Great thread.

We got our dog Mikey about 4.5 years ago. He's a miniature schnauzer although he is very much on the big size for a mini. To say he's been hard work is an understatement. He's always been an anxious dog but when he was still very young two things happened that changed him for the worst.

Firstly, shortly after we got him we were selling our house and a couple came to view with two young boys. When I opened the door to greet them their two boy's came charging into the house screaming and shouting before I hade even invited the family in. They ran into the living room where my wife was sat with a very frightened puppy and the boys started to try and grab him whilst making loud barking noises. They were absolutely dreadful and I couldn't wait for them to leave. Mikey was in a bit of a state after that.

Shortly after that during a morning walk on the park he was attacked by another dog that was off the lead. It was that bad my wife had to pick our dog up whilst I tried to separate the other dogs jaws from our dogs back. As you can imagine this was a terrifying ordeal for all of us and the owner of the other dog simply said he's never behaved like that before and walked off.

Because of these incidents our Mikey is now a very reactive dog and will lunge and bark at anyone or anything that comes within 20ft of us. I reckon we have spent well into the thousands on special training and dog behaviourists etc to try and calm him down and although he is a little better now he's still very reactive.

Like others have said owning a dog isn't always what it is cracked up to be. I know we have a bit of a reputation around our way due to Mikey's "aggressive" behaviour, but it isn't aggression he's just very reactive.

I know this post is dragging on a bit but we have learned so much about dogs due to Mikey's nature that I don't think we would have with a friendlier dog. I know some fantastic dog owners in our area and they are all aware and understanding of Mikey's behaviour. There are others mind that are just clueless and even when we try to avoid people with dogs we don't know and have a flag on the lead warning people he is an anxious dog some still insist on their dog coming over to us to say hello but then look disgusted when they are met with a defensive reactive dog.

I have no issue with people who don't like dogs, each to their own, but people do need to understand dogs have a threshold and when they reach this there is often no turning back. Imagine a ladder with the bottom rung being calm and the top rung being your dogs threshold.

When you take it out for a walk it's calm but a little excited so probably on rung two. It's a windy day and a crisp packet blow's in front of you startling your dog, he's just climbed another rung on the ladder to threshold. These little things keep building up until eventually your dog is just one rung from threshold. Another dog owner insists on coming over to say hello, your grip tightens on the lead and you try warning them but they don't care. Your dog is aware of this, can feel your tension through the lead and by the time the other dog get's near you with it's owner your dog is in full on defence mode and at threshold so starts barking and lunging at the other dog and it's owner. They quickly retreat whilst giving you dirty looks and suggesting your dog is not normal and needs better training. I would suggest they are the ones that need the further education!

Despite the challenges we continue to have with Mikey I wouldn't change him for the world, he quite literally is my best mate. Also, I would have no problem with paying for a dog licence, linked to the dogs microchip and renewal should be made via the vet when having the dogs annual booster etc.