The puppy class is loud with barking puppies jumping and bouncing happily over the padded floor. All the puppies are about the same age, but you can already tell that some are bound to be much bigger when they reach their full size. The Bernese Mountain dog puppy rolls on his back while a Beagle mix chews on his ears. A Yorkie, the smallest of the group, is right there with the rest of the group running back and forth with a small brown dog and a bigger Visla pup. 

Your puppy doesn't engage the other dogs and mostly stays under your chair watching the action. The trainer comes over and tries to coax her out with a treat, but she won't come out or take the treat.

Is this normal? Should you be concerned?

No, it is not normal and yes, you should be concerned. 

As a private dog trainer I have many responsibilities. Often I show my clients how to work with their dog to train her to be more obedient such as not jumping on guests, stopping puppy biting, or walking nicely on leash. (See my free dog training videos for samples on these topics and more.)

I also work with fear, anxiety and aggression if those issues are present. 

But, I think my most important jobs are to help prevent problems before they start or prevent the beginning signs of a problem from turning into a major problem later on. 

The scenario above is based on many conversations over the years with clients. Often people will hire me because their dog barks at people and/or dogs, has bitten someone, is "skittish" or unpredictable. I always get a history of a dog before I work with them and ask about their early experiences. 

Often someone will say that their puppy was a "little shy" and then describe a story similar to the one above. They might say that they "were fine with other dogs" or got socialized properly but then also hid under their chairs at puppy class. 

Their puppy might have been great with dogs, but after a couple questions I learn that "dogs" means great with the neighbor's dog but a little shy with all the other dogs in the neighborhood. 

If you have questions about socialization, read this post about how to socialize your puppy or sign up for my free dog training forum on my video site. 

As a shy puppy gets older, if they are not socialized properly, their shyness can later turn into aggression. They live a daily life of fear and uncertainty. It may look harmless, or even cute to see such a shy puppy but at some point they are probably going to perceive something that seems particularly threatening. Maybe it is just another dog being a bit over-exhuberant and jumping on them playfully. Maybe it is an adult that comes towards them a bit too quickly to say, "hello" and pet them. Maybe it is a toddler that falls on them. 

They might at that point growl for the first time at this threat or show their teeth, or even bite. 

What happens next? Unless it is a small child or puppy that doesn't pay attention to signals (and is at a greater risk of a bite) a person will probably back off. Your dog has now learned to growl, bark or show teeth when threatened. Even though this wasn't an actual threat, your dog has lived a life of fear and low confidence and reached her breaking point. 

If dogs growl, bark or show teeth and it works for them, (the threat backs off) they can now think that showing aggression is the way to protect themselves. Then you can start to see aggression happen more frequently and escalate if the lower-level displays are not taken seriously. A bite might occur if the threats are not respected or multiple triggers are present.

For instance, a dog might not like her collar being touched, and might not like small children. If a small child approaches that dog and touches her collar, a bite might occur. If it was an adult, maybe the dog would have just growled instead. 

If you think your puppy is shy and you are practicing sound socialization strategies and you are not seeing improvement, you should hire a good positive reinforcement trainer to assess the situation. Your puppy might benefit from a class, but often classes are too stressful. Before my full-time private practice, I taught classes for two years as well. 

Don't lose sleep over this, but instead be proactive and take this very seriously. You will have your dog for a long time and a well-socialized, calm dog can more easily be an integrated part of your life. If you have to shelter your dog from normal stimuli that occur in your world, it will make more challenging for both you and your dog. 

Sign up for my free dog training forum on my video site if you have questions. 

 

This morning I was walking my dogs and saw a woman walking her dog. From the look of the dog's dry elbows and physical stature, I would guess he was about 5-6 years old. I have no way of knowing how long she has had the dog. He might have been newly adopted, or maybe she finally had time to work with him. 

What I do know is that she seemed extremely frustrated, her dog was not paying attention to her at all, he was pulling on the leash and she was lifting the dog off the ground with each turn. Also the dog was wearing a choke chain. 

I resisted the urge to go talk to her about positive reinforcement training, but I wanted to. I don't offer advice unless people ask, but it can be tough to keep my opinions to myself.

I hate to see dogs being mistreated. And, yes, I believe a dog getting lifted off the ground on a choke chain is being mistreated. 

On the other hand, in ten years of professional dog training, I have worked with thousands of dogs and I can appreciate dog training challenges and the frustration that accompanies it. But, that never gives the excuse to use physical methods. 

If you are frustrated with your dog when leash walking, go back to the fundamentals. Stop walking, and ask for eye contact from your dog. That is much easier for your dog then expecting him to walk nicely by your side when he is completely distracted. 

