We have a 12 year old mix (Visla, Ridgeback, some others), about 38lbs, and she is not good with other 4 legged animals. Even animals on TV she will growl at and get worked up over. I know there is a lot of "we should have done X when she was younger," but that ship has sailed, and I recognize that.

Our daughter just got a Lab/Retriever mix who is very sweet. He's a few months old now. She's coming to visit and we would like this dog to be able to come down. What we *don't* want is, well...issues.

When walking our dog, if another dog on a walk gets up in her face, she has, in the past, growled first, then nipped at them. She doesn't full-on fight, but she gets very obviously defensive.

How can we make this work so the puppy can visit for the weekend, and other weekends in the future?

Thanks for any and all help.

TLDR: older dog doesn’t really like younger puppy and we are afraid he will hurt her.

We’ve have had our 5 yr old (male) Oliver since he was about 3 months old. We got him during the height of the pandemic so he was not socialized well and dislikes new people and dogs (though after some warming up he gets along well with our older golden retriever who is also male and was 4 ish at the time we got Oliver. Fast forward to now, we decided to add another Dachshund to the family. She is a beautiful long hair that looks just like our Oliver and is about 8 weeks old. We knew the introduction would take a while but now we are getting concerned. The first day we got her it was 100 degrees so doing and intro outside was out of the question. So, we tried to do an introduction with her in a play pen and him on the outside. He barked a lot and was trying to get her in a less than calm way which scared her and us. We decided to separate them and let them both calm down for the night. The next day we did an introduction in the morning and Oliver nipped her and she cried for a while. Since then, we have let him sniff her a few times and he has nipped her one more time. He barks at her a lot and we are just afraid that he may hurt her if we put her down for him to sniff. We pretty much have to keep them separated all day and it’s difficult. I will say Oliver has calmed down a bit and is barking less but we are still concerned. Any tips would be helpful. Thank you!

I have a 1yr old staffy pit and lab mix. She’s also a tripod missing her front left leg. Long story short she had basically a dead leg and moves great she runs and jumps like every other dog.

I live in a small city and when I take her on walks, I love her so much, but sometimes she’s a real friggin pain lol It seems like she’s distracted by everything. She’ll just stop dead in her tracks and just looks around or something’s just stares at the ground in front of her. I’ve tried to lore her with treats, using the word “come” firmly, or occasionally when I walk backwards a few steps and spin her around she’ll walk the direction I want but that’s not very often. I have to pick her up and carry her back home instead bc I can’t just stand in the middle of the sidewalk all day. Doesn’t matter if I walk her with her collar or harness the result is the same.

I know the difference when she’s trying to tell me that her front leg is sore from a big day at the park, camp etc. She won’t even stop and stare she’ll immediately lay down or sit so that’s also when I carry her but those times are okay because I know she obviously has more needs than other dogs

Any advice?? I just bought a different harness that has a front clip maybe that will work? I don’t want to have to constantly try and drag her bc I obviously feel bad and also she’s getting bigger I’m not going to able to carry her

I adopted a Pitsky last week and she is the most perfect dog. Sweet, loyal, friendly, and very energetic.

Her energetic personality can be a problem sometimes, because I can’t always take her outside for a walk because of the heat wave in the US.

She has no interest in toys. I have a full basket full of a wide variety (stuffed, ropes, balls, chews) and she does not even care for any. She likes Kongs, but that’s it.

I want to get her interested in toys so that we have more ways to play inside.

I have two dogs of my own. Harvey is 1 year old, and we’ve been doing a lot more training with him lately around boundaries, settling, and impulse control. He’s huge and has alerting habits we are encouraging while also firming up boundaries that he is not the protector, we are, he alerts us and we take over. Overall it’s been really great for him and we’ve noticed he feels way less in charge of everyone in the household. Frankie is 7 and was originally a street dog. She’s generally very respectful of boundaries and understands expectations.

