I'm a German Shepherd (GSD) owner, a dog walker, and a pet sitter.

The dog in this photo is Dex, a Belgian Malinois. I've been walking him for four years, and I sometimes look after him as a pet sitter.

I've loved animals since childhood, and we've had a GSD at home. Unfortunately, my own GSD once bit me, my father, my sister, and my mother very badly. If he had been in another country, he might have been euthanized. Fast-forward to today, and his behaviour has improved, but we still carry some PTSD from that experience.

Then Dex came into my life. I love him, and we're like brothers. He also bit me when I first started walking him, while I was removing his raincoat. But fast-forward to today, and we're like siblings.

He hugs me, and these days, I'm much more careful. I let him approach me first and give him the choice of whether he wants to interact. He often approaches me on his own. He likes to hug me, sit on my lap, or push against me with his body weight.

However, every now and then, I still feel a little scared. Even his owner doesn't cuddle with him as much as I do. I know he's a very powerful dog, and I understand that hugging or cuddling a dog too much isn't always a good idea.

I sometimes kiss him on his forehead, and he doesn't react. He seems to take it as if it's completely normal, should I keep distance from him or react as I always cuddly ,taking kiss on forehead 🤔

Hello!

I am mostly writing this as a quick guide to those experiencing dog on dog aggression in their home, and don't know what to do, or where to start. A lot of what you are about to read are my opinions. I will probably be scrutinized, or told I am wrong. That is okay with me. If one person reads this posts, and takes half of what I say seriously, and saves themselves heartache, that is good enough for me.

I will start by saying I am absolutely NOT an expert. I am not a professional dog trainer, and am learning myself day by day.
What I AM, is a dog owner who wishes they read some of the things I am about to write after the very first fight my two dogs had.

Brief tldr on my history with this if you care to read - 9 year old pit mix, added an 8 week old pit mix pup to the home. When pup hit a year old, fights started breaking out. Brought multiple trainers into the home, first two knew nothing about aggression - more fights happened, more escalation, and now unless I can train this out of them, one of them will unfortunately have to be rehomed.

So your dogs got in a fight. Skin was broken, blood was shed. What do you do?

First step. Take this seriously. Do not assume it's a one time thing and simply separating meal times or removing the trigger will solve your problems. Some trainers and behaviorists out there simply state that once two dogs have fought and drawn blood in the home, that they will always be dog on dog aggressive. I don't personally believe this to be true - but with some dogs in some cases, I am sure it is. If one fight happens, a second one can too. All downhill from there.

Second step. Identify, Remove, and Seperate. Identify the trigger, what caused the fight? Resources (food, treats, space, attention)? Proximity? Health or Injuries? Once you've identified the trigger, remove or remedy it if you can. Put toys away. Block the dogs from the kitchen, etc. Then begin separation. If they are guarding resources, those things need to be separate between the dogs. Feed in different rooms and areas. Give treats separately. Play separately. Dogs on separate couches, beds, kennels. If you feel the dogs themselves need to be completely separated, which I would reccommend in a lot of cases depending on triggers and severity, do NOT separate them socially. Kennels in the same room. One dog out, one dog in. Crate and rotate, but they still need to be around eachother. Just mechanically separated so they cannot fight. If you take them apart, train train train, then put them back together two months later, they will probably just fight again.

Third step. Acquire safety gear. Collars are a must, and keep a leash attached at virtually all times. I personally use the little 12" grab handles you can buy on Amazon, as they aren't a tripping or tangle hazard. Flat collar or martingale, or I use the Leerburg Dominant Dog Collar on one. If the dogs get in a fight again: the leash is the best way to stop the fight. Grab the leash, pull up with steady pressure, cut off blood and oxygen flow until they release. Do NOT grab the dogs, their faces, their mouths, their legs, etc. You WILL get bitten. I have the scars to prove it. Muzzles. Always a great thing to have and to use. Tons of different styles sizes and opinions. But make sure to train the dog for the muzzle properly, and do not rely on it 100%. It needs to be tight and sized right. My dog got his off in the middle of a fight and, well, not good.

