Hi,

I'm looking to get either a garmin pro 550+ or dogtra equivalent of that, still researching. I had a question about the stim strength on these. I have other handheld without the gps feature from offbrands and even with long prongs I am unable to get them to go through my dogs thick coat. (Akita) However, my parents have a tractor supply wireless invisible fence system at their house and when we visit hook the dog up to it, and he can definitely feel that shock and the fence keeps him within their yard, and that's on a medium setting with the same length prongs. Highest setting on just the handheld ecollars does not work.

I am worried that I will struggle to get contact when needed. I am getting it mainly for the gps feature but he likes to chase things he shouldn't sometimes so I would like to be able to count on the stim feature being strong enough.

Anybody have any experience that would help out?

Thanks!

Just a rant. I have a leash reactive dog and with consistent work it has gotten SO much better. He's great off leash with other dogs & I am hopeful we can get to a good place where we can have some more freedom of movement when on leash :)

The biggest obstacle has been other people with dogs who are oblivious, when I am working with my dog, I have the pouch, I am giving commends, I am rewarding good behavior It's REALLY clear we're working. Several times now I have picked a quiet spot to work on "look here" and then I see dogs coming from both directions. I usually get a little louder with the "Look here!" "Good!" to give a signal & if that doesn't work get behind a bush, car whatever is the nearest barrier before he spins out. Sometimes it's too late & the person walking the dog will literally dilly dally going by with my dog getting more agitated. One Boomer even stopped to have his dog greet & I had to yell "No please keep walking!", I was picking up poor the other day when someone got out of their car with a dog & came up before I could see them texting while I am about to fall over controlling my dog. Seriously what is the deal? I have trained, parented dogs for 20+ years & the obliviousness seems to be getting worse.

Is there a playlist online that gives a good intro into understanding socialisation, desensitisation and training that's compiled into a playlist for easy access?

I understand every breed needs different adjustments etc but just a general concrete level understanding playlist would be useful

Thinking many years in advance so this is not any time soon.

I live by myself and have no family locally. Working a standard 9-5 with an hour lunch break is it even possible to have a med sized puppy? I'd love to start with a puppy but also realize that might not be possible.

(Looking for a 40lbs+ adult when grown.)

So I have a more furry dog and considering the 3/4 inch probes. So main question, they are so long does it probe it self hurt the dog? Like it's basically poking into the dog's neck. So how painful is the pressure of the probes it self? Because it's important to be snug enough for good contact. I might also consider the winged ones.

I recently got a 7 month old mini pin girl who I’m fostering through a local rescue. She gets SO distracted when outside by everything except using the bathroom. Wind, people, cars, dogs, birds, any and everything. She is super on alert and will hard stare. It's not like shes rushing to get back inside, but she is just stalking everything. I will feed her/give her water and know she has to use the bathroom soon so I’ll take her out for 30-45 minutes and she won’t use the bathroom but will use it as soon as we come back inside in her crate. It’s almost like she’s never been outside before and it overwhelms her, even in a calm neighborhood where there aren’t a lot of people/other dogs. I've had her for a week and she hasn't used the bathroom outside once. I'm not sure of her life before me, if she was left outside, or if shes never been outside and her previous owner just let her pee and poop in the house, I'm not sure. How can I potty train her? I take her out every 2 hours. I've been taking her poop and pee pads that she peed on outside so maybe she can learn that is for outside, I've disciplined her when catching her having a accident, I don't know what else to do. She does this on walks and if I just choose an suitable bathroom area and stand there for 45 minutes she does the same thing. Anything advice would be so appreciated!

Dog help!

My 2yr old Shepperd-mix dog is a model dog when it's just her and I. Walks great, tail up, no anxiety and I can tie her up in front of a coffee shop for a few minutes with no issues.

When I'm with a friend (someone specifically who's been to my house) she's super anxious, walks stiffer, whining, obsessing over the other person, walking too close to them and on on their toes and jumping on them. When I tie her up in front of a coffee shop she will immediately bark and whine and won't allow to be left alone. Video: https://youtube.com/shorts/zx96s-Gs0A8

She's been like this since day 1 when I got her at 6 weeks old (yes, way too early but it was a rescue situation). She has no issues with other dogs.

