Steve's Voice — 50 Dog Training Answers in His Own Words

When a dog pulls, McConnell's *The Other End of the Leash* says stop instantly — when the leash is loose, you move forward. I agree, but with paying customers, I didn't have time to cuddle dogs for years.

Here's what works. The moment the dog pulls, turn the other direction. We call it a redirect. Sometimes I walk figure-eights so the dog doesn't know where we're going — they're constantly checking in with me.

If the dog pulls harder, pop the leash. Say "no" in a deep voice. Two seconds later, calm and polite: "Heel. Heel next to me."

A dog belongs beside you or behind you — never in front. You're the leader of the pack. First out every door. First into every situation. The dog learns your leadership through consistency.

Excessive barking is usually just energy. A bored dog looks out the window, a dump truck goes by, the dog barks, the truck leaves — and now the dog thinks he did a great job. The mailman comes, the dog barks, the mailman goes — and the dog struts like he defended the castle.

First: exhaust the dog. A real walk, not a sniff around the block. Then don't reward the bark — no attention, no eye contact. If you have to, a firm "No."

Then redirect: "Go to your place, bed." Once he's sitting calmly, reward with a chew toy.

You're the alpha of the house. This isn't always-positive training. Sometimes the dog needs a real correction — and so does the customer.

Jumping starts in the puppy phase. People bend down, talk in a high-pitched voice, pet the dog — the dog loves it. Then he grows up and jumps on your knees for the same attention. What do we do? Lean over and pet him some more.

But now that puppy is a hundred-pound German Shepherd, jumping on you every time you come home from work.

Fix: when you walk in the door, stop. Have the dog sit. Don't act like a buffoon — no "Oh my God, I missed you, come here!" Don't drop to your knees and love on him. You're just rewarding the jump.

I'm a 62-year-old, 225-pound man. I can take it. But an 8-year-old girl at 35 pounds doesn't want a 150-pound GSD jumping on her. Train the dog for your families and your neighbors, not just yourself.

Destructive chewing is an energy problem. Take a working dog — a German Shepherd crossed with a Labrador. That Lab is home all day, bored out of his mind, so he chews chair legs or mom's shoes.

First: wear the dog out. A morning walk every single day, or he'll find something to destroy.

When you catch him chewing, a firm "No" in a deep voice. Wait three seconds — the dog will look at you, calm down, realize he did something wrong. Then bring out a proper chew toy.

Don't give the toy to the dog right after he chews mom's high heels. Wait three seconds. Otherwise he's learned: chew mom's shoes, get my favorite toy. That's the anti-reward trap — and from a young age, you're teaching him what he can chew and what he can't.

Digging is an energy problem. High-drive dogs need to discharge stress somewhere, and the backyard is the easiest target.

Give them something to do with their mind. Try a slow-feed puzzle bowl at mealtime — the dog has to figure out how to get the food out. That works the brain.

When you catch them digging, a firm "No." Don't make a big deal. Redirect to something constructive: a Kong, a ball, fetch in the yard until they're actually tired.

Honestly, a lot of customers could throw the ball in the backyard for ten minutes and walk the dog around the block morning and night — and save themselves fifty dollars a day at daycare. The dog needs mental and physical work every day. Otherwise the energy goes somewhere destructive. Like digging.

Separation anxiety is usually not anxiety. It's a bad family decision based on emotion, not intelligence.

Here's the fix. The dog freaks out when you leave? Go out for thirty minutes, come back calm. Don't make a big deal. Don't act like a buffoon — no "Oh my God, are you okay?" Go out for two hours, come back calm. Slowly train the dog that you're always coming back. Act like a mature adult. The dog will mirror your energy.

But the bigger issue is the dog you picked. You can't take a working-line Malinois — bred for eight hours of airport patrol — and stick him in a crate for twelve hours a day. He's going to lose it. Some Labradors, sure, they'd nap in a crate all day and ask for more.

Match the dog to the family. The right dog for the right family environment.

This is one where I've never had an issue. Most trainers do. Here's the rule: never, ever use the dog's name in a deep voice or in a negative way. Never, never, never.

Start as a puppy. Call the name in a high-pitched positive voice — "Come here, Spot, come here!" — and reward. The dog builds pleasant associations with his name.

The problem starts when the dog gets older. He makes a mistake, and we say, "Bad Spot." Now the name is attached to a negative. The dog won't come.

The only negative word we use in a deep voice is "No." Just "No" — short, deep, to get the dog's attention. Two seconds later, calm and positive: "This is your chew toy." Or "Off the counter. Good dog." That's the sequence.

