Episode #283 What To Do When Training Isn't Working

Have you been practicing consistently, following the advice, and still feel like your puppy—or even your adult dog—isn't making progress? You're not alone, and it doesn't mean you're failing.

In this episode of The Puppy Training Podcast, we'll walk you through a step-by-step troubleshooting guide to help you identify why training may have stalled. You'll learn how to recognize when a medical issue could be affecting behavior, evaluate whether you're using the right reinforcers, determine if your expectations or environment need adjusting, and understand the important differences between a dog trainer and a veterinary behaviorist.

Whether you're dealing with leash pulling, barking, fear, reactivity, or simply feeling stuck, this episode will help you evaluate your training plan with confidence and know when it's time to pivot your approach. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn, and with the right strategy, progress is always possible.

Transcript

When Training Feels Stuck

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Today, I'm addressing what to do when training just isn't working and how to troubleshoot your approach so you and your dog can get back on the path of success. Welcome to the Puppy Training Podcast, the show designed to help you raise a confident, well-behaved puppy using positive practical training methods. Each week we'll explore real-life training strategies, break down common puppy challenges, and give you clear, step-by-step guidance you can start using right away. Whether you're dealing with potty training, biting, jumping, or just want to build a stronger bond with your puppies or handler, you're in the right place. Hi you guys, welcome back to the podcast. I hope you are enjoying your summer. Today we want to talk about what to do when maybe it's just not working. So maybe you've watched videos, you've practiced every day, you've bought food rewards, you've attended classes, yet your puppy just still pulls on the leash, or they're still jumping on guests, or they're barking at everything that moves, or maybe you're working through fear, anxiety, or reactivity, and it feels like you're absolutely making zero progress. If that's you, I want you to know one thing before we dive in. You are not failing. When training stalls, it doesn't automatically mean that you're doing something wrong. It usually means it's time to become a little bit of a detective instead of trying harder. So today we're going to walk through a troubleshooting checklist that I use as a professional trainer when progress comes to a

Rule Out Pain And Illness

SPEAKER_00 1:26

halt. Okay, the first thing I check is medical. It's really important that we rule out medical causes because no amount of training will make up for something that's medically wrong. This is a step that a lot of people tend to skip or just not think about. Behavior is produced by the brain, but the brain is part of the body. And if your dog doesn't feel well, then training becomes really difficult. Pain is going to change behavior, illness is going to change behavior, hormones and just age-appropriate things are going to change behavior. Even vision or hearing problems can completely alter how a dog responds. I mean, think of you. If you have the flu, you don't feel like getting up and doing things, right? If your arm hurts, it limits what you can do or what you want to do. So here are just a few examples. Maybe a puppy suddenly growls when they're touched because they might have an ear infection, or maybe they just got their vaccinations and so they're sore in a certain area. They don't want to be touched there. That hurts. Maybe a dog is refusing to sit because their hips hurt. As the dogs age, that's pretty common. A previously friendly dog that begins snapping could have something uh hurting in their mouth. Maybe there's some dental issue going on. Or again, that ear pain that we can't see. Dogs with thyroid disorders can show behavioral changes. Maybe there's digestive issues that are making their stomach feel upset. And maybe food rewards just are less appealing. Maybe there's some allergies happening, maybe some itching or something else that's making the dog irritable and unable to focus. So if behavior changes suddenly or your dog seems uncomfortable, please schedule a veterinary exam before assuming it's a training issue. No amount of positive reinforcement can overcome untreated pain if your dog is hurting. Now, training should never be expected to fix a medical problem. So that's number one on my list. I always check medical first. With medical, I'm checking also heat, comfort levels, um, you know, environmental type things that could be affecting how my dog is feeling from a physical standpoint.

Find Rewards Your Dog Wants

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Okay, the next one would be assuming that every dog works for the same rewards. So we need to figure out what actually motivates your dog. Now I want you to imagine someone offered to pay you for eight hours of hard work and then they handed you a stale cracker. Would you be excited about that? Probably not. Dogs feel the same way. So ask yourself, what does my dog truly love? Maybe it's chicken, cheese, maybe it's a favorite toy, maybe it's chasing a ball, maybe it's sniffing or greeting people, or your attention, your praise. Anything your dog wants can become reinforcement. So you'll hear trainers often say the dog decides what's rewarding. That's really important to remember. I don't decide what's rewarding to my dog. My dog decides what's rewarding to them. And it might change depending on the environment you're in. Now, if your puppy spits out food during training, that's important information. That just means that reward is not valuable enough to them. Or we're just in an environment that's too distracting. And so food is lower on the list right now.

