As the title states, I have reached a point with my dog where it has become nearly impossible to get him out the door in a calm and civilized manner. For years, I have tried leash desensitization in order to disassociate the leash from the expectation of going outdoors, but this has never worked - not at all. In fact, it seems to greatly increase the excitement level, and as someone who works full-time and commutes long distances to and from the office, I just don't have hours each morning and evening to engage in this sort of thing every day. Sometimes I just need to get the dog outside to do his business so I can be on my way.
To complicate matters, I live in an apartment so there is no option to "just let him run the energy off in the backyard" as every dog training website seems to recommend. Even taking him somewhere to run off the energy is not possible without, in some sense, allowing and reinforcing this undesirable leash behavior. I feel completely stuck with an unmanageable burden that I've accepted responsibility for, but who I am becoming increasingly resentful of. It gets so bad sometimes that I find myself wishing he would simply pass away so I can move on with my life, and when these sort of dark thoughts take hold I feel like the world's biggest piece of shit.
I feel like we're stuck in this vicious feedback loop where I don't take him outdoors as much as I should because he's so hard to manage, and in turn he becomes increasingly hard to manage because I don't take him outdoors. I have been trying leash desensitization for the past 3 hours this morning and have yet to be able to get him outside even once today to do his business. I don't know what else to do, and have come to the conclusion that this notion put forth by dog trainers, that "all dogs can be trainable with enough work" is completely delusional in the sense that it does not take into account the day-to-day reality of people who are not professional dog trainers with acres of land.
Has anybody else here ended up stuck with an unmanageable dog? How did things turn out for you?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/al1s92/older_hyperactive_dog_becoming_increasingly/
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