So I have a 14 week old female Golden Retriever. She is very energetic and strong for her age. I have her on a small flat collar and a skinny leash. I find her to be very difficult to control in terms of pulling on the leash, almost to the point of making me fall. My balance has gotten worse as I have aged, and I do plan on getting a trainer soon. Does anyone here have a good suggestion for a collar and leash? I do not want an e-collar or prong collar as I do not believe in those methods. Thank you very much!

Ok weird one for you... We have a one year old Jackapoo.. we're convinced he came from a Puppy farm but that's a whole other story. Anyway, he won't go up the stairs in the house. We've tried everything but he just won't, he's terrified bless him! We've tried treats, pulling him (gently) on his lead but nothing works! The weird thing is, if we're our on a walk and come across steps he's absolutely fine and doesn't think anything of bounding up the steps over bridges etc. it's literally just the stairs at home he won't deal with... Any ideas?!

So first, I do not blame the dogs, I know it is their owners fault.

For reasons my family of 4 have had to move in relatives. We have 2 small kids. We moved in with 2 elderly ladies who between them have 5 dogs. 4 small breed 1 large breed.

The humans are old and sweet types whose's dogs do no wrong. They aren't house trained (well kinda they go where they please but get put out side often.) The dogs get treats for normal meals, along with regular dog food, and also given high value treats at request.

I've gotten 2 of the dogs to warm up to me and the family, but 2 other dogs won't stop barking and being loud for anything that we do. And when they go off the rest follow. The current "plan" is just to give it time. The problem is that along with my small children come times I have to do stuff for them in the middle of the night, or open the door when the dogs owners are asleep. It wakes the whole house but I can't exactly tell my 1 year old to go back to sleep when she needs a bottle.

The dogs are mostly sequestered to one side of the house, but our room is near that aera causing them to go off often.

I've tried talking the owners into do better with treats and/or praise and doing training. But they just won't hear it. They claim their dogs are just too old and used to the way they are to change. Which regardless of that, if the humans aren't willing to put in the work, it'd fail anyway.

So what I need help with is any other training method or idea to at least get them to stop barking when me or my kids walk by.

We also have 1 dog that we brought with us, but he is trained for the most part. He goes outside and is very food motivated. They are also feeding him treats without accompanying training, but we are setting those Boundaries and just keeping him with us when possible. The dogs don't get along, but they are separated and don't see each other.

Hi Everyone, we recently adopted a rescue dog and she’s absolutely great except she will not potty on leash. She walks well on leash and responds to new commands with positive reinforcement, but we have not gotten her to go potty on leash yet, only solo in our fence in yard. She’s about to undergo heartworm treatment (she contracted from her previous home) and during that recovery period wr cannot let her heart rate spike so unsupervised yard potty is not an option. We have been crate training and letting her out every 2 hours to go on leash and she has refused potty for 24 hours. I’m a mess at this point because she needs to learn but I’m so broken up about her holding it for so long! Please tell me I’m not a horrible dog parent for making her only go on leash and therefore she’s holding it! We do not punish her if she has an accident in the house or crate and we plan to reward her once she potties on the leash but she hasn’t yet.

Hi guys,

First post here and seems to be the same as many! My Labrador puppy (5 months old) just will not engage with me outside when walking or doing any other activity.

I know she’s still really young and I’m trying not to expect too much but the second we step out the front door she… will… not… listen. To anything.

I started her leash/heel training inside and she was perfect. We moved to the back garden, again… she did great.

But out in the open world I just can’t engage her. We’ve got a few different types of collars, leads and harnesses. The harness makes things worse. We got a front clip harness but she just jumps over the lead so it’s under her and doesn’t do anything. I got a slip lead due to all the training videos on YouTube… literally had the opposite effect and made her pull away more.

She won’t listen when walking next to me. She’s incredibly food driven at home but doesn’t care in the slightest outside.

This week so far we’ve been out twice a day every day to practice. I’m doing the whole stopping firmly and not moving until she stops.

When I do stop she doesn’t even turn around. She stays at the end of the leash, sits, faces the opposite direction and just waits. She won’t listen to come back to me. And when I try to physically to put her back into place she just jumps and rolls around like it’s a game.

