale support came from this subreddit, and chatgpt (I must admit).

I got so many bad looks, comments, etc.. We almost gave her away because some trainers said she was genetically aggressive and she won't get better without p*ong collars and e-collars (I never used any of those). We were this close to giving this "insane" dog away, but somehow we decided to put her on parole (she was 13 months at the time).

She slowly started to calm down, and at 15 months, the change started to be palpable. I used to greet imaginary people on the street and stop to chat with random strangers, just to desensitize her to saying "Hi" to people. I also asked people to give her treats as much as I could. But honestly, I think the main thing that helped was just her growing up.

She is now 19 months. I can now take her for a walk normally, chat with strangers, and 99,9% our life is normal. She is calm in the house and doesn't destroy anything. When she is very excited or stressed, she regresses a bit to her reactivity, but nowhere as much intensely as before. She is adorable and very smart, and actually very gentle and full of love. She has a long way to go until we 100% trust her, but we are on the right track. It’s safe to say we’re still in the dinosaur phase. 🙂

Some facts I collected on the way that helped:

-Most dogs are rehomed or surrendered to a shelter at the age of adolescence (meaning they are terrible, but it gets better)

-The defined temperament of a breed refers to adult dogs

-Even human brains are developing until we are 25 years old

-Even if your dog is old enough to attend a certain class or a test, he might not be emotionally mature enough to handle it

You can do it! Your dog is not purposely being bad, he just cannot handle his big emotions.

I am a Terrier web developer and I have just created and rolled out a new website: www.doghealthy.uk complete health tracking and food finder for your dog, go check it out and add your dogs

Just a vent on how many people get these puppies and start breed and care research as the puppy is already tearing up their stuff at home. Thank you for giving the pup a home, thank you for loving animals! But PLEASE, try to set up them (and yourself!!) up for success by doing your research ahead of time to see if the pup and you would be a good fit. I'm so so tired of these first time pet owners buying doodle puppies off the street and then waiting 2 more months before sending your groomer friend the "so how do I take care of this?" text. I'm just tired of seeing these dogs set up for failure and then blamed for it. Please just do your research prior, your puppy and bank account will love you for it 💜

My dog, Freddie, has recently been obsessing over a certain part of our kitchen. He’s 6 years old and hasn’t done this before.

To try and explain the layout: you walk in and you face the washing machine first, right next to it are the dishwasher and a cupboard. Along this line, Freddie cannot resist sniffing, whining, and scratching at the bottom of it, as if he’s trying to get to something.

🥲 Personally, I’m a little creeped out lmao, just in case there’s a whole family of spiders behind there, or any mice.

I’m posting here to see what others think.. Spiders? Mice? Or potentially is there a weird smell coming from the machine/dishwasher? Anything else it could be?

Additional context that may be helpful: Freddie is quite an anxious dog. I’ve also noticed he gets obsessive if he spots a bug and its difficult to get him to stop trying to find it. So much so he keeps thinking patterns in the wall or blankets are bugs. So once Freddie spots something unusual, he cannot stop thinking about it.

How can I help deter Freddie away from it so he stops getting panicked and distressed, as well as figuring it out the best I can without ripping apart the kitchen? 😅

My dos needs to take some pills, he was sedated, so he is not hungry at all. It’s been almost 24 hours since he was sedated and he won’t eat the medicine they gave me. They told me to give it to him right away, but it requires to be given with food. What do I do?

Hi everybody!

I have a very high-drive 10-month-old Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever who’s obsessed with chasing leaves. We noticed this behavior over the summer, so we trained her a lot to try to manage it before fall. We’ve made good progress, but in the past few weeks, the amount of leaves near where we live has become almost unmanageable.

Before we started training, a leaf passing by 20 meters away would make her go crazy—lunging, screaming, the full Toller reaction. Now, she can mostly stay calm if leaves pass by at least 6 feet away. The problem is that it’s very unpredictable since there are so many leaves, and it has caused a bit of regression.

What we’ve done so far is desensitization. We used to go outside with a fan and picked up leaves on non-windy days so we could control the stimulation better. Once we felt she really understood the “game,” we also started to add some mild positive punishment, which helped quite a bit.

We’re also careful not to suppress her prey drive without giving her an outlet. We go on two 1–1.5-hour walks each day, which are a mix of loose-leash walking, obedience, and mostly play (flirt pole, tug, chase and catch, etc.). During play, we also do a lot of impulse-control exercises like waiting for the cue before chasing the ball or flirt pole.

Has anyone else struggled with something similar? How did you resolve it?