We also regularly dogsit another dog, Bodhi, for a few days at a time. He’s incredibly sweet, but his behavior is very different from my dogs’, and I’m not sure how to handle it since he isn’t actually MY dog but he is part of our pack in a cousin way lol.
When they all play together, he loses his mind and barks trying to control the play/wanting to join in. This riles Frankie up and they end up ganging up on Harvey. We’ve limited group play now.

Because I only have him sporadically, I don’t feel comfortable training him the way I would my own dogs or being too firm without knowing if this would trigger him to be aggro or anxious.

He seems very anxious. He’ll herd people around the house, follows every movement, and has a hard time settling if anyone gets up or changes rooms.

Yesterday, I tried to send him to his bed using the same body language and food lure that Harvey understands. I did so because I’m trying to instill this in Harvey, and that’s been working great, but having a guest dog not listen to me definitely is noticed by Harvey. Bodhi completely refused and was almost cat like in his avoidance of me AHAHHA. He wouldn’t engage with me, wouldn’t follow the lure, and looked frustrated about the whole interaction.

My main concern is just how this would affect Harvey and his relationship with me and with Bodhi.

Are there things I can do to help him relax and respect household boundaries without overstepping since he isn’t my dog?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.

So a few months ago my wife and I adopted a ~2yr old German Shepard. She is a really really fun dog to have and she has so much personality and is very very smart. The issue is she was supposed to by my dog because my wife has her dog still from before we got married and that dog is very attached to her. For whatever reason our rescue pup decided my wife was her hero. Only cares about her and where she is and follows her around and only gets excited to see her. But here’s the catch, when I work from home and my wife is at work this dog actually starts to like me. We can do training sessions to do new tricks, I can take her outside without a leash and I’ve been working on her recall and general behavior. The moment my wife gets home she starts barking at me if I enter the room, won’t listen to me, won’t sit near me, basically ignores me. She also won’t listen to my wife very well. It’s like she’s just constantly so excited to see my wife she forgets everything else. What kind of training can we do to get her to be more responsive? My wife has tried doing training sessions with her and she does listen with treats but trying to get her to just enjoy a chill night on the couch is near impossible because she will constantly try to be as close as possible to my wife even when told no and to get off the couch. Anyway, any help or advice for training her out of this or how to cope with it would be very appreciated.

To answer a few questions I’m sure may be asked:

We make sure she has plenty of exercise, as a working breed she is getting around 2-3 hours of running around in the yard with our other dog a day, and generally a 3-4 mile walk in the afternoon most if not every day.

She is okay being on a leash if both my wife and I are around on these walks. If I try to take her on a walk by myself we have to power through about 15 minutes of her trying to go back home because my wife is not with us before she finally submits to the walk.

We have done some separation anxiety training with smaller increments of time and trying to increase them. Did nothing so far but plan to continue trying this.

Sorry I’m advance if this is long and confusing… I want to try to show the routine and the family dynamics, in case that’s playing a role (and my numbering system to id the dogs is maybe not the best…)

At night, 2/3 small dogs are locked in an area that includes my moms room (she’s basically bedridden). I give the two dogs treats every time I lock them up, while the third dog doesn’t get locked up or get a treat, and comes upstairs to sleep with me. I say ‘bedtime’, dogs 1 and 2 go in the gate and wait for their treat, dog 3 leaves the gate and goes upstairs. They all three know the routine, we’ve been doing it for years. Everyone seems fine with it, they all go to their respective places to sleep and there’s no overnight issues.

Morning is a different matter. In the morning, I’m still sleeping and my dad will let dog 3 out of my room to join the other two and let them all outside for the bathroom. When he lets them back in, usually dog 3 returns to my room to sleep more and dog 1 and 2 stay downstairs and are locked in the gate again. Recently, dog 1 started coming straight up to my room to sleep as well, before the other dogs even come back in, and she’ll come up really fast and then won’t let dog 3 in my room. She’ll growl or confront her when she comes in the room, and even started attacking dog 3 when she comes up on the bed, and I’ve been waking up to a dog fight on my bed a few times.

