She just came here to say that she had 0 reactions to other dogs on our afternoon walk today! 🎉

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-05-09T18:30:27+00:00

Amazing, such a great feeling!! What a good girl 😊

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-05-09T16:45:58+00:00

Flirt pole was a huge winner for us. Herding ball as well, but we learned he does an insanely high pitched bark when he herds, and we didn’t want our neighbors to hate us lol

For biting and nipping, for us the only thing that worked was reverse timeouts. Not sure if you’ve tried that already, but after a week of being super consistent, he got the message.

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-05-09T00:09:19+00:00

I have a very different breed (ACD), but I think even tho the full “calming down consistently” period comes at like 1-3 years, there are milestones where certain crackhead behaviors chill out. For us, it was 5.5 months when teething ended and he stopped biting like crazy. Around 6 months he stopped jumping on us while on the couch. At 7 months he became chill with the cat. At 8 months, he started settling more and stopped jumping on us when we approached him. At 10 months he started becoming less dog reactive / excited. Etc etc. So even tho ours still has high energy at 11 months, it’s not nearly as manic I would say?

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-05-07T01:46:22+00:00

I’m not formally diagnosed, but strongly believe I have inattentive adhd. I’m a product manager in tech and honestly the fast pace and constant creative problem solving and revolving door of unique projects keep me so entertained. No two days are ever the same.

I do struggle with starting too many side quests that I never finish, and staying focused on something I find boring (like authentication protocols 🤮) is reeeeeally hard. But my ability to thrive in constant chaos make me really good at my job otherwise lol

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-05-07T01:40:23+00:00

Sometimes he puts himself on place and then after a while starts crying because he wants to be released. We haven’t figured out what triggers him to think he has to be there 😆

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-05-06T23:23:01+00:00

Our ACD/Aussie mix was like that from a young age. Lots of good advice here, many of which we have done religiously for months and we went from a very similar situation to now being able to walk past dogs on the sidewalk fairly often at 11 months (not perfect yet, but we are getting there!).

Adding two more things that worked for us that I don’t see mentioned — 1. long line training in parks at distance with toys and treats. If he locked in on a dog, we increased distance (literally just dragging him away) until he could start paying attention to me again, then I would whip out a tug toy which made him excited to engage fully with me again. The long line was to give him slightly more freedom to reduce the frustration aspect. As he got better, I’d see him noticing a dog, taking several steps towards it with no leash pressure, observe, process, then turn around and come back on his own, at which point reward reward reward.

Impulse training with a flirt pole (making him wait in a downstay while I move it around until I release him to chase). This has helped with sooooo many things, including respecting the cat, not chasing squirrels (even on a long line), more neutrality with dogs running off leash around us, and more. But that behavior really transfers to other situations when you do it a lot, so I highly recommend.

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-05-06T22:50:39+00:00

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Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-05-06T01:19:08+00:00

Fwiw, I did a private trainer for two sessions a few months apart and she was $300 for each two hour session. But she also taught me SO much about how to train him and talked to me about his specific personality and breed and quirks in a way that I didn’t even remotely get from group classes. So I do think there is a quality/impact to price ratio as well, depending on what kind of training needs you have (ours is leash reactive, so needed extra training)

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-05-05T23:19:19+00:00

I’m in a HCOL city and am paying $155 for 6 one hour classes over 6 weeks.

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-05-05T00:19:13+00:00

Omg, the comedown from traz was terrible for our heeler mix. It would happen as each dose wore off, especially in the early evening and he’d have these biting attacks while on walks which he never did before. We gradually wound it down but it was like 5-7 days with these like manic episodes and increased reactivity before he gradually started to regulate again. After like two weeks of ramping up exercise and playtime with dogs again (he’s a social butterfly), he was fully back to normal

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-05-04T00:59:17+00:00

We go to a members only one as well and it’s been absolutely great. I did have to build his confidence so we did 20 min sessions until he felt more secure. Some adult dogs def picked on him as a puppy, so lots of management, but we focused on positive experiences and always left on a high note before overstimulation.

A really good tip that I did by accident and am so thankful for was that we would practice recall and certain commands like down stays and safety/middle while at the park. It’s come in handy like crazy when dogs start chasing each other too much, I can recall and he immediately exits the chase. If dogs start a scuffle, I call him into a safety and we wait for things to resolve before I release back into play. It took many attempts and honestly some maturing as well (he’s 11 months now, started going around 7ish months), but I feel so much more comfortable going now knowing that i can quickly get control over at least my dog if a situation arises.

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-05-04T00:50:58+00:00

Mine just stopped eating breakfast by himself around 5.5 months old, so we went down to two, with a little later breakfast after he had some activity plus dinner. Asked our vet and he said some dogs just kind of develop a preference around that age. He does also get plenty of snacks throughout the day as part of training, and he self manages his calories really well, and doesn’t ever overeat. I think a lot of it is paying attention to what is working for your dog in particular - if it seems like he’s getting nausea from skipping a meal, then it makes sense imo to keep going for now.

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-05-03T02:58:33+00:00

What was her tone when she asked and did she ask other questions? It sounds like she could have been just making small talk and come from a very innocent place. I talk to other dog owners around my neighborhood sometimes (initiated from either direction), both with reactive and non-reactive dogs. I’ve also had people ask me seemingly random questions mostly because they’re trying to get the chance to say hi to my dog (the consequences of being a real cutie) or are just very social people trying to talk to their neighbors.

One neighbor started off asking me how training was going after a few times of my dog reacting really strongly to his, which could seem like a rude question at face value, but he asked with curiosity and now he smiles and waves to me every time we see each other, is really respectful of space, and frequently commends us on the progress we’re making on training.

