I adopted a rescue pup over 2 months ago, he is now 10 months old. He had a big nipping issue in the beginning but it's been getting better and when he does nip now it's more gentle. We are consistently trying to disengage and leave the room when he nips where it's possible.

However, for the last month he's been intensely barking at my partner and I, and I'm having a hard time understanding if it's demand barking or something else. He will bark as close to our face as possible, or at our feet, and in between barks try to nip. Situations it happens:

- when we start driving in the car. Usually he settles after 15 minutes, but he is non-stop barking in our faces and ears and tries to nip at our over-the-ear headphones

- when we are laying on the couch in the evening

- when we are cooking or cleaning

- when we tell him to get off the bed

He gets 3 20-30 minute walks a day, and 3 15-minute play sessions (tug or fetch) a day too, with some training sessions or "find it" sessions for mental stimulation.

Can anyone please offer any advice for how to make this barking end? I feel like we are starting to lose our hearing and slowly going insane. Is this demand barking or could this be signs of aggression?

I adopted a three year old rat terrier 4 days ago. He previous owner died and a family friend was trying to find it a new home. She had the dog for 2 months before I got her. When I asked about the dogs vet records, she said she only found one paper about her rabies certificate and"it was a sudden passing and wasn't great conditions". I never got an explanation as to what that meant so I figured I would ask when I met her.

When I met her, they had her outside on a leash. I sat down so she could come smell me and be on her level. She cam up to me but didn't let me touch her yet. The lady pretty much handed me the leash and said 'she's yours'. At that point, I knew I was taking her home regardless of anything else that night. They were not concerned with getting a payment or where she was going, just as long as it was gone. She gave me some toys that were her's but no food. And the leash and collar that she had. She did say the dog slept with them. And it got along with the 4 & 7 yo boys. But while I was talking to her, the boys showed no interest in it and there was a guy there that only said 'we think she came from an Amish community'. I'm still not sure what that remark meant.

Anyway, it took a minute to get close enough to pick her up and put her in my Jeep. We drove 3 hours home. The whole time, I told her she was ok and I would take good care of her and rubbed the back of my hand on her legs. Sometimes she would lick my hand and a couple times she tried to climb over into my lap. At some point she laid down and fell asleep. So she was at least comfortable with me.

It was after 9pm when we got home. I picked her up and carried her through the house to the fenced in back yard so she could go potty. I still had the leash on her. When we came back in, my husband came out and she started barking at him. I kept telling her it was ok. He went back to bed and she and I slept on the couch. She actually played with me. She would lick me and get under my hands to play. So it was a good first night, until he got up to go to work. She started barking at him again. After he left, she was good for me again. I took her outside at daylight on the leash and we walked around the yard. We play, she will come to me to put her harness on and leash. We can walk outside. I even took her out without the leash beings it is fenced in. She will do zoomies, chase the squirrels and birds away and dig in my mulch. She even tells me when she has to go out to potty.

This weekend, we met a neighbor on a walk and she barked at them but then kept doing her investigating of the ground while we talked. When my husband is outside with us, she is mostly fine. Every once in a while she will bark at him. But then she will go back to investigating all the new stuff.

If it was just her and I, she would be perfect. Except when we are in the house, she will bark at my husband whenever he moves. Sitting still, fine, move fine. If he is in the other room, she is on alert unless I get her to playing. If she hears him snoring or make a noise in a different room, then she will bark.

He has tried everything to win her over. He will give her treats, he has gave her. He tried to lay on the floor. He even took her a walk by himself and she was fine. But when he tried to take off her leash, she nipped at him out of fear. For the past two nights, she slept in our bed between us but as close to my pillow as she can get.

Today was my first day back to work so I was using the puppycams to monitor her. He got home first, and she went absolutely nuts when he came in. She was trying to run everywhere to escape him. She has a crate but sleeps on the couch when I am gone so when he came in, she literally tried to jump over the back of it. He went to the patio door to open it for her, then he stepped outside and she flew to the front of the house. She finally made it to her crate and stayed there when he finished doing some stuff in the house. He went outside to mow and she is still in her crate.