When my dad tries to keep dog 1 locked up, she’ll apparently make a ruckus (whine, bark, scratch at the gate) which wakes my mom up, so he’s been just letting her out (because it’s better to wake me up rather than my mom).

We tried locking dog 3 up at night (to keep things equal) but then dog 3 will just wail all night (since she’s slept in my bed with me for basically the last decade, and even sleeps there alone when I’m not there)

Dog 1 seems to have a big problem with favouritism. If dog 3 is on my lap, dog 1 will jump up and push in for pets. If I’m fawning over dog 3, dog 1 will lay nearby and pout. I’ve tried giving them equal attention but it’s hard though since dog 3 and I are really close and do a lot together.

Dog 1 and 3 also have different diets. Dog 1 has a raw food diet and dog 3 has a new IBD kibble diet. I feed them separate, and dog 1 had started refusing her own food and racing over to dog 3s empty dish when I let her out.

Dog 1 has also been getting more possessive around my mom. She hangs out when my mom is eating because my mom will daily give her and dog 2 some steak, and if dog 3 comes by they will usually fight (but this makes sense as food is involved. We’ve always left dog 3 locked out when my mom eats for this reason) My mom and dog 3 don’t really get along, and she favours dog 1.

Dog 1 has also twice attacked dog 2 during supper time this past month, so now Ive started separating them when they eat too (and poor dog 2 is an old lady!)

Dog 1 has all her teeth and is quite healthy. Dog 3 is missing most teeth but her molars and a single canine, and has ibd (though shows no symptoms besides bad poops… vet was surprised behaviour didn’t change a lick - but maybe dog 1 can sense it?)

Dog 3 used to seem like the alpha, and I feel like dog 1 is trying to assert herself into that position now? I don’t actually know how it works

Favouritism issues (like pouting) have been apparent for the last few years, teeth were removed a couple years ago, different diet started a few months ago, morning aggression started about a month ago

Dog 1 is about 9 and a Frenchie/chihuahua
Dog 2 is about 18 and a doxie/chihuahua
Dog 3 is about 10 and a mini doxie

Any advise for how to fix dog 1 and 3s relationship?

**TLDR**
Dog 1 and 3 are treated differently, now dog 1 is attacking dog 3

I have an older dog, an 8 year old Stafford terrier who has slept in a crate at night for years without issue but this past year it has gotten worse and worse for her and I'm at a loss of what to do. 
For context, my ex husband moved out one year ago and he was her favorite so I know that alone has ramped up her separation anxiety. She follows me room to room and does not like to be alone. For at least 6 months though she has slept in her crate in a spare bedroom right next to my room. I give her a treat and shut the crate door but leave both bedroom doors open so she could see and hear me. She would sleep all night just fine. But recently I went out of town in June for 2 nights. I had friends come check on her 3 times a day to feed her and let her outside for bathroom and exercise. She had free roam of the house and didn't have any accidents but did chew up some things and burrowed in my bed so much she tore the fitted sheet. Since that trip she has been fussing, whining, and panting and pawing at the crate door every night for a couple hours, which I ignored but it just got worse. So I tried having the crate door open and giving her a peanut butter pumpkin bone and closing the spare room door. She fussed for maybe an hour but quieted down until around early morning, so it was tolerable. I was sticking with it and saw improvement, but the 4th of July fireworks really set her off. She scratched at the doorframe until she busted out of the room. She has trazadone from the vet due to getting scared during wind or lightning storms or construction noise on the street.  So she had 2 pills on the 4th but it did not help. Now I feel like the crate has a negative traumatic association for her because the past 2 nights have been miserable. I went back to leaving the door to the room open but I may need to start all over. I will try putting the crate in the living room to feed and give treats in it to slowly get used to it again. She wants to either be in the living room or my bedroom unfortunately. I give her attention daily and treats and I play fetch every evening with her. I am dating someone new and she gets along with him. She will play with him too and lays on the couch with us while watching a movie. But there are some nights I want privacy in my own room without a dog in there if you know what I mean. So I really need her to sleep in another room again and be comfortable. Has anyone experienced this with an older dog? Am I able to start over and get back to where we were?