Any advice how to train this out of her would be much appreciated.

I got my rescue dog about a year and a half ago. I muzzle trained him because he has dog-reactivity and can be a little selective about other dogs. I also have him wear his muzzle at the vet's office for safety. He's extremely friendly with people in general - loves people, in fact. He's very tolerant with me handling him as well...let's me check his teeth, clip his nails, everything. BUT... he's snapped at the vet every time. I *think* it's just an air snap, but he wears a muzzle so I don't know. It seems to be more when they're around his face and it's usually toward the end of the physical exam.

How concerned would you be with this? Is this somewhat normal? I've never seen any behaviour like this in his daily life. Should I be more cautious with people petting him, or is it likely due to the poking and prodding at the vet?

Raising my first <20lb adult weight dog breed puppy. Please drop your best training tips for tiny puppies/small dogs! 🙏🏻💕

I have a 2 y/o German Shephard/Golden Retriever. He is extremely friendly and decently trained (decent loose leash walking, very well behaved and obedient in low stimulus environments). However, I am struggling with improving his recall in high stimulus environments. I regularly take him to a public park with an off leash area where we meet a small group of other very friendly dogs whose owners I know well. However, when my dog sees people/dogs (95% of the time only to someone he knows) approaching from a distance, he runs straight to them ignoring recall. It was manageable but not problematic until he ran up to a dog he doesn’t know the other day and I could immediately tell the other dog wasn’t appreciative of it. If I want to put him in off leash/ long leash scenarios (which I really do as I want to go on certain challenging hikes), excellent recall is an absolute priority for me. Other scenarios include ignoring commands/recall when greeting other dogs, or when involved in play.

I have done a lot of research into recall training and I try not to set him up to fail and I have been very consistent on rewarding him with play & treats for recall but when he sees a dog/person he wants to greet, his mind appears to enter another mode and he ignores me. We haven’t had anything major happen because of it but it’s unacceptable behavior and I worry that I will put him in danger if we don’t handle this early. He is in many ways still a (very large) puppy and I worry that he may run up to a reactive dog/scared person at some point. He has only run up to strangers a handful of times despite going to this location daily so I may be blowing this out of proportion but I really want to curb the behavior. I have also asked other owners at the park to ignore him when he tries to greet to avoid reinforcement but it’s difficult to tell their dogs that.

I haven’t dug into research specifically about e-collars but I was wondering if it could be a useful tool to curb this behavior? Alternatively, outside of the usual positive recall reinforcement, are there any exercises you would suggest? Do overstimulation issues like this go away over time? Any similar experiences?

My dog is a cowboy corgi (blue heeler/corgi mix) in case it matters.

He’s super intelligent but obviously high energy, so while he knows several commands, he often will try to find ways around them.

In addition to that, he hyper fixates on things, particularly food, so he gets so excited over treat rewards that he loses his mind from excitement rather than earning by doing the command.

The problem with telling him “off” when he’s on the couch or something is he will get off, then immediately get back on…because it’s where he wants to be or because he wants to earn another treat.

What can I do instead to convey to him that off means off consistently?

My fiancé and I got a puppy for Christmas. (It wasn’t like a surprise we discussed it and got it together). We also have a 9 year old schnauzer(22lb) who is generally well behaved but is generally a low energy dog. We decided to put bells on our back door as a part of the potty training. Honestly she was amazing with the potty training. She probably has had 5 accidents. The first problem arose when she would just incessantly ring the bell because she wanted to be outside. We took the bells off of the door and now she jumps on the door, starts crying, and barking so she can go out. This wouldn’t be such an issue except that we can’t get her back in the house. She runs away from us. We basically have to throw a trail of treats to get her back to the door.

Also she isn’t eating enough. We just switched her dog food which is seeming to help, but I’m concerned she’s definitely underweight. She’s 42lbs but she should go up to 55-60 when fully grown. She doesn’t focus on her food when we feed her. She seems just completely uninterested in eating. Our schnauzer inhales her own food and was definitely sneaking some of our puppy’s food because she’s now overweight.