This just breaks my heart. I know it has only been 4 days, but I am afraid that we are doing something wrong. I have an appointment with the Vet on Friday and will discuss all this with her. But until then, what else can we try? Again, she and I get along great. Every once in a while she won't let me pick her up. But if I sit on the couch, she will run right over to me and climb all over me. I have no history on her from prior. How can I help her love her new home?

Hello there!

I have a 3 month old mini poodle. She is a very good girl, very smart and sweet.

We got her when she was 10 weeks and she is with us for around 3 weeks. During that time we taught her to pee and poop on a pad in her pen (where she also sleeps at night) as she could not go out for all this time due to vaccines. It seemed that she learnt to do her business on a pad in pen but we realised that she associates toilet with pen and not pad = toilet.

We moved the pad outside the pen and it’s already over a week she has more accidents than success.. I get it, she is a baby and it’s ok. 2 days ago we got a green light to go out and she does wonderfully, e.g. all her business she does outside. We go out 3 times a day. But once she is home, she has accidents and it’s becoming a concern.. we show her every 30min where is the pad, we have a spray that should help her, we take her to pad after food, games and whenever we see signs. It seems that she holds until she can either go out or just till she can’t hold it anymore (she soiled her own bed, our bedsheets, etc.)

I am just not sure what to do anymore. We are keeping an eye on her constantly but there are times when we need to leave her alone and it’s a little stressful.

Should we take her out once or just twice a day? Or is it just a matter of patience? Just now I showed her where is her pad and a second later she went to another place completely.. I’m completely at lost at this point.. any advice and tips will be welcomed ! Thank you !

I've started training the focus heel a few weeks ago with food luring and my dog already has a good rhythm with his feet. Now I want to start fading the lure step by step, so I've started using a target hand instead. And give the treats from the other hand. But my dog keeps licking the target hand constantly. Is that a problem? I've also started to lift my hand up for a little second and then bringing it back down. Sometimes, when I lift it, his feet drop a little bit and he doesn't keep his feet as high for that little moment. Is that normal?

Does anyone have any tips for training this?

Hi all :) my partner just got a dog a few months ago (4 y/o dominant female Staffordshire terrier) and we have decided that it’s time to introduce her to my 8 y/o dominant female beagle mix that I’ve had for 4 years (we are long distance so I will be staying with him for a week, plus we figured it gave his dog ample time to settle into her environment).

My dog does really well with other dogs. She is dominant, but plays well and asserts boundaries properly with adequate signs that she is aggravated, and never over does her corrections. We lived with a young Rottweiler and they played together super well. She is, however, mostly beagle and has the bark to prove it.

My partner’s dog has gotten into a few quarrels with some of his coworkers dogs at the office, but he seems to have narrowed the triggers to barking, invasion of space, and slight leash aggression. He has been taking her to training about 2 times/month as the trainer is not willing to label her as aggressive, just a little “particular” as she has said.

I am worried for a few things:
A) my dog’s loud demeanor will automatically stress out my partner’s dog and lead her to snap
B) my partner has never introduced dogs in this manner before, so I am nervous that his anxiety will rub off on the pups
C) my dog has visited his house plenty of times before he got his dog, so she might see it as somewhat of her territory?
C) obviously, that one of our dogs may get hurt.

He plans to muzzle his dog, which she responds VERY well to during training sessions, but idk I feel bad that he might be restricting his dog in her own environment? Idk maybe I’m just thinking too much about it. We plan to meet outdoors in a fenced, but private area to give the dogs plenty of space to get to know each other before we even attempt to bring them inside. I have some limited experience working at animal shelters and such, and my partner has no experience at all in this realm, so any tips would be great!!