I’m at a loss. I’ve tried so many things and I am being as consistent as possible. She’s a literal dream at home but I just can’t engage her outside.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Our dog has started showing weird behaviours throughout the day, if we come down the stairs, move off the sofa or enter a room he will jump up growling/barking and then charge at you before changing his mind and asking for attention or give quick licks at your hands before walking off, if you move again he'll sometimes come straight back barking and do it again, sometimes he'll even run up and place your hand/arm in his mouth while doing this, not bite down but just hold for a quick second before letting go. These aren't his regular friendly/playful grumbles but deep growls and before jumping up will stiffen up and side eye etc. Highly worried that this might be the starting signs of him becoming aggressive and with a child in the house I'm concerned.

He tends to do this more at night.

He's some sort of herding mix we rescued when he was 10 weeks old, he's now roughly 10 months old and huge, we've never had a problem with him before and he is otherwise very well trained in his day to day etc

(I have contacted a behaviouralist but they have no space in their schedule for the next 3 months and wanted some opinions etc while we wait for our appointment)

I currently have 2 dogs (1 female who's 7 and spayed and an intact male who's 3). My father passed away suddenly last week and we took in his dog. His dog is an intact male that's about 1.5 to 2 years old.

My dad only had the dog for a couple weeks. With people the dog is great. He's sweet and pretty obedient. But the minute he sees my other dogs, particularly my other male (who is very timid, shy and not at all aggressive), dad's dog wants to really really go after him. And I mean aggressively.

I'm in a wheelchair. So these slow walks in a neutral space are difficult as any of them could pull me out of the chair. We've been trying to slowly introduce them outside through a fence while on leashes, inside with multiple barriers between them, you name it. I even called the vet to ask about neutering and they said it likely wouldn't help.

I don't know the history of dad's dog. He's a great dog outside of this interaction. I tried calling a couple professionals and was quoted $2400 to get help. As I'm having to pay for dads final expenses, I can't swing that right now. I want to keep this dog if I can. Right now there's no peace since we have to be at separate parts of the house with the dogs split up. I know his dog is grieving with me and I really don't want to have to send him off.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone, I hope this is the right place to post something like this.

I wanted to describe the situation for context : new neighbors moved in a few months ago with a smaller sized dog that barks loudly, and directly at the fence while frantically running along the fenceline any time that I go into my yard to let my own dogs out.

I like to go out into my fenced yard to work on training and burn off some energy with my younger dog. I feel like I now have to have him leashed up inside the yard while I train him not to react to their dog's repeated fence fighting behavior.

It seems like they may have a dog door that's giving their dog free access to go outside, so it's a repeated behavior almost every time I go out into my yard to bring my dog outside, within a few seconds their dog rushes towards the fence and is basically "fence fighting" while the neighbor seems to never do anything to correct their dog's behavior. It's a long fenceline and the dog is frantically rushing back and forth right against the fence, multiple times a day when I venture out into my fenced backyard with my dogs.

My young dog has started to bark back at this dog and run around in the yard and not want to recall right away. I do not want him engaging in this fence fighting behavior and am very distressed because I have put so much training into this young dog. I do not allow him to go directly up to the fence, and am actively correcting him via mini educator e-collar as advised by an experienced professional trainer (please no comments bashing e-collars) when he runs toward where the dog is to bark. My goal is that he recalls right to me even when this dog is rushing the fence barking, as I am afraid it's turning into a nasty pattern of behavior between the two dogs and stressful for everyone involved (or for me at least, and my senior dog)

Before letting my dog into my backyard, I have him sit and wait within the doorway while I check that the coast is clear and he practices a moment of impulse control. When I release him and let him out into the yard giving his potty/sniff cue, within a few seconds, the area which was just quiet is now bombarded with the sounds of their dog rushing along the fence and barking frantically, and after talking to the neighbors they just don't seem interested in doing anything to correct their dog's behavior and perhaps not letting the dog free access the yard to instigate every time I try to use my yard with my dog. I also repeatedly apologized to them that my dog was barking in response and asked them if we could work something out and offered to pay a trainer to come and work on it and if there was any way they could interrupt their dogs barking sooner, I don't know how I can more clearly tell them not to let their dog out via a free access dog door which is what I suspect they have.