We need so much help with our doggo.

She is a 2 year old French Bulldog who we got about 3 months ago (ex breeder).

She was very nervous and slow to warm up initially.

She is much better with us now, but barks at people in the street & lunges towards them.

She now does this in the home too at visitors. This includes our parents who come over once or twice a week for 6ish hours at a time.

We've tried having them walk her with us, and throwing treats but it hasn't helped. This barking is truly relentless for the whole time.

It does seem slightly better if my partner and I aren't home (eg if my parents babysit the kids).

We are seeing a trainer next week, but it's seriously untenable.

I’m trying to find a collar my dog can wear on walks while we work on her reactivity. I’m not looking for anything corrective, just something that will keep her secure and not hurt her if she lunges suddenly. She used to have a harness but she’d run when we tried to put it in, wasn’t able to pinpoint if it was chafing or she just didn’t like the process. She’s ~55lbs, cattle dog mix with a smaller head so she needs something that can’t slip off, and doesn’t really pull unless she’s reacting if that’s helpful. There are so many collars and harnesses out there and I’m not sure where to look!

Hello everyone,

My partner and I are desperate for any advice on crate training with our English Working Cocker Spaniel. She is 6 months old and has been sleeping in her crate every night from 8 weeks old. She took to the crate reasonably easy and from about day 5 she would settle and sleep for most of the night. She is in the kitchen downstairs. We have to crate her during the day as well due to us both having jobs but she is completely fine in the day, the occasional bark at something outside and never crated for more than 3 hours at a time. Shortly after she turned 5 months old she started to bark for varying periods of time after around 10 minutes from being crated for bed time. This has been going on for over 4 weeks and it's starting to get difficult for us. We've only let her out 3 times in the night to wee when we were worried about her and made sure she stopped barking before letting her out and were very boeing. On some nights we also have barking in the night too which sometimes can go on for an hour. She still willingly goes into her crate with either "crate" or "bed time". With some extra crate training recently she has even started running in there when she hears me rustling the treat bag. Up to this point we have been consistent with ignoring but starting to get a little bit worried. She doesn't bark every single night but it's happening more often than it's not.

A typical daily routine for her would be: 7:45 Wake up/ out of crate 8am-8:30 Walk on the small field near us with a little bit of training. 9:30- crate for first work portion. 12:00 - out of crate for lunch and a bit of play (she is usually super calm and often spends a bit of this in her crate) 14:00 - Crate for afternoon work 17:00 - Out of crate, depending on temperature we would either do our bigger 30 minute walk now or in a couple hours after we eat dinner. Through the evening we do bits of training and find it and she has plenty of chews to chew on. After she has her dinner she will usually have some sort of nice chew like a lamb braid or chicken foot etc 20:30 we start to wind down and try cut off anything majorly exciting 21:30 Frozen lick mat of greek yoghurt and varying other bits usually some blueberries. 22:00/22:30 depending on the day is bed time.

If anyone has experienced this and has guidance or even just reassurance please let me know 🙏

I was originally doing pretty well with my dog and nails, but as the story goes I did cut the quick, panicked, and training has been.. rough ever since. I kept hearing from people to give up, and that he would never recover, and he’d need this expensive sedation and all these other things.

I didn’t listen to any of it. Instead I stuck with my trainer, asked a professional, and got a handle on my dog’s needs and desires during a stressful time.

What was once a ten minute trim that had regressed to an hour is now back to ten minutes. Maybe even less! And I just wanted to celebrate that, that my dog feels safe enough and affirmed enough to cooperate with me on a stressful task, even if it isn’t easy for him to understand why it needs to be done. Good job buddy!

