Adrienne

I am glad to hear you are seeing some improvements in her recall! When a dog sticks nearby, it's a good idea to reward these voluntary "check-ins." I like to walk around a fenced yard and say "good girl!" and hand a treat to a dog who has a lot of acreage to explore, but yet decides to stick nearby me. Never take this for granted. It's a blessing and paves the path towards a dog who yo-yos between exploring and checking on us so that we can know about each others' whereabouts. With a long leash on sometimes yes and sometimes no, we risk the dog becoming "leash savvy." In other words, the dog starts taking off the moment the long leash is removed and plays hard to catch as she senses an exhilarating sensation of freedom. It's a good idea to make great things happen when the long leash is on so to create positive associations. For instance, you snap it on and give treats, and give treats for checking-in while on it and make it a goal of often rewarding proximity towards you. Be very generous here as the things she may stumble on when off leash at a distance from you can compete against you. For safety, it is always best to leave off-leash adventures only to fenced-in areas where we can somewhat relax and know that the dog is safe and there are no other animals. Thanks for posting the update and keep us posted on your progress! Best, Adrienne

Hi there! Welcome to the forums! Did you happen to take him to see the vet and discussed this reluctance to walk with the vet? I ask because at 8 years old, your dog is considered a senior and a reluctance to walk can be due to a variety of health problems. Does he show any fearful behavior at home or when outside? At 38 kg, a reluctance to walk may also be simply due to being overweight. Is he a purebred sheltie or can he be mixed with another breed? Does he look overweight? These additional details would be very helpful. Thanks! Adrienne

Hi there! Welcome to the forums! Hi there! Riley and Astrid are adorable! They look like great buddies. Glad to hear your Pry has turned out being so sweet and well-behaved. Kudos to you for a job well-done! These are not the easiest dogs to train. I hear you about your corgi's barking. This behavior is deeply ingrained in them because of their history as herders who used their voices along with nipping at heels to move stubborn livestock from one area to another in the Welsh countryside. On top of this, they were used as well for sounding the alarm for any stray animals approaching the farm. In regards to the yipping with your Pry, this can be tricky to tackle. It can be, your corgi has learned that she can "move" your Pry around and "activate her" this way. And your Pry therefore responds to it. The barking at your Pry having the toy is most likely her way to vent some frustration. "Hey, gimme that toy, gimme, gimme, gimme!" And your Pry "No, it's mine, you see I have in my mouth, you can't have it!" Humor aside, this is how we train dogs to bark on command: we get a toy and show it, wiggling it around and making it extra enticing and then tell the dog they can't have it by hiding behind our back. This often leads to some frustrated barking: "Hey, that's not fair! I want the toy, make it re-appear!" Ideas that come to mind to tackle this barking is to let the dogs out in the yard when they are in the mood for play. Many dogs like to play in the morning and evening. We can therefore entice our dogs to follow us outdoors in the yard to blow off some steam. Encouraging tugging games may help too. With the mouths occupied, you might hear some muffled growls more than barks. Providing both dogs with a long toy to tug on using a side each may encourage this form of play, although, it can happen that one takes off with the whole thing and the barking starts again 😞 And then of course, you can encourage different forms of play, such as putting them in a down/stay and you hiding, See the hide-and-seek game here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/hide-and-seek/ Or you can put them in a down/stay and then hide some balls around and release them to go find them. The barking at dogs behind fences may still be part of this breed's instinctive behavior of trying to send dogs that don't belong to their social group away. If you have memorized where these dogs are too, I would suggest walking your corgi at a distance from the fences as much as possible, finding a distance where she is under threshold. You can read about threshold levels here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/ When you know she's about to pass an area with a dog, try putting in front of her nose some smelly high-value treats and then tossing them to the ground ahead of you. This to encourage some fun treasures hunt games rather than going on a barking frenzy. As herders, these dogs may be attracted to movement, so tossing the treats may work better than just hand feeding them. You need to be fast and have the right momentum in launching a few forward right when you know she is about to acknowledge the presence of dogs. If you are just a bit late, she may be too busy to bark to even notice the treats. Once you have passed the dog, no more tossing treats. This behavior modification method is known as open bar/closed bar. Treats are contingent upon the appearance of dogs. Once dogs are no longer there, treats are gone. You can read about this method here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/open-bar-closed-bar/ Now, I hear that you may have tried this before, but it sounds like you haven't tried tossing the treats, and I would just aim to go slowly. For example, start with only the first area you encounter that has a barking dog. Practice going back and forth (please note that neighbors may get annoyed by the repeated barking so try to keep these sessions short) until your dog gets the idea that the treats are contingent upon passing that area upon acknowledging the dog/dogs. Always end the session on a positive note. As your dog progresses, you can then try to walk up to the next "hot spot" and do the same exercise. As always, aim to keep your dog under threshold by keeping as much as distance as possible. Go back and forth several times as before making sure to make treats contingent upon passing the other dogs. Rinse and repeat and progress a little every day, but be ready to go back a few steps if your dog appears over threshold. I worked some time ago too with a dog who seemed as well mostly aroused going rather than coming back. I think the walk tired him out and the fact that he had been exposed to lots of stimuli sort of got him "into the mind frame" habituating him somewhat, compared to the full immersion experience of going from a quiet home to a world full of sights and sounds. Other ideas that come to mind for lowering her threshold: -Make sure you are on the fence side so that you offer a bit of a visual block and more distance rather than having your dog so close to the fence. -Something worth trying is driving him to an area and then walking him back past the dogs. Here you may gain a starting point for behavior modification to take since he may be more under threshold. After practicing with this a lot, you can then try walking the opposite way as always taking baby steps. -Use walking gear that provides you a good level of control. I like to use front-attachement harnesses such as the Easy-Walk harness, Walk your dog with love harness, the Sensible harness or Freedom harness. -Walk your corgi alone. If you take your Pry as well on walks, there may be chances both dogs will "gang up" and start barking at other dogs and this can lead to trouble. Also, behavior modification requires that you are able to focus on one dog only and scan the environment as much as possible. Other tips: -Find a way to reduce the sound of your dog's ID tags. Many dogs come rushing towards the fence when they hear them. There are Tag silencers for dogs or you can use a rubber band around them to prevent them from making noise. -Avoid touching your dog when she's is such an aroused state as this can lead to a redirected bite. Since you mention your dog is redirecting towards you in an aggressive manner a disclaimer is needed here. Behavior modification comes with risks. For safety and correct implementation of behavior modification please have a dog behavior professional using force-free methods guide you through the process. Some moderate to severe cases may require calming aids and veterinarian prescribed medications. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions and feel free to provide updates. Best, Adrienne

