Start Here.

Reactivity is not one single problem. Some dogs are afraid. Some are frustrated because they desperately want to get to the other dog. Some have poor social skills. Some are overstimulated, and some dogs absolutely will escalate if given the opportunity. So first we stop treating every reactive dog as though they all arrived here for the same reason.

1. Stop rehearsing the explosion. Every giant reaction is another repetition. Manage the environment while you teach something better.
2. Figure out the actual trigger. Dogs? Men? Kids? Fast movement? Only dogs behind fences? Details make a difference.
3. Find the working distance. Start where your dog can notice the trigger without completely losing their brain.
4. Quit forcing greetings. Your dog does not need to say hello to every dog or person encountered on a walk.
5. Put basic skills back under distraction. Sit, Come, Place, Watch Me and leash handling give you something useful to ask for.
6. Reward disengagement. Seeing the trigger and choosing to come back to you is a big deal. Pay the good decision.
7. Work on calm away from the trigger too. Place, duration work and impulse control are not just living-room tricks.
8. Stop trying to “socialize” by flooding. More exposure is not automatically better exposure.
9. Use equipment you can actually handle. Safety comes before somebody's internet argument about tools.
10. Take bite risk seriously. Redirecting, snapping, biting or losing physical control moves this out of DIY territory.

If the dog can wander into another room and pee behind the sofa, we're not ready for freedom yet. House training gets much easier when the dog stops getting opportunities to practice getting it wrong.

1. Rule out a new medical problem. A previously house-trained dog suddenly having accidents deserves a different look than a new puppy.
2. Stop free roaming. You cannot supervise a dog who is two rooms away from you.
3. Put a leash on indoors. Tether to you, your chair or nearby so sneaking off is no longer an option.
4. Use predictable potty times. Waking, eating, drinking, playing, training and coming out of the crate are obvious opportunities.
5. Go outside with the dog. Opening the door and hoping for the best does not tell you whether anything actually happened.
6. Reward the actual potty. Not the trip outside. Not coming back in. Reward the behavior you are teaching.
7. Learn the dog's signals. Sniffing, circling, wandering away, suddenly getting restless — pay attention.
8. Use the crate appropriately. It is a management and teaching tool, not someplace to park the dog all day.
9. Clean accidents thoroughly. And no, punishing the dog ten minutes later does not explain the lesson.
10. Make freedom something the dog earns. Expand access to the house after success becomes predictable.

A dog barking “LET ME OUT!” and a dog drooling, bending bars, hurting themselves or frantically trying to escape are not having the same experience. Please don't treat them like they are.

1. Decide whether you're seeing protest or panic. That is step one because the plan changes from there.
2. Teach the crate while you're home. Do not make the crate the magical box that only predicts everyone disappearing.
3. Build short, boring successes. Crate. Settle. Come out. Nothing dramatic happened.
4. Use some brain before crate time. A few minutes of training often does more than mindlessly exhausting the dog.
5. Make the crate comfortable. Location, visual stimulation, temperature and the individual dog all count.
6. Do not open the door during the tantrum. Catch even a tiny quiet moment at first and build from there.
7. Teach Wait at the crate door. Flying out like a champagne cork is not the release routine we're looking for.
8. Use the crate routinely. Not constantly — routinely. It needs to feel normal.
9. Know when to change course. Escalating panic, self-injury and frantic escape attempts need a different approach.
10. Look beyond obedience when anxiety is involved. Separation and confinement anxiety can involve much more than crate training.

Barking is communication, but that does not mean your dog needs to narrate the entire neighborhood from the front window. Before you yell “STOP BARKING” for the 47th time, change what the dog is practicing.

1. Identify the triggers. Door? Fence? Window? Sounds? Dogs? People? Alone time?
2. Stop unsupervised patrol duty. Eight hours barking at the front window is eight hours of practice.
3. Block visual access when needed. Management gives you enough quiet to teach.
4. Use a leash around predictable triggers. Now you can actually follow through instead of yelling from the kitchen.
5. Teach a clear interruption. “Enough,” recall away, Place or another known behavior gives the dog an answer.
6. Reward stopping. Quiet and disengagement are behaviors too.
7. Teach Place away from the action. Especially useful with windows, doors and visitors.
8. Work on the On/Off switch. Excitement is allowed. So is learning how to come back down.
9. Give the dog something productive to do. Training, scent work and relationship games beat inventing their own entertainment.
10. Ask whether barking is actually anxiety or reactivity. Same noise. Very different reason.

Dogs dig because there are smells, roots, bugs, cool dirt and things worth investigating. Some breeds were practically built for it. Filling the same hole every night without changing anything else simply prepares tomorrow's worksite.

1. Stop unsupervised yard time for now. Especially if you have a dog door and discover the excavation later.
2. Catch the behavior early. Interrupt while the first few paws are moving, not after the tunnel system is complete.
3. Redirect immediately. Training, play, sniffing or another activity needs to replace digging.
4. Ask what is under there. Critters, smells and cool soil can make one location especially attractive.
5. Give bored dogs a job. A yard is not automatically enrichment just because it is outdoors.
6. Add structured interaction. Train, play and explore with your dog rather than simply putting them outside.
7. Use barriers temporarily. Protect the flower bed while you're changing the habit.
8. Consider a legal digging area. Some committed diggers are much happier when there is somewhere digging is actually allowed.
9. Make the legal area worth finding. Hide toys or interesting finds there and help the dog discover them.
10. Be consistent for more than two days. The dog did not develop the hobby yesterday. Give the new rule enough repetition to stick.

