u/bananie123

First time dog owner here. Adopted a fearful, anxious reactive rescue dog 3 months ago. Been making huge progress with her since then, she went from having a full blown crash out seeing another dog across the street to now being able to walk side by side at the same distance with no reaction. She can even tolerate another dog barking and lunging at her, which is huge. However she still startles easily and doesn’t do well with surprises.

Which leads me to my point of frustration: off leash dogs. I am so incredibly angry at how many people have off leash dogs with ZERO recall. My poor dog was charged by an off leash golden retriever the other day at a large park. It literally ran almost half a football field distance to get to my dog so we weren’t even anywhere close to it. My dog was minding her own business sniffing around (my bf was holding the leash) when I saw the golden charging towards us. I tried to put myself between them, but the golden was too fast and ran around me to get to my dog. The owner was nowhere to be found. The lady finally came to “get” her dog after what felt like an eternity of me running around to get the golden to go away, and my poor bf trying to guide our panicked dog away. The owner of the golden had zero urgency, was walking at a snails pace, and I didn’t even hear her attempt to call her dog. My bf and I both were screaming at her to please get her dog and she just said “can’t you see I’m trying? He’s just a puppy”. She was not trying.. And having a puppy is not an excuse. If he is not trained he shouldn’t be off leash period. The park also had a huge sign stating ALL DOGS MUST BE LEASHED. As we were leaving the park we saw her allowing her dog to go up to another dog to say hi.. -face palm-

And a less serious but still annoying situation is when walking by houses in our neighborhood the amount of people who leave their dogs in their backyard to bark at people through the fence is so frustrating. There is one house we noticed whose owners even cut a part of their fence and replaced it with a see through gate so the dog could bark at people passing by. It’s so startling for our fearful dog and now I make a mental note of which houses will have these “surprises” so I can stay ready. Oh and yesterday we walked by a house with a barking pitbull who literally stuck its head out of a hole in the fence to try to get to us. My poor dog was startled and so terrified. I immediately turned her around to walk the other way. I understand some people maybe do this to prevent intruders but still…my bf doesn’t see a problem with this and thinks our dog needs to be exposed more to these “surprise” situations so she can become more resilient. Idk 🤷‍♀️

Anyways, rant over. If you are an owner of a reactive dog you can’t control, please don’t ever take them to the park off leash. And please don’t leave them in the backyard with holes in your fences to bark at people and dogs. If you have to leave them, please at least have the decency to fix your fences or install privacy so your dog can’t see other people/dogs walking by. From one reactive dog owner to another, I feel you and it’s a tough journey but we’ll get through it. Thank you for reading if you got this far🙏

Edit: Thank you all for your honest responses and feedback. After reading all these comments I understand now the title is misleading and over exaggerated. Obviously no physical harm was done to my dog or the other therefore it shouldn’t be “my biggest fear”. But in the moment it was terrifying and something out of my control. My apologies if anyone felt offended by this post. Also regarding the barking dog through the fence: yes it is annoying and frustrating and though I wish owners could fix their fences or not leave their reactive dogs out like that I do understand this is something both her and I have to live with and I’m working on overcoming it ❤️

This has probably been asked a million times already but would appreciate some tips or advice on my specific situation.

My partner and I adopted an approximately 1 year old girl dog from a rescue 11 days ago. The organization did not have any info on this dog besides that it was “surrendered” but her intake paperwork says “stray”. She is fixed and vaccinated. So far she has been very friendly with people, even strangers. No fear or aggression, no resource guarding and very playful. Took to potty and crate training quickly, no major issues indoors, sleeps through the night. Her basic obedience is still a work in progress (knew zero commands when we got her) but she has learned sit come already and can do them in a low distraction environment.

So far she has been indoors and outdoors: we take her out to our large fully fenced yard for playtime and potty time multiple times a day. She has enjoyed running around in our yard but we feel she may be starting to get bored with it and needs more mental stimulation/exploration. She is a mixed herding breed so her exercise needs are on the higher end.