I am glad you are using these tools, they can help a lot! Of course, no tool is a substitute for training as they don't work alone, so we need to complement them with appropriate training exercises. Taking small steps applies to both dogs and their owners, so take your time to read through and if possible, aim to create small goals every day. This frame of mind can help not feel overwhelmed and helps take a more objective look at measuring progress. If at any time, things seem too challenging, it's often a sign we need to back up or split the exercise in easier to attain steps. It's great you were able to train him to take a bow so quickly! Kudos to you! I am always here for any elucidations, updates or further info. Happy training! Adrienne

Pain can play certainly a number on dog behavior, as it does with us. My dogs started to get a little grumpy among each other when they got older and started showing signs of arthritis. We tried many supplements and then stuck to YouMove from Lintbells, Bixbi Joints and Hemp Chews to help them out. Allergies can do a lot too with a recent study showing that dogs with itchy skin allergies being more prone to behavior problems. A healthy mind, in a healthy body. I am glad you intervened when your hubby pulled her up towards your face. If I recall well, at some point, your hubby got bitten once when he tried to hug her. It could very likely be she has some space bubble that isn't comfortable having invaded. It is good though that she is using her words, growling is communication and something that we never want to suppress considering that suppressing a growl leads to a dog who bites without much warning. However, all in all, she has come a long way considering her behavior around your husband before! About nose bops, in general we need to look at the context in which it occurs and accompanying body language. It can be affection, a request to interact more, play, and sometimes, in the case of muzzle punches, it may be a warning. A dog used to nose bop me when she needed to be taken out to potty. Another one did it when he wanted to be pet. It sounds like your dogs' nose bops are a positive manifestation. So heartwarming to hear all the progress she has made! The dreaming more, letting you clean her. inspect ears and teeth etc. I have a touch-sensitive dog at the moment and am working on getting her used to being groomed, teeth brushed, hair brushed, and having her paws touched in baby steps with high-value tasting treats. She is coming along nicely. Now when she sees the brush she runs towards me "groom me!" It is very rewarding working with these dogs! You are so right, time and lots of love is what these dogs need. You are doing wonderfully and your dedication is admirable. Best, Adrienne

Thanks for the extra details, they are very helpful! It sounds like he is trying to engage with you, but in a persistent manner. It seems like he doesn't understand what no bite means, and thinks it's just part of the game. When we repeat saying things and the puppy or dog doesn't listen or understand, we are weakening its effectiveness. In general, dogs learn better if we focus on teaching them alternate ways to interact with us rather than trying to suppress their instinctive behaviors. And play biting is a puppy's favorite activity. So I think alternate activities as the exercises mentioned and toys can help. I have mixed feelings about using time-outs (time spent in a separated area such as a crate or play pen) for nipping. The reasons for this are several and vary based on how it's used. -I think a time-out area works great in the case of a puppy who is starting to nip because he is cranky and is in dire need of a nap. Puppies need to sleep quite a lot as they have a lot of developing to do. Sometimes, they have a hard settling for a nap because they are just overstimulated. So in this case, we are providing a place to relax and doze off. Having chew toys can encourage the pup to gnaw before falling asleep. -In the case of a puppy biting because hyper and in need to drain exercise, putting him in the play pen as a consequence in hopes of diminishing the behavior falls under negative punishment (removing something or access to something the dog likes contingent on the problematic behavior). In other words, we are basically depriving the puppy from our company/attention and freedom to spend time around the house/room, contingent upon his biting behavior. This is not a major deal , but it can have some unwanted "side-effects." For example, the puppy may associate the play yard with social isolation, so next time, the puppy may play hard to catch or he may nip if we are dragging him by the collar. Or perhaps, the puppy feels our anger/frustration and this triggers him to bite more. On top of this, after being released from the area, he may act super excited again and nip again, meaning that he may end up being closed repeatedly but never learn alternate ways to interact with us. Not to mention, this method requires perfect timing, if we don't take the puppy quickly enough to his time-out area, he may not associate this consequence with the undesired behavior. However, we can make some compromises to ameliorate things. We can make the timeout area extra appealing, we can place blankets and chew toys there. We can verbally mark the undesirable behavior with a "too bad! or "whoops" (so he knows in a timely manner what behavior granted the time-out) and we can escort him there calmly without showing any anger or frustration. We can gently guide him with his collar as we use a treat as a lure and then give the treat once he is inside this area (always remove collars when in a crate or left unsupervised). We can then start fading the sight of the treat by holding the treat in a pocket and giving it only once he's inside. So if we think the puppy is cranky, we can certainly use this strategy. If the puppy instead is hyper, we can try to catch him before he nips (or just quickly as possible) so to prevent too much rehearsal and try our best to redirect to other activities (hand targeting, play with a flirt pole, sitting for a tossed kibble, sits for tossing a ball etc.) Puppies thrive on training and mental stimulation in the form of appropriate play and enrichment (brain games). Balancing this out correctly is important to reduce the incidences of nipping.

Hi there! I like that you are planning ahead, that is very smart. Other items that come to mind are: For potty training: Enzyme-based cleaner to clean up messes A black light to find messes that you could have missed Paper towels to clean up messes. Puppy pee pads if you plan on using a long-term confinement area. Pooper scooper to easily clean up outdoor poop from the yard if you have one. Other items: Interactive food-dispensing toys Baby gate Grooming tools Puppy shampoo Toothbrush/toothpaste for dogs Other articles/videos that you can find helpful are: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/love-the-crate/ Desensitization and counterconditioning (for getting puppy used to being touched, picked up, wearing a collar or leash) https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/desensitization/ https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/counterconditioning/ Stop by the obedience 101 section and train a nice sit. Puppies as young at 8 weeks can learn sits after just a few days after settling in the home. With puppies, consider that they get easily distracted and we may need to do briefer training sessions and take baby steps. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/sit/ Target can also come handy with puppy nipping: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/targeting/ Should your puppy ever show fear, this is a good method to implement: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/using-jolly-routine-fearful-dogs/ To prevent fear of water: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/fear-water-bathing/ Leash conditioning exercises: Also, there are oodles of tips for bity puppies in this forums if you search puppy nipping or puppy biting.