For context, my dog is around a year old and has been through several rounds of group obedience courses, private training, has his CGC, working toward other AKC titles, and I am an extremely involved and responsible dog owner. He's a high energy working breed and I have been working with him diligently to create a well rounded companion and am so distraught over this whole situation and feeling like I cannot enjoy my yard with him and work on our training exercises and have free time out there. I feel terrible that my dog is taking the bait and reacting to this dog (by barking back some, and not recalling to me immediately in the yard when this is going on, making it a game : he does not jump on their fence or anything of that nature!)

Here's what makes it worse : I mustered up the courage to talk to them about it and apologize for my dogs part in this repeating cycle, and one of my lovely new neighbor's had a very volatile attitude in response to me. Regarding my young dog, saying repeatedly how he barks too and that their dog is small, old, set in its ways and mentioned the police and how "who would they blame, a big scary dog like yours or our tiny dog?". I am freaked out by them even choosing to mention the police, what has my dog done by being in his own yard? I don't let him run along the fence or instigate and am now only letting him out on a leash in the yard and working on obedience, getting exercise elsewhere. I tried to be king and apologetic and offered solutions, told them if they wanted to let their dog out at certain times I could make sure that happened and kind of implied I want them to do more to control their dog.

I kept my dog inside and went out for training/exercise elsewhere the rest of the day after talking to them, until that evening after it got dark, I was going to let my dog in the yard to do his business before dinner. I have my dog sit, check the coast is clear poke my head out the door, when I release my dog into the yard and bring him over where he needs to go potty, within a few seconds their dog is back, barking and rushing back and forth along the fence in the darkness. It seems like the dog is letting itself out any time it hears us, even after I talked to them. I haven't been letting my dog just free run in the yard since and we're just working on training and trying to break the behavior of reacting to this dog on the other side of the fence. My dog does well when he's in the yard on his leash and engaged with me, but it I try to let him play fetch, have free time out there, and this dog starts in, he's been reacting too.

It's a setback in our training and makes me very upset. It's clear the neighbors aren't going to do anything to stop it. I just would love some advice or support. I'm having significant health issues on top of all this and it's been incredibly stressful. What also worries me is that the neighbor could lie about my dog and was asking intrusive questions when I went to talk to them such as "are you the homeowner??". Thank you to those who took the time to read my long-winded post.

In September, we adopted a “lab” mix rescue (10 month old old at the time) and we’ve gone through 16 weeks of training:sit, stay, bed, leave it, come (though she’s hit or miss at recall). During training sessions, she’s really responsive and has good impulse control, doesn’t pull on the leash, responsive to turning when she gets to far ahead etc. in the house too, she follows commands pretty well. We’re struggling with getting outside and being outside; specifically not bolting when we leave the house and not pulling on the leash .

She used to bolt outside of the house whenever we came home or left and have to go chasing her but we’ve finally been able to curb that by telling her to sit and only open the door as long as she’s sitting and we will walk out first and we’ll give her the “come” command and she’ll be fine (this is all on a leash btw). But when we do the same thing for her to go in our backyard I can barely open the door before she tries to bolt outside. loose leash training has been an challenge, in that she constantly pulls despite stopping, using the call command, and/or turning. Tried the gentle leader, she still pulled so hard that she was getting marks on her face. Vests haven’t helped in the past either. I think one main problem is she is reactive to squirrels/birds and there’s a lot of them, front yard, backyard, and neighborhood.

Basically just looking for some advice on loose leash walking and trying to instill some impulse control so she doesn’t bolt outside the door and listens to commands outside? We’re expecting this year and would love to be able to walk the dog and the baby at the same time. Or maybe this is just venting. Thanks everyone.

We were waiting at a crosswalk FOREVER, probably like 10 minutes, before being able to cross. She held a sit pretty much the entire time except for a few times standing up (to be fair it was cold and wet outside so I don’t blame her!), and constantly checked in with me for a treat. We’ve been practicing engagement for a while. She has come very far with training and I’m very proud of her today.

Reminder to be proud of the little things 🐾❤️

Hi all! I have a 10-month goldendoodle. He is SO GOOD at letting us know when he has to go downstairs by tapping at the door. Our real issue is if we are upstairs, he does not have that way of telling us. I have purchased and tried to use the button method with him, but he isn't interested in it at all. It doesn't seem to matter the treat or reinforcer, he is not interested in it or a bell.