Always make the recall positive. Reward when the dog comes. The dog just wants your attention.

The first year of a dog's life, every month is like a human year. By three or four months old, the dog should be fully potty trained.

Here's what works. Take the dog out almost every hour. When he pees or poops outside, reward him. "Good pee, good poo" — in a positive, high voice. The dog learns which behavior earned the reward. Reward him at the door too, when he goes to it on his own.

If the dog has an accident by the door — that's a hundred percent the human's fault. You didn't let him out. The dog tried to signal. He sat by the door and you weren't there. That's the dog telling you, "I tried and you weren't listening."

A hundred percent the human's problem. Start the pattern young and they get very good at it.

Aggression towards other dogs is usually not aggression. It's the leash.

Picture this. You're walking your dog, he barks at another dog across the street. That's the dog signaling to you — "Danger, danger." But drop the leash, let him go, and he'll run over, sniff, and probably rollover. The dogs can't complete their natural greeting because two humans are holding two leashes between them.

I've seen it thousands of times in our Chicago facilities. Customer brings in a dog "aggressive towards other dogs." The second we let him go in the pen, he's fine — playing with fifty other dogs. The dog was protecting the human. That's not aggression.

If the dog is fighting physically with other dogs, that's different. Consult a professional right away. Or call me.

Aggression towards people is rare. Ninety percent of the time, it isn't.

I always say: drop the leash outside. Let the dog go — he's going to sniff the person, and nothing's going to happen.

Inside, the dog's protecting its turf. Read the tail. Tucked under means afraid. Stiff and out means warning. Wagging means "I want to play."

But here's the bigger thing. A wife tells me, "My dog doesn't like men." Then I find out the wife doesn't like men. The human is making up some BS past for the dog — abused, puppy mill, kids beat him. He probably wasn't. I didn't have the luxury of buying the excuse.

Don't let someone bring a stereotype in about your dog. A lot of the time, the human invented the problem that doesn't even exist.

Begging for food is pattern recognition. The dog is begging because someone is feeding him.

I ask parents all the time: "Do you feed the dog from the table?" "No, never." Then I ask about the baby. "Yeah, we've got a baby." "And food falls on the floor when you feed the baby." "Yeah, all over the floor." "And you let the dog eat it." "Of course. Why would we want to clean it up?" Well — the dog is getting fed from the table. You're causing the problem.

It's called environmental management. Stop the food from being on the floor, and the dog won't leave his bed to come beg.

If he does, firm "No." Redirect to the place bed. Sit, place, stay. Then reward with a treat — not human food — after thirty minutes of holding place. Build up the duration. Reward positive behavior, not begging.

Counter surfing is a firm correction. The dog jumps up — "No." Grab the leash, pull him down, pop the leash, put him in his place bed. "No, counter surfing." Pet him while he's in place. Don't release. Wait thirty minutes, treat, then release.

Most important: don't let the habit start. If a puppy counter-surfs, it only gets worse with age.

You can also stand in front of the counter yourself. "No, this is my territory." Keep the dog five feet back. Use the floor surface — carpet versus wood — to create a no-go zone. Be proactive.

At dinner, put the dog in a place bed by the table. He can be part of the family — just not at the table begging. The dog wants inclusion, not food. Always reward positive behavior, not the misbehavior.

Leash-biting is rare — maybe one or two percent of dogs. But I've seen some really bad cases.

It's the intelligent dogs that do it. Huskies, the other smart breeds. Not Labradors — they're too laid back. The smart ones get bored and start chewing the leash.

Here's what we do. We call it popping. The dog goes for the leash — you pop it, sharp. Boom, boom. Get the attention. Then a firm "No" in a deep voice. The dog won't do it again.

The other move is redirect. The dog reaches for the leash — turn around, walk the other way. Use the walk itself as a reset. As soon as the dog goes for the leash, redirect. Back and forth, until the biting stops.

Excessive whining has to be ignored. You cannot reinforce the behavior.

A woman was walking a foster dog past my house, lunging at me, trying to bite. The whole time she's petting him — "It's OK, Cupid. It's OK, Cupid." I had to stop her. What you're doing is a hundred percent the wrong thing. In a deep voice, say "No." Let the dog know that's not acceptable.

The trap: the dog whines for an hour, an hour fifteen, an hour and a half — and you give in. "OK, you can sleep in the bed with me." All the dog learned: whine ninety minutes, get the bed. He will do that every night.

Don't touch, don't reward, don't go to the dog. If the whining escalates, put him in another room. The basement, the garage. But do not reward excessive whining.