Make The Environment Easier

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Okay, the next thing, step three to check would be is the environment too difficult? So dogs don't generalize well. Just because your puppy can sit perfectly in the living room doesn't mean they understand sit at the park. Those are completely different environments from your dog's perspective. So distractions are going to compete with your rewards. Think about trying to read a book in a quiet library. Now imagine reading that same book in the middle of a rock concert. Your ability to focus on that book is going to change because the environment changed. Your dog experiences the same thing. So instead of asking, why won't my dog listen? Ask, is this setting simply just too difficult right now? And then how can I make this easier for my dog? Sometimes the answer is to move further away from distractions. I say over and over, distance, you guys, distance. Sometimes it's using higher value rewards. So if it's half a Cheerio today, that's not working, or a piece of kibble, right? It might need to be cheese or chicken. Now, sometimes it's practicing in easier locations before increasing the challenge. Maybe we need to spend more time in an easier environment and then slowly or gradually build up to the harder environments. We want training for our dogs to feel achievable, not overwhelming.

Stop Raising Criteria Too Fast

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Okay, the next thing I like to contemplate is am I asking too much too soon? So we need to remember that progress isn't always linear. I think of it more like a roller coaster. There's going to be ups and downs. Okay, but overall, we're making linear progress. We are making progress. It's just going to be up and down getting there. So, for example, instead of teaching loose leash walking gradually, we expect a puppy to walk perfectly through a crowded farmer's market. So we go from uh zero to 60 really, really fast. And that's really hard for a dog. Maybe instead of teaching stay for two seconds, I'm expecting two minutes. Surely my puppy can hold still for two minutes. Actually, they can't. One second is impressive at the beginning. So dogs learn best through small successes, and then we build up to these bigger things. So we call this raising the criteria. And I only increase one thing at a time. So if I'm working on a stay with my dog, I might just focus on duration. How long can they hold still? And I'm literally building that second by second in the beginning. And I'm not pushing too far too fast. I'm not doing one session of, you know, a couple minutes. It might just be 20 seconds, one second treat, two seconds reward, three seconds reward, four seconds reward, and then stop, have a little recess game time. Let's play with our puppy, let them move. And then we go back to it and it's just second by second. Now, yeah, a few weeks into it, we could probably start at 20 seconds, but not on day one. So we're only going to increase that one thing at a time. So if I'm working on duration today, that's it. That means I need to stand right next to my puppy. Distance needs to be zero. I need to be in a room that's very low distractions. So a quiet room in your house would be ideal. I'm not going to start this at the park. Doing these things will keep the difficulty level lower. So the next day, maybe I choose to work on distance, but that means that duration is going to be super short. We don't want to put all of these together. If our dog keeps failing or if my criteria is too high, it frustrates them and they don't want to keep playing with me. So I lower them. I keep make things easier for them. I want my dog to have a lot of successes because that builds confidence and it doesn't lead to frustration.

Timing And Family Consistency

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Okay, the next thing to consider would be: am I rewarding the right behavior? Now, timing is really important. Dogs live in the moment. So if I reward three seconds late, I might accidentally reinforce something completely different. So imagine that my puppy sits and then stands and then scratches, and then I deliver the food reward. My puppy could be thinking that scratching is what earned the reward. We need to make sure that we're delivering rewards immediately. The faster the feedback, the faster our dogs learn. Okay, let's talk about consistency. This one is huge. One family member allows jumping, another doesn't. One rewards barking, another ignores it. One uses food rewards, another yells. To the dog, the rules are constantly changing. And they do start to figure out, okay, with this person I can do this, and with this person I can do this, but that takes a while to sort all of that out. So in the beginning with our puppies, if we can have a family meeting, try to get everybody on the same page, having consistent rules for our puppy. They will learn more quickly. There'll be far less frustration for you and for your puppy. So imagine driving where every stop sign means something different. Sometimes it means stop, sometimes it means go, sometimes it means speed up. We'd be confused too. So we just want to make sure that our family members are on the same page. Consistency doesn't mean perfection, it just means that we're aiming for the same expectations.