I got him at 8 weeks, and began taking him on walks once he warmed up to me and his surrounding area about 10-12 weeks old. He did excellent on walks. Winter came and I wasn’t able to get him out for like a month and now he refuses to leave the driveway. I spent countless hours outside on the road trying to get him to come and he refuses. He is very good motivated, but treats are of no use in this scenario. How can I get him to go on walks? A dog with this much energy cannot be housebound. I need to get him outside.

My 1 year old Podengo Pequeno has what we call "baby tantrums." She'll get really tired, but instead of just going to sleep like a normal person dog, she just goes insane and wants to be a menace to society (it's me. I'm society). I give her toys, she gets walks, treats, we do all the things to get her energy out. I've read this is specifically a puppy thing and they eventually grow out of it, but what can I do in the mean time? She'll literally flail about, stop, have her eyes droop and be about to fall asleep, then wake up and go nuts again. She fights for her life to stay awake and I don't understand. Thank you!

My girlfriends pup is 6 y/o. He had some developmental issues which make him unsteady on his hind legs. They are actually longer than his front legs.

He has never been willing to go down more than 2 steps at a time. I have been working with him for a while and now he is getting more comfortable on my staircase, but this is not transferring to other stair cases. He also can not do top to bottom, but he can do most of the way up to the bottom. He is too scared to start the process but will finish it if put in the middle.

He can climb stairs, but will not climb my stairs, we think because of the gaps between them.

Any tips/techniques/guidance? It would be really cool if this little guy could do stairs on his own.

https://reddit.com/link/1if8qv2/video/qj787u7mqjge1/player

Hey everyone. I have a golden doodle that’s a little of a year old and he really hasn’t grown out of the chewing stage. He’s constantly chewing my watch, the couch, the bed, everything. I give him chew bones and Kongs. He also does get long walks. It seems like no matter what he is chewing. I did go to a trainer for a while but she was brand new and I actually got nothing out of the training, which is really tragic. I have been trying to teach him “leave it” but he isn’t absorbing the command. I’ve tried the bitter spray and he completely by passes that. Whenever I try to stop him from chewing anything, he thinks he’s a game. Should I go back to a trainer for this? Does anyone have any good advice for this? Thank you!!

I adopted her last year when she was estimated to be around five years old. When I first got her, I discovered she had resource guarding issues after she snapped at and bit my other dog for walking too close to her food bowl. I immediately started working with her in a muzzle, focusing on desensitization and trust-building, while also helping her gain weight-she was extremely underweight when I got her. After about a month of training, the issue seemed resolved, and we never had any further problems. A year later, my other dog sadly passed away from cancer. Two weeks ago, I brought home a puppy, Brekkan. Their introduction went smoothly, and I expected Petra to correct him when he got too pushy, as puppies tend to do. However, twice now, she has snapped at him aggressively-this is more than just a correction. Both times, he ran away screaming, and the first time, he even peed himself. She isn't giving any clear warning signs beforehand and these incidents happen suddenly-often right after she initiates play with him. It feels like she's trying to hurt him rather than just setting boundaries, and I don't know how to handle it. Usually, they're within three feet of me when it happens, so I'm watching closely, but it still happens too quickly for me to intervene. What's confusing is that Petra goes to the dog park almost daily and plays really well with dogs of all sizes. She's never had any issues with aggression, even if another dog snaps at her. I also frequently visit my mom's house, where she interacts with her two dogs, one is a puppy, and she has never had any problems with them playing together. This behavior seems completely specific to Brekkan, which makes it even harder to understand.

Another issue l'v been struggling with (though not as urgent as the first) is potty training. When I first got Petra, she wasn't house-trained at all. We would go on long walks-sometimes over an hour-only for her to immediately pee inside once we got home. Over time, she improved to the point where she won't have accidents as long as l'm home. However, as soon as I leave, even briefly (just to take out the trash or check the mail), she will pee and poop indoors. I spoke to my vet, who ruled out medical causes and said it was behavioral. I also set up a camera, and based on what l've seen, I don't believe it's separation anxiety. After I leave, she gets up, drinks some water, uses the bathroom, and then settles down to sleep for the rest of the time I'm gone-all within three minutes. Now, the puppy, who was pad-trained when I got him, started following her lead and going wherever he wants, which is making things even more challenging.

I'm really struggling with this and don't know what to do. Rehoming is not an option, and trainers in my area are completely out of budget. Any advice would be deeply appreciated.