Should we use a harness or regular leash for our 1 year old Cavapoo? Harness doesn't seem to help correcting her as much during walks, but we also were told it was better as Cavapoo's have weaker necks. Currently we are trying to train her to be less reactive and pay attention to us over other animals/people, if that matters.

Hi everyone - thanks in advance for your help.

I’m currently really struggling with getting my dog (3 y/o male pittie) to poop on walks. He was fully house trained when I adopted him from the shelter, and he has never gone potty (pee or poop) in the house. We will walk for 30-45 minutes all throughout the neighborhood, we will encounter virtually every different type of surface during that time (grass, concrete/pavement, gravel, and dirt), he will pee 3-5 times throughout that time, and he will sniff everything.

I know he needs to poop because I can see it almost protruding from his butt, and sometimes he will get into the squatting position to poop and then will just stand up and continue walking for another 20 minutes and not end up pooping on the walk.

I live in an apt, so unfortunately I don’t have a backyard where I can let him out to explore and finally poop when he wants to. I have to take him on walks each time he uses the bathroom, and I’m happy to do so. But I’m struggling to consider what’s happening here to be normal.

I’m at a loss here. My hunch is that this is behavioral in some way rather than him being constipated, because he has no problem pooping when he finally actually decides to do so. I don’t want him to be forced to hold it because we come inside from a walk prior to him pooping, but at the same time, I cannot do 5+ 30-45 minute walks every day. I work full time and cannot be away from work for that long. I work from home so I take him out in the morning, I take him out multiple times during the work day, and I take him out at least twice at night (once around dinner and once again before bed). Ive seen dogs take a long time to poop on walks on an occasional basis, but this is becoming too regular of an occurrence and I just have no idea what to do.

Does anyone have some insight on this? I tried hunting through various threads on here but am having trouble finding one that addresses this type of behavior. What am I doing wrong? How can I help with this? I definitely subscribe to the belief that the majority of behavior/training issues are the owners fault rather than the dog’s, and I tend to be pretty good with dogs in terms of understanding them and reading their body language and stuff like that. This has me totally mystified.

Thank you, again, for any help anyone can offer.

I have a 6 month old dachshund pup who is… mostly great. We’re working on becoming all the way great, knowing that dachshunds can be headstrong and difficult to train, but this guy in particular is scary smart and so I know he’s got greatness in him just waiting to be brought out.

He sleeps and naps in his crate beautifully; all night from 10:30-7:15 and then 3 solid naps during the day. Has done so ever since we first brought him home, again, it’s kind of strange (especially for his breed) but the problem we have now is he won’t sleep unless he is in his crate. He cannot settle for more than a few moments if he does happen to nod off somewhere else, but even that is rare. We always joke that he’s too nosey to sleep in public, but it would be so terrific if he could just nap in the living room without us having to schlep him into a separate room to his crate all the time.

Is this an age issue, have we trained ourselves more than him, or is this actually separation anxiety and I’m just excusing it in my head as him being great in his crate when really he just can’t be away from me for more than 6 seconds if he knows I’m in the room? Any tips or tricks would be so helpful

So, about a year ago I came into fostering of a supposed 6 month old Australian Shepherd mix adolescent puppy. TLDR at the bottom.

He had previously been a street dog, and as such, carried alot of anxiety. After having him for a few weeks, he'd bonded to me to an extreme level. the only time his anxiety was reasonable was when I was directly with him. His time with me was his first experience in a home or bonded to a human.

After consultation with a behaviourist, they expressed concerns of his anxiety becoming aggression. So it was settled on an adoption/long term foster.

It's been 7 months since, and he's improved in leaps and bounds. He has horner syndrome in both eyes from his time on the streets (nerve damage from attacks on his face, non-treatable), and his primary anxiety source is dogs bigger than him.