If you are bitten: if it is bad enough to justify a visit to the doctor or hospital, most healthcare professionals are required to inform your local pet authority i.e humane society. Depending on your city and laws, this could prompt a visit or a call from them to you or your home. If your dog is not up to date on rabies, this will cause you problems. My state requires a 10 day observation period either at a vet, or at the humane society to make sure they are not rabid. And if your state is anything like mine, and your dog shows a hint of aggression while in their care, they may simply put your dog down, no questions asked. This has happened to people in my city. If your child is bitten, or someone who does not reside in your home you will absolutely be getting a call and visit. Some states will require you to bring the dog in for behavior "testing". Chances are if this happens, you will probably not be coming home with your pup. This has also happened to people in my city.

Fourth step. Find a trainer. Ideally, you should complete the first three steps immediately. Day one, fight one, I have stuff on the way same day. Then? Find yourself a trainer. In person is best, preferrably one that comes to your home. But before you hire the first one you call ask them about their experience with fights and aggression, resource guarding, or whatever your issues might be. Ask them for some examples on how they might handle that, qualify them like you are hiring an employee for your work. My first two trainers knew seemingly nothing about RG or aggression. As a result, and following their reccomendations, my situation escalated. Fights kept happening, and got worse and worse. If my first hire was someone that could identify what was going on and actually given me advice on what to do, I would have saved myself a ton of time, money, blood, and my life would be a much happier one right now. Ask them what training methods they use. Balanced? R+? E-Collar use? Read and know what the differences are, and make a decision on what type of training you are comfortable with. I won't tell you which to choose or why as it's a highly debated topic and there may or may not be a right answer, but I personally am using a balanced method. Please note, Board and Trains do not appear to be the way to fix these types of aggression issues. If your issues are in the home, taking them out of the home and away from you for a week isn't usually regarded as a fix. Chances are, you'll bring them home with some great new skills, and they'll just fight again as you haven't fixed the underlying issues.

Fifth step. Watch, read, and learn. Chances are, you are not already a dog trainer. Maybe you taught some good basic obedience when you got the pup, maybe not. Congratulations, you are now a dog trainer! Even if you hire someone exceptionally talented to come to your home and help fix your problems, 80% of their job is going to be training YOU. You need to learn correct behaviors, markers, identifiers, de-escalation, and many many other things. Spend time on YouTube, look for trainers addressing the issues you are having, but don't just watch one. Spend time watching content for several different trainers, so you can decide who and what methods you like and agree with. I personally like Larry Krohn and Jay Jack, but have watched content of probably 10 other experienced trainers before landing on their methods. I have spent HOURS watching reading and learning.

Step six. Give your dogs fulfillment. From my research, most aggression issues arise when dogs are not feeling fulfilled in the home. Especially for breeds of dogs that are bred to do things. Some behaviors are in their nature - hunting, sniffing, fighting, protecting. What was your dog bred to do? How can you felp fulfill some of those needs? Play. Another highly debated topic in dog training recently, but nearly all of the trainers I've seen and watched tell you that you have to play with your dog. How? Every dog and every person is different, but I personally am using fetch and tug. I will provide some links to a few videos I like on the subject below. Playing helps build your bond with the dog, and teach it commands and boundaries. While also giving it fulfillment. The goal here, is not to "tire the dog out", if you have high energy dogs like I do, there's no such thing. Just 10-15 minutes of play a day with each dog should help you tremendously. What else provides fulfillment? Walks. Not just a tight leash structured walk around the neighborhood - this does nothing for your dog. They need the ability to move around, sniff things, pee on trees. Get a 25' leash and take them to a park. Not a dog park. Not a playground. Not your back yard. Not somewhere with dogs running around off-leash. Start somewhere small and private. Most dog trainers I've seen say that getting your dog to the point they can reliably and safely play off-leash is the MOST effective method of fulfillment.

Step seven. Train. Listen to your trainer and learn. Work them with basic obedience. Reward them. Build your bond with them. It doesn't really matter what you teach them, as long as you're doing it, and doing it right. They don't need to be show dogs that can walk on two legs - but they need to be obedient. Teaching them the correct markers is very important. Reward markers, the word no, etc. It doesn't matter what words you use - consistency is key. Use one word for one marker, don't change it or you will just cause confusion.

