How do I stop my dog…?

No dog is perfect. We all have things we wish our dogs would stop doing. Your dog might be pulling on-lead, not coming back when you call or jumping up at visitors. Or maybe they’re stealing and destroying your stuff, digging at your carpet or eating things they shouldn’t. You could just punish your dog to try and stop the problem behaviour. But that’s going to affect your dog’s welfare and damage your relationship with them. And it’s not going to deal with the root cause of the behaviour so it’s unlikely to work long term.

So what else can you do? If you’ve just started to learn about force-free training you’re probably feeling confused about how to stop all these problem behaviours. You can’t just ignore them because someone could get hurt. And anyway, you’ve tried that and it definitely didn’t work. While the solution is going to be different for every behaviour, every dog and every family, there are 5 key principles to stopping any problem behaviour.

Make sure your dog’s happy and healthy

There’s always a reason for every problem behaviour. And unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for that reason to be ill health. Often the only sign a dog is ill or in pain is their behaviour. It’s not fair to your dog to try to train them to stop a behaviour that’s caused by a health problem because they’re left to suffer unnecessarily. And you’re not likely to actually change the behaviour because you’re not treating the illness causing it.

It can be hard for most people to work out when their dog’s behaviour is caused by pain or illness. If you’re not sure, it’s always best to chat to your vet.  If your dog’s not ill or in pain, then awesome. If they are then dealing with the physical cause could completely stop the behaviour, or make it much easier to change. Sudden changes in your dog’s behaviour (like starting to toilet in the house, refusing to go on walks or becoming aggressive) always mean your dog needs to be checked by a vet.

Sometimes a problem behaviour is the only way your dog can tell you they need to see a vet

But health is not just physical. Your dog’s mental health matters too and poor mental health can lead to behaviour problems. Your dog might be feeling anxious, fearful, stressed, frustrated, bored or lonely. If they are, it’s important to change those feelings and improve your dog’s wellbeing rather than just focusing on trying to change the problem behaviour.

Prevent problem behaviours

In dog training, like with everything else, prevention really is better than cure. If your dog is repeatedly performing an undesirable behaviour then, if possible, use management to stop them practising the behaviour. Every time your dog repeats a behaviour, that behaviour becomes stronger and your dog is more likely to do it again. By using management you’re weakening undesirable behaviours and you’re keeping everyone safe if the behaviour puts you, your dog or the public at risk.

All you need to do is think of a way you can physically stop your dog doing whatever the problem behaviour is. If your dog is stealing things you could move everything out of your dog’s reach or put everything behind a closed door or baby gate. If your dog is ignoring you when you recall them you could put them on a long line so they can’t run off. If your dog is eating abandoned takeaways they find on walks and getting sick you could try putting a muzzle on them.

Putting your dog on a lead is an easy way to stop them causing chaos

Teach your dog what to do instead

One big problem with punishment is that it doesn’t teach your dog what to do. This leaves them feeling frustrated and confused and their behaviour could get worse. If you focus on teaching your dog a better behaviour they can do in the same situation and rewarding them for that behaviour they’ll choose the new, desirable behaviour over the old, undesirable one.

If possible, you should teach a ‘mutually-exclusive behaviour’. This is any behaviour which it’s impossible for your dog to do at the same time as the undesirable behaviour. So if your dog is jumping, you can teach a sit because your dog can’t jump and sit at the same time. Or if your dog is pulling on-lead, you can teach them to look at you when they’re walking because your dog can’t pull and look at you at the same time.

Make training easier

If your dog is making mistakes during training or struggling to focus on you then it might be because you’re expecting too much from them. It’s really tempting to progress training too quickly because you want fast results. But this can leave your dog confused about what you want and you feeling frustrated because your dog’s not succeeding.

Your dog will find it easier to come back to you if there are no distractions

If in doubt, go right back to the start. This isn’t a failure - it’s working on the foundations to help your dog truly understand what you want of them. You might need to reward an easier version of the behaviour so your dog is able to succeed. Or you might need to practise more in less distracting places so your dog can focus on you more easily.

Let your dog be a dog

Unfortunately a lot of normal dog behaviours can be pretty problematic. It’s quite reasonable to not want your dog to dig at your carpet, destroy your slippers or scavenge for food in your bin. And while these behaviours can be very annoying, our dogs definitely aren’t doing them to annoy us. These are natural behaviours that dogs need to do to improve their wellbeing. And if you try to prevent your dog doing them - they’ll probably find another (potentially more annoying) way to fulfil that need.

It can be scary, but the solution is to give your dog safe, appropriate outlets for these behaviours. So you might put a sand pit in your garden for your dog to dig it, give your dog toys they’re allowed to destroy or hide food around the house for your dog to find. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to increase the problem behaviour you want to stop. You’re much more likely to see a reduction in inappropriate digging, destruction or scavenging because you’ve given your dog the chance to fulfil their need safely.

Written by Juniper Indigo, dog trainer in Tiverton and Exeter