When we are out, he jumps at people passing by, chases bicycle riders and when we see other dogs he goes absolutely bonkers. He jumps into the air and throws himself to the ground. He will take the lead in his teeth and play tug of war, often circling me. He has pulled me into the road and had me off my feet on several occasions. The dog trainer showed how to distract him from other dogs with sausage, but how much sausage can I carry around with me and have I got to do this forever? We live in a village surrounded by countryside. I walk him every day. This morning we went on a three hour hike. When we returned, he ate his breakfast and then ran through the house and garden bouncing off the shed, walls and furniture and knocking my husband to the floor. Firstly, I would try using a harness or gentle leader as discussed before. Next, I would practice on Look at That if possible from a window or at a distance from his triggers making sure he is not over threshold. Please take a look at the the look at that method here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/ It's important that he is kept at a distance from his triggers until he learns to act calmer. Read here about threshold levels: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/ You may be interested as well in this method: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/open-bar-closed-bar/ Here are tips for biting on leash: The rushing through the house sounds like a case of zoomies. You can try to redirect this excess energy (or release of stress) with brain games. Toss a handful of his kibble on the ground and let him search it (see the Treasure hunt game), try the Bottle Game and feed a portion of his meals in a Kong Wobbler. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/elementary/the-treasure-hunt/ https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/high-school/the-bottle-game/ To answer your question, the sausage is mostly needed initially when we want to reinforce desired behaviors or create positive associations. As he gets calmer around these stimuli, there will be less need, to the point where you may need considerable less just to maintain the progress made. Practice makes perfect, so the more you work with him around these distractions, paying attention to not sending him over threshold, the better. Consider that the more he gets to rehearse these problematic behaviors, the stronger and more resistant to extinction they become. Let me know if you need more details on the process.

Our problem is that he is a serious jumper. He jumps in the house on us and our visitors. We have tried turning our back, leaving the room and putting him on time out. He does eventually calm down from exhaustion - us and him. To train a dog to stop jumping we first need to work on reducing the jumping on us since visitors are a distraction. As with pulling on the leash, dogs need to first learn in less distracting environments, and then apply gradually to increasing distracting scenarios. So once your dog learns to not jump on you, you can employ some guests to works as stimuli and practice with their help. They need to follow careful rules so to not reinforce the jumping (no attention when the dog jumps) You can see here a general guide on jumping and a case study on how I tackled a dog with a severe jumping behavior. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/behavior-training/jumping/ Case study with video: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/case-studies/02-maggie-assessing-jumping-behavior-desensitization/ https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/case-studies/02-maggie-practice-greetings/ Getting a dog used to door knocks and door bells ans polite greeting behaviors: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/behavior-training/barking/doorbells-knocks-on-doors/ If you want more troubleshooting ideas, please provide more details on when the jumping occurs the most (when you enter the home, when you get up in the morning, when you get the collar/leash etc. )

Our best friends have a two year old Standard Poodle and a huge garden. We took Baxter there to socialise him. They got on well, though a bit boisterous the first time. After the third occasion we had to take Baxter away as he was charging at her like a bull and had injured her. Here's a fact that is often difficult for many dog owners to swallow: many dogs when they reach social maturity (12 to 36 months of age), change in the way they interact with other dogs. They may play well as puppies, but then it's as if a switch turns on during social maturity and things start deteriorating. Often it starts with dogs being more selective on which dogs to befriend or dogs who become more intolerant over certain types of play. They may no longer tolerate paws on their shoulders or all-in-your-face play. I am not sure if there is an element of aggression here, or if he was just playing rough, but just thought to point this out as this may be what may be happening.

2) He has no recall, just turns a deaf ear, regardless of the lure Start with baby steps, training in a low distraction area and using high value treats. Here is the section on recall training to start with: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/recall/ The come when calling exercise is something that we need to practice life-long. It's important to make it fun, upbeat and follow several important rules. You will find these threads with troubleshooting tips helpful. Read through the most stubborn cases too as you may find some helpful tips if you ever stumble on similar hurdles as you navigate through the process:

Please note: text is blue is clickable and leads to articles for further in depth explanations/ readings. You need to be logged into to Brain Training for Dogs Course to read them. 1) Baxter walks out fairly well, but can get a little bit pulley when we are in new places. Yes, you are correct that this is understandable. When dogs are in new places, it is difficult to apply what they learned in an area with more distractions going on. There is often an element of anxiety going on here. Dogs may feel insecure and not in their element, and often they want to sniff to learn more about their new whereabouts. If this is the case, we need to implement some level of behavior modification trying to ease the anxiety through gradual introductions (desensitization) and creating positive associations with exploring and visiting novel places (counterconditioning), while also working more on creating more confidence in these dogs. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/exercises-build-confidence-insecure-dogs/ On the other hand, this can just be a matter of the dog not being able to generalize the training he has received so far in areas with more distractions. In these cases, it helps to identify what triggers the pulling on these walks, and work through those elements gradually by asking the dog to heel despite them. One dog I had used to pull a lot when there were rabbits scurrying through the tall grass. So we worked on heeling exercises by having my hubby throw rocks in the grass to mimic the rabbit's movement, while I asked to heel using super high value treats to reinforce that heeling. The more we practiced, the more solid the response. Soon, the dog started heeling upon noticing the rabbits. I don't know what walking gear you are using, but if you are small-built like me and your dog is strong, you may find a front-attachment harness (where the leash attaches to a ring by the dog's chest area like the Easy walk harness, the Walk Your Dog With Love Harness or the Sensitive harness or Freedom harness) helpful. Alternatively, a halti head collar, which controls the dog's head can turn helpful, although these require some conditioning (time to get used to using desensitization and counterconditioning).