This one's going to get me in trouble. Nobody likes this answer.

I had a soft-coated wheaten terrier named Norman. His owner bet me I'd never get him through a 4th of July. I took it. Fireworks over the lake, Norman sat next to me on the table, watching calmly. I videotaped it. The parents couldn't believe it.

Why? The parents had been rewarding the fear. Norman flinched, they rushed over — "It's OK, Norman" — petting him. The next garbage truck, Norman ran. Dog learned: loud noise → run → parents reward me.

Be a leader with timid dogs. Don't coddle. Don't say "it's okay." Get behind them, correct them tougher than everyone else.

Same as the timid kid who goes off to the Marines and comes back unrecognizable. Three months of the system, the timid dog follows you everywhere. If you're the alpha, they will.

When puppies nip, the common explanation is teething. That's wrong. The puppy is learning how hard to bite you before you drop it. This is straight from the ACVB's *Decoding Your Dog*.

I worked with one family: three boys. The oldest refused to walk past the dog — the dog had claimed his socks and growled when he passed. The youngest simply ripped the sock out. He didn't know the dog could bite. That naive confidence reset the dynamic.

Then there's the Paris Hilton dog — the foo-foo toy breed in mom's arms. You reach in, it nips. "This is my mommy, get away." From the dog's perspective, being held is the jackpot — six inches off the ground, now I'm five-foot-five, taller than the Dobermans. The little dog feels invincible in mom's arms.

The fix: correct the behavior, redirect to something constructive, and consider it from the dog's perspective.

A German Shepherd has a bone. A stranger reaches for it. The dog growls. You back off. It happens once, then twice, and years later the dog is four or five years old, at its prime, and it nips you. Why? Because it always got its way.

That's resource guarding — over food, over bones, over anything the dog claims as its own.

The fix: I drop a treat on the other side. The dog drops the bone. I pick it up, then slowly give it back. The dog learns I have the right to give food and take food away at any time.

And listen — if a parent comes in and says, "I can't get my dog's food," that's a serious sign. A dog willing to bite the hand that feeds it needs behavior modification, not just training. I'm concerned from the start.

You are the alpha. The dog can never turn on you.

Bolting out the door. If you've seen my flash cards, this is week-one work: before a dog goes outside, the dog sits. You open the door, you go out first, then you release the dog.

Why? You're the leader of the pack. You walk through every door first. If the dog runs out, it can come and go whenever it wants, barking at the neighbors — and that's never going to make a happy neighborhood.

The progressive build. Day one, walk three feet out the door, dog stays inside. Day three, six feet. Day five, ten feet. Day seven, fifteen feet. When the dog runs out to you at the new distance, treat and reward. The dog learns to stay inside until you release it.

It's an easy thing to fix — you just have to be consistent.

Your dog should always be on a leash. Electronic leashes are fine. The moment the dog locks on to a car, a bike, or another animal — correct it, say "No."

Here's what people don't understand: a dog barking at something is signaling danger. It's looking to you for protection. So get between the threat and the dog. The dog will seventy-five percent chill out. Pull it to the other side, "Watch me. Heel. Let's go." Redirect.

And drop the leash sometime and watch. Two dogs meet, they sniff each other's butts — the dog equivalent of shaking hands — and they play. So your dog doesn't hate other dogs. It's reactive on the leash.

But here's the real talk. If your dog runs across the street, it's going to get hit. If it's chasing cars, it's for sure going to get killed. You cannot let that problem go uncorrected, because your dog's going to simply die.

If you need help, call me. I'll give you detailed information on how to fix it.

This is typically a medical problem, even though people call it allergies. A lot of dogs are put on Apoquel for excessive licking. That's something to ask your vet about — it's not my job to recommend drugs.

I've seen other causes. Fertilizer on the lawn — ChemLawn and the like — dogs walk through it, paws get sore, the dog licks. Or the seasonal transition: the dog was inside all winter, summer hits, the dog runs outside, paws stretch, a little bleeding. The dog licks.

Some of it is normal — dogs love the salt off your skin after a workout. That's just a dog being a dog.

But if the dog is gnawing its own fur or making hot spots, see a vet right away.

Otherwise, correct it. A firm "No," and the dog stops.

Jumping on furniture is a boundary situation, and the number-one command we teach is "place." Get a place bed, teach the dog to go there. If the dog's paw comes off, correct it — "No." They're testing you.

At Beach for Dogs, we had fifty dogs on a bed for four hours a day, and they'd go home absolutely exhausted. That's how hard it is to do.

