u/EitherInvestment

First 8 months of her life she was an angel. She grew up frequenting bars, restaurants, coffee shops. Got loads of attention from many different humans and dogs. Always delighted with the attention. Always happy to play. Highly socialised

On vet’s advice, waited for her to have two heats before spaying her. After her first heat, things changed. She became a rebellious teenager, sometimes ignoring cues, but worst of all she started barking at strangers and even charging them. Mostly she seems to want to play, but to those that don’t know her, she clearly appears highly aggressive. Even when she sees one of her favourite humans or dogs, her initial hello is to raise the hackles and growl (at best) or scream bloody murder and charge to within one metre of them, after which she then reverts to an adorable, cuddly, playful puppy. She also approaches many dogs this way, but at least they are only terrified for a brief moment before they realise she just wants to play. Human strangere that know dogs well just ignore her for a few seconds, then will pet her and she’ll be delighted p, but for the vast majority of people she is at minimum annoying and loud due to her growling and barking, or even appears terrifyingly aggressive

Any noises she hears outside the house and she screams like crazy. Have tried “go to place”, “settle”, “watch me”, “look at that” all of which she understands fully and will respond to when below threshold (at least for a moment until there is further sound), but she goes beyond threshold from zero to 100 in an instant far too often and it’s impossible to anticipate/intervene preemptively at all times

Taking her to coffee shops or restaurants is (not always, but usually) a nightmare as I have to be on alert for anyone entering/leaving or walking by to intercept her and give her a command to prevent her from barking (which works most of the time, but only if I am 100% ready to intervene, which is horrible to have to constantly be doing). She is getting better in general it seems, but sometimes she is just shouting at anything and everything and nothing will stop her. Walks are maybe 80% fine, but most days there are at least one or two people she (seemingly randomly) will decide to just shout at and try and charge. Once every two weeks or so though, we’ll have a walk where it is almost everyone for the entirety of a walk. It is hell

She gets 1 to 2 short walks (10-15 minute) walks per day, and 1 to 2 long walks (30-45 minutes) per day. She gets to run around in an empty field or the forest almost every day to burn off energy. We do 2-4 roughly 10 minute training sessions at home every day. When below threshold, she knows a huge number of cues and does great with them. She is smart and highly food motivated (the problem is perhaps that she is also far too play motivated, including with strangers?). We work on training on every walk. We play fetch and tug and puzzle games at home every day. I take her to coffee shops or restaurants 4 to 5 times per week where we work on exposure and training. She goes to doggy daycare 2 to 3 times per week (and is apparently an angel there, other than barking at entrance sometimes). She eats very well. She is active. She is physically healthy. She is loved and cuddled to hell and back every day

Perhaps worth mentioning daycare staff are genuinely baffled when I describe her behavioural issues, as they claim to have never (or barely) witnessed them (leading me to believe perhaps these issues are not just motivation to play, but also her motivation to protect me?). She is fully off lead when at daycare. Fully on lead when we are out (trainer told me she absolutely cannot ever be off lead in public given her issues, which is really a shame as she used to be a great off lead dog in public places)

I thought after the two year mark things would improve. I am putting so much into working on her behavioural issues, trying to believe it will eventually pay off, doing everything dog trainers have advised me, but it is always 2 steps forward then 1.9 steps back, and frankly in past weeks far worse behaviour even than six months or a year ago. I need to see some improvement, or have some reason to believe she will at some stage improve if I keep investing as much as I am. I do not want to resign myself to her being “one of those scary ass dogs” that has to be left at home and never brought out around other people or dogs, but frankly recently I am seeing the way people stare at us and from the outside looking in, it must appear that is the only option for her

Grateful for any advice. I am sure I have forgotten to include relevant information without which perhaps it is not possible to advise, so please do let me know if you have any questions. There must be something I am doing wrong, or something I am not doing that I need to be

First 8 months of her life she was an angel. She grew up frequenting bars, restaurants, coffee shops. Got loads of attention from many different humans and dogs. Always delighted with the attention. Always happy to play. Highly socialised

On vet’s advice, waited for her to have two heats before spaying her. After her first heat, things changed. She became a rebellious teenager, sometimes ignoring cues, but worst of all she started barking at strangers and even charging them. Mostly she seems to want to play, but to those that don’t know her, she clearly appears highly aggressive. Even when she sees one of her favourite humans or dogs, her initial hello is to raise the hackles and growl (at best) or scream bloody murder and charge to within one metre of them, after which she then reverts to an adorable, cuddly, playful puppy. She also approaches many dogs this way, but at least they are only terrified for a brief moment before they realise she just wants to play. Human strangere that know dogs well just ignore her for a few seconds, then will pet her and she’ll be delighted p, but for the vast majority of people she is at minimum annoying and loud due to her growling and barking, or even appears terrifyingly aggressive

Any noises she hears outside the house and she screams like crazy. Have tried “go to place”, “settle”, “watch me”, “look at that” all of which she understands fully and will respond to when below threshold (at least for a moment until there is further sound), but she goes beyond threshold from zero to 100 in an instant far too often and it’s impossible to anticipate/intervene preemptively at all times

Taking her to coffee shops or restaurants is (not always, but usually) a nightmare as I have to be on alert for anyone entering/leaving or walking by to intercept her and give her a command to prevent her from barking (which works most of the time, but only if I am 100% ready to intervene, which is horrible to have to constantly be doing). She is getting better in general it seems, but sometimes she is just shouting at anything and everything and nothing will stop her. Walks are maybe 80% fine, but most days there are at least one or two people she (seemingly randomly) will decide to just shout at and try and charge. Once every two weeks or so though, we’ll have a walk where it is almost everyone for the entirety of a walk. It is hell