I live in a rural town and my older neighbor couple walk by with their two large dogs every day. I have a 1.5 year old who gets along great with their German shepherd. Never any issues. We usually chat for a bit while the dogs play. Then they rescued a runaway husky that clearly has some behavioral issues. I suspect he’s just not had a ton of training and was somewhat neglected or they wouldn’t have found him wandering on the road matted and caked with mange. I can tell he’s a sweet boy but he barks a lot when they walk by so the husband just holds him back and doesn’t let him greet anyone while the other two dogs get to play. The husband yells at him to shut up and if he pulls forward on the leash he’ll sometimes hit him. They’re older, so I suspect there’s a gap in understanding for more modern positive reinforcement training methods but I desperately want to try and help them with this obviously troubled dog. Im not a professional so I don’t really know what to even say except hitting the dog isn’t helping anything. Do you say something to people who hit their dog? They truly care about the animals and I know they’re not neglecting them per se, but they’re both super large dogs and as far as I can tell they’re barely walking them a quarter mile once or twice a day. I’ve casually mentioned that huskies especially need to RUN and get lots of exercise as they are prone to running away and escaping. They are older so I assume they may not be able to run them as much as needed. I would offer to walk them once in a while but I can’t get in the habit of that and I don’t want to feel obligated on a regular basis. It’s just tough to see the husky in particular suffer. Appreciate thoughts.

Hi all, for context my British bulldog is a very quiet calm dog as the breed is. Since taking him for regular walks (morning and afternoon) he’s began to bark loudly as soon as he sees me at those times. The barks are very loud and they don’t stop until I’ve put the leash on him. I’ve tried ignoring him but the barking just doesn’t stop and they’re very loud barks. Please could I have some advice as this has been ongoing for months and I don’t know what to do

Hi, I have a question and hope to find some answer here. I have a 4 year old Mini Bull Terrier, yes that means she is a Covid puppy. She is well trained, but when she starts playing with other dogs, the first thing she goes for is their ears. Initially we thought I wouldn’t be an issue but she doesn’t like to let go, even sometimes if we try to call her off. I don’t want to use a shock collar or anything like it but I’m really lost at what to do. It’s hard to take her anywhere to play with other dogs cause it mostly ends up in her holding onto another dog and not letting go.

If anyone has any advice on what to do that would be amazing!! Thank you!

My dog ( Eurasier male from May 2023) had sugery on tuesday and needs to calm the fuck down. He does not.. This all makes sense because of his age and personality but I don't know how to help him. He isn't allowed to walk a lot and no jumping, running for 12 weeks. We already have sniffing mats, chewing and slow feeding but shouldn't put on weight because the strain that can cause.

Does anyone have tips for what to teach him or how to keep his brain busy and his weeks a bit more manageble

EDIT: Thank you all so much for this, for Iroh but also a bit for myself and relavating my human emotions into this. I will pick up the sedatives and find steal some cups for training the little sniffer

The operation was a emergency sugery for 5 cut tendons in his left front paw. If you break a glass, don't trow it in the glass please. He started a zoomie happy and without issues and it didn't end that way

My dog is very smart and i can tell because she listens and responds quickly sometimes. But many times i will give her a command (get down for example is my most common) and she will listen and then immediately go back to what she was doing (she will get back on whatever she is not supposed to be on and i will reprimand her again and so on). I want to know if theres a reason and if there’s anything i can do to break that habit so i can teach her to listen the first time and continue doing as shes told. I’ve tried searching for answers but i cant seem to find quite what im looking for. If anyone knows what i should do id be grateful

Hi folks! I hope this is the right place to post this. My dog is wrapping up Canine Good Citizen training, and I’m confident she will pass the CGC evaluation soon. I’d like to take additional classes (either group or private) for the CGC-A or CGC-U, mainly because I plan to take her to indoor pet-friendly areas (like my local mall, Home Depot, etc.) during the summer, and I want her to be well-behaved.

I've asked around, but most trainers seem to only offer CGC training and not the advanced levels. The other classes I’ve found focus on scent work or trick training, which isn’t what I’m looking for.

Does anyone have advice on how I can find a dog trainer willing to work with me toward these goals? I've called a couple of trainers in my area, but so far have been redirected to take rally classes or go on a waitlist until someone can offer those classes.