But we don't use the word "crate" in our shop. We call it the dog's bedroom. Same thing, different framing. The dog sees it as its owned space, not a cage.

When a thunderstorm hits — and there's actually one going on right now as I record this — the dog goes to its place bed. "OK, I'll wait for mom and dad to handle this, but I know I'm safe right here."

Pull the dog off the couch with the leash. "No. Place." The dog goes to its bedroom.

Food aggression. The biggest pit bull I've ever seen was Homita — straight out of a fighting ring in Mexico. His paws were chewed up, his ears were ripped off. Homita scared even me.

He came into our behavior modification program — me and my eldest son Zachary — and we slowly acclimated him to our family and our family dog. We corrected Homita when he reacted. I went in with protective gear, pulled the food away, and guarded it myself. "This is my food now. You're not getting anything." Next time, Homita had to take food from my hand.

Three weeks. He became one of the family. We exchanged Christmas cards for five years, until Homita passed.

Food aggression is fixable. Slowly, with positive and set boundaries. Don't stand for that aggressive behavior. You have to put it in its place.

Submissive urination. Puppies usually grow out of it. If you've got an adult dog still doing it, this is a behavior modification situation. Plan on about three months.

People aren't going to like what I have to say, but I'm the one doing the job. You take that passive dog that rolls over and pees when you walk up, and you stick him next to a leader like me. Just refer to me as the general. "I'm the boss. I'm taking your youngster in, and I'm going to make this kid a good young soldier."

The way you stop submissive urination is by building confidence. The dog is around other dogs, following the leader, leading when the leader isn't in the room. Confidence grows, the urination stops.

First — rule out the medical. Get the dog checked for a urinary issue. Once that's clear, follow the steps. Building confidence will stop it.

Indoor marking. People aren't going to like what I have to say, but the majority of the time, it's the parents' fault.

Smaller dogs get picked up, coddled, never have to do anything. They never learned stairs — mom and dad carried them up and down. That little dog learns it's the alpha of the house. It sleeps on the bed, on the pillows, on your feet. And when it sees bigger dogs outside, the only way it knows to protect the house is by marking it. "This is my house."

For example — when your kid is thirty-five years old and still living at home, that's a problem. The kid needs to move on, live in their own place. But when parents shelter kids, they develop personality problems. When parents shelter dogs, they develop personality problems. And one of the symptoms is a dog peeing all over the house.

The fix: small rooms first. One room the dog can be in without marking, then two, then three. Crate in between, like a puppy. Outside every couple of hours. Build the trust. And whatever's already been marked — scrub it clean or replace it, because the smell will pull the dog right back.

Hyperactivity, can't settle — the place command is the answer. Get a place bed, the dog stays there, calm. If it gets off, correct it right away. Let another dog be in the same vicinity — visible, not the same room. Teach calm.

Now, a real hyperactive dog. A grandmother called me in an emergency. Her grandchildren had bought her a Goldendoodle puppy, and the dog kept jumping up on her. Her arms, from shoulders to wrist, the skin was ripped off, all scabs. Grandma's skin was so thin, the puppy's paws just tore it.

She said, "I'm not getting rid of this dog. We're going to train it, because the dog is going to live longer than I am, and when my grandchildren get this dog back, I want it to be perfectly behaved."

I came in with different tools. Springer collar to electronic collar in one step. Sometimes you're managing the environment, sometimes the customer, sometimes the dog's just in the wrong home. Be a professional — have all the tools available, and match them to the situation.

When a dog scratches at the door and you open the door — what did you just do? You just rewarded the dog for scratching.

The fix: when the dog starts scratching, you go in, correct it, and put it back in the crate. "That's where you're staying now, until I can trust you outside the crate." It's a trust factor. They get out of the crate, they prove they can handle the room, then they get more time. They misbehave, they go right back.

And a lot of the time, it's just energy. You're not walking the dog enough, you're not exercising the dog enough. The scratching is excess energy looking for an outlet.

Speaking of energy — what type of dog do you have? On our website, take the puppy quiz. I can match the proper dog's energy with your family dynamic and how much time you have for it. It's free, link below.

Bottom line: "No," correct, redirect, environmental management.

Escaping the yard or crate. Huskies are the geniuses — they're the most wild of our dogs, still used to working in teams. They figure out how to get out of everything.

For the yard, engineer the environment. Taller fencing, sometimes dug into the ground. Or an electronic collar with the right training. Right equipment, right knowledge — you can stop it.

