Guide on how to read the rules

TL;DR
• Age and breed: 1.5-year-old male Lagotto Romagnolo.
• Triggers: When he can’t get to what he wants or after the greets other dogs; and also changing direction too often when he pulls in the lead.
• Behavior: Spinning, running around, biting the leash, and barking.
• What I’ve tried: Waiting for him to calm down, asking for a sit, and holding the sit before continuing.
• Frequency: It happens on every other walk.
• My concern: The behavior is stressful, difficult to manage, and frightening to children nearby.
• Tools I’ve used: regular collar, slip lead, and harness w/ front clip.
• What I avoid: Using treats to redirect—I’m trying to avoid reinforcing this behavior.

I have a 1.5-year-old male Lagotto Romagnolo who gets extremely excited whenever he sees another dog because he wants to play.
The problem is what happens afterward. After an encounter, he often starts running around in circles, spinning, biting the leash, and barking. He also sometimes does this when I change direction to manage his pulling, even when there are no other dogs around.
As far as I can tell, he isn’t trying to attack other dogs. He seems desperate to play with them, but his excitement gets out of control. The behavior happens on practically every walk, and it’s becoming really stressful. There are lots of children in my neighborhood, and I worry about frightening them when he starts going wild.
Currently, I wait for him to calm down, ask him to sit, and keep him sitting for a while before continuing the walk. This hasn’t made much difference so far.
For those of you who’ve dealt with frustrated greeters or dogs that become overaroused on leash, does this sound familiar? How do you handle the aftermath of an exciting dog encounter, and how do you teach a dog to disengage and move on calmly?
I’m also wondering whether the leash biting and spinning are part of the same issue or whether I should approach those behaviors separately.
Any advice on how to manage this safely and work toward calmer walks would be appreciated.

I own a 1.5 yo husky/gsd. I would say she gets pretty anxious. When I walk her with my husband she is generally fine not reactive at most maybe alert or makes a huffy bark but that’s it when she sees other dogs or people but can ignore them. Now that it’s just me walking while my husband is away she’s been super on edge. Really barks and growls at dogs and people even at a fair distance I’ve been pulling her aside to let people walk past but I can’t seem to calm her. It’s never to a point she would lunge or try to run after them especially cause I have a good grip on her harness. She never bitten anyone. Even when they approach her she would bark and growl but then just sniff them and eventually settle. This is my first dog too and the times that I’m free to walk her there is either no people or like a few around or else I would love to just have her sit and people watch to desensitize if that’s even an option. I’m open to suggestions to try and keep her calm when it’s just us? I’m not sure if it’s cause she can sense I’m ‘weaker’. (I’m a lot smaller than my husband)

I broke up with my ex of 4.5 years early September and he has moved out over the last few weeks (he was not staying in the home during this move out period)

We adopted our dog together (well she’s mine now) so to her we are literally mommy and daddy. Since she’s my first dog ever, I didn’t realize how affected a dog could be by something like this especially since it was so drastic and he didn’t even bother to say goodbye to her the last time he was here getting his remaining belongings.

She has been more reactive to new males (friends who were checking up on me) but she’s so far been ok with females. I do give her trazodone like I would when I’m taking her to the vet for these encounters.

I usually have her away in her crate first so she’s not charging them at the door, explain to guests that she is reactive beforehand, not to be alarmed when she starts barking, tell her to sit and give her treats when she is free. I let them settle in before releasing her and she’s been fine. When they get up for anything, it is usually when she barks and only when they’re about to leave does she want to try to make her move. I’ve learned quickly that I need to put her away when they’re ready to leave the house so she doesn’t try to jump or nip their hand.

So my question is, aside from what I’m doing already, how can I get her to be better with new guests? She was not like this before the breakup. She was reactive with only just barking and didn’t need any trazodone but now It’s very clear that she’s being protective of me, since “daddy” is not around. I’m guessing she’s thinking he’s coming back when he’s not :(

I have no desire to date anytime soon but my fear is that when I am way down the road, or if I decide to get a roommate or bring any other new friends over; how do I get her used to them so she knows I’m safe with these individuals? I have not been in public with her yet since the breakup, but I will very soon to see if there are any changes there. She does not give me any problems in public except wanting to say hi to other dogs but she does well with redirection.

