02/21/2026
Four Things That Will Improve Your Dog's Life and Behavior Without Formal Dog Training
Across the board, the dog owner being a good leader allows the dog to be calmer, reduces the dog's stress and anxiety, and therefore reduces the likelihood, intensity, and frequency of many behavior problems.
Attention-Seeking Behaviors - Ignore or Stop
Attention-seeking behaviors such as barking, whining, nudging, pushing, hovering, and jumping up are cute at best and a nuisance at worst. Dogs are incredibly intelligent survivalists; this makes them masters at learning cause and effect and training their people.
Let's take, for example, the ball crazy dog who brings you their ball five dozen times a day. The dog brings the ball. You're busy working from home. You initially ignore the dog. The dog places the ball in your lap or on your desk. You push the ball to the ground in an effort to make the dog stop distracting you. The ball hits the ground, rolls, and the dog chases it. For the dog, what just happened is very simple. They brought you the ball to throw, you ignored them, they tried harder to get your attention, the ball rolled (playtime!). Basically, the dog has now learned that when ignored, they just need to try harder. This can lead to excessive barking, whining, pacing, pawing, pushing, jumping up, and many other things. It can also encourage serious behavior problems such as resource guarding and separation anxiety.
So what should you do when a dog is trying an unwanted or nuisance behavior to get your attention? Take away the reward! If your dog continuously brings you their ball when they need to be calm, put the ball away out of sight and reach. If your dog barks at you to beg for treats, ignore or correct the barking and stop providing treats in that scenario. If your dog jumps up on you when you come home, ignore them until they are calm again. By ignoring or correcting the unwanted behavior and making sure it is not rewarding the frequency of the behavior decreases. If you are consistent and fair, you will see the nuisance behavior disappear entirely.
Thresholds - Teach Your Dog To Stop At Them
We encourage each of our clients to establish thresholds with their dogs. Most of the time, when a dog trainer refers to "thresholds," they are referring to teaching a dog to automatically stop and wait calmly at doorways, stairways, gates, and car doors until they are invited through. This creates opportunities for your dog to slow down, be calm, and think before charging out the door or down the stairs.
From a behavioral standpoint, slowing your dog down and teaching them to exit or enter their home, yard, car, etc., calmly can help prevent and reduce behavior problems by making impulse control a regular practice.
Teaching your dog to stop and wait at every threshold is not just a matter of good manners but a matter of safety. Racing out every open door or gate is a dangerous habit that can lead to a dog escaping their home or yard and possibly getting into danger. While a dog racing their human up and down the stairs is a fall and injury risk to both the dog and the human.
Feeding Time - Scheduled and Separated
Feeding your dog in a structured way provides consistency and stability, and is the safest option.
Feed your dog at or around the same time or times each day. Leave their food down for a set amount of time, such as ten or twenty minutes, then pick it up until the next mealtime. Be sure to separate your dog from other dogs, animals, and children in the home while they are eating.
For more information on this topic, you can visit our previous post on our website, "Free Feeding vs. Scheduled Feeding," found in "Training and Behavior Tips". The link is in the comments.
Crate Training - Do It!
Crate training is a useful and basic skill for the everyday dog and owner.
Why should you crate train your dog?
-Provides your dog with a comfortable space where they can be secured and safe
-To prepare them for vet, grooming, and boarding visits
-Helps to prevent separation anxiety
-It's useful for potty training and preventing unwanted, destructive behaviors
-An easy and safe way to separate dogs in a multi-dog household
Crate training can be done easily with most dogs, regardless of your chosen training method. Here are our go-to tips
-Put the dog in the crate for short periods of time when you are home
-Make the crate a calm space
-Reward the dog for going in the crate
-Don't release the dog unless they are calm
-Remove bedding and soft toys (they may get chewed up)
-Consider feeding your dog in their crate
Do you need help with your dog's behavior? Message us or visit our website for more information on our dog training and behavior modification services. Link in the comments!