Hi Susan, I am sorry to hear about the struggles you are going through. Your dog is two, which is a difficult age as he's in the peak adolescent stage. Not surprisingly, statistics shows that this is a stage during which most dogs are relinquished to shelters. You can read more about the dog adolescent stage here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/survive-dogs-adolescent-stage/ Fortunately, as these dogs go through this stage (which can feel very long) if we remain consistent and on top of the game, things get better once the dog progresses into the adult stage. Now, you need to really give yourself a pat on the back. These dogs are not easy. I have fostered and rehabbed several dogs like this and the process can be exhausting mentally and physically. You put a lot of work initially, often with little payback, but then as the days progress, you often start seeing little glimpses of progress. There may be ups and downs, with progress and sometimes dogs reverting to their old habits, but as time goes by, the progress gets more and more steady, to the point where you start seeing more desirable behaviors surface than the undesirable ones. To put things in perspective let's weight the progress made so far: he was destructive, but now it seems he has gotten over that he sits and lies down on command he will leave food when told to and will wait until he is given the go ahead to eat his meals You can take anything off him. He is quite affectionate. He has no aggression. So let's take a closer look at the behavior problems you are facing: Baxter walks out fairly well, but can get a little bit pulley when we are in new places. He has no recall, just turns a deaf ear, regardless of the lure. Our best friends have a two year old Standard Poodle and a huge garden. We took Baxter there to socialise him. They got on well, though a bit boisterous the first time. After the third occasion we had to take Baxter away as he was charging at her like a bull and had injured her. Our problem is that he is a serious jumper. He jumps in the house on us and our visitors. We have tried turning our back, leaving the room and putting him on time out. He does eventually calm down from exhaustion - us and him. When we are out, he jumps at people passing by, chases bicycle riders and when we see other dogs he goes absolutely bonkers. He jumps into the air and throws himself to the ground. He will take the lead in his teeth and play tug of war, often circling me. He has pulled me into the road and had me off my feet on several occasions. The dog trainer showed how to distract him from other dogs with sausage, but how much sausage can I carry around with me and have I got to do this forever? We live in a village surrounded by countryside. I walk him every day. This morning we went on a three hour hike. When we returned, he ate his breakfast and then ran through the house and garden bouncing off the shed, walls and furniture and knocking my husband to the floor. I will be now do some troubleshooting for each problem one by one. Making one post for each specific problem.

Hi Susan, Welcome to the forums. I am a bit confused about your post. I see parts with a link that goes to a page to make a new post and not sure who said " I definitely don't recommend murdering the affectionate dog, as many shelters would be glad to have him." In most cases, where owners are counselled to contact a local trainer, they are aggression cases (which require in-person guidance for safety and correct implementation) or severe anxiety requiring medications. These cases are very delicate and the upmost care is required. No dog training and behavior modification is ultimately totally safe though (people may get scratched, bitten, may fall), hence why disclaimers are needed. Also, I am sorry to hear that you think there's nothing here except some "party tricks." I am afraid you missed the sections on obedience training, brain games, behavior training, the archive with hundreds of articles tackling all kinds of problems, the case study section (sharing methods I personally craft for individual cases which is always expanding), the glossary, and the forums where we can do deep troubleshooting on many common and not-so-common problems. I can feel your frustration. After contacting a local trainer and not getting the results desired can feel very depressing especially when we have high expectations and hope. Here's the thing, behavior change takes time and the longer a dog rehearses a problematic behavior, the longer it takes to tackle. You got Baxter as a rescue, so we don't know what happened in the past. Very likely, as you postulate, the owner had his hands full and this dog is a work in progress. Some dogs can be a lot of work. I have an owner picking up a dog in a few minutes, I will be posting some troubleshooting for the issues you are facing in my next post later today. Hang in there.

Hello, and welcome to the forums! Ouch, getting an infection from being scratched must be very upsetting! This sounds for the most part like out-of-hand, super boisterous puppy play behavior, with the tenacity of the Jack Russell in the mix. He sounds like a good candidate for puppy classes, especially those focusing on puppy play time and socialization, where he can refine his bite inhibition further by playing with other puppies and getting rid of some excess energy and socializing at the same time. But of course, with this COVID19 situation, this might not be an option. I would suggest to avoid corrections considering that we can go from playful biting, to defensive biting in no time. This can lead to troublesome behaviors along the road. You mention him being aggressive, but I need more details about his biting considering that puppy biting can often appear as aggressive. Does he act aggressive when you touch his food? Toys? What signs of aggression are you exactly seeing and in what specific contexts. A lot of puppy play looks rough and play aggression is common in puppies. They'll play growl, play bark and play bite. They'll stalk you and do mock attacks. They'll grab to your pant legs and pull back and growl. If you are referring to the barking and lunging when you correct him, then it's important to stop this approach. A German shepherd puppy was once brought to me for defensive biting upon being touched, because a veterinarian told the owner to grab the puppy's muzzle every time he was biting. From playful bites, his biting turned into defensive biting because he came to associate hands with bad things. This puppy indeed didn't like to be touched anywhere and would nip to protect himself. It took extra time to train him to perform alternate behaviors because we had to overcome his defensive reaction towards hands. Here are some exercises that can help divert his attention from biting to alternate activities: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/bite-inhibition-games/ You can also work on refining your pup's biting with these exercises which you can incorporate in your daily training: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/train-dog-take-treats-gently/ To protect your hands you can try wearing a pair of leather gloves and to protect your arms try wearing extra layers of clothes, as much as this may be impractical now with the warm weather coming, it at leash can protect your from scratches. For the legs, you can try wearing tall rubber boots. Nails can be also filed down to be less sharp using a dremmel or fingernail file (your vet can do this for you). Also, ask your doctor whether your tetanus shot is up to date and how to prevent any infections in the future. I use Neosporin or a betadine solution when I get teeth marks or scratches from hyper pups. Those teeth and nails carry bacteria so we need to be careful. It also helps to invest in toys and activities that encourage independent play (so to not always look for you for playing) such as Kong Wobblers, stuffed Kongs and brain games. When you try to replace with a toy, what toy you give matters. If you give a toy that is always around and that is static (doesn't move) it is pretty much value-less compared to your hands, legs and other body parts that he can play with. Try re-directing to a stuffed Kong, or a flirt pole for dogs (I like to carry mine around my waist when I have puppies) or a tennis ball to chase (keep several in a bag attached to a belt.) Or how about stop feeding him from the bowl and redirecting to fun kibble tossed around to be chased? You can also find several more tips in the many threads on puppy nipping in this forum.As you can see this is a very common problem, I am listing you some so you don't have to go searching for them. It is good to read through the most challenging cases as they can give you several options to keep in mind as you navigate through the puppy nipping phase. I hope this helps! Please follow up with more details or questions if I haven't covered the issue in detail or simply would like to do more troubleshooting. I am here for support. Best, Adrienne Disclaimer: Behavior modification comes with risks. if your dog is aggressive, please consult with a dog behavior professional for safety and correct behavior modification implementation. Make sure the professional uses force-free methods.