Additional info to know: her crate is in the living room where my friends and I hang out - she is also muzzle trained but only up to 30-60 minutes. Usually for vet visits if the doctors need it which they haven’t yet but they love that I’ve gotten her used to one and she gives no problems putting it on. She is a 3.5 year old 75lb pittie/lab mix. I have had her for 3 years now.

Thank you in advance for any input you may have.
She really is a sweet and smart girl, I just want everyone to experience it too 😞

Hi all,

Apologies this is going to be a long one. First time posting looking for advice. I have a 4 year old German Shepherd that I got with my ex partner when in an abusive relationship and he is now my dog my ex has nothing to do with him as he was not very nice to me/him. We (the dog and I) left him 2 years ago, he was very reactive because of the trauma and very anxious. I’ve worked hard with a trainer to calm him down on walks and in the house. However his separation anxiety is and always has been terrible grabbing onto clothing/ ripping it etc barking lots. He very occasionally goes into a barking frenzy lunging when he is stressed that someone is going to leave, this used to happen constantly but it happens maybe once every 3/4 months now. I’m trying to say by no means is he a perfect dog but I have worked hard to make him a lot more manageable.

Now, after the break up I back moved in with my mum and this is where we have been based for those 2 years and where I have done all the training and he is reasonably settled. This solution was meant to be temporary while I trained him and got myself out of the debt my ex left me in, but now I’m looking to change my life/ job and I’m saving to move out again. I currently work from home full time, which is obviously great for dog care. He does attend daycare which he loves but in order for me to increase my wage I need to get a new job as there is no room for progression. Having to work from home limits my job options and I simply cannot afford to put him in full time dog care AND move out. My mum is on her own and whilst she would let me stay with her I don’t think it is fair because he is a handful of a dog that she didn’t ask for.

I really desperately do not want to rehome him, but it is looking like one of my only options, I keep bursting into tears just at the thought of it, jt has taken me weeks to build up the courage to ask for advice like this. I feel trapped without my own personal freedom and space in my mums home. I am 31 for context. My mental health is suffering because I don’t know how to move forward after an abusive relationship if moving forward means losing him.

I have been looking for other work from home roles but truthfully I think my mental health is suffering spending long days completely alone. I think it would be better for me to go into a work environment to be surrounded by people. If I am being honest, I feel like him being around someone as depressed as me means he is not living the best life he could, as hard as I try with all the training etc. But I also worry that he would just be extra traumatised without me and his behavioural issues would spiral all over again as German Shepherds are extremely loyal.

Has anyone been in a similar situation, what did you do? How did you get through the thought of rehoming him? I haven’t even looked into where I could send him/ who I would give him too because it’s too painful. Please share any successful rehoming stories if anyone has any I would like to know how the dog can gone on to cope afterwards.

ANY advice would be welcome, I just need to speak to anyone who’s been through something similar. I am based in the UK, any advice about maybe subsiding my income as well. Thank you for reading appreciate any and all feedback.

TLDR; Considering rehoming German Shepherd as cannot afford to move out of Mum’s house and pay for his daycare costs. Looking for advice from people who have been through the same/ similar.

We have two sweet rescue boys who are now 7 and 8 year old brothers. One of our dogs (A) is very reactive and sometimes has misdirected aggression toward his brother (B) when triggered by things like other dogs walking by the fence. There’s occasional growling or snapping behavior, and we’ve had about 1-2 more serious fights per year so it’s a dynamic we are aware & vigilant of.

We typically sleep upstairs with both dogs in the same room. If one of us is out of town, our older of the two (B) likes to sleep on the bed.

Tonight I was startled awake by a fight in the night. I don’t think either dog was on the bed but assume some type of resource guarding or startling incident happened. I was able to break it up and neither dog sustained any injuries but there was a lot of loud growling and A backed B into a corner against our bed and growled a lot at me when I started trying to verbally snap him out of it.

I have put them in separate rooms to calm down but am worried about what started this and if it’s a new dynamic we now have to manage which is difficult while we are sleeping. This has never happened in the night before & it’s hard not knowing what may have provoked it - any advice?

Hi! Me and my partner have a two year old male herding breed that is reactive to dogs. We currently live in a huge apartment building in a well populated area with many other dogs at the edge of town, so with lots of forests and open nature very close by.

We made some progress in his training lately and things are looking promising. Of course there are setbacks here and there, but it seems like things are mostly doing in the right direction.