Puppy puts paws up. Human looks down, talks, pets, picks puppy up. Puppy thinks, “Excellent. I have cracked the code.” Then puppy becomes 70 pounds and suddenly everybody changes the rules.

1. Stop rewarding paws-up attention. Attention includes talking, touching and animated pushing.
2. Put the leash on before guests arrive. Preventing the launch is easier than wrestling the dog afterward.
3. Teach four feet on the floor. Make calm greetings profitable.
4. Use Sit when appropriate. Give the dog something incompatible with jumping.
5. Teach Place. Not every arrival needs to become immediate social hour.
6. Make guests follow the rules too. “I don't mind!” is not helpful when you are trying to teach consistency.
7. Practice with boring setups. Do not wait until six relatives arrive for Thanksgiving.
8. Work on impulse control everywhere. Food, toys, doors and greetings are all practice.
9. Keep greetings calmer. High-pitched squealing rarely improves a dog already vibrating out of their skin.
10. Be consistent. Jumping on Tuesday cannot be adorable if jumping on Friday suddenly makes everybody angry.

My first suggestion may sound ridiculous: stop going for the big walk for a few days. Work in the driveway, yard and a few houses in each direction. Teach what a loose leash feels like before asking for a two-mile performance full of squirrels and neighbors.

1. Temporarily stop the marathon walks. Do not spend an hour practicing the behavior you're trying to eliminate.
2. Start somewhere boring. Driveway beats downtown during the teaching phase.
3. Let the dog experience a loose leash. A long line can help dogs discover movement without constant tension.
4. Change direction. Teach the dog to pay attention to where you are going.
5. Become a statue when the leash gets tight. Pulling should not be the engine that gets the dog to the destination.
6. Reward checking in. Catch the moments when your dog voluntarily pays attention.
7. Use changes of pace. Walking does not need to be one long, boring straight line.
8. Let dogs sniff appropriately. The entire walk does not need to be a military heel.
9. Separate pulling from reactivity. A dog dragging toward another dog because they are exploding emotionally needs more than loose-leash mechanics.
10. Build distance gradually. Driveway. A few houses. Block. Neighborhood. Success first.

Puppies explore with their mouths, and new dogs do not arrive knowing which of your possessions cost $200. If you spend your day chasing the dog yelling “DROP IT,” we need to change the setup before we spend all day correcting the dog.

1. Puppy-proof like you mean it. Do not leave the irresistible thing sitting there and call it training.
2. Reduce household freedom. New dogs and puppies earn more access as they show they can handle it.
3. Use an indoor leash. No more Benny Hill chase scenes around the kitchen island.
4. Provide appropriate chewing outlets. The need to chew is real. Give it somewhere legal to go.
5. Rotate the good stuff. Yesterday's boring chew may become interesting again after disappearing for a few days.
6. Teach Leave It. That means “this thing is not yours.”
7. Teach Out or Drop. Trading and giving things up are valuable life skills.
8. Do not make stealing a fabulous game. Chasing may be exactly the payoff the dog wanted.
9. Use the crate or Place when you cannot supervise. Management prevents the 800th rehearsal.
10. Remember puppies are puppies. Normal developmental nonsense still needs teaching and boundaries.

Doorbell rings. Dog barks. Human starts yelling. Somebody tries to squeeze through the door. Amazon driver considers leaving the package at the neighbor's house. We can practice almost all of this when nobody is actually visiting.

1. Stop practicing chaotic arrivals. Put management in place before the bell rings.
2. Keep a slip lead near the door. Being prepared beats chasing your dog while the guest waits outside.
3. Teach Wait away from visitors. Doors should not automatically mean launch.
4. Teach Place separately. Get the skill good before attaching it to the hardest possible moment.
5. Practice opening the door with nobody there. Door opens. Dog waits. Door closes. Very boring. Very useful.
6. Practice the bell. Ring it yourself. Use a recording. Remove the surprise from the exercise.
7. Use the leash for real visitors. Especially while the behavior is still under construction.
8. Do not force greetings. Your dog does not need to be touched by everybody who walks inside.
9. Reward neutrality. Calmly existing while a person is in the house is a perfectly good goal.
10. Know when this is no longer manners. Lunging, guarding, snapping or bite risk needs a real safety plan.

Recall is not optional fluff. It is a life-saving skill. And if “Come” has become a word your dog hears six times before deciding whether you're serious, we need to put some meaning back into it.

1. Use one clear recall word. Come. Here. Whatever you choose — make it mean something.
2. Say it once. Repeating it teaches the dog the first five requests were apparently optional.
3. Use a long line while you're teaching. You need a way to follow through without chasing the dog.
4. Pay puppies and new dogs generously. Showing up when called should be one of the best deals in town.
5. Do not wave the reward first. The cue should bring the dog — not the sight of the treat pouch.
6. Make yourself worth coming to. Move, play, celebrate, engage. Stop being furniture.
7. Do not make Come always end the fun. Call, reward and release the dog back to sniffing or playing sometimes.
8. Practice collar handling at arrival. Coming close but staying six feet out of reach is not a complete recall.
9. Add distractions slowly. Living room recall and squirrel recall are not the same test.
10. Keep the leash until the skill is actually reliable. Hope is not an off-leash plan.