u/Amaranta_pink_goat

She's not of any particular breed, I didn't buy her and she's not all that well trained. She's 9 months old, 15kg and full of personality. My first very own pet. Very differently educated from all our pets growing up. I'm so proud of her just because she's confident, social and playful. Unlike my parents I was able to educate mine without use of physical punishment. And yes sometimes she doesn't wanna listen when I call her or gets her nose in the trash can, but I'll take that over her complying, cowering and flinching at any sign of anger from me. I like that her tail is never down unless she's sleepy, and how she never rejects new dogs when they're friendly, and how she stands up for herself when they're too pushy or aggressive. I like that a raised hand only makes her think of her cues. I'm the happiest since I got her in my life.

I don't know when my derealization started, but it was extreme for around 10 months when i was 16 (i'm 20 now). I could barely think at all (for this I quit chess and couldn't do homework even when I tried), constantly confused the size and distance of objects, and of course nothing felt real. Used to compare it to playing a VR game. The thing is, even when I got over the most incapacitating aspects of it, I barely ever felt like anything was real. It never fully goes away, and I think it's a big reason of why I struggle to make friends. My question is, has yours actually gone away? Or making it a bit better is all we can aspire to?

My 7 month old puppy moves and talks a lot in dreams, and almost every night she wags her tail, fully asleep. It's super cute and I find it comforting, because even if she still has anxiety issues, at least my effort is enough to give her those happy dreams

So my dog Laika (almost 7 months) starts barking when there's any strange noise outside (usually not cars, mostly voices of strangers), specially at night. She also has raised hackles, growls and gets all worked up if she sees something move, usually by the wind but sometimes another person staying in another room. I wasn't too worried about the barking since she's a pretty vocal dog, she barks, growls and whines a lot when she plays, but I'm wondering if this behaviour is a product of anxiety and if I should try to desensitize her to noises at night, or if it's normal that she's protective of the house when I'm asleep. She does calm down and comes back to sleep if I get up and tell her to follow me around the house for a bit

She's a bit over 6 months old and weighs around 13kg. Only recently the vet told me it was okay for her to actively meet dogs (vaccines) but uhm she scares them off (if they're smaller) or annoys them. She always gets very excited when she sees one. Even at a distance, she starts jumping around, trying to run toward them and sometimes even barks. When I allow her to meet one (I never let her off leash for now), she does all that plus lick their face and the dogs usually seem kinda annoyed. I thought of making her sit and allowing the other dog to get near calmly but she won't stay put if they get close enough (same issue with people I try to get her to meet). Any advice? Is this gonna solve itself as she matures?

I'll try to go to a more popular park where maybe there'll be other puppies with their owners who want to socialize them too, maybe she just needs dogs her age?

For some reason Reddit decided to show me the dogfree subreddit. The things they say there... It's disgusting. But some PERSONALLY hurt me, specially comments about how we only pretend to love dogs and pretend dogs love us because we're desperate. Because I WAS desperate when I got my dog. But I don't understand how our relationship is not valuable. Like saying we only hang out with friends because we're lonely otherwise. Like, yeah? That's the whole point?

I hate that it hurts so bad when someone says something like that. I believe dogs' emotions are as real as any person's, even if their mind isn't as complex as ours. But I guess I'm afraid of being wrong because I love my dog so much and the thought of her only "pretending" to love me for food like those people say destroys me, just like it would if that were the case for the people in my life.

I live with my brother, and my dog pretty much won him over, but before that he disliked them, would almost talk about them as if they weren't real animals because they're product of artificial selection, and didn't really believe in their working and social nature (he would talk about how "unnatural" that was). And, well, yeah, they were bred and selected but they're not CREATED by people, it's just that their natural attributes were enhanced. The ancestors of dogs, just like we see in wolves, naturally follow a hierarchy and work in teams. This is the reason we have that bond with horses, too, because horses follow a leader. My brother's a cat lover, nothing against cats but I'd say some cat lovers don't understand that different species have different socialization needs and that is natural. Cats are usually less clingy and less of a team working animal and I don't find that any more or less "natural", also cats have been through artificial selection too.

Anyway I'm just ranting to vent and see what you think too. I actually read some posts hating on the dogfree subreddit to make me feel better so I'm not as upset as I was before but I need to get this off my system because I love dogs so much. It's ok if someone doesn't like them of course, dogs are a lot to deal with, they're very hard to take care of properly and there's negatives to having one in your house, but some people in the internet say such cruel things about them and their owners...

My 5-6 month old puppy knows a few tricks but the only one she REALLY learned the verbal command for is "Sit", and maybe kind of "Laika come!" and "Go potty" although they seem more like sugestions. She knows Up, Down, Spin and Heel too but only by hand signs, and I don't understand why she doesn't get the verbal commands for those. She used to know it for Up and Spin but forgot??

I've been saying the command clearly, waiting a second or two to see if she reacts and then using the hand sign. Been like this for several weeks and she's just not getting it. I saw on a video that's how you're supposed to teach them the verbal command but maybe I should go back to the same way I taught her Sit (saying the command several times WHILE doing the hand sign). I thought that advice made more sense but maybe it just doesn't apply to Laika. Let me know if you have any advice please. I mainly want her to hear Heel