I’m so confused. How do I fix this?

Random possessiveness

I have a 18 month old German shepherd. She’s amazingly trained (4 weeks of a balanced training board and train and periodic training sessions to freshen up), so sweet, and wouldn’t hurt a fly. I have a two year old and a four month old and she’s nothing but amazing with them. She’s always played submissive, even to my mom’s tiny Shit zu. However, last Wednesday we had two other dogs over playing. They’ve played several times before. The husky/shepherd mix is a male and a very dominant player. He pinned her on her back and really “went for her”. No teeth or anything but pinned her down pretty nastily. She yelped and cried like I’ve never heard before and I immediately separated them and she just hid for an hour or so. Flash forward to now, a few days later, and she’s become very reactive/possessive around that dog and other dogs. She has a stick and they come up to her? All of her hair stands up and she growls/barks. It’s escalating to the point where if my son has a toy and my mom’s dog goes to sniff it, she does the same thing. It’s not even her toy. Is she traumatized? How do I get her past this? I can’t even believe I’m seeing this because she has never, ever shown any signs of anything like this.

We are still undergoing tests but our vet is 90% sure our 7 month lab puppy has renal dysplasia. We're obviously gutted and await the full set of scans etc, but in the meantime, does anyone have any advice on managing the symptoms etc? Namely:

• frequent urination: currently I am able to come home half way through the day, and partner and I share shifts overnight to get up and let her out to potty, but obviously sometimes we can't meet her times and so there's lots of urine to clear up. Anyone have any good tips or products that can help? NB we are not confining her to a crate as feel this is cruel when she has little control over how frequently she needs to go. She is in a small utility so is not free roaming, but does have space to go outside her bed if she needs it.
• diet: we are taking her off her existing kibble as the protein content is too high. Instead we are transitioning to a rice/small safe protein and some vegetables, while we find a suitable renal- safe kibble to pad this out with. The kibbles on the market are all for adult dogs so again advice on how we can get the low.protein/high fat ratios right would be welcome
• lastly end of life advice, and this is the really tough one. She is likely at stage IV as this is when symptoms are most noticeable, and it is not reversable. It's likely we will only have another year with her. So at what point does does it no longer benefit her to try and minimise and manage the condition, and kinder to let her go gently.

Honestly can't believe I've even had to type this. She has been a dream pup in every single way. Sweet, picked up all her training (working dog) almost instantly, no crazy chewing incidents, gentlest little personality who gives love in abundance.

Any advice for how we can do best for her in the short time we have would be appreciated.

My boyfriend and I are watching 2 dogs for family. One is a elderly girl(Lila), and a yearling boy(Geoff). Last night was long and I'm trying to ease the pain since I'll be pretty much solo for the rest of the week.

The biggest issue is them waking up in the middle of the night. Either Geoff barks because he knows we'll check, or Lila will bark and it sets off a neverending cycle. I know the proper response should be to ignore it but last time we did that, we found Geoff had puked in his crate... also we're surrounded by neighbors and have gotten calls before. We collectively got up like 6 times throughout the night.

The lesser issue is all Geoff wants to do is play while we're relaxing, even if we had just taken him on a walk and give him a frozen treat puzzle to keep his brain occupied. The play attempts also sets off Lila, who has severe personal space issues.

Speaking of which, he won't leave poor Lila alone sometimes. Even if she snaps or we redirect he goes right back. Man has no awareness of personal space when it comes to creatures he knows.

They're not bad dogs, just these 3 things really. Which isn't helped by us being more cat people than dog people.

Send help. Am tired.

I'm not sure what to do at this point. My 9 month old intact male puppy is almost constantly going at my female (2 years old, spayed). He's a farm dog, collie mix.

My female is good at telling him to stop: when he climbs on her she sits down, gets him off her back, then barks at him until he lays down. But lately he just starts right back up again. They play really good together and enjoy each others company, but this behaviour is getting a bit out of hand. He always wants to lick/sniff her vulva and hump.

I'm constantly separating them, either by a baby gate or sending him to his crate to calm down. He's large breed and the vet recommended we wait until he's closer to 2 before we neuter him. He humps nothing and no one else, just her. He didn't hump other dogs at his training classes.. funny enough, he would get very angry and snarl if another dog humped him.

