13 Feb
Time Out
Time out is the best way of stopping your dog performing a specific behaviour. It involves putting your dog in a boring room away from where you are for 3 minutes. (The room should not be where your dog sleeps at night or spends a lot of time, it must be safe, have no toys or things your dog can have fun with, and it must be out of sight.)
When your dog does the behaviour you do not like you immediately put her in time out. Ignore any behaviours she does whilst in the time out area.
After 3 minutes, open the door and let her out. Do not say anything to her, just open the door. (If she is being noisy or scratching at the door when the 3 minutes is up you must wait for 10 seconds of quiet before you let her out.)
If she repeats the bad behaviour, give her another time out. You must be consistent for this to work. Your dog will learn that every time she does that behaviour she goes into time out. You will find that the number of time outs gets less and less.
Dogs like to be with the members of their pack and because you are isolating them from the pack they stop doing the behaviour that gets them there.
(If your dog gets distressed in time out, walk in and pretend to do something in the room, all the while ignoring your dog. This just reassures her that you are still there without giving her attention.)