Also, stay closer to home and warm your dog up before walking farther. Leash walking is not an easy obedience exercise, but if you focus on the fundamentals and build on them, you will make progress. 


To help you learn how to do this, you should watch my free dog training videos on leash walking and other free dog training videos to learn more. 

Keep an eye on the site for more videos on leash walking in the future. 

One easy way to make leash walking easier is to buy a Sense-ible Harness. This is the best dog harness on the market. 

You can also sign up for my free dog forums to ask me questions about leash walking or any other topics. 

There are a few preventative measures you can do with your dog to lessen the likelihood of problems later on. Unfortunately, even if you have the best intentions and do all the exercises properly, there are no guarantees of eliminating the problem later on. Regular maintenance is also a good idea.

There are many treat bags on the market and one is set apart from the rest. The quality and ease of use of the Terry Ryan Treat Pouch makes it the best choice for dog training.

Frisbee is a great way to tire out your dog and have fun in the process. You should understand the basics of training a retrieve before you start. Read my article about training a retrieve.

Retrieve and Frisbee are two great training exercises to work on with your dog. As always, focus on keeping your dog engaged and interested in each session instead of getting stressed out about finishing the final behavior in one session. Have fun with it and remember that the journey is just important as the final goal.

"Settle" is simply another name for an extended down cue. However, it is often used as an "off" switch for dogs that are a bit too exuberant, mouthy, or wild. There are many strategies to get a good Settle cue. 

I recommend that you first work in a calm manner at first and periodically ask your dog to "Settle" during training sessions. You should then continue practicing when your dog is more excited until you can eventually get the behavior reliably no matter how excited your dog is.

I read an amazing article many years ago about an experiment training sea bass to respond to a tone and swim back to a certain location for feeding. At some point the signal would entice them to come back for the last time when they would be caught and harvested for food.

I have tremendous success with my aggression cases and have been helping dogs overcome aggression since 2002. There are strategies that you can use that can make the situation worse.
I want you to avoid doing that and help your dog become more comfortable faster.

There are a lot of reasons puppies and older dogs have housetraining problems. Besides normal factors such as maturity and lack of motivation to go potty in the right location, there can be other issues that can cause a dog to have accidents.

One of the biggest challenges with caring for a dog is providing adequate daily physical and mental exercise. If a dog loves toys, it is often much easier to find games and training strategies to keep him entertained. For those of you out there that have a dog that doesn't like toys, this is for you.

I get this question quite often, and I always ask people to clarify why they are concerned that this might be a problem. They usually tell me that they heard from someone else or saw a television show that talks about "putting dogs in their place" or making sure dogs do not become the "alpha" in the house.

Wouldn't it be great if you could just sit a dog down and say, "Welcome to the house. Let's have an arrangement. I will walk you, play with you, feed you good food and give you medical care. The only requirements are that you don't destroy my house or urinate on my rug, ok?"

Stubborn is used frequently to describe dogs that don't perform a task that is asked of them. Maybe the dog is pulling on his leash, maybe he doesn't lie down when cued, or maybe he lies down when you he was asked to "Sit". I think it is much easier to call a dog stubborn than to get at the root of the problem.

When I am working with my clients, I focus on determining what strategies are most effective with each individual dog. I have found certain techniques to be extremely effective and I also see mistakes and read about other trainer's suggestions that can create problems and cause the treatment to take longer or be ineffective.

I frequently hear very similar questions from multiple clients. I also have random dog training thoughts that come to mind that might not lend themselves to a complete blog post. So, I thought I could blend the two and start this as an occasional series. This might contain questions and answers, observations or other dog training thoughts. When applicable, I will also reference other posts that expand on the answer for you.

With summer weather finally here in Chicago, it is time to start thinking about more frequent trips to the dog park. You might feel uneasy when your dog plays with other dogs. Hopefully this alleviates some of your concerns by teaching you what to look for and how to react if there is a problem.

I just finished watching the documentary about Ingrid Newkirk, the co-founder of PETA. I really did not know much about her or her organization before this except for the various news stories that crop up here and there in the media. I have seen a few documentaries about animal rights and about 4 years ago Peaceable Kingdom: A Tribe of Heart Documentary was the final push I needed to become a vegetarian.

I received two calls this week that that reminded me about the importance of making sure a dog is physically healthy before I recommend training strategies. One call was in regards to a 3-year old dog that recently started whining uncontrollably whenever his person was out of the room or out of the home. He also had a few housetraining regressions and his guardian found a few accidents when he got home.

Did you know that there are different styles of training within the positive reinforcement "camp"? There are trainers that only use one style and others (like myself) use many different strategies depending on what works in a given situation. However, I NEVER use pain or fear when training.