They get a lot of exercise. Long walks, hikes, plus I have a big fenced in property. Puzzle toys for meals. And he settles down reasonably well for his age.

I can't seem to make a connection on why he does it, his energy levels don't seem to matter. There's no intact females around and I had my girl checked out for UTI and infection, she's fine.

My hope is it's just adolescence, but he's my first male dog I don't want to be missing anything. Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

I am considering getting a second dog (a female puppy from a breeder). I am researching the specific breed and financial aspects of having one. However, I have many anxieties about getting a second dog. I would appreciate any input about any of the issues I mention. I currently have an almost 3-year-old intact male Malinois who is generally a good boy. I do have a dog trainer who will help me, too. (I will be raising the puppy and I am also the main trainer/person for my Mal too if thats important).

-Jealousy is something I worry about. I'm fortunate in that I'll be able to take the puppy to work with me, but right now, my Mal goes to work with me at least once or twice a week. I worry he'll feel left out or jealous about the puppy always being with me. I will also be training the puppy to be a therapy dog, so in the long term, she will be the one going to work with me, and my Mal will be home with my WFH partner.

• How do I create a peaceful, non-competitive home environment so both dogs feel good?
• Pack mentality is another thing. Is my Mal likely to be "protective" over the female dog when we're out? We do group hikes and walks right now, but will that change once I have two dogs? Sometimes, when I'm out, I notice people with two dogs keep to themselves, and their dogs play with each other only. I've also seen a pair of dogs more likely to act like jerks when around other dogs, bully them, or gang up on them.
• I've had my Mal around puppies, and generally, he's very sweet. He will lie down, make himself smaller, and let the puppy climb on and play with him. There was an insane doodle puppy that was too in his face and pushy, and he corrected that dog. My dog trainer was there and said his communication was great. He becomes a teddy bear around females and so that's why I'll get a female. 

-I know there are a lot of issues around having an intact male and intact female that I'll have to think about, but I'll be asking the breeder and my trainer about all that. I think in the long term, I will spay the female and keep my Mal intact. 

My dog (I’ve only had for about 5 months), has a general lack of respect for my personal space. When I’m relaxing in bed or on the couch, she steps on me, jumps on me, gets her face in my face. I push her away, but I feel like she thinks I’m playing when I do this? I’ve had her 5 months and continually push her off and try to show her to not put her paws on me while sitting/lying down, but she still just doesn’t seem to get it. I have bruises all over my legs and scratches everywhere because she just doesn’t seem aware of her paws at all. Any training advice? I tried looking it up and it doesn’t seem like it’s a hot topic to post videos on lol

I have a 7 month old Golden and been having some issues outside and inside. Recently my puppy has been more vocal about what he doesn't want to do and has started nipping. For example, we have a balcony and sometimes we let him hang out there and when we try to get him back home if I touch him gently to return he will nip. He never bit down or drew blood but I also remove my hands pretty quickly...The only way I get him back inside is treats now. He also will nip if I try to gently move him out of the way sometimes (say in kitchen) and during simple groomings. Is this normal at this age? It really worries me. And how would I even fix it? would I have to give prong corrections inside the home?

I have a 7 month old Golden and have been through a few trainers already. Most recently I was working with a positive reinforcement trainer and just not seeing results. The main issues my dog has is he pulls on the leash and also eats everything off the ground outside (despite knowing drop it, he just won't drop things). The eating things got so bad he threw up a lot the past week so we decided ENOUGH we need to start adding corrections for his own sake.

The new trainer we saw is balanced and they say they use LIMA techniques. They also have a great reputation in my area and good reviews. They said for his issue he would need a prong (to not pull and also receive corrections as needed). They also said since we have some home issues (counter surfing) we should wear the prong at home too to give corrections when the bad behaviors happen. They also said the prong might just be something he uses forever when walking...is that normal? I am not against using a prong at this stage, I just wanna make sure the way they're making us use it is not abusive or just too much. Any insight would be appreciated.