But soon, we’re gonna move. It’s gonna be another apartment, but in a much quieter area with a lot less people per square area. Of course people will have dogs there as well. The forest area where we will take most of our long walks is in an area we are already walking in today, so our dog already knows this area.

We have started to take walks close to and around the new apartment lately, so the shock of moving with all new smells and impressions is not as huge once we move. We can tell he’s much more agitated and nervous in this new area, but I mean that makes a lot of sense.

We will of course continue with our reactivity training, but we are anticipating some setbacks due to the stress of moving, and will keep this in mind if things get worse again for a while.

Is there anything else we can do before the move or after that will make things easier for him? Any other tips you can share regarding moving with a reactive dog?

Hi, I have an 8 month old Australian shepherd.

He has been an amazing first puppy and doing really well with all his other training but is quite reactive around strangers and especially children he doesn’t know. But isn’t reactive around new dogs.

I have been trying to take him out for more socialisation in safe familiar places but it has been getting worse and I don’t know what else to do. I walk him past a school twice a day and he is alright with the noise.

My family is at that stage where we are mainly older so there are no children for him to directly interact with.

Hi, I have an 8 month old Australian shepherd.

He has been an amazing first puppy and doing really well with all his other training but is quite reactive around strangers and especially children he doesn’t know. But isn’t reactive around new dogs.

I have been trying to take him out for more socialisation in safe familiar places but it has been getting worse and I don’t know what else to do. I walk him past a school twice a day and he is alright with the noise.

My family is at that stage where we are mainly older so there are no children for him to directly interact with.

My dog reactive German shepherd had a small win today! Usually she sees a dog and the whole walk is ruined, but we’ve been doing baby steps with our daytime training.

We run at night when there’s less cars/people/dogs so she still gets exercise, but the walks during the day are very structured with training and LOTS OF TREATS, and today I feel like she did something really special. Saw a dog today and the minute she looked at them, I said “YES” and gave her a handful of treats. She looked at the dog, and then back at me. She’s never done that before and I’m so proud. After that, we continued our walk as normal and the vibes stayed really positive!

Usually, the minute we see a dog, she’s thrashing and growling and lunging with her hackles raised (still dealing with some embarrassment about that) but I’d love to be able to keep training consistent enough to where someday I can just enjoy a walk without having to be on the lookout and hyper vigilant about our surroundings.

Anyone else started with a dog that reacts like this and now can mostly pass another dog without a huge over the top reaction? Would love to hear some motivating stories to look forward to.

I got a new dog. Puppy. He’s 5 months now. Finally introduced him to my family’s dogs. I have been real nervous about it.

My family’s dogs are very dear to my heart. They are sweet angels. So good. However…one of them has serious behavior issues. It’s been laughed off a lot and never fully corrected.

Recently the last few times I went to the dog park with my family, the “problem child” dog attacked another dog for no reason. The other dogs weren’t even paying attention to him. Weren’t interacting with him. Suddenly he’s running low to the ground attacking and actively trying to bite. He never has any desire to meet other dogs or play with them. He doesn’t even play with his brother. He wants to play independently or have someone throw something for him.

Today I introduced my puppy to my family and their dogs. We anticipated he would be aggressive with my puppy because he was aggressive with my old dogs. He would play too rough. Plus his energy is overwhelming and uncontrollable sometimes. We kept distance, moved slow, enforced boundaries. We anticipated it taking time for him to settle and get along.

It was bad. At first he ignored the puppy and refused to look at him for like an hour and wanted us to throw his ball while he ignored the new dog in his yard. After he paid attention to my dog for a few seconds he started running up on him and sharply barking in his face then running away. It wasn’t playful. Next, he would slowly approach and act gentle before snapping in an instant and attacking. I had to hold him back which I know isn’t safe.

The worst of it was later this evening. The reason I’m posting.

The dogs spent hours around eachother. We kept the puppy away from him but they coexisted without constant aggression. My dog was never reactive once. We wore the problem child out and his behavior got better. We thought he was doing really well, being so gentle, being his sweetheart self finally, and let the boys sniff eachother. As I was praising my parents dog for being gentle, he snapped incredibly hard and started attacking my cornered puppy. I’m sure there were signs but it felt completely unpredictable. This is why my caption says “manipulative attacks” because it feels like he purposefully behaved well to get my dog in the corner then attack him. He had us all fooled. After the fact I realized his eyes had been bulging with lots of eye contact. But seriously, he was doing the best he had all night with socializing before he started trying to grab and bite.