For the crate, the problem is energy. The fix: feed the dog in the crate, call it the bedroom, throw treats and toys inside. Lock for an hour, then two, then three, then four. Reward on release.

But first, burn the energy. One-hour walk around the neighborhood, let him smell everything, then put him on a place bed — don't let him off. He's sitting there, his mind racing.

Kind of like a human being — if I said, "Read the encyclopedia, and you can go to bed after," you'd be exhausted. That's the same mental workout the dog just did. Put him in the crate after that, he goes right to bed.

Fear of strangers. If you've properly trained your dog — sit, stay, place, heel — why in the world would the dog be afraid of strangers? The only reason a dog is afraid of strangers is because you're not doing your job.

The Paris Hilton dog is the example. Mom's always holding the little foo-foo dog, you reach in, it nips. "This is my mommy, get away." That's the dog being trained to act badly.

But here's the real talk. In today's society, there's no defense of a dog bite anymore. You're a hundred percent at fault — the dog bites, hurts, or threatens someone, you're responsible. God forbid your dog puts a scar on someone for the rest of their life, because you were irresponsible and didn't train it.

So fix it. Socialize the dog. Go to dog parks, meet people, expose the dog to new experiences. Have the dog sit when a stranger approaches, you look at the stranger, "Yeah, you could pet my dog." Calm demeanor. The dog follows your lead.

But it starts with you. You have to show leadership, confidence, calm. Cesar Millan says it: calm confidence. That's what the dog needs to see.

Rough play biting. This is about boundaries.

When puppies bite, people say, "Oh, the dog's teething." It isn't. The dog is figuring out, based on your reaction, how hard it has to bite for you to drop it. That's an instinct, right from the ACVB's *Decoding Your Dog*.

Any time your dog does something outside the boundaries you've set, that's an opportunity to teach. Don't overreact — seize it.

When the dog bites you too hard, pull back, say "No" in a deep voice. "He just hurt me. Unacceptable."

And here's the insight: your dog is going to bite harder with me, an adult man, than with the six-year-old girl in the house. The dog learns to calibrate. It can't play as rough with the little girl as it can with dad. That's a family-aware bite gauge — and it's just another trained behavior. Set boundaries adequate for your family dynamic.

Obsessive behaviors. Mostly exercise first. If the dog's got too much energy, it's going to focus on things it shouldn't. Wear the dog out, then take whatever the dog's obsessing about away from it.

I've seen it all — dogs obsessed with plants, socks, you name it.

But here's one that's on me. Before I got in the business, my family gave our puppy the cardboard paper-towel rolls to play with. Then we wondered why the same dog, as an adult, kept sneaking into the bathroom and tearing apart the toilet paper. We trained it to do that. It was just trying to get to the bottom of that cardboard piece we'd given it as a puppy.

We create a lot of the problems the dogs have later on, and then we call them obsessive behaviors.

The fix: correct — "No, don't chew on the plants." Two seconds later, redirect to a proper chew toy. Keep a basket of chew toys out, so the dog knows where to go to release stress.

Pica — eating non-food items: socks, plants, underwear. Most often this is feces, but that has its own video, that's #32. For the rest, wear the dog out first. Then correct: "no, that's not yours." A few seconds later, give them a proper chew toy. Have a basket of chew toys so the dog can self-serve when it wants to release some stress.

But here's the wild part. In the 1980s, every hardworking person was diagnosed with an ulcer. Do you know how they found the cure? They realized dogs never get ulcers. It's because of an enzyme dogs produce when they eat their feces. They pulled that enzyme out of human poop — that's what you take as pills to eliminate ulcers now. A hundred-year-old dog instinct meeting 2026 modern medicine.

Of course, always check with the vet first.

Coprophagia. Eating feces. Gross one. This is the fix.

Pick it up fast. Pick your poop up fast. That's the environmental fix — don't give the dog the opportunity in the first place.

Some vitamins turn the dog's poop foul-tasting — the dog gets the vitamin as a treat, and the poop becomes something the dog won't eat. For-Bid, Dis-Taste, that kind of product. Your vet can point you to one.

It's normal for mothers with newborn puppies to eat the poop — they're reclaiming nutrients for milk production. After a certain age, the dog shouldn't be doing it.

Correct the behavior away — "no, don't do it." Give the dog something positive to do with its energy. And of course, always check with the vet first. Pica, by the way, is the medical term for eating non-food items — broader topic is in #31.

Excessive grooming or licking is typically a medical situation. Vet first.

A lot of times it's allergies — from the fertilizer on your grass, from the food. Apoquel is the drug a lot of vets prescribe now for that.