We adopted a dog yesterday to be a part of our family and to be a companion for our current dog a 2yo Chi mix. Since arriving home, this new dog, a 5yo tripod Chi mix is growling and nipping at us and our dog often. We know he’s very nervous and it can take some time to adjust, but I want to know, is it normal for a dog to try to bite you as they’re getting used to your home and family or is this really going to be the dogs behavior? Also, what can I do to make the dog stop doing this. We introduced them on neutral ground. We stayed in the yard for a good long time. We are not putting any demands on him like picking him up too much, being too quick or loud when approaching him. We are letting him approach us on his terms. We already know that it will take time for him to decompress, and we are trying to give him a lot of space and reassurance, but it doesn’t seem to be getting better. Any advice appreciated!

Male GSD/Malamute, about 1.5 years (?) old. He has started submissive peeing around my husband, though he didn't used to. More oddly, he only does it during specific situations it seems:

**At night. My husband works from home and is around him all day, no issues. When I come home in the evening? Also no problems.

**Usually downstairs. We have a basement, where the dog is allowed. For some reason, the chance of him submissive peeing down there is much higher than upstairs.

**Approach. He will come up to my husband for attention, get in front of him, and pee. No tail tuck, no licking or yawning or any other stress signs that I can see, just a little squirt of pee.

He never does this with me, and does not do this with visitors or with strangers he meets outside. He doesn't seem particularly excited or afraid, he just pees and then leaves.

I am the one who does the walks, training, etc. though he plays tug a lot with my husband. I'm thinking that maybe having him wear a bellyband at night for a week or two and having my husband do some short training sessions with him (upstairs to start) may help, but I would love any insight here.

I really need some help with my little pupper. Well actually she’s not a pupper, she’s 12 years old. She was my childhood dog and unfortunately (despite my efforts) my mom never taught her how to go potty outside. She would just have her do her business on pee pads indoors and then clean them up. Even after puppyhood she continued to use this method.

Fast forward 10+ years later and now my mom says she can’t take care of her anymore so I have to keep her at my house for the time being. I have a roommate and neither of us were really prepared to have a dog right now, but we agreed to keep her until we can find a good loving home for her. But we do not want her going potty inside the house.

The main issue now is that she will not go pee or poo outside. She’s shy and doesn’t like when you watch her go potty (because my mom would get angry at her for going potty inside and making a mess even though that’s what she literally trained her to do with the pee pads). I’m trying to teach her to go out in my backyard, but she basically just holds it in all day. I got to the house last night so today is the first day we are starting to train her to go outside. I have been taking her outside every hour to try and get her to go, I even brought a pee pad outside and used a cue she semi-understands to see if she would make the connection, but she doesn’t go. I thought maybe shyness was the issue so a few times I left her out to see if she would go on her own. Finally, after 4 hours she went pee. I wasn’t out there to witness it so unfortunately I couldn’t praise her right away. Still no poop though. I don’t know if she’s holding it in or if she just doesn’t have to go, but I know when we used pee pads she would go pee and poo multiple times a day.

Is there anything I can do better to get her to understand and get accustomed to going potty outside? Do I just continue taking her out every hour and trying to get her to go? I can’t do that long-term so she’s going to have to learn to go at designated times, but I’m not sure how to train her to do that. Any help would be much appreciated!

This might be just a passing feeling, but maybe reality is finally slapping me in the face.

I have a 14 months old brittany spaniel. He's my first dog, but my family has experience with high energy dogs. To sum up, he's totally crazy. We were aware that brittanies are high energy dogs that need a lot of exercise and training, but ever since he came home, he was too much to handle. It's not that difficult to tire him out, but he's terribly ill behaved and difficult to train. He has had limits, it's not like we neglected his training and let him do whatever. He does it naturally because he doesn't care about anything. Timeouts? No problem, when you come back I will keep biting. Leash corrections? Only if you do it strong enough or I don't even feel anything. Leash pressure? My signal to pull more until I'm out of breath because I don't care about choking to death. Scolding/yelling? It probably means play so I get worse.

I'm currently working with a trainer. They manage him fine but it's harder than with most dogs. He's slowly getting better but only in some settings.

