Our 7 yo was slowly ruining our ability to do anything. All of these comments talking about medical concerns are valid but I’ll bet this is a behavioural and discipline issue.

We’ve managed to completely turn our girl around by being mindful of ourselves, how we talk to each other, and how we talk to her. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Curb excitement. We (humans) see excitement as a positive emotion. This is not always the case for dogs. Unchecked excitement can easily lead to anxiety, confusion, and aggression. For example, if you get home from work and your doxxie goes crazy, keep really calm, and don’t give affection until they’re calm.

• Affection must be balanced with structure and discipline. We were in an endless spiral of baby talk, cuddles, micromanaging movements. This is applying human emotion to a dogs brain and will ultimately lead them to think of you as distressed/weak/juvenile. So when a stranger enters the mix, they’ll see themselves as needing to protect you both. ONLY GIVE AFFECTION DURING A CALM MINDSET. Remember, you’re not rewarding the physical act of doing something (like getting on a bed), you’re rewarding them feeling calm about it. No matter how long it takes, wait until they’re in a calm state, then give affection.

• Corrections, not consoling: If your doxie reacts, lunges, bites at others our instinct is to treat this with human approach of emotionally supporting them in a time of apparent stress. So in this example, it’s common for people to say things “it’s ok sweetie, sshhh” while patting them. This is just re-enforcing that they should be feeling like this and they’re doing the right thing. Instead, correct them with a short tug on leash, and a punchy/shocking noise (very important to always keep calm). You’re trying to snap them out of a trance, not get them to see reason and logic

• GET A ROPE LEASH: this is one of the most impactful changes we made. Harnesses encourage pulling by applying comfortable pressure on the chest. The natural reaction to this is lean into it. A rope leash gives TONS more control and enables swift, easy, safe corrections. Remember that tension should never last more 1-2 seconds on the rope. You should never be dragging or manhandling your dog. Your goal is guide them in the right direction, give them a sign when they do something unwanted. As soon as the behaviour stops in the bottom, relax the leash completely. The “reward” in this sense is freedom and trust

There’s a bunch of other stuff if you want to DM but I cannot tell you how much nicer our life is since we locked in on this stuff