Lisa Gold asked:

It is a joy to own a dog, but they are a lot of work when it comes to training. You know what I mean. They start off as cute puppies and if you don’t train them right, they can pick up some pretty bad, and sometimes dangerous, habits. Let’s look at what the 5 most common dog training problems are:

Barking Biting Jumping up Potty training Pulling on the leash

Let’s look at each one separately to discuss these problems.

Barking

A dog barking at a squirrel is one thing that you can tolerate because it’s temporary, but a dog barking day and night constantly and over nothing is annoying. This can get the neighbors complaining and even calling the local authorities on you and your dog. My next door neighbors have a Jack Russell Terrier and even though he’s so gosh-darn-cute, his constant barking is quite bothersome.

Biting

A biting dog is a danger to children and adults. Biting has to be the most dangerous of the top 5 dog training problems. This is something that must be stopped before it has started, or it could lead to a child or an adult getting badly hurt. In addition, your dog may be ordered to be put to death over attacking and biting people.

Jumping Up

Dogs can get so excited to see you and anyone that comes to visit you that they will jump up on you and your visitors. Let’s face it, some people will take offense to this or it may scare them. If a dog jumps up on a child it can knock the child over. Also, a dog that jumps up can accidentally knock you down the stairs. Even though it’s cute when your puppy jumps up, it’s not so cute when they’re an adult dog and you’ve not trained them to stay down.

Potty Training

Potty training or housebreaking a dog can be an arduous, ongoing task. You can get tired of cleaning the carpets real quick. Of course, every dog is different, but there are ways to make the training easier on you and get results quicker.

Pulling on the Leash

Some dogs do not like to walk on a leash and will slink away when they see the leash. Go figure, you’d think they’d want to go. A more common problem is dogs pulling on the leash when you’re trying to walk them. You pull one way, the dog pulls the other way and pretty soon you have a tug of war instead of a casual walk. My 70 pound retriever would be absolutely no fun to walk if she was constantly pulling me along.