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Dogs and humans go way back. We used to have a much more mutually beneficial relationship then, with them helping us herd our livestock and protecting us. They had an active outdoor life and were an integral part of our lives when they were first domesticated.

Now, a great number of them spend most of their time indoors, in small homes and apartments, which cramps their ability to be active and perform work beneficial to people. For some, the situations they’re placed in are stressful, yet they cannot escape, and this causes significant stress when the flight-or-fight response is thrown off balance.

Dogs can find our hectic lifestyles difficult to cope with. They are pack animals, yet we leave them alone for periods of time. They have sensitive hearing, yet we have loud parties and enjoy fireworks. It’s no wonder that they can have behavior problems and unwanted behaviors like destroying your property, eliminating in the house, excessive licking of the hair coat, and aggression. These are huge problems in many households and are the number-one cause of euthanasia in dogs.

If you have the advantage of bringing a puppy into your home, you can help prevent these problems from starting. Our website has a detailed puppy behavior training section for dogs that are 6 to 16 weeks of age. It will take a commitment of time for the first few months, but the rewards will continue for both of you for the rest of your dog’s life.

For adult dogs that have already manifested undesirable behaviors, this will be more problematic. There are many things you can do at home to help:

  • Create a predictable environment.
  • Have one food bowl per dog in separate rooms.
  • Set up several different and quiet resting places.
  • Take your dog for “sniff walks” away from its normal environment three or more times per week.
  • Teach your dog tricks and give it rewards, especially verbal and petting, when it reaches a goal.
  • Use food-dispensing toys to make it work to get at the food.
  • Set time as at least once daily for a TLC session of petting and praise. This will also help your blood pressure!

Next week: Veterinary treatment of canine behavior problems.