Hi there! Welcome to the forums! Training a dog requires giving the dog lots of individual attention, especially initially. You will need to pay attention to what the dog does, concentrate on his progress and possibly carry several items in your hands (treats for luring and then rewarding, a clicker -if you use it). On top of this, you need to focus on the dog's body language for signs of motivation, eagerness or tiring or stress. While there are several training methods nowadays, a popular one that yields fast results is luring (which is mostly used throughout the course), where a treat is used as a guide to get the dog perform a desired behavior and is then quickly faded to primarily being used as reinforcement. It would be close to impossible using two hands to lure two untrained dogs side-by-side without creating confusion. Additionally, it would become confusing for us using the clicker/verbal marker since both dogs will likely perform the desired behavior at different times. Another consideration is that in the initial stages of training, it is important to start training in an area free of distractions. To one dog, the presence of another dog or more dogs, is a strong distraction. As you can attest, some dogs tend to get into "pack mentality" and influence each other, feeding off each others' emotions. If for example, you are training in one room and one dog is reactive to noises and takes off, the other dog will likely leave and go check things out with his buddy too. Soon, you are left with no dogs to train as these distractions have won over you. Not to mention, dogs may also tend to compete for attention. In a dog training scenario, competition may involve a dog owner's attention with the added bonus of the presence of a odoriferous treat bag clipped to a belt. Intrusions are almost a certainty with untrained dogs, with them getting in between repeatedly if no measures are taken to keep these dogs under control and out of the way. Some dogs may be prone to resource guarding. It is therefore important that, in the initial stages of training, each dog is provided with attention until he or she grasps the concept, and then, other dogs can be brought into the picture. The more dogs in a household, the more crucial it is that all dogs are well-trained and well-behaved. You would therefore first select one dog to work with. In the meanwhile, you will have to find a way to keep the other dogs out of the way. You can keep your other dogs in another room, behind a baby gate, in their crates, tethered, or in the yard. If you choose to crate them, you can provide the non-working dogs with a safe chew toy or food-dispensing toy to keep them busy. They'll soon look forward to this training routine without getting frustrated waiting their turn to be trained. If you choose to use a see-through baby gate, from where your dogs can watch you train, consider that they may get frustrated and impatient and this may lead to barking which can be a major distraction. If your dogs though are able to stay calm, reap the benefit of having them observe your training. Studies have shown that dogs learn faster if they watch other dogs being trained. On top of this, by watching, the motivation for the other non-working dogs will increase by the time it's their turn. If your dogs have had some basic training and know how to hold a solid down stay on a mat, you can teach them to patiently wait their turns, laying on the mat, as you train each dog individually. In the midst of training, you can pause and drop a treat on the non-working dogs' mats every now and then to reward them for being chill. Alternatively, you can enlist the help of other family members to help train each dog individually and even in the same room mimicking the group classes dog trainers hold. In such a case, make sure that all members are on the same page as to training methods and verbal cues used. Once you have trained each dog individually and they all have shown signs of grasping the concept and each dog has demonstrated the proficiency of being able to respond in the training room, but also in other areas of the home and the yard, it is time to add another dog. Which dog should you add though? You may be far better off picking as a combo your most proficient dog, and then adding in your next proficient one and so forth. Once you are done mixing up the dogs in combos of two, further raise criteria, and add a further dog until you have your dogs in a group. At that point, you can use an attention grabbing cue such as "dogs" (a cue that will come to signify that all dogs must collectively respond) followed by your verbal cue such as "sit" or "down" etc. You can then reward the fastest dogs to comply working down to the slowest ones. Group training works wonderfully for important cues such as all dogs waiting before you open a door, responding to a smacking sound when the postal carrier approaches (look up the "Look at that" brain game), having your dogs all lie down politely on their mats during your meal times, asking your dogs to do a group sit/stay or down/stay and then releasing them and calling your dogs (watch them competing rushing towards you!) and even holding sit-stays for great group pictures. I hope this helps, Happy Training!

Hello and welcome to the forums! This is a good question and something us novice trainers several years ago when attending clicker training classes asked about before getting started. We were explained that it was perfectly fine for us to train next to each other with our dogs and that the clicking didn't seem to have any impact on its effectiveness and what the dogs were being clicked for. It appears dogs understand when the click is for them and can tune out the other clicks. So there we were, 8 people in this class clicker training our dogs side-by-side, and the dogs truly seemed to tune out the others' clicks and grasped the training we did. When training multiple dogs, the ones left behind in the kennel may benefit from being given something (stuffed Kong, durable chew) so to entertain themselves with considering that they can feel frustrated as they are waiting their turn. After you have trained each dog individually and they all have shown signs of grasping the concept of what is being asked you can start adding the distraction of another dogs. This can happen of course after you have faded the food lures, stopped using the clicker and your dog rapidly responds to your cue. Which dog should you add though? You may be far better off picking your most proficient dog, and then adding in your next proficient one and so forth. Once you are done mixing up the dogs in combos of two, further raise criteria, and add a further dog until you have your dogs in a group. Group training works wonderfully for important cues such as waiting before you open a door, responding to a smacking sound when the postal carrier approaches, asking your dogs to do a group sit/stay or down/stay and then releasing them and calling your dogs (watch them competing rushing towards you!) and for great holiday group pictures. Hope this helps! Happy Training, Best, Adrienne

