Just last week I was working with a very nice lady that had a jumping problem with her dog. She badly wanted her dog to stop jumping and pretty much didn’t care about anything else.

I explained why jumping happens, what she needed to do to stop it, and to make sure everyone in the house is complying. I demonstrated a simple and easy technique that stops jumping within a few minutes (it’s not jamming your knee into the dog’s chest).

The following week I received a call from her and she said that her dog was still jumping. I thought that was funny because when I left her house, her dog was not jumping on her or me anymore.

The problem with a lot of people experiencing a dog training or dog behavior problem is that they completely focus on the problem NOT the solution. If you truly want your dog to learn a behavior or to stop a behavior you need to focus on the solution to what you want your dog to do or to stop doing in order to be successful.

I know this sounds simple, but ask yourself this question the next time your dog is not behaving the way you want him to. Ask yourself, “Am I focusing on the problem or the solution?”

If you are focused on the problem, it will continue to happen. Learn to focus on what you want your dog to do. I know that when your dog is pulling, peeing on the carpet, jumping, barking, and doing any host of behavior problems that you don’t like it can be difficult to focus on what you want… BUT you need to stay focused on the desired outcome.

If you don’t, you’ll end up either living with the behavior, continuing to get angry, or getting rid of your dog.

Learn to focus on the solution and you’ll get much better results.