One Easy Dog Training Tip To Help When A Dog Doesn’t Listen

For this Omaha in home dog training session we share tips to help when a dog doesn’t listen to their humans to assist 1 year-old Bulldog Chance’s humans.

There are a number of reasons why a dog doesn’t listen to their guardians; being inconsistent, punishment based training, confusion from humans or a lack of early positive socialization experiences. The latter being one of the most common reasons.

Chance was adopted at a super young age which deprived him of some crucially important early socialization. Compounding the matter, he swallowed a toy that led to a few surgeries.  All of these things prevented him from enrolling in our puppy classes which would have helped him avoid the behavior problems his humans reached out for help with.

Many of these are basic dog obedience issues. By themselves, each issue is easy to deal with. But when you have multiple dog behavior problems, it can get frustrating and stressful for the humans.

But there are other factors in place for this dog. Chance resists nap time and he isnt getting as much exercise as he needs as a youn puppy. When you combine lack of socialization with too much energy, you get a bored dog. This can cause a dog to engage in unwanted behaviors like chewing which is another issue his humans wanted to work on. Chewing is one of the more common dog behavior problems Im asked to fix.

Like many dogs, Chance likes to chew. This is a natural and normal thing for all dogs, but some dogs engage in chewing when they are insecure or fearful. This can happen when people verbally chastize the dog. We kind of expect the behavior we want. But its important to teach and train a dog to expct dog obedience and adherence to our preferences.

Verbally correcting a dog is a common mistake maky people make. It also causes so many dog behavior problems; insecurity, more chewing, stealing, barking, running away, etc.

Naturally, when Chance starts to chew the wrong thing, his parents tell him “no.” While this makes sense to humans, it can be confusing to dogs. Its also one of the most common dog behavior mistakes humans make. Let me explain.

To dogs, all attention from humans is rewarding. And whatever your dog is doing before or when you give them attention is what you are rewarding. This means when you tell your dog “no,” you are actually contributing to the behavior. But its worse than that, usually when dogs offer unwanted behaviors, the humans repeatedly give them attention. So the dog gets more attention for doing what the humans want to avoid.

So in reality, many people train their dogs to do the behavior they are tying to stop. I have come up with a secret way to help humans stop this common dog training mistake. I call it “celebrating” and its probably one of the easiest ways to train any dog to have good manners.

Another issue his humans had was the fact that Chance is not potty trained. More opportunity for dog obedience training! And when he has an accident, his guardians give him plenty of attention for it, accidentally contributing to his anxiety.

We went out a few times so I could show his guardians the proper way to potty train a dog or puppy. They will need to stop chatizing his for accidents and I also recomended they limit his access in the house until house trained.

Fortunately potty training is pretty easy. If they follow the method detailed in the potty training video for every potty break for the next 2 weeks, they should be able to stop Chance’s accidents in the house.

Not listening, jumping, accidents, mouthing, chewing, oh my. This dog has quite the plethera of problems. But the good news is he is young. Stopping dog behavior problems is much easier when a dog is younger. But the longer a dog practices a behavior, the more likely they are to repeat it. I suggested we book an additional 3 sessions to drill down into these unwwanted dog behavior problems, one by one.

His guardians were throwing issues at me so fast I had to slow things down. It can be overwhelming when you are dealing with multiple dog behavior problems. We went over a number of dog behavior fundamentals like how and when to introduce a cue, dog consent and cut off signals and some creative ways to burn excess energy.

But an overriding thing is attention at the wrong tinme. It will be super important that his humans make a concerted effort to stop giving attention when Chance chews, jumps up or has accidents.

But I knew I needed to come up with somehting kinda dramatic to motivate Chance. Ive found that lack of motivation is a common reason when a dog doesn’t listen. To help give Chance that motivation, I decided to introduce a positive dog training tool.

What to Do When A Dog Doesn’t Listen to its Humans

Chance has practiced ignoring his humans. This isnt an intentional thing, but can happen when humans repeat a cue over and over, verbally correct dogs or the human tried to talk to a dog when its sniffing. A dog’s nose controls 60% of its brain and when its sniffing, its almost impossible to listen.

Ive found that using a clicker is a great trick to use when a dog doesn’t listen. The click is so distinctive and once loadxed properly, the sound snaps most dogs to attention. The clicker is a great tool and one I have used many times to stop dog behavior problems.

After leading the guardians through a clicker loading exercise, we were ready to get to work. I call this lesson training for attention and its really easy to do. If your dog doesnt listen to you, you should get a clicker then check out the free positive dog training video below.

It was wonderful watching how quickly Chance responded to this trick for people who’s dog doesnt listen.  He was following his mom around sitting faster and faster. This is one smart Bulldog!

Its going to take time and a lot of effort from his humans to modify their behavior to eliminate most of Chance’s dog behavior problems, but we are off to a great start. I think it wont be long before this is a case where the dog doesnt listen problem is a thing of the past.