r/DogTrainingTips

Hi everyone,

We have an almost 2 year old mastiff/boxer mix that we’ve been fostering for almost a year now. We love her to death, and she has grown into a very playful dog after a pretty spotty history.

She’s a very anxious dog, usually peeing at the sight of a stranger in the house, or hesitant with certain commands. She’s gotten significantly better through exposure and time, and she seems overall much calmer.

I’ve started noticing a red flag though, and I want to get some opinions.

We usually leave our bedroom open to our dogs (we have two others, three total) and they usually like to run in and play on our bed. We allow it, as we don’t have a lot of space and this lets them get a little bit of extra zoomies out when they’re playing.

This usually leads to us letting them chill on our bed, which eventually leads to them falling asleep on our bed if we’re not around or if my partner allows.

These are big dogs though, so we usually only let our dog sleep on the bed with us, and kick our two fosters off to sleep in the living room.

Lately though, our boxer/mastiff has been resistant to leaving the bedroom. She has growled at me before when trying to nudge her off the bed, and now she’ll either run to our other dogs kennel in the room, or to a corner. This evening, she growled when I tried nudging her out of the kennel, then completely stopped listening to any command/treat to leave the room entirely.

Admittedly, we haven’t taken the time to properly train our fosters. We didn’t expect to have 3 dogs, and the 3rd was pushed onto us after an adoption family fell through. This means individual time with each dog has been shortened, and made it more difficult to separate the dogs or find the time to give each of them proper training.

For the issue with the resource guarding of the room, what steps should we start taking to nip this problem in the bud? Do we cut the room off entirely? I’m sure the bed should get cut off, but does this rule need to apply to all the dogs? Any advice helps, I’d be happy to answer any questions.

Tl;dr : dog is growling at us when asked to get off bed and leave the room, and I’m not sure where to begin training out this kind of behavior.

Hey. This is my first time posting in this sub, but as the title says. Basically My boyfriend (21M) and I (22F) adopted a 1 year old female spayed German shepherd in early April. We have a 2 year old chocolate lab who is more submissive to her than he normally is to other dogs. Well is he tries to come on the couch or the bed she’ll growl and snarl at his showing teeth so he won’t get on, so we have learned to hold her and cover her eyes and he can get on and she will growl for a second then cuddle up to him. The same goes with toys sometimes, most of the time they play and have fun but every once in a while she’ll snap at him for having a toy. They get along normally very well but sometimes she’ll snarl and show teeth and snap at him. I have no clue how to help her stop and normally we spank her (very softly only to get the point across not todo so) but tonight she tried to start a dog fight while everyone was in the kitchen, so we put her in a separate room from everyone. I am genuinely asking for help, I want her to be safe and my other dog to be safe. Please if yall have any advice or suggestions I’m willing to try anything.

Hi everyone,

I will be moving into an apartment after living in a house for the past 4 years. The problem is my 15 year old shih poo.

I’m a nurse so I work 12 hr shifts (daytime and overnight). In the past (4 years ago) it was reported to me that my dog was barking excessively and annoying my upstairs neighbors. When I have watched her on the camera I have found her just sitting on the couch barking at nothing for about an hour on and off. In the past when I have left home she would also go over to her water bowl and stick her head in it/purposely spill it all over the place.

I need some advice on what to I can do to prevent her from this barking when I leave the house. During my 12 hr shifts I’m going to try and bring her over to someone’s house. But I obviously don’t want to be evicted because of her barking.

Thanks!

I have a basset hound that’s almost a year. Got him from a family member that didn’t put any stock into training or anything when he was small. He is still puppy biting and jumps on everyone. He’s a great learner and is super excitable still but I have a 3yo and I need to get these two things under control. Any advice? I’ve tried a bunch of things I’ve read online but nothing is working

Our first overnight stay at Brioche’s place…exploring da riverwalk and new casino!! Wildly successful and she only barked twice and that was at me to hurry up!!
Does change of venue change a reactive dog’s behavior? She still did some food guarding but I just made sure there wasn’t a treat or food lying around.

I was researching cat stuff and saw that catnip is generally safe for dogs and may have a calming effect opposite the kitties!?!
Has anyone ever tried this?

Hi guys. I have a 15 month old unneutered Spoo (waiting until growth plates close, neutering at \~18 months) who is struggling immensely. He's getting nice long sniffy walks nearly daily (2hrs max), sometimes we take a break day or two here and there and focus on mental stimulation and rest, lots of exercise, training, brain games and whatnot — but it feels like he's actually regressing in nearly every way imaginable.

He has been throwing himself at people, dogs, and things that seem 'exciting' to him such as poles or places that have a scent that catches his attention. He has never in his life done anything like this, really. Him throwing himself at people or dogs to greet/play with them is entirely new. He's always had mostly neutral interactions with dogs on leash (interactions as in, able to acknowlege and walk away without getting over aroused and approaching said dog) and I have always worked incredibly hard on training neutrality around people. On top of all of that he's mostly always been able to keep a loose leash and rarely tugged me along to a scent.

The way I'm planning on combating all of this is completely reverting to basics. I want to start impulse control games again, but I don't have many in my arsenal — so please, give me any and all impulse control game suggestions! Next, I plan on working on disengaging. I am going to start utilising my boot of my car, and doing neutrality training (again 🥲) around people, dogs and children. I am going to start working on loose leash walking in familiar places where he's bound for success, like home, our driveway and whatnot. And finally, I want to help teach him how to regulate his emotions, but I'm genuinely not sure how to do that. Impulse training should hopefully tie into emotional regulation..?