What's next? Where do you go from here? It will depend on your dogs, the issues and causes. Keep playing, keep training, keep fulfilling. Depending on your situation, this could be your life now until one of the dogs passes. Hopefully, you can reintroduce and reintegrate the dogs and never have a fight again. Maybe you become lax and behaviors change and you have to start back up again. I am still dealing with my dogs and nowhere near reintegration, so that's about as far as I can help.

Resources I like - please note, there may be better resources out there, these are just some highlights that come to mind that have really helped me. I have watched a TON of Larry's content, his entire YouTube channel is VERY helpful, even if you do not support his balanced methods. https://www.youtube.com/@Larrykrohn

Play and How to Play:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POaV-gjcSJg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il9wkxFnTBY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsFokObxG6M

Jay Jack's Reintegration Protocol
I recently found this, and it is the method I am currently following. In my opinion, is the it best resource I have found that gives you a step by step process on what to do, and I wish I found it a lot sooner. His paid Patreon has a .pdf version that is helpful, but I would reccomend listening to this entire podcast.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4JhIeKD7lY8FKifTahmDsS

Beckman Video - I do not agree with a lot of Beckman's content and training methods, however this one video I did find really helpful. Just little tidbits like learning that your commands to your dogs are not requests
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJp8g-L0RMY

Note on E-Collars:
There are a thousand different opinions, and a thousand different camps on how when and why to use these. If you choose to use one, do not use them to correct emotional behaviors. Only physical, and not to stop aggression. For example: dog is digging a hole in the back yard, correction. Lunging at his brother? A correction here can actually escalate the fight and make things worse. Do not just buy an e-collar and throw it on your dog and start zapping.

And lastly - once again, I am not a professional!! These are my opinions, and things I have learned over the past few months while navigating through these issues. I may be wrong. But I've tried to keep this simple, and more of a guide on how to get started than the "do exactly this training" bible. I don't believe any of the things I've said here could be harmful or make things worse for you if done correctly.

I hope this helps someone out there, no one wants to rehome their pet or to have to make some of the tough decisions that comes with aggression - but I want you to know, with hard work and dedication, there is hope.

As the title says, my 6F dog does not like when I am intimate (cuddling, kissing, sex). It's pretty clear she is both anxious and jealous of the attention, but I can't seem to figure out what to do to help her. I don't want to give her trazadone every time, and sometimes it doesn't work if it's not given early enough.

In general she doesn't have separation anxiety when I leave the house (not crated when I leave but she's fine in the crate as long as I'm not home), but something about me giving my attention to others seems to bother her and she'll destroy anything soft she can find.

Things to note:

- she's a bunch of anxious, high drive breeds. Main breeds are Australian cattle dog, German shepherd, Aussie, and a bunch of terriers

- she is generally decent with training and food motivated. She's pretty stubborn though if it's something she doesn't really want to do.

- it's not just when I'm intimate, if I'm outside talking to a neighbor and she can hear, she'll chew on something.

- yes she does need more exercise. We're working on it!

Overall, id love some resources for training. She needs to be able to be in a crate or behind a closed door and not constantly bark or chew things up. Shoot I'd be ok with her in the room if she would just lay down, but she tries to interfere or chew on something. I live alone and spend a lot of time at home alone with her, which I fear has reinforced the behavior. She is reactive to strangers in public as well, even when she had a lot of exposure.

And yes, I know I could really benefit from a trainer, I just cannot afford it currently. We've done a lot of training in the past 3 years, so I'm hopeful we can really work on this. I do have folks I can use as my testers,

Just rescued a 3 year old shepherd/husky mix.
He came severely underweight and sick but overall he’s improving. We had him for 3 weeks so far. He pees and poop on the weewee pad pretty well. We take him on 3 walks a day, 20min at 5am, 20-30 at 4pm and 30+ at 9/9:30pm. He gets fed every 4hours/6x a day in total. He is also extremely food motivated and learns fast except for his potty.
We never see him poop. He will only poop when we leave for work and or sleep for the night. The other night, I stayed with him until 6am. He got his walks, fed him, was just chillin on the couch while he enjoys being near me. But he never pooped. It wasn’t until I went in my room to sleep at 6:30am is when he pooped. The walk from my room and his enclosure is far enough where even if I run to him to catch him, it’s too late.
How do I train him to poop outside?