The real problem arose when we tried to take her on a walk for the first time about 1 week after we got her. She pulls ahead of us and does not walk side to side with us. Despite us practicing loose leash walking in the backyard and house, all that goes out the door immediately. The first time we saw a dog she completely lost it. Lunging, jumping, barking, yelping to no end. When we try to pull her back she screams even more and tries to get out of her harness/collar. We could only go a few houses down as we did not want to disturb the whole neighborhood; her bark was EAR PIERCING. We gave her break for a few days and took her out again a few days ago and same issue. This time it was a larger dog across the street and we noticed a bit more fear based reactivity; her backing up while barking/yelping and “hiding” a little bit behind us. We think she has both fear and excitement reactivity when seeing other dogs. She does not seem to growl at all. Her profile on the rescue page did say “good with dogs” and when we picked her up on adoption day she was happily playing with a whole group of doggies so I’m wondering if she just misses playing with them? We do not own any other pets in the house.

My question is: where do we go from here? Is it too soon to start walking her? My partner and I have done a ton of research on dog reactivity and watched countless YouTube videos etc. it seems like the prong collar might be the magic bullet for a lot of folks with the same issue but I’d like to see if there are other options out there as well. We also do plan on hiring a professional trainer at some point but are still looking into it and weighing our options as it is a very expensive investment. We have also tried the Look at that method but she completely ignores us when outside.

At this point I am afraid to walk her but am also afraid she’s not getting the exercise she needs. I am also aware that it has been less than 2 weeks and she may need more time to adjust. I am not sure if I’m being too impatient. Any thoughts or advice would be so appreciated, thank you!

My partner and I are looking to adopt a beagle and are not sure where to start. We own a home with a large yard and do not have any children or other pets. We are technically first time dog owners together however my partner and I have both owned dogs previously when we lived with our parents. We both work full time but partner is WFH and I’m hybrid so one of us will always be home at all times. We also live in a very walkable safe neighborhood, dog friendly park etc.

I’ve been reading a lot about the lab beagle rescues (such as Ridglan) and am wanting to adopt one but getting mixed advice on whether it’s a good idea or if it’s better to get a beagle as a puppy from a breeder? I’ve always leaned more toward adopting a dog from a shelter rather than getting one from a breeder however my partner thinks because we are first time dog owners it might be best to start fresh with a puppy. We live in northern California and it seems like beagles here are extremely popular or they just get adopted right away as I haven’t seen any many available for adoption.

So I guess my question is: Would you recommend a beagle at all for first time dog owners and if so where should one go about looking for one? Would adult or younger/puppy be best?

Thanks in advance!

Which do you think is easier to get S+ on hardcore? And if so, why? Or are they both around the same? I know with B scenario the beginning part of RPD is faster in getting key items however you also only have 2 hours to get S+ and not 2.5.

So far I have done practice play throughs for both scenarios on standard and what I’m noticing is that Claire’s gun on B scenario with the ACP ammo is better for me as I am not very good with getting headshots so I tend to blow through a lot of regular handgun ammo and it also takes me longer than more experienced gamers. The ACP ammo takes less shots to take them down I guess? But what I am worried about is the time limit of 2 hours.

I have already completed Leon A on hardcore and got S+ (using Darkness YouTube guide) so now I want to try Claire to get the infinite mini gun 😃

I’m finally starting RE4 (remake) after finishing RE2 and 3. I bought the package with all three games and was excited to start 4 because of how many people said it is the best one. So far I just finished chapter 4 and the game feels overwhelming. It is so different from 2 and 3. There are so many attacks, weapons and I have no idea what to pick up, what to buy at the merchant and what side puzzles to solve. The maps are also a lot more confusing and huge compared to 2 and 3. I’m trying to go into this completely blind and just do one play through without help but it has been challenging! I was told that 4 is more action horror compared to 2/3 being more survival horror so I guess I’m still getting used to that.

Any tips for first play through?