Hi Jenny, Welcome to the forums! Yes, giving treats is the right thing to do, but if you want to work on the reactive behavior you want to make use of them to your advantage. Do invest in high-value treats and make them contingent upon seeing other dogs. Now, his behavior may be due to barrier frustration which occurs when dogs want to meet other dogs on leash, but are frustrated because they can't and therefore their frustration builds up to an "explosion" of lunging, whining and barking when seeing other dogs. These dogs are normally friendly with other dogs off leash, but struggle when they are leashed. If that's the case, you may want to train an alternate behavior to engage in when walking (such as doing several steps of attention-heeling). You can read more about barrier frustration here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/barrier-frustration/ And here are directions for training heeling/attention heeling: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/heeling-attention-heeling/ Another cause of the behavior you may be seeing is fear-based reactivity, defensive aggression often seen in dogs who weren't socialized much to other dogs or who have undergone negative experiences, or who are simply fearful, in which case we may want to start just by feeding high value treats every time your dog looks at other dogs. You can start from a window in your home and then progress on walks, maintaining distance. You can read about this here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/ Important when addressing reactivity is ensuring the dog is under threshold, here is a read about threshold levels in dogs: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/ Here's a summary of the process: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/attacking-dogs-walks/ and a case study; https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/case-studies/03-homer-homers-reactivity/ You may also find it helpful to read other threads about similar problems so to view the process from different angles and employ strategies that can help (you can find many more by searching) You may also find it helpful to use a front-attachment harness (Easy walk harness, Walk your dog with love harness, Sensible harness) for more control versus a regular buckle collar especially in the initial training phases. Now, a disclaimer is warranted here, behavior modification comes with risks. When dogs are over threshold or in a highly aroused state, dog owners are at risk for a re-directed bite (sometimes just from being touched!) and other people/dogs around can be at risk too if not enough distance is taken or should people come too close or should the dog lunge forward or escape. For safety and correct implementation of behavior modification, it is therefore best to enlist the help of a dog behavior professional for in-person coaching and to ensure the dog is kept under threshold and not exposed to stimuli/situations that may be too overwhelming. I hope this helps, Best, Adrienne

Hi Hridika, I was wondering about you! I know from your previous history that Remie was attacking Hannah over resources and in tight spaces such as the basement, and even when she smelled something on her fur, so its interesting now that you point out that she gets upset on Hannah when you are scolding her. Sure, this further proves that she has a tendency to display Type-A personality traits and wants to play the "fun police" role which is typical in many controlling herders.. Not surprising as it mimics somewhat what they would do in the case of recalcitrant sheep who need to be herded! I am glad you were able to prevent things from escalating. I am thinking whether there can be ways to stop Hannah from doing things without involving the yelling. I guess it's creating some emotional arousal and putting Remie on alert. Perhaps consult with your behaviorist on whether you can train some sound that has less emotions involved to re-direct Hannah in her tracks so that Remie doesn't feel the need to intervene. The nipping at your husband's hand sounds familiar. I recall you stated a while back that he once got nipped when he reached into a crate or some other type of enclosure to remove her collar or leash. Sounds like you need to work on hubby too! Well, that's often the case anyway. Maybe a big sign nearby her area to remind him may work :"Caution, Remie's space, no sticking hands!" I am glad though that things are working out for you over all. Thank you so much for the update! Best, Adrienne

Hello, Welcome to the forums! Any time there is a dog with a history of acting normally, and then, out of the blue, there are incidents of aggression (growling, snapping, biting), I feel it's important to firstly rule out medical problems. There can be several medical conditions in dogs that may trigger behavior changes. For example, hypothyroidism, which occurs when the dog suffers from a low count of thyroid hormones can cause increased weight gain, hair loss, lethargy, low tolerance of cold, and behavior changes such as anxiety, fear and aggression. Jack Russell are listed as a breed predisposed to this. Other conditions that come to mind are painful conditions such as arthritis or other orthopedic problems, ear problems, muscle sprains etc. which can cause uncharacteristic reactions. Loss of hearing or loss or loss of eye sight can too trigger unusual reactions. If you saw a board-certified veterinary behaviorist (DACVB), I assume that they must have run several tests to rule out medical problems, however, it can happen at times that something may have been missed. If something medical was missed, it is difficult to treat the behavior if the underlying root cause is not addressed. If medical reasons have been ruled out through a thorough battery of tests, then we must consider triggers or situations at an emotional level. Here are a few ideas as to what may have happened: -Perhaps your husband accidentally pinched his skin when he snapped the harness clip? Maybe your dog experienced some type of pain or something frightened him that day and this left a strong impression. "Single event learning" refers to a single episode of something fearful occurring that has an everlasting impact. -Another possibility is that your dog has associated having the harness being put on with going outside. You mention that he doesn't like to go out but is fine once out, but dogs are more likely to make connections between closer events so if he dreads going out even though it's only initially, he may associate the harness with that and this may have triggered some defensive aggression. It would be important therefore evaluating exactly why it is that he doesn't like to go outside. Is he afraid of noises? Are there dogs barking in the neighborhood? Does he not like the sound of his tags making sounds? At what point of the walk does he seem to tolerate it more? Working on this issue may involve the use of desensitization and counterconditioning in hopes of changing the emotional response. Here is how desensitization works: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/desensitization/ And here is counterconditioning: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/counterconditioning/ And this is the importance of keeping the dog under threshold: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/ Please let me know what type of work the trainers and behaviorists have done so far on your dog, how he responded and for how long the behavior modification suggested was applied for. Did you have a professional guide your through behavior modification to ensure it's implemented correctly? Did they offer follow-ups? I would like to do some further troubleshooting on what may have gone wrong. Looking forward to more information. Adrienne