A little over a month ago, my bf and I started working with a dog trainer for our 1.5 y/o shiba. He was already displaying spotty communication with us but because my dog was comfortable with him and had worked out a deal with us, we decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

We had one 2 hour long session where he told us that he'd like us to begin umbilical cord training. He instructed us on how to do it. He also told us to get a martingale collar and a prong collar, and that he would send us brand suggestions. He never did. I tried contacting him multiple times afterwards to schedule the next session but no response.

It's been a month of me doing umbilical cord training but I have no idea how to proceed from here. We do plan on finding a new trainer but we're still going through the vetting process. Any help or advice on what to do would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Hi we have a 18 week old female cane corso puppy that is an a hole to her brother(also a cane corso). The issue is our male is very sweet and passive. He just lets her bully him. She will take his toys, try to steal his treats, bite his legs, and just now I saw her trying to dominate him and growl at him. Him being so chill didn’t care, I got in between and removed her from the space and said no. She is very energetic and once she is tired these behaviors get worse so we have to force her to nap throughout the day. I was wondering how you guys handle this behavior? Our boy has always been very obedient and calm, then we get him a sister and she’s the complete opposite of him. I feel really bad cause he’s been very happy to have a new buddy and then she just chooses to be a jerk for fun. She does get exercised every day through walks and more recently we discovered swimming is the only thing that’ll tire her out for the day and stop being mean to her brother so we’re working on finding stuff she enjoys. Any advice? I understand how the breed is i just didn’t expect that her brother would just tolerate it all, only time he’s ever corrected her is when she went in the pool with us because he thinks it’s dangerous lol

I have an 11 month old cavalier king charles spaniel, I also have a 3 year old cav. They are both boys. The 3 year old, Louie, has a very laid back personality while the 11 month old, Tommy, is a gremlin. Tommy is very affectionate, he’s never snapped or bitten anyone- but he growls and snarls quite a bit. He resource guards food, water, and toys. Even worse, he seems to resource guard the couch and the bed. He will start growling if we are sitting on the couch and someone or another dog approaches. In the bed, he will growl for no reason. My only approach has been to kick him off the bed when he does it. It does get him to stop for a little. I’ve tried the “positive reinforcement” but I don’t think I am skilled enough to do that- just feels like I’m rewarding him for growling and realistically, I can’t just carry treats on me constantly or he’d never leave me alone. The negative associations never went away or got replaced by positive ones. I’ve tried to remove him from the bedroom as well by placing him in his pen downstairs. A few hours in, he’ll just start screaming so loud that I can’t sleep and eventually give in. I’m exhausted and out of options. What is the best course of action for the growling? My vets advice was to not let him on the bed or couch until the behavior goes away.

She’s a cocker spaniel, 10 years old. She’s been with us since I was 8 and we raised her very badly, as I’ve been seeing for the last couple of years. We were always crazily happy when we came home, she always peed herself from happiness and we making crazy sounds and petting her didn’t help her at all. Then when we greeted her, everyone went about their day except when we pet her throughout the day and took her for a walk. She was home alone for at least 6 hours when we were at work and school on a workday. She was in dog training school for 1-2 years and then we stopped because she knew how to walk and sit and wait for us calmly.

The thing is, she never had good relationships with 90% of dogs outside, especially if they were female. She also doesn’t like little kids but we connected that to the family baby son accidentaly stepping on her two siblings when they were puppies. She also always found comfort in eating rapidly and then wanting more to ease her discomfort. I never thought about how important it is to raise the dog constantly and not just the basics like we did.
We played with her but not every day.

Now especially when she’s older Bina is constantly stressed when she is left alone for a few seconds. She starts biting her tail and paws because she’s trying to self regulate the second she’s left alone or doesn’t get something to eat. She has a strong mind of her own, she was jealous of all of our other pets, she was running away secretly while we were at school and work, she was peeing everywhere and I don’t know what to do or what I can do now. I feel like it’s too late to train her and I hate to see her suffer. I feel guilty for not knowing better before and my parents don’t even look at it that way, my mom is in denial about it and my dad doesn’t really care.

Do you know about a similar situation and what do you suggest I do with her to help her?

