It is important to allow your dog to work out the solution

One of the important parts of my training is allowing your dog to work out the solution to the problem himself. You just set a boundary or a behavioural limit and then you need to allow him to work out where it is. You make the right behaviour comfortable and wrong behaviour uncomfortable.

A good example of this would be teaching your dog not to jump on the couch. In this situation you would take your dog near the couch and if he jumps up immediately chase him off. If he chooses to jump up again, let him and then chase him off again. If he jumps up 20 times you just repeat and chase him off each time. You don't have to get angry, you are just firm about getting him off.

It is important not to prevent him from trying to jump up. It must be his decision to not jump up. He must come to the realisation that when he decides to jump up, it is a bit uncomfortable, because he gets harassed by you. Whereas when he doesn't jump up he is left alone and that is much more comfortable.

In this way he learns to control the outcome. You don't reward your dog when he decides not to jump up, you just leave him alone. It becomes very black and white. Undesirable behaviour and you get harassed, good behaviour and you get left alone.

If you train a dog in this way he will become much calmer and more relaxed. He will appreciate being able to have control of the situation. It is a very fair way to train a dog and is understood very easily.

I learnt this technique from years of training horses and have found it to be very effective when training dogs as well.