Hello Rebecca, I do remember your situation and you certainly have made lots of progress with her with since you mention she previously was acting wild and biting you the whole time. I also recall that she used to be reactive towards other dogs on walks and it seems like no it's only more a matter of dogs being jogged or running along bikes. The biting when need to poop behavior you are describing sounds like her way of communicating, albeit in an undesirable fashion. This can sometimes happen if you inadvertently reinforced the behavior in the past. Here are some dynamics we need to be aware of. You state "she bites until I will walk her." This suggest that likely you have waited her out at some point and then finally gave in. The problem with this is that, this approach reinforces persistence. Let me explain with an example. Let's imagine a child that cries for candy. Every time the child is in a store, he cries because he sees candy and wants it. Mom gives in several times. Then one day, a dentist finds several cavities, so mom decides to cut out candy for some time. So next time in the store, the child cries, but mom is firm not to buy any candy, so he has a super temper tantrum (in behavior science this escalation is called an extinction burst). So moral of the story is that, if we give in to undesirable behaviors, those behaviors put roots. And if one day we decide to not give in, the child or dog will likely increase the intensity of the behavior (or try a different behavior altogether). At this point, giving in would reinforce persistence. If we do not give in instead and stick to our plan, ignoring even the stronger intensity extinction bursts, we would eventually extinguish the behavior. So when "she bites until I walk" we are rewarding persistence as the dog is reinforced (by being taken out) for those insistent behaviors. Dogs learn through associations, they understand behavior/consequence when these events take place in a close enough time. Now, we don't want to totally extinguish this behavior as we must consider: what if she really needs to poop? So we need to evaluate things carefully as we don't want to set her back in her potty training progress and cause her to poop in the home just because we don't want to reinforce the biting behavior. So perhaps the best approach here is helping her find a softer way of communicating to you her need to potty. So how can we accomplish this? Here are a few ideas: -We can be really attentive and reinforce milder signs of needing to go out. For instance, the moment you notice she is walking towards you with an intent to bite, you anticipate her and walk towards the door. This may or may not work depending on how ingrained her biting behavior is and her level of arousal over the whole situation. With this method though, there is a drawback: if we ignore her one day because we failed to take notice or a bit distracted, she will likely revert to the biting to get your attention. -A better option may be to offer something that will distract her for just enough time to keep her mind off of biting you and giving you a way to break the chain. I know you tried already distracting her, but we need to find something that helps her make a good choice just for a little bit. So she is coming towards you to bite? You can toss her a handful of high-value treats on the floor (or her kibble is she really likes it) and as she eats you walk away to grab the leash (if high value enough she should choose those rather than biting you), then hand feed a treat while you put on the leash on, then do several steps of attention heeling with a treat at eye level, give it and head together outside. -Make life easier. Keep treats handy in your pocket or treat bag, keep the leash ready by the exit, have nothing blocking you so that you can swiftly get prepared as she eats the dropped treats and you can get her out quickly reducing the chances for biting. The next question though is, does she really need to poop? or is she blowing you off, just wanting to go outside for fun? There's only one method to really differentiate the two needs and that is measuring and keeping track of her poop behaviors. If you feed her on a schedule, her poop time can become more predictable which offers you the advantage of being able to better track her physiological outputs. Bolt down notes every day at what time she poops (consider pee as well since she may be asking out for that too). Now, if you notice a pattern, you know what to expect. If every day she poops first thing in the morning around 8 AM, then around noon, then around 6 and then around 10 prior to bedtime you have a pretty decent predictable schedule. So if she starts acting impatient around 1145 you know there's a pretty good chance she has to truly potty. If she starts getting impatient around 1230 just half hour after peeing and pooping, you know most likely she wants to go out just for the fun of it. On top of this though, we need to also consider why she is finding being outside so rewarding that she's asking so often to be taken out. Life in an apartment can become quite dull after some time, so it might be worthy aiming to encourage fun activities in the home such as brain games, fun training sessions, play, shaping exercises with the clicker etc. With dogs I board, I like to make it a good habit to give something exciting such as a special toy or treat upon entering the home just to build some anticipation to going back home. I support a fun indoor environment as the outdoors has many great amenities (think a child looking forward to build an airplane from a kit when coming home). When you have guests over, she may be better off having her 'own space" to prevent her from wanting your attention and asking over and over to go outside )unless it's her potty time). You can grant her an area to call her own with a baby gate or indoor pet fence, where she is not really alone (she can see you and the guests, but she can't engage in the biting behavior). We don't want her to rehearse the problematic behavior which allows her to put roots. So unless we are able to provide her with other things to do, this may be the best option. If she barks in this area, it may help to provide her with some food dispensing toy or safe chew toy. Sometimes when cuddling her she can "snap" and try to bite me when she doesn't like that i touch her in this instance - for me I know she never would attack me and its quite "innocent", but its scary for other people and I'm always nervous that she would do it with them. She can sometimes tell us with gnarling and making the sound to stop and most of the times she does it before she "snaps", so if I would stop cuddling she also would not snap in most instances. If she has good bite inhibition and her rabies vaccine is up to date, we can work on creating positive associations with the help of behavior professional. A disclaimer is warranted here: Bites can increase in intensity at any time, depending on dog's arousal levels and whether the dog may feel the need to escalate or feels stressed. On top of this, any bite that breaks skin can be at risk for serious infections. For safety, it's therefore important having a dog behavior professional help you through and you may want to wear thick gloves for safety again considering that any bite that breaks skin can be a vector for bacteria (think tetanus and sepsis). What I do usually for cases as such is that I touch slightly for a brief time a body part the dog seems OK with most of the time and feed a treat. I rinse and repeat several times, always paying attention to the dog's body language ensuring that the dog is "under threshold." Read here about threshold. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/ I make sure to keep these the session short and fun. If at any time the dog seems uncomfortable, I make a note of that, and go back a step or two until the dog is comfortable again and consider using a lighter touch or briefer for whatever triggered her response. Next session, I touch other areas and feed a treat. Rinse and repeat several times , but always keeping the session short and fun. Then, I might start petting areas she might not like too much. Very brief touch, treat. Rinse and repeat several times. Next, I may start increasing the duration of the touch. Like I might give a stroke of one hand rather than a brief touch and feed a treat, stroke, treat, stroke treat. I would then progress gradually up to when the dog seems to not only tolerate being pet, but even enjoying it. I am after what's known as a "conditioned emotional response. " This means the dog's body language shows happy anticipation rather than dread. Other people would have to do this too if we want to generalize the behavior, but it may be just safer keeping your dog on leash when people are around and tell them to not pet your dog. Once again, we must consider safety, considering that even though a bite may not send a person to the ER, it can still cause infections every time it breaks skin, not to mention, we are allowing the dog to rehearse problematic behaviors. 2 I walked in a dog forest with many dogs, I think she met around 100 dogs or more in the total period, where she never had any issues with any dog. Many dog owners also told me she is so good socialized especially with puppies. After 1 month of going there nearly every day, she all of a sudden attacked 2 dogs in a row. She sniffed them and then went straight for the neck and put them down on the ground keeping on attacking them, In the end there was no blood and no damage, but it was quite aggressive and looked terrible. After this I am very nervous with letting her play with dogs as I dont know when it would happen again and it was so unpredictable. My veterinarian says she is not an aggressive dog, but that I need to learn to control her fear. I often recommend dog owners to avoid areas where encounters with other dogs occur for the simple fact that just one interaction gone wrong has risks for impacting dogs at an emotional level paving the path for a reactive dog. There are too many stories of dogs being attacked or dogs attacking when they are allowed to mingle. If there are dogs you are almost 100 percent certain she gets along with, you can reserve play dates with these dogs, but always consider that fights may happen in any case and supervision is always a must. Your dog is at an age (social maturity) where several dogs start becoming more dog intolerant. It's important to prevent her from rehearsing troublesome behaviors that can put more and more roots. 3. When going on leash with her she is 90 % fine and really okey with other dogs, I can pick up a treat and distract her and she won't react to any of them. There are some dogs which she becomes super reactive with. She barks and lunges and becomes aggressive to the point that anything which is in her way she attacks. She bit me one time in the leg and my boyfriend 2 times. Mostly it is with dogs which are coming with bicycle or together with joggers (running towards her). Sometimes it is when we are just walking normally and she really doesnt "like" this dog. I have no way to stop her and just have to let her bark. Its almost impossible to walk the other way, and I cant put anything in front of her then. Predictability is your best friend when it comes to behavior modification. If you can find a common pattern of what sets your dog off towards these dogs, you are at an advantage. You mention it happens most with dogs on a bike or with joggers, then these are the stimuli you need to work on. Find a distance from where your dog can watch these and do the same exercises you used initially to work when he was reactive towards other dogs in general (see your initial thread below). If you have a helper who jogs with his dogs or bikes with them, you can create set-ups for this exercise and you can control their distance, speed etc. Please be careful avoid touching your dog to prevent a redirected bite. See a professional for help since she has bitten before both for safety and correct implementation of behavior modification. I have to point out and say that the 3rd point is much worse now after she lives together and walk together with our other rescue dog (german shepherd) which she flips more when he is barking on other dogs. Please avoid walking her with your other dog as this makes things much harder. Have a family member walk your other dog on separate occasions and in different areas. Dogs feed off each others' emotions so when your other dog notices something, you other dog will too and they will join forces together. For behavior modification to be effective, you need to have 100 percent attention on one dog, so you can scan the environment for triggers, give distance and work on behavior modification. Sorry this got so long! Let me know if you have an more questions or want to go more in depth on any of these subjects. Best, Adrienne

