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This flowchart illustrates the three major categories of behavior problems, along with the training techniques you can use to resolve them. You may want to download it and even print it out so you can easily reference it because it’s a wonderful way to figure out what sort of problem you’re dealing with and what sort of solutions you will need.

Regardless of what sort of problem you have, the first step is usually the same: Stop feeding your dog from a food bowl. I’ll explain more in the next section, but essentially, food is a very useful tool in training, but only if your dog values it. If you feed your dog food for free from a bowl, that will dramatically undermine the food's value

The first type of behavior problems we’ll address is Household Problems. These are problems that occur when your dog is at home and unsupervised. Nobody is home with the dog and they get into trouble: soiling the house, chewing the furniture, barking excessively, digging, eating garbage, stealing things.

For these problems, you’ll need solutions that work without the active participation of a human. You’ll need techniques that you can be set up to work automatically.

The second type of behavior problems are related to the dog's temperament. These problems occur when your dog is anxious or afraid. These can be triggered by people, dogs, other animals, vehicles, machines, environments, sounds, inanimate objects, or really, any stimulus. These problems can manifest as fearfulness, arousal, reactivity or aggression, including behaviors like lunging, barking, snapping, biting, fighting, guarding and so on.

For these problems, you should start by objectively deciding whether your dog is dangerous. If, based on a careful assessment of your dog's history of aggression, you decide that they are dangerous, you should immediately take whatever steps you can to ensure everyone is safe and you should get professional help as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, this sort of situation is beyond the realm of this course.

If your dog is not very dangerous then you should start by determining what their triggers are and then use classical conditioning to help your dog feel calm, confident, and possibly even fond of whatever stimulus has been triggering their stress. 

The final type of behavior problems are those that can be resolved with Obedience Training. These problems occur when your dog is supervised and they’re not anxious. 

Basically, it’s everything that isn’t a Household Training or Temperament Training problem. This includes jumping up, mouthing, humping, chasing, not coming when called, pulling on-leash and much more. It includes all the usual Household problems as well, like excessive barking and destructive chewing, if your dog performs these behaviors when you are supervising them.

For these problems, you need to teach your dog to perform an appropriate alternative behavior instead. These are behaviors that are impossible to do at the same time as the problematic behaviors. Then you need to motivate your dog to perform these good behaviors reliably, and immediately, upon request.

Of course, life with dogs is unpredictable, and every dog and every home is unique. Sometimes you will confront problems that are some combination of these three categories and you will be required to make use of techniques from different sections of this course. 

Hopefully, upon completing this course, you’ll be able to figure out what type of problem you're dealing with and then select the right training techniques to resolve it.