But the food piece is what I really want to talk about. The only food I've ever recommended in over ten years of training is Acana and Orijen. Majority protein, biologically appropriate. More expensive — a hundred dollars a bag — but you feed half of what you'd feed a Costco bag. And half that Costco bag is garbage, that's why you have big poops.

I take pictures of customers' dogs' poop and send it to them. "Look — small, compact, all protein. The dog's way better, the coat's healthier, the dog acts better. Now you don't have a problem with excessive licking." The food is the fix for the allergy in most cases.

Growling. The books say, "Never punish a growl." I get it — the growl is information. The dog is saying, "I don't like this, get away from me, I'm warning you."

But I'm going to go opposite. This is Steve's $0.02. I do correct a growl away, because I'm setting boundaries. If the dog is growling at a child, or growling at something that's not socially acceptable, that's not OK.

Pop the leash. Firm, deep voice: "No, that behavior is not acceptable." Then redirect to the positive at the same time. Don't reward the growl.

And don't do what a lot of customers do — pet the dog and say, "It's OK, it's OK." That's telling the dog, "Continue to growl, continue to be a problem."

I'm here to fix the problem. Sometimes going the other direction works.

Lunging on the leash. Catch it before threshold. Spot the signs and redirect before it explodes.

If you see another dog, get between your dog and the threat. Pop the leash. "Watch me, no."

Why does this happen? Dogs see movement better than we do — it's called the flicker rate. They don't see colors as well as humans, but they see things that move. A garbage truck, a kid on a bicycle, another dog. Anything.

And control your emotions. If you put out a pheromone that you're afraid for your life, the dog smells it. The dog thinks you're afraid of that other dog. So the dog does exactly what you don't want — it lunges.

You're the smart human. It's your job to give that dog boundaries, just like you raise your children. Take accountability. Don't blame your dog. That is video 35, lunging on a leash.

Ignoring commands. If the dog is ignoring you, there's no respect.

Use pleasure, not pain. Praise in a high voice, pet, love — the dog will come to you out of respect.

But sometimes the dog won't listen. Pit bull sees a squirrel, prey drive kicks in. You have to come over the top with more energy, more powerful as a parent. Or use the right tools.

We use a steak knife and a fork when we cut a steak. Many people have been murdered with knives — we don't blame the knives, we blame the person.

And yes, electronic collars — some call them shock collars — have been used in negative ways. But I'd rather have the dog with boundaries, living happy at home with an electronic collar, than be dead on the side of the street because we as humans couldn't control the dog's prey drive. Just like I wouldn't let my kid stay out till two in the morning.

Anxiety when left alone. It's an energy problem. Wear the dog out first.

I've had customers pay fifty dollars to drop the dog off at daycare. The dog sits in the corner all day, doesn't want to do anything. Then mom and dad come to pick it up and the dog's jumping around. All they'd have to do is throw the ball in the backyard for five minutes — that dog would sleep fine at home. Yet they drive an hour to drop it off.

If it's not energy, it's chemical. Start with the crate, then a room, then a second, then a third. Earned one at a time.

And put a blanket over the crate. Dogs want to be under things, like they're under a bed. In the wild, eagles and owls can lift a small dog thirty or forty feet and drop it. The blanket says: you're under cover, you're safe.

Outsmart the situation. Fix it with environment, training tools, and unconditional love. Let them grow out of it.

Crate refusal. This is really easy. A lot of customers are shocked at how easy this is.

Just feed the dog in the crate. Put all the toys, all the treats in the crate. The dog doesn't get anything unless it's in the crate. Eventually lock the dog in — if he goes crazy, ignore it, throw a blanket over.

We don't even use the term "crate." We call it its bedroom. "Go to your bedroom." You don't like the thunder outside? I'm not gonna baby you. You're an adult dog. Go to your bedroom.

Now, I've seen some extreme examples. Dogs that destroyed the plastic inside the crate, absolutely destroyed crates. In my opinion, those dogs had owners that were a little off as well. Schizophrenic customers — I've seen it all. I don't mean to blame anyone, but that's what it looked like.

Crate refusal is really easy to fix. Get the bedroom setup right.

Car anxiety. Build a good relationship with the car.

If a dog's afraid of being in a car, that's where you start feeding. That's where you pet him. That's where the treats go.

Big dogs — say, two-hundred-pounders — sometimes don't like getting in. The fix: take them to daycare for a month or two. The car becomes "we're going to daycare." Make it positive. "Hey, do you want to go to the dog park?" — high voice, treats in the car, treats at the park. The car is just the transition between treats.