I have a cockapoo he’s 1 year 5 months. He resource guards me to other dogs, if we go to family’s house with other dogs he will go to bite them if they come near me. He goes to daycare and is very well behaved there, it’s only around me.

I’m nervous now he’ll always be like this he doesn’t resource guard food/toys. I don’t have kids yet but I’m worried when I do he’ll be vicious to sharing me with them, and it would break my heart to not have him with me.

Any advice on how to combat this would be so appreciated. Thanks

Hi, I’ve been visiting Baja Mexico my partner and encountered a stray near my place. She has clearly been malnourished and been very appreciative of food and water daily. We’ve been considering taking the dog back to the states after my stay but I’m not sure she’ll be ready for the long car ride. She’s been following my partner and I around and seemingly happy to sleep in our rental. She walks well is friendly with people and great at house training. The few issues are as follows:

Afraid to get into car. She’s come in for food but leaves right after eating. The problem is that it would be a 30 hr car ride back home in 25 days.

Secondly, she seems to have some resource guarding of my partner and I. Mostly my partner. She walks well nearby many dogs with me but while sitting with my partner and I she will react negatively to approaching dogs.

Lastly, I’m a little concerned that she may not be happy. She mainly sits about on her bed we got for her and suns occasionally. It’s just that when we first fed her the first few times she seemed so happy and would get the zoomies before she ever stayed with us.

I have reached out to local shelters to see if They could offer her assistance but strays are a huge problem here and haven’t heard back yet. Can you offer any advice that may get her comfortable going home with us?

My dog is a black mouth cur mix, about 1.5 years old now, and I’ve had him now for around 9-10 months. He was shy at first, but quickly became an absolute insane torrent of energy and excitement.

He’s jumpy with women and barky with men. He’s thankfully been good with my cats (well, they find him way too crazy and don’t particularly like him but he seems to love and want to play with him), and with dogs is a very mixed bag.

I used to take him to the dog beach and he would have a great time, socializing with other dogs and humans. But recently he’s started to have this thing with certain dogs where if when he’s trying to greet them and they show him any sort of aggression, he goes crazy, barking incessantly and trying to lunge on my leash. He’s never bit a dog before but I’ve obviously never let him greet a dog after he starts doing that. Other times he’s fine — especially when he’s greeting very small dogs, which he seems to love and is pretty gentle with (I think that’s why he likes my cats), or if he’s approached a chill dog that hasn’t stared at him back or not looked at him much. But large dogs he tends to dislike, even if they’re fairly docile, and other dogs he’ll go crazy with if they show him any sort of “back off” body language. And it’s almost always on a leash that I’ve noticed this. I’ve almost never seen him act this way around groups of dogs and he’s weirdly never had an issue at dog parks and beaches with multiple dogs.

It’s kind of gutting for me. I’ve taken him to classes and had a private trainer with mixed success. I think with the initial classes he did better because he didn’t have this weird streak with dog interactions at first, but it could’ve been because the dog of several dogs seemed to make him happy like I mentioned before.

The good thing is he seems pretty smart and he seems to have an aptitude for learning, as he’s well crate-trained, knows a decent amount of commands, and we’ve improved a lot on walks (I’ve trained him to constantly look back at me for treats). He’s also pretty receptive to me when I call for him — usually stopping whatever he’s doing and coming to me.

With the private trainer we worked a lot on relaxation and distraction. The biggest improvement I’ve seen is the aforementioned walking stuff and the getting his attention stuff, but once he goes crazy, I can’t get his attention.

It really bums me out, as I don’t want to be thought of as the person with “the misbehaved, crazy dog” and bothering people, and I want him to succeed. I’ve been trying so hard to keep him from being insane, better with men, and not crazy with other dogs. But we’ll invariably have a freakout, and it really upsets me each time.

I have a very sweet and loving 2.5 year old super mutt. She is Boxer forward in appearance and some behaviors but also has Labrador, Aussie, Great Dane, and American Stratfordshire Terrier at pretty much equal levels.

She excelled at basic puppy training, and is eager to please and just a sweet and loving and fun dog. The behaviors that she has that are difficult to deal with are:

She sometimes will get very whiny on a walk, I think reacting to the sounds of distant dogs barking in the neighborhood. Otherwise she is good on a leash and when she sees an actual dog usually just wags her tail and keeps rolling.