But please, any advice or help would be SO appreciated. I have always put my all into this dog, and tried so hard to build his foundation. He's always been incredible, (still is) and even while he's struggling you can see the effort I've put in shine through — but man was today hard, genuinely felt like my foundation I built so carefully crumbled away and like I was handling a whole different dog. Adolescence + hormones is genuinely so hard to navigate. Never had the puppy blues, but boy oh boy.. this might come close.

Hey everyone, I have a 3 month old Pyrenees puppy had her for a little over a month now. I feel like I have tried everything with her. She is just so stubborn with listening, she still tries to use the bathroom in the house (we’ve been very on top of it), she will not go in the crate no matter how many little chews I put in there to distract her or treats or things to make it comfortable, she can’t be in the crate without screaming nonstop, she chews something or gets a hold of something even a second we turn around. I can’t even leave the room to go to the bathroom for two seconds without her freaking out and scratching out the door or get into something. Me and my boyfriend we currently work during the week and we have people at home to take care of her and they do what we do. I’m not sure what else to do. It really feels like I’ve done all I can and I’m just so exhausted. I work full-time at a kennel so I already go through a lot with dogs every day Lol. I just want some advice with somebody who has had experience with maybe this type of breed. Me and him have really have been missing some sleep too because of this. The help is so much appreciated thank you! ❤️😀

Also side note: we have been using treats for rewards however, I fear that if I keep on doing them, she’s gonna expect one everytime she does something. So should I alternate back and forth rewarding her with both just sweet talk or just treats? I feel like that would make a little more sense.

Hello!

TLDR: How do I teach my dog to listen when he is outside and to not bark at everything and everyone when guest come over or when he is outside?

Context: My girlfriend and I adopted our dog Koda on June 19th, so it’s been about two weeks. He is a 11 month old mixed breed puppy. He was surrendered to the shelter but we don’t know the reason why, so he does have a bit of separation anxiety. He is a sweetheart and has been doing really good with training.

Only problem is the barking. He loves his crate and goes in there willingly, but the moment we leave the room he starts barking. It’s nothing crazy, its usually for about 1-3 minutes and then he is quiet for the rest of the night/day. He does have some days where the barks are wayyyy worse and he keeps going for like 10 minutes but i am not sure what causes it. We have been doing the coming in and out the room, so i think that just takes time.

Our main issue is when we have guests over he keeps barking at them. The moment they give him a treat he is good. Even when our roommate comes in he keeps barking at him, even though he sees him every day. When we are out at the park or the two times we have brought him to the store. He would just keep barking at every person or dog and no matter what we do he wont listen. It’s like he forgets his name and no matter how much treat we give him he just keeps being stubborn. Will it just take time and taking him out more often? Because he definitely gets overstimulated and then knocks out the moment we got home lol.

How would we socialize him and have him not bark at everything? Thank you!

My mom got a german Shepard 3 days ago from a trainer, she already had 7 of them and just couldn’t keep this one. She was scared at first when we brought her to the house (tucked tail and ears, panting a lot) but eventually calmed down. It took her 24h to go potty in our garden but she eventually did and had no problem with a leash and collar! Yesterday she dragged the leash towards a street (we live in a small village in the swedish countryside, with only one street). As we came onto the street a lady passed by and it scared her to death, she went wild (jumping trying to get off the leash. I took her inside instantly and removed the leash. Now it’s impossible to get a leash on her. She eats normally and lays next to us when we sit somewhere but absolutely no way of getting a leash on her. I’ve been calling her to the front door and giving her a piece of ham when she comes, and hold the leash and let her sniff it but no real progress has been made. Sorry for the long post, any tips are welcome!!!

Hi. My family and i have a 8 month old lab mix puppy. Whenever we give her bully sticks to chew on, she seems to have a predicament. She will chew on it for the first minutes, but will then start to whine and carry the chew around. While having the chew in her mouth she will try to bury it in the couch using her paws or put the stick under some of the furniture. She will also try to burry the bully stick outside as well. When this started to happen I would usually take the bully stick away. I have tried placing it either on her bed, or her favorite part of the couch. I have also tried bully stick holders. They kinda work, however I want to see if there is a we can redirect the behavior or accommodate her habits.

She is being trained and her trainer knows this. Anything will help.

My rescue poodle has an unusual behavior that I am not sure how to correct. When a stranger comes to the door she barks once or twice and then settles and behaves well. No jumping or pushiness. However, when we come home from being away she loses her mind. Incessant loud barking and constant jumping, including jumping on the back of our legs and almost knocking us down. I would reward positive behavior to try and get the behavior to stop but there isn't an opportunity. She does this every time we come home, especially when I am gone. I have tried giving her no attention at all until she stops, but she doesn't stop barking and jumping. Only thing that helps is leaving the entry/kitchen and going into our room/her "safe space" where she proceeds to jump on the bed and excitedly attack her favorite pet mouse. She is my velcro dog but she is never left for more than 2-3 hours. How to I get this to stop before she buckles one of our knees and causes a fall?

Toy poodle owners, how long did it take for your puppy to be fully potty trained with no accidents?
Especially for those living in apartments or high floors, with the potty area inside or on a balcony.

She still uses the grass the majority of the time but every couple days there's a new landmine or two in the driveway for someone to run over. She's 6 years old, has always had free reign of the property including about half an acre of grass to do her business. Was leash trained in the grass as a pup and has been great up until about a month or so ago. When I confront her with the mess on the gravel, she knows it's bad, but continues to do it. The only difference is I have an area of grass that I'm trying to repair that is roped off, probably 10 ft x 30 ft. Is that enough to throw her off. I don't want to punish her for it, any advice?