Set Age Appropriate Expectations

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Okay, are we expecting too much from our dog's age? Remember, you guys, when you bring home a new puppy that's eight weeks old, they are babies. Their attention spans are so short. They don't have any impulse control or patience. That comes with time and training. We have to actually teach them how to wait for something. They don't know how to do that naturally. And many people compare their four-month-old puppy to an adult dog. Like, huh, how can I get my four-month-old to act like this? That's not really a fair comparison. Young puppies are going to need frequent breaks, they need short sessions, they need lots of sleep, and they need realistic expectations. Sometimes the best training plan is simply just allowing my puppy to mature while continuing positive practice. We train service dogs for several years because of this. We are simply waiting for them to mature. I can teach them all sorts of cool things within the first few months. They're not perfect at it and their durations aren't long. But that's why we need time to build that up and to also just wait for that maturity to kick

When To Hire A Trainer

SPEAKER_00 10:23

in. So when should you hire a trainer? A qualified trainer can help when your puppy isn't progressing, if you feel stuck, you need better timing, maybe you need a structured training plan, or simply you just want someone to coach you. We do that online. So you can join our program, we can coach you one-on-one via phone calls or video sessions. We have classes, courses, we teach them live. They're all recorded. You can watch them on demand. You can talk to my training team via emails. We have so many resources to help you be successful with your dog, and it can happen right in your own living room.

Vet Behaviorists And Medication Tools

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Now, when would you need, say, a veterinary behaviorist? This is one of the most misunderstood professions, I think, in dog behavior. A veterinary behaviorist is a veterinarian with advanced specialty training in animal behavior. So think of a veterinarian teamed up with a trainer in one. They're uniquely qualified to diagnose medical conditions that affect behavior. So they can prescribe medications when appropriate and create comprehensive treatment plans. Now, medication isn't a shortcut, it's a tool. For dogs experiencing severe anxiety or panic disorders or intense fear. Medication can help lower their stress enough so that we can help them learn and then we can taper them off of the medicine and get them back to where we want them to be. So think of it like lowering the volume on an alarm that's just constantly blaring in your dog's mind. Once our dogs can think clearly, then behavior modification becomes much more effective. And that's going to need to be handled by a veterinary behaviorist. Most puppy issues, you guys, do not involve a veterinary behaviorist. Most of those are just normal puppy behaviors, biting, barking, growling, um, even resource guarding, reactivity, all of those things we can help you with as trainers. There are some cases, however, where a veterinary behaviorist might be the answer. And we can help you look at that if that's a situation that you are maybe feel like you

Pivot Your Plan And Track Wins

SPEAKER_00 12:17

are in. So here's something I want you to remember. If you've been using the same approach for weeks or months with no meaningful improvement, I don't want you just to keep repeating it. I want you to pivot. I want you first to start asking questions. I want you to collect data. Maybe your rewards need upgrading. Maybe your sessions need to be shorter. Maybe your dog needs more rest or they need more exercise. Maybe your expectations need adjusting a little bit. We need to be a little more realistic about our dogs and their ages. Maybe your dog needs a veterinary exam. Maybe there's something medically going on, and maybe it's time to work with a professional. So changing your plan isn't giving up. It's just being a thoughtful trainer. Professionals change strategies all the time, and we tailor it depending on the dog because all of our dogs are unique. Trainers don't stubbornly repeat methods that aren't producing results. We make changes. Now, one of my favorite questions to ask puppy handlers is what can your dog do today that they couldn't do a month ago? Sometimes the improvements are small, we just have to notice them. Maybe they recover after barking faster. Maybe they check in more often. Maybe they recover from scary situations in a quicker way. Those tiny wins matter. Training isn't just about eliminating unwanted behaviors, it's about building better habits. And we do it just one repetition at a time. So celebrate those little victories. They eventually become big ones.

Final Thoughts And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Okay, so final thoughts. If training isn't working, don't assume your dog is being stubborn. Don't assume that you're a bad trainer. Instead, just become curious. Ask those questions, try to figure out some answers, reach out to us. We would love to coach you through this process. Thanks for being here today. I appreciate you listening. If you know somebody getting a puppy soon, will you do me a favor and share our show with them? I would appreciate it. Have a great week. Happy training. Thanks for tuning in today. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe so you never miss a training tip. And if you're enjoying the show, leaving a quick review really helps other handlers find us. For more training resources, tips, and support, visit me Amy Jensen at BaxterAmbella.com. Until next time, happy training.