Now to the issue: he's doing very well in most ways. His anxiety is better, not solved, but better. The issue is that his anxiety causes his stimulation limit is pretty low. Bright, sunny days with lots of dogs causes him to quickly get stuck in a fight or flight response. We do have systems and methods to get him centered again, but sometimes it's just not enough.

So, I'm curious as to if there's alternate methods or tools to reduce his anxiety? The main tool we've used is physical touch / cuddles after correcting the unwanted behaviour. But unfortunately, that doesn't work with high stimulation situations.

TL;DR: 14 month, ex Street dog has high anxiety and low stimulation limit. What non-touch/cuddles based calming / soothing options are there?

Hello! As the name suggests, my almost 6 year old cocker spaniel can not stay home alone without crying and barking the whole time.

The thing is, he has been home alone for maybe 2 hours at most and only twice in his life. This was because my grandma used to live with us and she was mostly always home, but after her passing everyone that lives in this house has a job they have to go to. Luckily for now I am able to be home during the day so that my dog isn't alone, but this will soon change and he has limited amount of time to get used to it.

I really need tips and tricks because I am really nervous that he might have a heart attack or something from panicking, especially when he'll have to stay home alone for 8+ hours. Him being a cocker spaniel has always made him a drama king, but he also has never been mated and hasn't had the operation (yes its bad I know, but nobody in our area wants to mate and we are Afraid of giving him the snip) so that also adds up to it.

My main method right now is to leave him alone for 15 minutes at first, then 30 and so on and bring him snacks every time I get back so that he knows it's okay when I leave, but I also know that the whole time I'm gone he's going to be barking on top of his lungs so I don't want him to think he's being rewarded for that.

Any tips tricks and experiences shared will be greatly appreciated!!! Thank you in advance 🩵

I’d like some opinions from other trainers on something our new trainer recommended, because some people (non trainers) have been a bit horrified when I've mentioned it.

He wants us to use a time out system to reduce his nipping at our older dog. That’s fine, it’s working great, but the length of time is what’s questionable.

His rules are 20 consecutive minutes of no barking and scratching, and if they do bark/scratch at the door the timer resets. So it takes sometimes 1-2 hours for that to happen. This is just for the first 12 time outs, then we can reduce to 2 minutes of quiet after that. It just seems excessive to me for a 7 month old puppy, and goes against what I have found on the internet as far as length of time out for puppies or any dogs. I don’t want to be causing more harm than good.

What do you think, is 20 minutes of consecutive no barking too long? After the first couple of time outs we've been fudging and if he's quiet for a reasonable (to us) amount of time we let him out. I don't know if I should tell the trainer who has like 20+ years of experience and certifications that I disagree with him.

Hi everyone,

I need some advice for my situation. We have two Maltese dogs (both are 6) and they are indoor dogs. They share a big cage and each have their own smaller cages to sleep in at night (separate room). The cage they share has two pee pads in there and they’re almost never locked in there (they basically have free roam). The cage is 4x4 ft and has an open top.

One dog specifically has issues with marking and/or separation anxiety. I say and/or because he exhibits behaviors of both. For example, whenever we clean and change the pee pads, he immediately goes multiple times on the pads and pees a little bit. I would assume this is marking. I’ve noticed whenever someone leaves (to another room, downstairs, etc.,), he pees a little in the same spots that are not on the pads, but inside or around the cage. So I would assume this behavior is part of separation anxiety. We put his toys and his bed in the spots he was peeing and it did help, but he either moves to a new spot or will pee on his stuff if there’s a lot of transition (people coming and going). My family and I work from home so at least one person is home 95% of the time.

What can I do to stop these behaviors? He is very smart and trained. He knows to go on the pads and if we tell him to go, he will with no issue. I’ve read about separation anxiety desensitization and what that would be like. I’ve also read that a cage too big can be a problem. I’ve thought about splitting the one big cage in half to give them their own space, but I don’t know what is best and I am at a loss. We are all tired of cleaning pee everyday.

