Often, dog owners mishandle or misunderstand behavior problems. The best way to achieve your goal is by understanding dog behavior before trying to solve or prevent their lousy behavior. Additionally, teaching your dog to obey your commands will help you control many of their behavioral issues.

Behavioral issues and how to solve them

Barking

Dogs vocalize in various ways, including barking, howling, or whining. However, excessive vocalization may be considered a behavioral problem. However, you should determine why your furry friend is vocalizing excessively before correcting their behavior.

The most common reasons your dog could bark excessively include alerts or warnings, excitement, playfulness, or excitement. Other causes include anxiety, boredom, attention-seeking, and responding to other dogs. You can control your dog’s excessive barking by addressing any underlying issues causing them to display that behavior. You should also teach them quiet and bark commands. Stay consistent, patient, and dedicated, and pay attention to detail.

Separation anxiety

Separation anxiety is a prevalent dog behavior disorder and can manifest in various ways, including inappropriate defecation and urination, excessive chewing, vocalization, etc. Signs you should look out for include:

• Your dog acting anxious when you prepare to leave
• Misbehaving a few minutes after you leave
• Following you around constantly
• Trying to touch you whenever possible

You can solve your dog’s anxiety through behavior modification, desensitization exercises, and dedicated training. If all these fail, you should take your dog to the vet for proper medication.

Chewing

All dogs chew; it is an important activity that should be encouraged. It’s part of who they are; owners shouldn’t expect them to stop completely. However, your dog may have a problem if they chew excessively. You’ll notice this behavioral problem if the dog starts destroying property in your home.

The most common reasons why your dog chews excessively include:

• Excess energy
• Boredom
• Teething
• Curiosity
• Anxiety

You can solve this issue by providing appropriate toys and encouraging your dog to chew on them. Keep your items away from the dog and confine them to areas where they are likely to cause minimal destruction. Distract your dog with a sharp noise if you find them chewing on an essential item and replace it with their favorite chew toy.

Inappropriate defecation

Inappropriate defecation and urination is the most frustrating behavior your dog may display. Doing this can damage property in your home and make people less enthused to welcome your dog in public.

You should discuss this issue with your vet to determine whether it’s associated with a medical condition. Next, you should understand that the dog’s behavior may arise from their need to mark the territory, anxiety, excitement/submissive urination, and poor housebreaking. Understand that your dog can control their elimination when they are over 12 weeks of age. Dogs that can’t control their behavior after this age have a behavior problem, and you should try serious behavior modification to rid them of this habit.

Remember that training or retraining your dog is critical when dealing with its troublesome behavior. Dog owners should begin by exercising them frequently and preventing them from learning lousy behavior. They should reward desired behavior and stay consistent with your training and rules. Remember that dogs get used to habits, and you can correct them when necessary.