She gets 1 to 2 short walks (10-15 minute) walks per day, and 1 to 2 long walks (30-45 minutes) per day. She gets to run around in an empty field or the forest almost every day to burn off energy. We do 2-4 roughly 10 minute training sessions at home every day. When below threshold, she knows a huge number of cues and does great with them. She is smart and highly food motivated (the problem is perhaps that she is also far too play motivated, including with strangers?). We work on training on every walk. We play fetch and tug and puzzle games at home every day. I take her to coffee shops or restaurants 4 to 5 times per week where we work on exposure and training. She goes to doggy daycare 2 to 3 times per week (and is apparently an angel there, other than barking at entrance sometimes). She eats very well. She is active. She is physically healthy. She is loved and cuddled to hell and back every day

Perhaps worth mentioning daycare staff are genuinely baffled when I describe her behavioural issues, as they claim to have never (or barely) witnessed them (leading me to believe perhaps these issues are not just motivation to play, but also her motivation to protect me?). She is fully off lead when at daycare. Fully on lead when we are out (trainer told me she absolutely cannot ever be off lead in public given her issues, which is really a shame as she used to be a great off lead dog in public places)

I thought after the two year mark things would improve. I am putting so much into working on her behavioural issues, trying to believe it will eventually pay off, doing everything dog trainers have advised me, but it is always 2 steps forward then 1.9 steps back, and frankly in past weeks far worse behaviour even than six months or a year ago. I need to see some improvement, or have some reason to believe she will at some stage improve if I keep investing as much as I am. I do not want to resign myself to her being “one of those scary ass dogs” that has to be left at home and never brought out around other people or dogs, but frankly recently I am seeing the way people stare at us and from the outside looking in, it must appear that is the only option for her

Grateful for any advice. I am sure I have forgotten to include relevant information without which perhaps it is not possible to advise, so please do let me know if you have any questions. There must be something I am doing wrong, or something I am not doing that I need to be

First 8 months of her life she was an angel. She grew up frequenting bars, restaurants, coffee shops. Got loads of attention from many different humans and dogs. Always delighted with the attention. Always happy to play. Highly socialised

On vet’s advice, waited for her to have two heats before spaying her. After her first heat, things changed. She became a rebellious teenager, sometimes ignoring cues, but worst of all she started barking at strangers and even charging them. Mostly she seems to want to play, but to those that don’t know her, she clearly appears highly aggressive. Even when she sees one of her favourite humans or dogs, her initial hello is to raise the hackles and growl (at best) or scream bloody murder and charge to within one metre of them, after which she then reverts to an adorable, cuddly, playful puppy. She also approaches many dogs this way, but at least they are only terrified for a brief moment before they realise she just wants to play. Human strangere that know dogs well just ignore her for a few seconds, then will pet her and she’ll be delighted p, but for the vast majority of people she is at minimum annoying and loud due to her growling and barking, or even appears terrifyingly aggressive

Any noises she hears outside the house and she screams like crazy. Have tried “go to place”, “settle”, “watch me”, “look at that” all of which she understands fully and will respond to when below threshold (at least for a moment until there is further sound), but she goes beyond threshold from zero to 100 in an instant far too often and it’s impossible to anticipate/intervene preemptively at all times

Taking her to coffee shops or restaurants is (not always, but usually) a nightmare as I have to be on alert for anyone entering/leaving or walking by to intercept her and give her a command to prevent her from barking (which works most of the time, but only if I am 100% ready to intervene, which is horrible to have to constantly be doing). She is getting better in general it seems, but sometimes she is just shouting at anything and everything and nothing will stop her. Walks are maybe 80% fine, but most days there are at least one or two people she (seemingly randomly) will decide to just shout at and try and charge. Once every two weeks or so though, we’ll have a walk where it is almost everyone for the entirety of a walk. It is hell

She gets 1 to 2 short walks (10-15 minute) walks per day, and 1 to 2 long walks (30-45 minutes) per day. She gets to run around in an empty field or the forest almost every day to burn off energy. We do 2-4 roughly 10 minute training sessions at home every day. When below threshold, she knows a huge number of cues and does great with them. She is smart and highly food motivated (the problem is perhaps that she is also far too play motivated, including with strangers?). We work on training on every walk. We play fetch and tug and puzzle games at home every day. I take her to coffee shops or restaurants 4 to 5 times per week where we work on exposure and training. She goes to doggy daycare 2 to 3 times per week (and is apparently an angel there, other than barking at entrance sometimes). She eats very well. She is active. She is physically healthy. She is loved and cuddled to hell and back every day

Perhaps worth mentioning daycare staff are genuinely baffled when I describe her behavioural issues, as they claim to have never (or barely) witnessed them (leading me to believe perhaps these issues are not just motivation to play, but also her motivation to protect me?). She is fully off lead when at daycare. Fully on lead when we are out (trainer told me she absolutely cannot ever be off lead in public given her issues, which is really a shame as she used to be a great off lead dog in public places)

I thought after the two year mark things would improve. I am putting so much into working on her behavioural issues, trying to believe it will eventually pay off, doing everything dog trainers have advised me, but it is always 2 steps forward then 1.9 steps back, and frankly in past weeks far worse behaviour even than six months or a year ago. I need to see some improvement, or have some reason to believe she will at some stage improve if I keep investing as much as I am. I do not want to resign myself to her being “one of those scary ass dogs” that has to be left at home and never brought out around other people or dogs, but frankly recently I am seeing the way people stare at us and from the outside looking in, it must appear that is the only option for her

Grateful for any advice. I am sure I have forgotten to include relevant information without which perhaps it is not possible to advise, so please do let me know if you have any questions. There must be something I am doing wrong, or something I am not doing that I need to be