When I take her in the car without her sister dog (not literally sisters, different ages and mixes), she will whine, whine, whine. And cry. And whine.

She will go nuts every time a delivery truck drives down our cul-de-sac. Which is all the time. Is someone rings the bell, she’s full on cujo.

Wound healing is impossible with her. She’s compulsive. Maybe ocd if that is possible in a dog. She has twice broken a nail and the first one thankfully didn’t have to be cut all the way down, but this most recent one did. Cones don’t prevent her from licking. Read that again and take my word for it. Yes I’ve tried a bigger size, yes I’ve probably tried every dang thing you’re doing to suggest and spent a crap ton of money on it. Even with the largest cone that won’t just slide over her head, she is able to reach by placing her paw on the arm of the couch and doing a full body twist (like in yoga) and stretch her neck to lick the paw. I’ve caught her in the act. I’ve tried every type of bandaging, recovery boot, recovery sock, etc and she destroys them the second I leave, and yes, I’ve tried bitter spray. Yeah, I’ve drugged her too. (Trazadone and gabapentin). She’s reopened her wound too many times to count and the vet has run out of ideas for me… she had another injury, to her nipple, that took forever to heal for the same reason, compulsive licking and reinjuring.

She will bark for attention and really feeds off my other dog, who is much calmer but also feeds off her. They both are okay on a walk individually, but together, they can be very difficult. She gets the zoomies but I don’t consider that a challenge just a data point. She is so anxious that I can’t board her because the last time I did, for 6 days, she lost 10 pounds (like 20% of her body weight). She is just a neurotic shaking mess when boarding.

She used to get such separation anxiety that she destroyed my couch. She’s better now, but I telework mostly.

She’s calmed down a lot, but is still just a bit of an anxious ball of energy.

We do play a lot and walk her and try to get her energy out but she does seem to have boundless energy at times.

I would love help with defining the problem so that I can get the right training (I thought her issue was reactivity but then when I looked at the behaviors described, they didn’t match). Also if anyone has experience or thoughts on Prozac for dogs…

I have 0 knowledge in dog training and want to be a dog trainer. Is "Power of Positive Dog Training" by Pat Miller a good book?

I adopted a 4 year old male BernieDoodle mix. He’s about 75 pounds and very sweet tempered. He’s been with me for about 6 months and seems adjusted, happy and well behaved. However, in that 6 months he’s had 2 biting/nipping incidents. The first time was with a person doing work in the house. We kept the dog separated but he was aware and anxious. When he had the chance, he nipped. The second time was with the groomer. It was the groomer he had been going to, so not new. Something must have instigated anxiety, but the groomer said it was from trying to harness him for the trim. I would appreciate any advice or ideas to thwart this behavior. He shows no signs of aggression and is incredibly affectionate. Although, I don’t want to risk taking him out in public

We will be moving and have a Keeshond and Pyrenees (she is very small for her breed- about 70lbs). They bark a lot at outside noises which doesn’t bother us but will definitely bother our neighbors. We are worried about not being able to find a house and will have to settle for an apartment. Has anyone moved into an apartment for the first time with their dogs? If so, how did you acclimate them?

Thanks!!

***THIS FIRST BIT IS BACK STORY, I WILL HAVE BULLET POINTS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MAIN THINGS I NEED HELP WITH***
So pretty much I'm still in high school, and my parent wants to get rid of my dog we have had since he was a baby because recently he has been having accidents and today specifically he pooped and peed inside the kitchen. He is a 6 years old toy poodle who is honestly not very well trained. He knows to go to the bathroom outside (clearly not fully) and thats about it. My parent told me that their friend would be willing to take him in about a month, and said the only way I can stop it is if I train him to be better. This dog has gotten me through many tough times and I love him, so I'm going to try my best to make sure he's at least more well behaved by the end of the month.

Here is the list of things I want to teach
- He already knows potty training, but to engrain in him more not to go to the bathroom inside (about an even split on traits from a bored dog and an anxious dog so I'm not sure what to go off of).
- Have him listen, He doesn't stay off furniture or out of the kitchen no matter how many times we tell him
- Useful resources to research more on these subjects

After going through the guide a good chunk of my questions have been answered but I still have a couple

I'm willing to go above and beyond to remedy the lack of training we have done. Thank you to anyone who can help, it means a lot!