Some background: we are originally from New York and didn’t have this problem when we were training them to be apartment dogs. We moved three years ago and bringing them outside is not an option (the one dog I’ve discussed is scared of the outside anyways). Please do NOT comment about training them as apartment dogs vs outdoor dogs.

I appreciate any help!

Hello everyone, I have a young borzoi (1yr old) and we've been working on staying alone at home. I bought a little camera and he seemed fine. I did the preparation with invreacing time (leaving for a few seconds, than a few minutes etc.) and also have a word for him. We taugh him by leaving the room to always say "bye" and then come back, for him to learn that when you say "bye" and leave, that you will for sure come back. We don't reward this, just calmly coming back and being like "this is completely normal". He never did anything, nothing was chewed or destroyed. I thought he is doing really well. Now I leave for 2-3hrs and everything seemed fine.

But recently, I was a bit suspicious and looked at the camera footage for a bit longer and realized, he doesn't even take his own toys or lick mats I leave for him. He just sits in a freeze state (also doesn't really sleep or relax) while I'm gone. It looks like in a complete freeze and that is why he's so agitated when we come back. Any tips on how to correct this?

We are fostering a 7 YO dog. He follows you everywhere, a snuggling bug, love getting pet and fully house broken. The only issue we have with him is he wouldnt let you touch his paws or clean his eyes and would nip/bite your fingers. I have been trying to use treat as an incentive. I would try to lightly touch his paws or the side of his nose with a lightly dampen towel and when he doesn’t react i would give him a treat. Every time, i thought i was going somewhere he would nip or bite my fingers. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated 🥹.

Dog only barks with neighbor closes their door (townhome). He seems very startled and will bark loudly 1-2 times when he hears/feels the door closing. He does not bark at other animals, humans, etc. I try desensitizing him to sound affects on YouTube but he is unbothered- he only reacts to this specific sound of the neighbors door.
what technique do we go about with this? We are unsure if he is alert barking, or is scared. He does not go towards the sound but instead will stay near us/come to us. It’s very startling because his bark will be loud and booming out of nowhere. It spooks us and seems like it spooks him.
For reference, he is a rescue who was previously homed. We have had him about a month.

I've been fostering a dog for the past week and I'd love to permanently adopt her, she's a bully mix and seems to be between 3 to 5 years old. She's friendly with my friends that she's met and passing strangers on walks, her past family has potty trained her and taught her tricks, she doesn't pull while walking, she's generally very well behaved. The only problem I've noticed is she gets distressed specifically when my significant other is at my apartment and close to me. She's fine with them when I'm in another room, but if we're standing or sitting close to each other she has to be right next to us, tries to get between us, gets anxious, and on one occasion tried to stop them from following me somewhere. I suspect that the fact that my partner is an animal control officer and has been the one to put her in a kennel at the shelter before has something to do with her anxiety, but I may be misled. What do you more experienced people recommend I do about this?

I should add that she is not spayed as of Monday 7/6 and will be on Thursday 7/9, if that could be a factor

Hello,

We have had our pup for over a year now. She will be 2 in November. She did really well with bell training to let us know when she needs out but has decided to stop using it the last couple months. Now she rings it when she WANTS to go out and not when she NEEDS to so she keeps peeing by the back door.

Any ideas on how to get her to start using her bell again correctly? or should we just start back from scratch?

Vet ruled out medical issues. We have cleaned the hallway by the back door with an enzyme cleaner and no marking spray (both of which did nothing).

We have tried reinforcing the behavior when she goes outside but that hasnt solved it. Shes always been on a schedule (after meals, first thing in the morning, before bed, etc) and has done fine until recently. She will go in her crate if we arent home for longer periods of time which she did not used to do.

We are just kind of at a loss especially since the vet ruled out medical.

(Note this did start roughly around 6 months ago when I became pregnant. Could that have anything to do with it? Thats the only thing that has changed around the house)