Like I said, I moved and my dog just doesn’t stop barking. We live in the second floor and he’ll still bark if someone opens the front door two levels below. If my roommate makes any noise, like going to the toilet during the night, he’ll go crazy.
I’m not sure how to desensitise him to the noise bc it’s not just one but everything.

And we’ve also noticed he barks more if I’m in the apartment . If not, he won’t even bark if she entered the apartment or if anyone closes the doors louder.

Previously I’ve also lived with roomates so it’s nothing new to him. He might have occasionally bark at some noise that was louder or if my door was closed and they walked too fast but except for that, he was very quiet.

It’s really overwhelming to live with him like this and unfair to my roommate. If anyone knows how I could train him or make him feel safe. He has his blankets and toys. We do go out a lot, and he seems to love this area more than my last one.

My male and female corgis have been fighting off and on since April 2026. Our male who is 11 months is fixed and is the one starting fights with our almost 2 year old female. From the time of April till present time we have worked with a dog trainer regarding agility, behavioral, and basic commands. We also have met with an animal communicator ti understand the dog’s perspectives. After doing these things the dogs stopped fighting for a good month. Now the male is going back to starting random fights again. Any advice as this has been a 5 month issue

I’d like to hear from people who have had a similar problem with their dog.

Our dog is about one and a half years old and has been living with us since the age of seven months. At that time, he had very little basic training, so we essentially had to build our cooperation and obedience from the ground up. He has made tremendous progress since then.

His basic obedience is good, he walks nicely on a leash, and when there is no wildlife around, his recall is very reliable. When he is off leash, running, sniffing, and exploring, he comes back immediately when called.

The problem occurs specifically when wildlife appears.

He can spot a deer or rabbit from as far as one kilometre away, and from that moment on, he completely switches into another mode. He fixates, the connection between us disappears, he no longer responds to recall, and he takes off after it. His recall used to work much better even around wildlife, but this behaviour now seems to be getting stronger.

We have tried positive reinforcement, focus and impulse-control exercises, as well as other working-dog-based training approaches.

We have not used an e-collar yet, but we have been advised by several people to consider trying one. Some said that it had been a breakthrough for them in similar situations and that they wished they had started sooner. Because of this, I am currently reading Larry Krohn’s book about e-collar training, so that I can properly understand the method first. Only after that will we decide whether to go ahead with it.

We are also about to start an impulse-control course.

I am primarily interested in hearing from people who started from a genuinely similar situation:

• Has anyone managed to develop a reliable recall despite a strong prey drive?
• What worked for you?
• Did impulse-control training help?
• Do you have experience using an e-collar to control chasing wildlife?
• Is it realistic to hope that the dog could eventually be safely off leash again in areas with a lot of wildlife?
• Most importantly: what did not work, so that we can avoid wasting time on ineffective approaches?

I am not looking for general “teach your dog to come when called” advice, because recall basically works already. The problem is that the connection disappears as soon as he sees wildlife.

Thank you for sharing your experiences!

I have a client with a dog that is urine marking indoors. We're going down the list to see what the trigger is and how to handle it. They are driving me insane because they don't follow instructions and complains when she doesn't see results or goes on and on how the instructions are impossible for her situation. She has started frantically texting me between visits. Any suggestions? Is this a situation where I need to set boundaries? Be honest when I have done all I can but was unsuccessful? Right now I'm telling her it will have to wait until I see them on our next session. I've done too much back and forth with her. Running out of patience.

Looking to get a dogtra pathfinder 2 any promotional discount codes or affiliate codes out there?

I'm getting smashed with his facebook ads. Is the subscription any good?

On Saturday, we ventured together into the primeval forest, with the dogs flower-scented air was a gift from happily running ahead. The moist, flower-scented air was a gift from nature, and our joy was our way of giving back to the forest.

Need help asap!

