Four easy steps to solving behavior issues

1. Identify the behavior you want to resolve: This could be any behavior, but common examples include jumping on people, barking when someone comes to the door or pulling on leash.
2. Prevent or manage the behavior from occurring: The more opportunities your dog has to practice the unwanted behavior, the better they get at it. This is how habits are formed. For example, if your dog jumps on people, don’t allow them to rush to the front door to greet guests entering the home. Instead, put your dog on leash until they have settled. Similarly, don’t allow your dog to run freely through a party where there are tons of people to practice the jumping behavior on. Instead, put your dog in another room or in their crate until you are ready to work on the behavior (Check out these videos: Crate Training Tips, Puppy Pen Set Up and Train Your Puppy To Be Calm in a Pen). If you are walking down the street and a person asks to pet your dog, you can have the person bend down to greet your dog or use a treat to encourage your dog to stay on the ground to greet. If this does not work because your dog is over aroused, you can lower the leash until it hits the ground, and then step on the leash to prevent your dog from practicing the jumping behavior. You are not pinning your dog to the ground, punishing them or intimidating them in any way — they should still be able to sit, lie down or stand up — they just can’t jump up on the person. You can do this inside too! 
3. Identify why your dog is performing this unwanted behavior: Your dog's behavior serves a purpose. If you can figure out what your dog is trying to
4. achieve, you can fulfill that need in another way. This will make the undesired behavior unnecessary for your dog. For example, if your dog is jumping because they want attention, show them that jumping is not an effective way to get attention. Alternatively, give them attention before they resort to jumping. 
5. Reward the absence of unwanted behaviors: In the example of jumping, you should praise, pet and treat your dog any time they approach a person without jumping. Keep in mind: The reward has to be as valuable to your dog as the undesired behavior in that moment. If your dog is jumping to initiate social interaction, offering them a toy is not going to fulfill their need for social interaction. Instead, reward the absence of jumping with affection and attention. But, if your dog is jumping to steal a taste of the food you're eating, reward the absence of jumping with treats rather than affection.
6. Train a new desirable behavior to replace the unwanted behavior: Use positive reinforcement to teach your dog to sit when people approach by rewarding them with attention, praise and treats (Additional reading: What is Positive Reinforcement in Dog Training?).

With practice, these steps will help reduce unwanted behaviors, like jumping, and replace them with desired behaviors, like sitting (Check out: Stop Unwanted Behavior Without Intimidation). This formula can be applied to any behavior problem you observe with your pet. Remember training your pet takes time, patience, practice and repetition...and it should be fun for you and your dog! 

For more information on why we do not recommend using aversive methods, check out this video on Positive Punishment and this article Positive Reinforcement: Why Use It? If you're looking for a positive reinforcement animal trainer near you, check out our Local Trainer Directory and watch these videos on How To Pick a Trainer 101 and How to Find a Trainer That Won't Harm Your Pet.

Quick tips for common behavior concerns:

Undesired Behavior: Your dog pees on the carpet.
Quick solution: Keep your dog off the carpet unless you know they have emptied their bladder and they are supervised.
Tips: Use doors or baby gates to keep your dog in an acceptable bathroom area or use a crate to confine your dog. Reward your dog for going potty in the right place.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Training Resources: Housetraining 101 

Undesired Behavior: Your dog chews inappropriate items (remotes, wallets, shoes, socks, kid's toys, the mail, etc.).
Quick solution: Put loose objects out of your dog's reach, such as on a high shelf, in a cabinet or closet or in a room closed off by a door or baby gate.
Tips: Provide dog toys they enjoy and praise your dog for chewing on them.                                                                                               
Training Resources: Destructive Chewing, Enrichment Resources, Calm Behavior at Home and Enrichment: Kong Stuffing Pointers

Undesired Behavior: Your dog barks at people passing by the house.
Quick solution: Prevent your dog from seeing or hearing people outside.
Tips: Shut the curtains. Move the couch away from the window. Install window cling film on the lower half of your windows to lower visibility. Keep your dog in a designated quiet space or pen for short absences from the home. Use treats to redirect your dog away when they begin barking at people and reward calm behaviors.                                                                                                                                                                     

