Dogs don't come with instructions
A tired dog is a good dog! One of the most important behavior tools is very simple - excercise. If every dog owner knew nothing more than this, it would save so many animals from a fate decided in a shelter.
Exercise your dog, as often as you can. If you can't, you really need to reconsider dog ownership, and at the very least, look for a breed that requires less exercise. If your dog hasn't had a walk in a month and eats your sofa - it's your own fault!
Kennel Train. Especially for dogs who are not housebroken yet or are exhibiting bad behavior while you're away. While leaving your dog for hours in a crate may seem cruel, a dog who receives regular exercise will be safe, and so will your house!
A kennel should be a safe place, never used for punishment, and large enough for your dog to stretch out completely. We lost our first dog Myah to an accident in the house, she suffocated in a plastic bag - a kennel would have kept her safe.
Read good Training Books. The best book I've read to date is The Culture Clash, by Jean Donaldson In my opinion, every dog owner should read this book - twice! Excellent.
Realistic Expectations. Some things may simply be too much to expect of dogs. Expecting your dog to, for example, ignore the temptation of the accessible trash for ten hours while you're at work, may simply be asking too much. You may be able, with careful training, to teach a dog to resist the cheese dip on the coffee table by holding a down-stay.
Think about natural instincts - like the instinct to eat whenever there is food available, it could become scarce anytime! We know we're going to feed them as usual at meal-time, but their instincts tell them to be safe and eat when food is available. That includes the trash can...
Also, considering basic commands, think about what you're asking of them, and compare that to the level of training you've been doing. If you've practiced a 'sit' only in the living room, it is unfair to expect the dog to hold it in the midst of screaming kids in the park, punishing them with a harsh leash correction for their unwillingness to obey your command.
Until you have practiced the 'sit' in the park and have a heavy history of reward for a good sit, you should not punish. I prefer to find alternatives to punishment, like redirecting attention, and then rewarding for desired behavior. Practicing commands in all kinds of places with increasingly difficult distractions is called proofing and generalizing.
Practice. Keep practicing those commands, and use baby steps as you change locations and add distractions. Keep throwing in easy ones to keep him enthusiastic. Be mindful of how much more you are asking for with each increase in difficulty, and take a step back if it proves to be too difficult for your dog. Start over at a place where he has been successful and then take half a step up in your difficulty level.
For example, you've been practicing sit stay in the living room with one foot distance between you and your dog, for count of twenty. Then you move to same distance and count of fiftty. That might be ok for some dogs who have really picked up on the training game, but for some it might be too hard. Go back to one foot distance and count of five, then ten, then five, then twenty, then ten, then twenty five, then five, then thirty.
You need to make it easy then harder, harder, and easy again, so your dog never knows what's going to get the reward. Sometimes he gets a reward quickly, next time it's hard, but then it might be easy again. If you go hard, harder, harder, harder, he may give up and say - well I know it's just going to get harder - I've had enough of this! Then you have to start over anyway. Set him up to win - each and every time.
Careful what you Reward. Reward based training works - very well. Dogs learn that if they do this, they get the reward. You can accidentally reward behavior, and reinforce behavior that you don't mean to.
If you pet your dog after he paws at your leg, petting him is a reward the pawing, and the behavior is likely to occur with more frequency. Do you like that your dog paws at you for attention? Will your guests like it? Be careful what you reward, that goes for jumping, and any other behavior that you may not want to encourage.
Careful what you Punish. You arrive home only to step in a puddle at the front door. The culprit is laying on his bed, and you break into a screaming fit, chuck your shoe at him, and just basically lose it. This is unacceptable behavior after all. Well, unfortunately it just punishes your dog for laying quietly on his bed. This will create a very nervous, unsettled dog who never knows what behavior is ok - laying on his bed is obviously dangerous when you come home.
Next day he greets you at the door, and there's the puddle, and he gets punished for that, perhaps he thinks greeting you at the door isn't a good idea now. Next he slinks around when you come home to the puddle, and you're sure he knows he's in trouble for the puddle. He's acting very guilty. But just maybe, he's just completely at a loss and is acting out his feelings of fear of what your return will bring today.
Punishment has to come at the second the bad behavior is displayed, so the dog can associate the punishment with the behavior. Even then it's often easier to ignore and avoid the bad behavior, and reward for good...
Avoid/Ignore the Bad, Reward the Good. First of all this dog is a good candidate for spending his time alone in a kennel. He is demonstrating that he has not yet mastered the skill of eliminating only in the yard, so this tool will be of great benefit for teaching this house rule. With a crate, you take advantage of the dogs natural preference for a clean kennel.
He won't eliminate in there unless absolutely necessary (barring poor past care that broke this behavior). When you return home, you let the dog out of the crate, and take him immediately to the yard to eliminate, reward the behavior with praise, and life is wonderful. You avoid the bad behavior and reward the good... there's more to house training, like keeping the dog in sight whenever he is out of his kennel, so you can catch the signals and rush him outside for another rewarded correct choice.
How about jumping? Instead of kneeing the dog in the chest for jumping on you, turn your back, and ignore the dog, walk away. Wait a few minutes, turn to the dog again, and if there is no jump, give the attention he wants. If he jumps, all attention is taken away from him..Take it a step further, if you've been working on your basics, and instruct a 'sit'.
Give instruction for the behavior you want, and reward it. Dogs don't waste energy on behaviors that don't offer some kind of reward, so if you eliminate the reward (remember careful what you reward), you should extinguish the behavior. All the more powerful if you pair that strategy with a reward for the desired behavior.
Another important note on this topic, is that very often we do this exactly backwards. When the dog is behaving, we pretty much ignore them, until they misbehave, and then we discipline.
Dogs can be like children where even bad attention is better than no attention, so remember to reward and praise the desired behavior, instead of only punishing the bad. Praise for the sit, praise calmly for laying quietly on the dog bed, lively praise for coming when you call them.
Put 'bad' Behaviors on Command. There's nothing wrong with jumping - you enjoy the interaction with your dog, but your guests likely won't like it much. So, using a distinct visual cue, put it on command. Name it, give the signal, lure with food or prized toy, and reward for the behavior.
Using a distinct visual cue increases the probability that your dog won't just decide to offer the behavior on his own. You might say, jump-jump, hold your arm out, and your dog can jump to put his paws on your outstretched arm, and you reward. This is helps your dog distinguish between jumping on your outstretched arm, rather than jumping on your chest.