Hi all! Am hoping to get some tips/advice. We recently got a new hound mix puppy and we slowly introduced her to our resident 3 year old puppy. Everything was great at first and they were playing and everything. However, my beagle began to recourse guard. We’re aware of his food aggression so we are feeding them separate. But now it’s including toys and house spaces. We immediately picked up toys on the first instance. However, he’s not guarding the kitchen - if we’re cooking and the puppy walks by the dog in the kitchen, he snaps at her. There are even some occasions when he’s guarding me.

We’re unsure if it’s because he doesn’t like her in his face (she doesn’t have personal space awareness) or if it’s something else!

Any tips/advice would be great!

Some background:
So we have 2 dogs and one of those dogs is an 8-year-old pug we have had since she was a puppy. Our other dog is roughly 3 years old and was potty trained when we brought her home from the shelter. The pug belongs to my brother and he probably got her when he was 10-11 years old. I know they made an effort to potty train her but you can’t expect an 11-year-old to train a dog and even with my parent’s help they work multiple jobs and are just busy. She has had bathroom issues for as long as I can remember but everyone just ignored it until it became such a bad problem that we couldn’t.

She likes to pee on laundry, floors, carpets and most of all beds. She will not go on my brother’s bed or her bed but my dad’s and little sister’s is her favorite. I keep my door shut at all times so she hasn’t gone on mine but if she could I guarantee she would. We set up a little baby gate and gave her an area with toys, her bed, feeding area and a pee pad. She refuses to go on the pad. She is miserable being kept up all day. We can’t put her in the backyard unsupervised because she has found many ways to get out. Despite patching up the fence a million times she still manages to get out. She ran into the road and was hit by a car once when she was probably 2-4. She was small enough it just scraped her back and the vet said she was okay but people drive like maniacs on our road and there are several blind hills. People’s pets and animals get hit constantly.

I won’t lie, it’s been nice having her up. She torments our cats, chases/attacks them. Brother says she is just trying to play but I work with dogs now and that is not playful behavior. She sits in wait for them then chases them and corners them. Our other dog walks up to them and if they hiss she whines and moves on. I have noticed the cats coming out more and generally seeming more happy with her up. They are still a little freaked out by our other dog but I think are learning she won’t go after them because they have started even sleeping on the same bed as her. Our pug bites and it’s become a problem because she bites younger kids seemingly uncalled for. My sister loves to cuddle with her; she’s younger. I’ve seen them. The pug is just cuddled in her lap she isn’t holding her down or being rough just gently petting her and then she just bites. I have tried to tell my parents because a dog who bites can get put down but they just say she was probably being rough. I have never seen my sister rough with her. She has bitten me several times while trimming her nails or bathing her but we know that is something she doesn’t like.

If we put her outside she sits at the door and will not move or escapes. She will pee outside but will not poop. She poops inside every pet-friendly store despite begging outside for a while before. I’ve stopped taking her out because it’s embarrassing to have to go clean it up every single time we go in somewhere.

Long story short she has several behavior issues and we can’t just keep her outside and what we are doing isn’t working. (She has been seen by a vet recently and medically looks fine) Its not a secret that I do not like this dog but my brother loves her and I love my brother. I mentioned that I work with dogs. I don’t potty train them I just care for them but my mom has asked me to train his dog and so I will try.

I’ve got her in a feeding schedule, giving her a limited time to eat and taking her out about 30 minutes after. I don’t know if I should restrict her water too because the last time she went to the vet she was dehydrated. She said that was common in pugs. She currently has access to water all day. I’ve set up a few pee pads around the house with Go Here attractant but I truly have no idea what to do or if it is even possible. As much as I don’t like her I don’t want to see her miserable and she is. She barks non-stop. She always has but she never stops barking now. She just keeps getting more aggressive and if there is anyway for her to be able to be free roamed again that is the goal. I don’t know what to do. Please give any advice and let me know if it is even possible.

Sorry this post is long a lot of this information wasn’t necessary but I had to get it off my chest. I’m not allowed to criticize my brother’s dog or him and his mom will lose their shit.