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Hi! New here but figured I’d post right away since I’m desperate for help 😅 Walking my dog is currently so bad it makes me want to cry. The moment I allow him to step out the door, he goes tail up, head up, tense, like he’s instantly overstimulated. I always calm him down before I move from the door, get him to heel, look at me, and so on, but he just can’t seem to switch off for more than a moment. He pulls, he lunges at random things he spots, he barks at nothing or at the sky. I think generally dogs are the biggest issue as he lies down and refuses to move as soon as he spots a dog and then lunges if the dog gets closer. Sometimes I can get him to change direction and walk away if I’m quick with a “Turn” command before he lies down but often there’s another dog there since I live in the city and in a dog-dense area. Full disclosure, I haven’t done the courses yet but I did have a look at the case studies and specifically at Homer. Now I have learned about counter-conditioning before, but the problem I have is that as long as there is a dog anywhere in sight, he’s just completely uninterested in food. And yes, I tried store-bought, self-made, raw, human food, all kinds - nothing interests him. If a dog is far enough sometimes he will absent-mindedly take the treat while staring at the dog but I think he does it more as a “I’ll take it if you want me to” rather than a reward. Odd thing is, this has only been happening for maybe a month. I don’t believe anything particular happened to trigger this. Previously he’d do the lie down and sometimes pull on the leash a little but there was no tension and barking and lunging. I also spent all of last week at my boyfriend’s place with my dog and he was completely different on the walks there - yes, he’d stare and lie down when he saw dogs but he was able to listen to me otherwise, didn’t bark at nothing, didn’t seem tense. As soon as we got back to my place and stepped out of the car he went tail up and started barking on the corridor. So it seems like it’s also location-specific? I am really frustrated with this, it seems whatever I try either doesn’t work at all or works for a moment and then stops working. For example, I tried just marking focus and attention, so if he’d look at me or be close by I’d say “yes!” and give him a treat if he came up. And as soon as I started doing that, he would focus heel half the walk, unprompted, I’d tell him to go sniff or go potty and he would do that and come back. And that made me so happy and suddenly one day he just stopped doing that. Like if he looks and I say ‘yes’ he will just continue on. It’s come to the point where I just genuinely dread going on walks, they are so stressful and embarrassing for me. We come back from the walk and I’m on the verge of tears. He’s a 1.5yo BC, unfixed.

I have 2 young dogs that I am trying to teach how to walk together. One is a bullmastiff/pitt mix who's almost 2. The other is a boxer mix who is about 20 months. They both walk relatively well on leash. When I have tried to walk them together, I use a splitter which makes it easier, but...You would think they were competing to be on a dog-sled team. They pull so hard it is all I can do to hold them back. If a something like a dog/person/squirrel catches their attention, I turn around and pull them the other direction. I have used treats, praise, etc. How can I train them to walk well together?

My new puppy is now 3 months old. His father is a poodle and the mother is an Australian Shepard. He appears to be quite intelligent, very loving and somewhat strong willed. He took to the crate quickly and goes in sometimes during the day and always willingly at night and sleeps all night without fussing. My biggest problems are 1) getting him to come after going out in the yard to potty, 2) He does not like the leash so I hardly ever use it, 3) He is very good about peeing in the yard but not so good about pooping and often does it in the house. He also has super sharp claws and I want to get started off correctly in trimming so any advise you can provide for the correct way would be appreciated. (He came from a family that treated him well until we got him at 10 weeks)

We have two Blue Heelers that are 4 months old. All progressing very well with games etc until I connected them to the leash for the first time. The first time I just let them run around with the leash connected to their collar for about 30 minutes watching them to make sure they didn't get hung up on any obstacles. Went fine, they ran and played with only a slight concern that this strange cord followed them. However, today trying to use it for recall they just had a fit. Jumping and pulling and just nuts so I took off the leash and searched for any advice here on how to go forward. Probably here but wasn't able to find any information. Can you direct me to the info or give advice here in the forum. Thank you!