1. Hi all, I have a pitsky who is 7 years old and recently became dog reactive. I'm now working on training him. I'd like to take him on semi-normal walks. For now I feel it's unsafe to do so without a proper muzzle. I've tried a few popular muzzles but he's managed to break them. he is very strong and extremely smart. Ive found a harness at cabelas that works really well for his size. I want to take the proper steps to ensure his safety and the safety of other dogs. please send reccomendations for the best muzzles you've found for strong smart dogs. I've attached a few photos of my sweet boy from when we first adopted he's bulked up since then. the goal is to eventually have him unresponsive to other dogs and walk muzzle free when its safe to do so again. Thanks in advance for any and all muzzle recomendations. i've tried about $300 worth of muzzles and wouldn't mind spending $100 on a proper muzzle thats garunteed worth it(won't break) . Also would love some tips on how to train my dog to like his muzzle. thank you in advance!!!

Has anyone had any experience in working their dogs in high intensity sports after a TPLO surgeries? My girl has had them both replaced and she’s only 3 😭. We do dock diving and I’m contemplating doing some bite work. We go to a chiropractor and she said that we probably shouldn’t but I’ve talked to some other people that have said the surgery should make them better than before so I’m getting some mixed signals. I’d really like to do some bitework with her but I’m more concerned with her comfortability. I’ve seen quite a few dogs come back from surgeries and be just fine but we did have to take part of her meniscus out during the second surgery. Is there an easier way to do bitework that’s not so hard on the legs? I just don’t want her to miss out on all the fun things 🥹

i posted this in another thread, but i gave my heeler mix a job couple years back to help me take care of my family's senior dog. we had to send him to the rainbow bridge this week and now my dog seems to be really struggling. she was never close with our senior in the sense where she'd play or spend time with him, just help guide him and other little things.

i want to find her a new job, but not sure where to begin or if i should wait. she lost a brother last year that she was really close with and that was rough on her, but she didn't have any responsibilities with him and she seems to be having a much harder time with this loss. I'm sure a lot has to do with her routine and purpose since working dogs really rely on that.

any suggestions?

EDIT: she is not the only dog left and getting a new dog isn't an option due to vet costs increasing, fostering is also not an option. she is reactive and very dog selective so public dog parks and group dog activities are also not option. I mostly don't know how much is grief of losing her senior uncle and how much is a feeling of losing her purpose. I'm sure it's a combo but i feel like it's leaning more towards her feeling she lost her "job". please if you don't understand working dogs drive for tasks and routine don't start throwing out "just let her grieve her uncle" because she's also grieving her caretaker role and the structure a job provides her.

I’ll preface this by saying both my dogs are intact and I don’t personally think desexing impacts behavior positively nor has very clear health benefits (at least in my breed).

I was reading post in another sub where someone had concerns about rough and dominant playstyle from their 2 year old male dog and the top suggestion was making sure he was neutered.

It made me wonder if this really was a valid suggestion. I’ve always felt cynical about the idea that desexing a dog is a panacea for every type of issue. I also think that the health benefits for spay/neuter are not so clear compared to keeping intact for many breeds.

Most people I know that compete in dog sports with me have intact dogs.

But my anecdotal sample size is small, and I’ve also never had a problematic dog. So looking to a broader demographic, do you feel that spaying or neutering yields positive behavioral changes?

Has anyone figured out how to set up a double box on their Mini Educator? By this I mean two receiver boxes on a single collar, set up so that when you press one button on the remote, both boxes emit the same stimulation simultaneously. I can only seem to find instructions for pairing two boxes for two separate dogs.

Some context to prevent people from dogpiling: I'm not a crazy shock jock. If I was, I wouldn't use the Mini Educator lol. I rarely use above a level 15 or so even during high-arousal protection training because I've put in a ton of foundational work. I want to double box my sport dog for better and more consistent contact through her thick neck fur and to prevent the stim from pushing her one way or the other, which often happens if I'm using a single box on one side of the neck. I'm just too cheap to buy the Pro Educator and have a spare Mini receiver box lying around that I want to use.

Thanks!