I have seen some extreme cases — drooling, looking back and forth, can't handle the car. Some customers put a cone on the dog's head so he can only see straight ahead, not peripherally. The world stops whipping by. That has helped. But I don't necessarily like to do that. I just like to get the dogs more comfortable — which means just exposing the dogs to more cars.

Reactivity to dogs on walks. This is something I've mentioned several times already.

When two leashed dogs see each other, they bark. Counterintuitive, I know — but drop those leashes and ninety percent of the time they run up, sniff each other, and walk back to their owners. Be friends. The dog is just saying, "Hey, danger over there." That's all.

The fix: pop the leash, "no," get between your dog and the threat. Then positive: "Heel, watch me, look at me." Redirect. We call it the figure-eight — turn around, go back, go forth. The dog doesn't know where you're going, so it stops looking at the other dog and starts looking at you.

Always outsmart the dog. One step ahead. When you see the trigger coming, reposition in advance. The other dog's on the left, you take your dog and put it on the right. Keep the heel tight.

The dog's always beside you or behind you. Never in front. You will not have reactivity to dogs on walks.

Guarding the owner looks like loyalty. It's actually anxiety.

The proof: a woman brings me her dog. "He only likes women. He hates men. You'll never train him." I take the leash right away. "See you later." I close the door. Three seconds later, the dog is in my world. No more guarding. By the afternoon, he's playing with fifty other dogs.

The fix for owners: drop your dog off at daycare like you're dropping off dry cleaning. No emotion. You don't kiss your shirts and blouses goodbye. You don't say, "Oh my gosh, I'll miss you, I love you shirt." You just drop it off and say, "see you later."

Why? The dog senses your emotions and amplifies them ten times. Your calm is the dog's calm. The principle: be the leader the dog is asking for.

Nighttime restlessness. That really comes down to energy.

If the dog has nighttime restlessness, you need to take the dog on a walk in the evening. And if you're only taking them for a five-minute walk, it needs to be fifty minutes. The dog needs to smell the environment, get out, burn that energy — so it has a reason to sleep at night.

Just like yourself — if you sat in a room all day and slept, you'd be up all night long. Think if your dog was locked in a crate for twelve hours a day. You come home for an hour, maybe an hour and a half, and you go to bed. The dog is going to have nighttime restlessness because it's slept all day long.

Put yourself in that position. Keep your dog active, both physically and mentally. Give the dog things to do. A walk around the block is beautiful.

And of course, all of us humans, all of us Americans, could use that too.

Destructive behavior when bored. Mental exercise is as powerful as physical. Puzzle feeders, training, and structure — a hundred percent.

Get the dog outside. Walk. Throw a ball. Throw bacon around the yard, have the dog go get it. Anything you can do. Some customers leave the TV on all day. Sometimes that works — I would have it videotaped to see if you're wasting your money. Buy the dog TV, which is special high-def where the dogs can see it a little better. But keep them mentally active, physically active.

A tired dog is a good dog. It's a well-behaved dog.

Even if you come home and the dog's been sitting for the majority of the day, make the dog sit in a place bed for a couple of hours while you do your work, while you do homework with the kids. Just him sitting still in that place bed, mentally, is very challenging for a lot of dogs. They'll be exhausted by dinner. Just him sitting in the place bed — that's the mental workout.

Excessive attention seeking. The fix requires you to change first. Calm, behavior, connection.

The best example is the place bed command. Get one of our beds — it's on the website, I'll link it. Make sure it's sized for your dog. When the dog is in its proper bed, it can't have its paws on the ground, it can't have its tail on the ground. It's in its bed a hundred percent. You say "place." That's like saying "stay" but on steroids times ten.

We don't let the dogs get off. If they break, you grab the leash, "no, no, no," put them back. It's one of the hardest things we train at Beach for Dogs — and now this new company we've started, One Dog Trainer. In the past we spent so many hours teaching the place command because that's what sets boundaries. That's what teaches the dog — calm down, relax, this is your place to chill.

If anything goes wrong in the house, you just go right to your place bed and chill. As soon as you say "place," the dog will run right to his bed and sit down properly.

Fear of new places. One small positive experience all the time.

The dog's afraid of the crate — put the food and water inside. Afraid of the car — put treats in the car, reward when they get in. Afraid of the laundry room — put the bowl of water and the food in there. Next thing you know, the dog's fine. The new place becomes the source of all good things.

It's just that the dog hasn't had time to be acclimated. As soon as they get acclimated, they're fine.

