Most dog owners have the best intentions when it comes to training their pooch to be well behaved and calm, but things don't always go as expected.
Some dog breeds are notoriously hard to train, like huskies and beagles, or they might just have a stubborn pup on their hands.
You may get to the point where you feel like you've tried everything, but a dog training specialist has issued a plea to dog owners before they get to this point.
Wendy Kruger, dog behaviour and training specialist at Woodgreen Pets Charity, where Channel 4's The Dog House is filmed, has pleaded for dog owners to ask for help as soon as they notice a problem with the dog.
According to Wendy, who has been with the charity for more than 30 years, not getting help early enough is the biggest problem she sees with owners trying to take their dogs.
Speaking to The Mirror, Wendy said: "I think if owners sought help as soon as they had a niggling, little irritating problem, the advice would be quite small and relatively easy to fix, and it wouldn’t take months of work.
"That's what people tend to get wrong. Because it isn't a big thing at that point and therefore isn't their priority."
She pleaded: "Get help. As soon as you notice that there might be a problem, ask for help."
The worst thing you can do is go down the punishment route, which only makes the problem worse, warns Wendy.
She explained: "Sometimes, unfortunately, some people go down the punishment route.
"It can be very frustrating when your dog is lunging and barking at another dog as an owner. Therefore that owner tells their dog off verbally or whatever, and that actually only makes the dog's reaction to the thing even worse, because now the dog is a bit frightened of the owner when it comes across that thing.
"So punishment actually exacerbates the problem, instead of reduces it. Sometimes it reduces it in the short term, but it definitely doesn't reduce it in the long term.
"People do sometimes go down the route of telling their dog off, and they see short term results, but actually pretty quickly they learn that it didn't work, and the dog is actually worse and their relationship is a little bit broken and that doesn't help. That's when they call us."
Wendy works mostly internally with training dogs on-site by developing training plans and resolving problems, but she also works on educating the public with weekly webinars.
She explained: "The wider population doesn't really understand what's involved in dog ownership. So that webinar goes through the good, the bad and the ugly.
"So, how much exercise a dog needs, what their breed characteristics are, how to understand body language, managing dogs and children and how dogs communicate with us, and how to keep dogs happy, how to keep them happy."
The webinars run on Monday and Wednesday nights on seven different topics, including how to live with dogs successfully, and adolescence and dogs.
If you're interested in adopting a dog, you can head to Woodgreen's website, where you can also find information about donating to the pets who are in need.