It sounds like your dogs have found a favorite hobby and their watchdogs duties are giving them a sense of purpose in their lives. Here's the thing: this behavior is highly reinforcing to dogs if we see what happens from their perspective. Basically, every time they bark and the triggers move away (either due to their barking or just simply because they are walking by), they think that their barking is what is sending them away from their perceived turf. Barking at dogs/people walking by is also highly instinctive because it's rather normal for dogs to sound the alarm when invading dogs and people are approaching. Smaller dogs such as yorkies can be particularly prone to this, but so are many other dogs. This is something dogs have been selectively bred for many years (back when barking alerting humans to dangerous animals/ invaders). Not to mention, when dogs are in the backyard they tend to get a little bored and need to find something to do. One dog may be more prone to bark and the other follows so there's also a potentiating effect when two dogs are barking together. This behavior therefore left on its own, has a tendency to put roots and potentiate. So this means that, if we leave them out of the yard on their own, they will keep on doing that, and even if we train them to not bark when we are outside with them, they tend to revert to the behavior because it's so deeply ingrained. So what options do we have? I like to train dogs to respond to a smacking sound starting from looking at triggers from the window and then progressing to practicing with the dogs leashed on the porch, to then unleashed once the behavior is very fluent and if your yard is fenced. This means the dogs must always be outside with us so we can provide guidance and redirect them at a moment's notice. It also means scanning the environment readily so we can catch them before they get too worked up and less responsive. This can sound labor-intensive, but if you have time, you can be rewarded by two dogs are better under control despite strong distractions. Both Einstein and Petra got very good at this up to the point where we could have them watch dogs walk by our yards without any barking. If you have a helper that can practice walking a dog back ad forth from that's a big plus. It's important to be generous here: using high value treats always ready in your treat bag or pockets and delivered several times in a row until the trigger is gone. Here is the guide: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/ You may have to start with one dog and then involve the other. If one is particularly prone to sounding the alarm, you can start with that dog first. Sometimes, with some dogs, you can start with both depending on how responsive they are. Worth mentioning is keeping a close eye on keeping both dogs under threshold. Baby steps. If any time your dogs act reactive, it means they are not ready to deal yet with the level of distraction yet and you need to work more on a previous level. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/ You may also find these guides helpful: For barking at neighbors: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/barking-at-neighbors/ For barking at doorbells, have you tried this method? https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/behavior-training/barking/doorbells-knocks-on-doors/ If so, let me know what is happening. And then this is if the barking continues once the guest enters the home: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/dog-barking-someone-enters-room/ Please take notice that walking two dogs at once can be quite challenging as they feed off each others' emotions. You may want to work with one dog at a time or have a helper walk the other one. Finally, don't forget about training and providing exercise and mental stimulation. We want to provide outlets for a dog's needs for keeping their brains busy, but in productive ways. Disclaimer: When dealing with barking/growling, please consider that this often falls more under behavior modification rather than training. Behavior modification comes with risks. If your dogs act in any way aggressive, please play it safe and consult with a dog behavior professional for in-person guidance and correct implementation of behavior modification.

Hi Rebecca, Welcome to the forums! Spaniels are rather "soft dogs"and have a tendency for excitement and submissive urination. If this is from excitement from visitors entering the home, and ignoring isn't working, you can try distracting him by dropping high value tasty treats to the ground. This works both as a distraction, reducing his excited focus on guests, and also to creare positive associations with the guests' arrival and giving an alternate thing to do. After some time, you can also try adding some sits and rewarding those which also help in increasing your dog's confidence. Here is a read about excitement urination: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/urinating-when-excited/ About the peeing in the crate, that's sure interesting! So he raises his leg inside the crate and aims outside of it? It sounds like urine marking if he has peed before outside. Is he neutered? Is the crate very large? It can be insightful recording his behavior when left alone in the crate and then watching it. This to see whether there is some trigger such as a certain sight or sound, whether he shows signs of separation anxiety (mostly whining, howling, barking, peeing, chewing etc), but also to see if the urination is part of the excitement tinkle he does and therefore happens when he hears you arriving home or approaching the crate.

You are very welcome! Glad to hear you were able to get her to lie down! Thank you for posting the video. You aced it, very nice! Stella is also nicely focused which is a pleasure to watch. Next, after a few trials we can start fading the sight of the food lure. You can make the treat gradually less and less visible or try not to use it all (pretend as if you're holding it) and make the same hand movement, but this time rewarding from treats held in your other hand hidden behind your back.

You are very welcome! Keep me posted on how things go and I am always here if you have any questions. Send pats to your doggies! Best, Adrienne