Customers come in all the time: "My dog is never going to get along with these forty-five other dogs you have here today." I laugh — if I only had a dime for every time people have said that. So we hear it all the time. It's more things that are made up in the human's mind. It's not a problem once the human leaves and the dog's on its own.

Mounting or humping. Redirect that behavior immediately.

By the time these problems get to me, it's more severe, so we correct it away. Redirect with a firm "no, affirm, no" — and then get the dog thinking about something else.

If it gets worse, more corrections. If you're going to hump or mount another dog, you're going in a crate for three hours. You're not getting access to freedom. If you can't get along in the pack, you get separated from the pack — which is one of the things dogs hate. They always want to be in the pack together.

Just correct the behavior, redirect, give them something positive to focus on.

And also — if you're putting a dog in heat with a whole bunch of other dogs that are males, that's you being stupid. Of course. You should know that a dog in heat is going to cause a problem and dogs are going to fight. Always be intelligent about the environmental factors.

Rolling in smelly things. That's part of their ancient instincts.

They make themselves stink to spread their scent. In my theory, when things smell more pungent than they are, the dog wants to rub their scent on it, because then they're going to be more popular. Their pheromones are going to spread more. It's more of a status thing with dogs. But it's just one of my theories over the ten years. They do love to roll in smelly stuff.

I correct it away. "Not acceptable." "No." "Leave it" is another keyword you can use. But manage the environment. If your dog rolls in other dogs' poop, don't take your dog out where there's other dogs' poop. Clean up your own yard. There are even services that can do that for you now.

If the dog does it, correct with a firm "no." Behavior is unacceptable. The only negative word we use is "no" — said in a very deep voice. Then pop the leash, and the dog will know not to do it again. Redirect.

Excessive paw licking. First — that could be an allergy. Make sure your dog doesn't have any allergies.

It could also be anxiety. The dog's nervous about something. The cure for anxiety is to wear them out — long walks, sniff, build confidence. Get them involved in a local daycare.

Or it could be the opposite — total boredom. The dog sitting in a crate for twelve hours a day has nothing to do but lick its paws.

It could even be nutrition. Change the food. It could be an allergic reaction. It could be the dog needs a certain nutrient — let's just say the dog needs salt, sodium in their diet, and they lick the sweat off their own paws, because they're getting the salt they need.

First and foremost, when I see excessive paw licking, it's typically something medical or nutritional. But if it's behavioral, you correct it away. Redirect with a firm "no" — and a deep one. Make sure they don't do it again.

Refusing to walk. The book says "never drag a fearful dog, rule out pain, rebuild confidence step by step." Yeah, that's great to say when you're writing a book.

In reality — and I've seen this from little teeny puppies to big old Labradors — you just walk. Sometimes that takes some dragging, and that's the truth. Eventually the dog realizes it's more comfortable to walk than be dragged. But you do it with respect. You never want to hurt your animal.

A hundred percent of these dogs were enabled by their owners. The owner says "the dog was just tired." Yeah, it was tired and laid down in your driveway, so you picked it up and carried it around the neighborhood. You taught it that. So when you bring in a new person — whoever created the problem, get them out. If Mom created the problem, get rid of Mom, bring over a neighbor. "We're walking together, come on."

My father's aunt has a ten-year-old dog that doesn't go up and down stairs. When my dad watches it, he says "I'm not carrying this dog. I'm not doing that." Took a couple of days — the dog runs the stairs. New environment, new rules. New sheriff in town.

Over excitement when guests arrive. This is a hundred percent human behavior.

Every twenty customers that come into our daycare — the moms, the dads, the kids — the first thing they do is, "Oh my gosh, there's my puppy!" and they're kissing the dog, hitting the ground, the dogs are jumping, and the parents are acting like fools. You pay me to stop your dog from jumping on people. Yet every time you see your dog, you act like a buffoon.

Would you act this way when you saw your child in college? You wouldn't walk up to a college kid and say, "Oh my gosh, I was so good, kiss your face and jump." But you do with the dog. Your dog is not in college. Your dog is beyond college — your dog's fifty, if you take human years into it.

One of the books — I don't know which, maybe *Decoding Your Dog* — references that the amount of positive pheromones in a human brain is matched by a dog's brain. But a human brain is ten times the size of a dog's. So the dog gets the same pheromone intensity, times ten. The dog is getting ten times the excitement you're getting.

If you just act a little cooler, take it down a notch, your dog will do the same. "Place" — get into your place bed, sit, calm down. Get him exhausted first — chase a ball for half an hour before guests arrive. He'll be like, "I'm still sleeping. I don't even want to get up."