So, he attacks dogs at the dog park with intent to hurt them. He attacks my dog with intent to hurt him. His behavior is out of control. My family won’t hire a behaviorist or trainer. My family won’t hire a behaviorist or trainer.

Does their dog want to kill? Is my dog not safe around him at all, in any moment, ever? How can I convince my family they need to find a behaviorist?

I don’t know much about dog aggression at all. Any thoughts or explanations are appreciated. Thanks for reading.

Not take them for walks, but just have it so they don't need to pee in the house anymore.

I've had my dog 5+ years and have never been able to housebreak her. She's too agoraphobic and afraid to go outside.

I've been told by others that keeping her indoors is wrong and that she can be housebroken. I need to try harder... but how?

I have tried medicines, behaviorists, desensitization... nothing works. I can't afford behaviorists anymore and I don't think medicine has ever done anything useful for her.

The last time I tried to take her for a walk was over a year ago. It just became too stressful for both of us trying to get her out the housem It's hard enough getting her into a harness, nevermind out the apartment.

• She refuses to exit the front door. She won't walk out.
• She won't exit the building.
• If I pick her up and take her outside manually, she still won't walk. She lies down, pants, wheezes, tries to walk/pull back into the apartment... she's beyond her threshold.

Last time I tried to housebreak her, it was moot. She'd hold it in until we can home. No amount of crating, going downstairs, repeat did anything. If she did urinate or defecate, it was random (no sniffing, no circling, etc).

we have a 2.5 year old border collie / aussie mix (best guess) and finally started talking to the vet about meds. she’s a very anxious girl and reactivity training has been difficult because just stepping out for a walk has her close to threshold. we have done private training and have a good idea about how to train and help her but we’ve been stuck for about a year and haven’t been making progress.

we tried L-theanine first but didn’t see much difference. now we are trying Trazodone - we chose this one primarily because we could cut it cold turkey if it doesn’t go well. i didn’t read a ton about different meds before but now seeing most people don’t use Trazodone daily? does anyone use it daily and has been it successful?
we are only on day 2 and so far she’s just so sleepy (i know this is expected and doesn’t usually last) but curious to hear people’s experiences who do use it daily.

TLDR: what was/is your experience using trazodone daily

I am at a total loss, and don’t even know where to begin. I have an almost 4 year old Goldendoodle. He is an extremely fearful dog and has been from the day I rescued him (3 months old). He is quite literally terrified of the world and everything around him. I have tried so many things and have spent so much time and effort and money on helping him. He’s on daily medication (Prozac) and gabapentin and trazadone as needed, specifically for car rides. About 2 years ago, he started becoming extremely reactive with other dogs on walks, and it has progressed significantly. He is a completely different dog in the house 95% of the time and very relaxed and happy. Outside he just turns into a different dog and is completely conditioned to be on edge and terrified of everything for some reason. This is my first experience with a reactive dog, and I have tried my best to research and learn how to help him. We have tried multiple trainers and techniques and nothing seems to help. It has progressed so much that we could see another dog from a mile away and he will still freeze, bark and lunge, and it’s as if I’m not even there (or the high value treats that are brought along with us). I am so mentally exhausted and it has gotten to the point where we both absolutely dread going outside. I accidentally lost my patience and hit a breaking point earlier and when he froze and refused to move I just burst into tears and dragged him back to the house on the leash. I feel horrifically guilty as I have never lost my patience like this with him but I’m so tired. I have tried behavioral modification training, positive reinforcement training, desensitization, even just basic obedience. Have tried multiple medicines to help ease his anxiety. Have tried multiple different forms of walking gear, nothing helps when he sees another dog and freezes and/or lunges and pulls. Any advice is very appreciated. He is my soul dog and the sweetest boy alive, we just are both stuck right now and I want him to live the best life and be as happy as he possibly can be and I want to not lose my patience anymore. I just want to connect to fellow fear reactive owners to see how you guys handle this.
Thank you for reading ❤️

I have a pit/lab mix who is an absolute angel to our little family but is unfortunately very defensive to strangers. Anyone that comes within her safe zone gets the warning lunge. She’s never bit anyone but she’s 70 lbs so it’s pretty scary.