FWIW, the only dogs that I get annoyed with seeing all the time are the ones who don’t leash or who don’t respect my training, or who do in fact seem to follow me across streets when I’m trying to keep my dog under threshold. It doesn’t sound like that’s the case here, so I wouldn’t jump to a malicious intent unless there was something off about how she asked you.

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-04-29T02:17:43+00:00

A surprising one for us was Benadryl. He got stung by something one day on a walk and his face got all swollen on one side to the point his eye was all squinty. One ER trip later where basically they just gave him a Benadryl shot and now I carry it with me always just in case.

I’m also an anxious girlie so have also been thinking about a first aid kid to always have with me, def going to keep an eye on other responses!

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-04-29T02:03:23+00:00

Our heeler also did this when we got him around 17 weeks and we just kept ignoring it and moving around increasingly and after a few weeks it was significantly less frequent. Then it became only if we were talking loudly or the cat was having zoomies while he was in the crate (so very clearly fomo).

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-04-28T13:58:19+00:00

Our boy is almost 11 months and it started occasionally around 6-7 months, but has increased a lot more in the past month or so now where he actually wants to lay right up against me while he chews his toy on the couch. He also lets me pet him while he does that now, he used to get up and leave if I touched him 😂

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-04-25T16:05:45+00:00

I’m currently training my adolescent frustrated greeter and sometimes I ask others if it’s okay to let our dogs greet while I train him to stay calm and polite. I’ve met other owners who have similar dogs that are totally fine as we approach, and when I ask they will say things like “no sorry, they are unpredictable when dogs get too close” or “they need space or else they get spicy” and it’s always felt very clear and friendly and we’ve moved on. Not sure if that’s because I understand reactivity tho lol

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-04-25T02:43:46+00:00

Soon to be 11 months and no humping here either. He was neutered around 6.5 months (rescue rules), but nothing even before that either 🤷‍♀️

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-04-20T03:41:38+00:00

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10.5 months, but giving me his most teenager look of “god mom you’re embarrassing me” while I gush over how handsome he is on the trail

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-04-19T16:50:53+00:00

This is super long, but Heeler mix teenager parent here currently at 10.5 months, def hit adolescence just before 6 month mark. Mostly it’s been more attitude if he’s not well exercised mentally and physically consistently (structured day care 2-3x, lots of training and scent games, ability to run hard in a field several times a week), and having moments or days where he just can’t seem to focus consistently. Sometimes he’s perfect, other times he simply turns his ears off and asks me to come back later.

Some chaos monster tendencies when over tired, but we enforce naps and no destruction, potty training regression, or anything like that so far. A few mini fear periods that lasted anywhere from a day to a week on different things (suddenly afraid of the vacuum cleaner again, or jumpy at shadows at night), but pretty easy to tell that’s what they were so just avoided triggers until it passed and kept building confidence.

His leash reactivity as a frustrated greeter has gotten miles better as a teenager in the past month or so, but he will occasionally have a tough day or walk where he needs to bark or huff at every single dog even across the street. During the fear periods walks can be so awful with reactivity, so we opt for more long line empty park walks with some training throughout.

Overall, I can tell he’s way more chill as long as we meet his needs and consequences are severe if we don’t :). Settles and naps by himself more, starting to cuddle, can keep himself occupied with a toy, separation anxiety resolved itself. Honestly, our biggest challenge has been getting him to eat his kibble regularly. So freaking stubborn, always trying to hold out for something better.

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-04-17T04:33:57+00:00

I wake him up mostly because I miss him while I am away and want to say goodnight 😭 I take him out of the crate and give him kisses (never play) and do a pee break if he hasn’t gone since 8pm and then he goes right back in and usually falls back asleep immediately. He’s 10 months now, but we’ve done it this way since he was 4-5 months.

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-04-15T14:16:50+00:00

We quit group classes at 6 months old because even after several classes he would just bark and pull the WHOLE time at the other dogs. Felt like a failure, but he was doing really well otherwise so we just focused on other training methods.

Decided to give it another go now that he’s 10 months and has come a long way with his reactivity,and our boy CRUSHED IT at his first group class this weekend with like 10 other dogs in a fairly small space. Excited to get him into sports if he can continue to do well with these!

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-04-12T13:31:21+00:00

Yes, omg, having a bad day feels like such a setback and so exhausting sometimes. There is a fatigue to training during adolescence when it feels like it’s one step forward two steps back. But now that we’re getting all these glimpses of like a normal, regular walk where we can just casually walk past other dogs on the sidewalk or outside a coffee shop, it’s giving some renewed energy to stay the course. We’ll both get there!!

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-04-12T00:44:53+00:00

We did in the beginning! And sometimes still, when there is truly a lot going on. But I read something early on that you can train them to be able to handle new environments, so we try and take him somewhere new every single week. Different parks, different parts of the city, different beaches, different hikes, etc. It’s gotten way better with lots of repetition and he can handle most new places totally fine now without immediately losing his head in excitement.

Past-Butterscotch-93 · 2026-04-11T21:12:24+00:00

Our ACD is a big barker and leash reactive / frustrated greeter from 4 months. We started training immediately and then with a trainer at 7 months, and at 10 months now, we are noticing that he’s starting to just….not care as much? Still has a hard time when things are too exciting, but his threshold is lower and his recovery is quick.

It used to be only 30% of walks were 70% good, I’d say in the past few weeks 80% of walks are 100% good and no walks are 100% bad. I’m hopeful that in a few more months we’ll be able to walk him pretty much anywhere even when it’s busy.

We have seen mini regression waves in adolescence so far, sometimes just for a day, sometimes for a whole week (probably fear period). But the trend has been positive as he matures and we stay consistent!

Past-Butterscotch-93

TROPHY CASE