How To Improve Your Dog’s Behaviour

While obedience coaching goes a good distance to giving you a well behaved dog, it doesn't always clear up or prevent all behaviour issues. By working on your dog’s behavior you can actually tweak your pup’s naughty behavior habits.

Let me tell you what falls into the dog behavior class. I have covered a number of these behaviour issues already, and others I'll be getting to shortly.

Over the top barking
Gnawing on non-dog items
Eating Poop (Coprophagia)
Digging
Hyper
Biting
Separation anxiety
Jumping on folk
Problems with eating
Mean to other dogs
Peeing places they don't seem to be allowed to
Jumping over your backyard fence
Running away from home
Stealing off counters
I'd like to address each of these individually, so I won't go into them now, but I want to lay out one or two thoughts to keep under consideration about your dogs behaviour. First and foremost, is the significance of consistency. You can resolve many of these issues by using the command words that your dog learns through repitition.

For example, to keep your dog from eating dog poop, use the command “Leave It.”

To stop your dog from jumping on folks, use “Sit” or “Down”

To calm your dog from being hyper, you can use “Heel”

As you can see, dog obedience is a key component to keeping your dog’s behaviour in check. If they've been trying their obedience coaching, and are still having behaviour issues, then the obedience coaching can be employed as a building block or stepping stone.

Many dogs behaviour issues come from separation anxiety. If you remember when I discussed separation uneasiness, dogs often act out due to fear or insecurity of being left alone.

Here is a reminder for you on how to help with your dog’s anxiety if you should happen to feel that their behavior issues are coming from this separation stress.

Start leaving your dog alone for short bursts during the day. This lets your dog know that you won't always be there, but you will always come back.
Ensure that your dog has everything they require while you are way, for example water, food, and toys.
Make sure to walk your dog or let them run around for a while before you leave for an extended period of time.
If your dog is housetrained already and they have got a way to dump while you are gone, try leaving them their enormous meal to eat before going. This is going to help waste some time for them.
Consider adding another pet to your family. Many animals need a companion home with them.
Leave your puppy in their crate or another secure area.
Make sure that your dog has had obedience coaching. This helps them learn how to control their emotions.
Pay a neighbour or a buddy to stop by and let your puppy out and play with them in the middle of the day.
Leave the Television or radio on so there's noise in the house.
Leave your puppy with a special treat that they love and only get when you're leaving. Shortly they may wish to push you out that door to get something tasty for their belly!
If your dog is having behavior issues while you are around, and you suspect that separation hysteria isn’t the party responsible here, then there may be an absence of understanding who is exactly the master in the house; you or your dog.

You need to start making an effort to clearly define your role as a leader and your dog’s role as a supporter. Make sure that they know what is expected of them, and reward their good behaviour.

When they misbehave, correct their unpleasant behavior immediately and do not let them get away with it. Your pup will soon learn that what they are doing isn't OK with you.

Another helpful tool is identifying what can cause your dog to behave badly. If they are barking at the doorbell, you might need to literally ring the doorbell more often to have them get use to it.

Neither you or the people around you want to have a bad dog. Beginning early with behavior modification will not only help your dog, and your folks, but also the other people in your lives.

Tess Maguire is a pro dog tutor who is devoted to helping dog lovers enjoy the relationship that may truly augment and bless their lives.