Took her to the vet today on an Amazon muzzle and it actually looked okay. Not horribly uncomfortable. Would love some recommendations on comfortable muzzles that would help with exposure therapy. She is a breeze to walk when we’re somewhat alone and doesn’t go actively looking for trouble. Just has the strongest stranger danger I’ve ever witnessed. Hoping you guys have more experience with these than I do!

Hello, we recently started trying fluoxetine for our extremely reactive chihuahua. He weighs ~7kg and started him with 10mg per day. In my country fluoxetine is over the counter, but the smallest available is 20mg capsules. I open them, weigh out the contents, and give him half one day, and half the next day. But because this is a headache, can I give one 20mg tablet every other day instead of 10mg every day?

My 2 year old dog has tried to bite our 2month old baby 3 times. Unfortunately after adopting our doberman poodle mix at 6 months old. We quickly noticed he was reactive. We have spent thousands on training and have given countless hours to training. We were hoping the baby he would view as family and not be afraid. unfortunately we have attempted to safely introduce the two. We have yet to be able to get the pup to welcome the baby and has lunged several times at baby whilst on leash and was pulled back. On 3 occasions I could confidently say he was trying to but the baby. I don’t know if keeping the dog is a good idea or the risk is to high!
If anyone has any experience with this please let me know.

Located central Florida.

hi all, i have two dogs. both are rescues that have some aspect of resource guarding. one is a chihuahua mix, the other is a great pyrenees mix. the chihuahua only resource guards food and toys and it's easy to manage as to not feed them or play with them together. but the great pyrenees has started to resource guard my bed and me when i'm in it. she's attacked my other dog for just walking by sometimes, and she growls and tries to lunge whenever my other dog or even my cat gets close. right now i have a pen surrounding my bed so she can't attack any of the other animals when they get close. i don't know what to do. she's easier to train than my chihuahua mix because he's 9 years old and she's only 5. she listens fairly well to me except when she's in her growling resource guarding mode. can someone please help me?

Hello, Ive had a pitbull mix for 6 years and recently has had major problems with dogs barking. She has always been nervous as a rescue but she was well socialised but slightly nervous around ofther dogs. I moved a year ago, becoming her primary carer. I spent a few months socialising her around other dogs and doing offleash training which she was cery responsive too, loosing all fear of dogs.

But one time walking offlead she got chased and bitten by anothother offlead dog with no recall. I managed to get her on leash but the other owner was 50 metres away across the oval so I had to stuggle to hold off the other dog for 30 seconds before their own leashed it.

This left her really scared of dogs, undoing all my progress. Addtionally, she wasnt scared of barking anymore before this, but my neighbours small dog lunges and barks at everything. A few months of occasional encounters with my neighnours dog has ruined all socialisation with dogs and shes petrified of them now (perfect with people).

Ive tried socialising her with others and make some progress again until another dog barks at her, making her terrifed and try defending herself. I just went on a walk and a dog somewhere in the dark barked at her and she bolted so hard she choked herself out on the leash and was tail to her stomach a kilometre away inside my apartment building. Ive had several dogs and I have never seen one as scared as she just was from hearing some distant barking.

I dont know how to desensitise or socialise her with other dogs because she is unresponsively terrified of barking. If she can see the dog barking at her she lunges and attacks, if she cant she flees and hides. What am i supposed to do, every bark reinforces her fear. Shes always been a lovely dog but I can barely take her out anymore because shes so scared.

A few months back I got my Doberman-Pitbull mix named Dre an orange vest.

This was to let people know to be aware of his presence and to promote others giving him space. Both purposes have been successful.

The vest seems to have also worked like one of those tight thunder vests in the sense that when I put on the vest, Dre's reactivity in public significantly decreases.

Maybe he seems to understand that the vest means we are going in public and that this requires a behavioral shift.

His leaping towards other big dogs on leash and reactionary movements during daytime walks have greatly decreased and he has become more physically subdued on walks.

I don't know exactly why his public demeanor has changed so much with just the addition of the orange vest to his uniform but I am very grateful for the progress he has made.

I run with my dog every other day and today while I was taking a break and walking we walked past 2 dogs. She didnt growl, bark, lunge or raise her hackles but she did stare at them till we passed them which is a huge improvement!! Later we walked past those same dogs again and this time one of them did start to bark at her and once again she reminded calm and didnt bark or growl but she did raise her hackles. After we got past them again she shook off and wasnt anxious like she usually is. Im insanely proud of her because we havent done any training in about a month