I hear it all the time: I just can't get my dog to behave well for me. I've tried everything from yelling at him when he jumps up to rubbing his nose in his own stool and urine when he eliminates inside my home. I've even caught him in the act of tearing at my furniture and scolded him, still to no avail. "This is frustrating and I don't know what to do" is what you hear the person saying. Usually, if you have a frustrating situation like the aforementioned, not only do you not know what else to do, neither does your dog. The truth is that jumping, tearing things up (especially when teething) growling, biting, (in aggressive dogs) and urinating and defecating inside your home are all things that come naturally to dogs. Sometimes owners try to take away all of these things that a dog is inclined to do naturally. Because he has not been taught an alternative behavior, he becomes frustrated. You can bet he'll find a way to misbehave, anyway. That's all he knows to do. He doesn't automatically know that Come, Sit, Stay, and Heel are better for his owner and himself.

We as dog owners must teach him that. We go to the bathroom when we need to urinate. If there's not one handy then, we wait. If the dog feels the urge to urinate when inside your home, he'll do it right there and then if not housebroken. We hold our frustrations in, but a dog has no reason to, he's a dog. If he's a dominant, aggressive dog he will have no problem letting you know with a growl when you're doing something he doesn't like. If you leave it unattended, he could eventually bite you when he feels you are challenging him. Again, these are things that dogs do naturally. Of course, this behavior does not go well with us humans, but we can modify dogs' natural behavior so they can adapt well to human life; in turn, we can gain a better relationship with our best friends.

One way to avoid or solve behavior problems is through obedience training. When you start motivating your dog to continue a preferred behavior and stop a wrong behavior, the dog will do less of the bad behavior and more of the good, and the learning process would be under way. Positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement go hand in hand. You'll be teaching your dog "don't jump up on me, sit and stay." He can't jump up anymore if he's really taking you seriously and has learned the command. Also, consider a command like "don't bark aggressively at my children or a friend, instead go down and stay." You should decide what constitutes a threat, not the dog. It's strange to see a dog barking aggressively when lying on the floor, it goes against what the dog is feeling inside. When a dog is feeling aggressive his ears, tail and hackles go up. He wants to be on his toes and appear larger, but when you suddenly give the command to go down and stay, he has to relax and let you be the dominant leader-if you have taught him the lesson and he's taking you seriously. As you can see, obedience commands can help solve behavior problems.

Another type of training is automatic conditioning. This is basically catching your dog in the act of doing something good. Mostly, dogs are reprimanded when caught doing something wrong. Few are praised when doing something favorable and aren't motivated to continue the behavior. You don't have to give your dog a command to teach him good behavior. You can incorporate this type of training throughout your day; it only takes a second of your time. The moment your dog sits, praise him lavishly and give him a treat (if handy). There are many different behavior problems and many reasons why dogs behave poorly. Just because your dog is trained properly for basic obedience doesn't mean you'll be able to modify all behaviors. Your training may be too basic, and you both would benefit with more-advanced training. For example, your dog may respond perfectly on leash but run wild with another dog off leash. Then you would be one of the few owners who hasn't tried to stop all the wrong behaviors. Not too bad for the dog though, he'll have the best of both worlds.