Undesired Behavior: Your dog pulls on the leash.
Quick solution: Use a front-clip harness (sense-ation harness, freedom no-pull harness, easy walk harness).
Tips: Train your dog to walk on a loose leash by rewarding any leash slack or check-ins, stop walking when they pull, and continue walking when they look back or loosen leash slack.                      
Training Resources: Leash Handling, Loose Leash Walking, B&T Lecture: Success on Leash, B&T Lecture: Reactivity, Dog Leash Handling Secrets, Reactive Rover: Heel Work class or Basic Training Classes, and Walk&Trains

Undesired Behavior: Your dog "attacks" the lawn mower, water hose, vacuum cleaner or other household items.
Quick solution: Put your dog in another part of the home before using the item.
Tips: Desensitize your dog to the item and help them create a more positive association with it by pairing low-intensity exposure to the item with treats. This training must be done when your dog is calm, otherwise their fear of the item could intensify. Slowly (over many sessions) increase the intensity of the exposure, rewarding your dog when they remain calm.                                                  
Training Resources: Counter Conditioning, Impulse Control, Overstimulation, DSCC & Choice Playlist, Decreasing Fear of Loud Noises, Desensitization & Counter Conditioning, Calm Behavior at Home, Well-Socialized Pet Resources, and Reactive Rover: Mat Work class or Shy Dog class

Undesired Behavior: Your dog digs up the yard or garden, or lies in the flower beds.
Quick solution: Put a low but sturdy fence around landscaped areas. Keep your dog on leash or supervise your dog when they are in the yard.
Tips: If your dog loves to dig, provide a sandbox with occasional buried treats or toys. The sand will be cleaner than dirt, and your dog will be rewarded for satisfying their digging urge in an area of your choice. Or provide ball pits and foraging enrichment. Make sure your dog is cool enough (in summer) and warm enough (in winter), as digging can be a method of heat control. Teach "Leave it" for times when your dog is digging where they shouldn't be, or getting into something unsafe.    
Training Resources: Enrichment Resources, Enrichment: Brain Games for Mental Health, and K9 Nose Work classes

Undesired Behavior: Your dog gets on the furniture.
Quick solution: Keep your dog out of that room when unsupervised. Turn the chair against a wall or upend it. Set up baby gates or exercise pens or place boxes or other objects on furniture to prevent your dog from accessing the furniture.
Tips: Consider putting a blanket or sheet over the furniture and allowing the dog to enjoy its comfort. The cover can be easily removed and cleaned. Offer them a dog bed, mat or crate as an alternative place for them to relax. You can make this a training exercise by teaching them to go to a mat on cue. 
Training Resources: Stationing on a mat, Reactive Rover: Mat Work class, The Calm Settle

Undesired Behavior: Your dog runs into the street.
Quick solution: Keep your dog on leash or within a well-fenced yard. This can save your dog's life!
Tips: Implement multiple barriers and safety measures -- like baby gates, ex-pens, an extra safety leash attached to you in case one is dropped or breaks, etc. -- to prevent your dog from escaping and running to the street. Teach and strengthen emergency recall.
Training Resources: Rapid Recall class, Escape Behavior in Dogs, Impulse Control, Overstimulation, DSCC & Choice Playlist and Reactive Rover: Mat Work class

Undesired Behavior: Multiple dogs in your home fight over mealtimes, toys, doorways, etc.
Quick solution: Feed them in completely separate areas (different rooms, in crates or on tie-downs) with a visual barrier between the dogs (door, wall, furniture, etc.). Supervise mealtimes. After mealtime, pick up food bowls, whether they are empty or not (some dogs may guard empty food bowls). Hold one dog back while letting the other dog through a doorway or other tight spaces. Provide an abundance of toys (enough for all dogs) and only allow supervised toy time.
Tips: Train each dog to "wait" at doorways, and release one at a time using their names. Learn how to predict and prevent fights by reading body language and identifying triggers. Keep dogs in separate rooms when they are home alone or unsupervised. 
Training Resources: Resource Guarding Resources, Reading Body Language Playlist, Safety: Dog Bite Prevention, Introducing Dogs at Home, Inter-Household Aggression, and Sociability, Reactivity, Leash Skills & Play YouTube Playlist