Even my family, who owned gundogs before is getting frustrated, all of the dogs they had were high energy, but they weren't crazy and impossible to control like him.

I was the first person to cling to him when my family was thinking about rehoming, but now I'm starting to feel that way too. I don't believe he has a bad quality of life (we probably can make it better though) but WE have a bad quality of life with him.

I will continue working with his trainer and see what happens. Maybe he's too young and will mature with time too, but if nothing works I don't know what I will do. I really want to keep him, he has a lot of the qualities I was looking for in a dog (plus double the bad qualities) and I thought he was perfect to get started in the dog training world. But maybe he really was too much.

Hi, new dog owner here. I need some advice from people that are experienced with dogs. My 12-month-old samoyed pup has a knack for stalking me whenever I do something in the house and picking up on my daily routines and anticipating my next move. As an engineer, I thrive on structure and repetition in my daily schedule. Whenever I do something like eating lunch that in the previous days leads to a walk for example, she gets visibly excited beforehand by breathing fast and having no rest.

When she breathes fast I can only imagine how she will behave next and sometimes I become frustrated. I put my headsets on and listen to music in order to switch my thoughts from that stress. I've tried varying our routines and routes during walks with no improvement. It's like she reads my mind and adjusts her excitement according to the destination we are heading at. I've resorted to pausing and waiting for her to calm down before leaving the house but she would recharge once we are outside. If I stop on the street to wait for her to calm down she would start whining asking to continue to go forward (mainly if she knows that we got to the dog park or on a hike).

Note that she had bad separation anxiety in the past (which got 95% better), but overall she's very well trained, knows structured walk and basic obedience. She does not pull when she is very excited but breaks heel, fixates excessively on people and dogs on the street, becomes 100% alert in areas where she saw cats in the past... etc. And to answer your next question... yes... she gets lots of exercise during the day.

Is this just an age thing? Can somebody share how to manage this and avoid the stress?

I have a 2 year old 8 kg / 17 lb mix. She was found on the streets in another country and has been with me for 6 months now. She is calm at home and energitic and playful with other dogs when outside. Good balance. We are still training some obedience, but she is very good.

She is curious in other dogs and want to play with almost all of them, at least the ones that is interested in her puppylike energy. She is even very patient and confident if another dog is barking or growling at her telling her to piss off. The other day, with some patience, she managed to make a very reactive dog calm and her friend. She definitely made me proud.

But the last month or so, when we meet a bigger dog we don't know, she starts with curiousity and maybe even a little playfulness, but suddenly she snaps at the other dog, barks and growls. Every time the other dog has done nothing wrong except matching her curiousity.

The first handful of times I had no idea what to do so I just called it quits, told the other owner good day and went on our way. But the last few times I've started leash correcting her, pulling her away with a "HEY" (mostly for safety reasons for the next thing) and grabbing her colar firmly. Some times I've talked with the other owners and asked if I could say hi to their dog to show mine that the other dog is accepted. It has worked, or at least nothing happened after that, and it has also not made a difference.

I don't know if what I do is the right method, so I'm now asking you guys. Do you have suggestions to what I could do?

We have a new dog who I feel has both the need and potential for a lot of complex training. I've always been fine in training the basics (my previous dogs were all easy going lab mixes) but I'd like to bump it up a bit with my current dog. I'm realizing that in order to do that, I'd like to have a more systematic approach and would like to read about a more comprehensive training method and the underlying techniques and principles.

I don't know where to start, however.

About my dog: he's small (20 lb) mix. He's very active, alert, curious, smart, busybody, affectionate, nosy, playful, energetic, enthusiastic, trainable, extremely food motivated. During training sessions he learns quickly to connect commands/actions. He does fairly well with obedience and compliance outside of training sessions, but that could be more solid. He quickly learns to do things based on positive reinforcement. Definitely harder to train him on the what not to do (though training replacement behaviors seems to be working slowly but surely).

He's about a year and half old, adopted as a rescue about four months ago. In that time, he's come a long way in terms of his behavior and adjustment - some of that thanks to training, other just giving him time to adjust and settle in. But I'd like to continually train, both to fine tune his socialization and have fun learning more commands and tricks.