I’ve Tried Everything and My Puppy Still Misbehaves: 9 Surprising Reasons Why Nothing Has Worked

You’re really, really trying.

You read the books. Watched the Youtube videos. Followed the trainers on Instagram. You’re doing the work.

And yet.

• Your puppy keeps biting, and it’s getting worse.
• You can’t leave them alone for two seconds without them screaming their head off.
• They keep having accidents in the house.
• They constantly harass your other pets.

You’ve tried everything.

Scolding them. But that makes them bite harder (or now they avoid you and poop where you can’t see them).

Being more assertive. But they don’t seem to notice.

Rewarding good behavior. But they go right back to misbehaving when the treats run out.

Ignoring bad behavior. But that’s driving everyone crazy.

Redirecting their biting to toys. But they don’t care about toys AT ALL.

Exercising them more because “a tired dog is a good dog,” right? Turns out no, a tired dog is a hyperactive maniac.

Nothing. Works.

You’re terrified of messing this up, because the Dog World makes it sound like every mistake is a disaster.

You lie awake at night, listening to the cute little demon screech in the distance.

“This wasn’t how this was supposed to go,” you think.

“Is my puppy bad? Am I a bad dog owner? Should I give them to someone who’s better at this?“

Questions like these break my cold, shriveled heart. And we get them all the time, from despairing puppy parents like yourself.

Let’s make some sense of what’s going on, shall we?

The million dollar question: Why has nothing worked to get your puppy to stop being a nightmare?

Surely they must be an actual demon. How else do you explain how they seem to be supernaturally immune to all the dog training advice in the world?

Man, do I have a plot twist for you:

The number one reason nothing works: “Trying everything” is part of the problem

You’re throwing everything at the wall, hoping something sticks.

I get it. Been there, done that. When you’re losing your mind and your partner/parent/own brain is threatening to get rid of the little monster, you’ll try anything.

Plus, puppy parents get absolutely bombarded with advice from all sides. The internet, family, pet shop employees, smug neighbors, and that one coworker whose cousin’s friend “knows a lot about dogs.”

But throwing together a bunch of random advice is like trying to bake a cake using five different recipes at once.

One says to bake at 350°F, another says 425°F. One tells you to use butter, another says oil. Yet another says butter and oil are evil and you should try bananas instead.

You just end up with a mess.

Mixing and matching tactics from different methodologies without consistency, a plan for progression, or clarity on why those methods are supposed to work is a guaranteed road to madness.

So yeah. This is the core issue. The big ol’ concrete slab foundation, you could say. Now let’s talk about the other layers that stack on top and interconnect with each other:

2. There’s too much frustration and not enough trust

When puppies constantly get into mischief, it puts you in the unfortunate position of always having to correct them or take things away.

You probably feel like your entire life is about following them around saying “NOOO” and taking forbidden snacks out of their mouth. Rocks. Trash. Socks. The corner of the coffee table. Etc.

This sucks for you, and it sucks for them. It leads to a breakdown in trust. You both associate each other with bad feelings.

At that point, even switching to gentler methods and rewarding good behavior doesn’t seem to help, because the damage to your relationship is already getting in the way.

(Hey! I see you starting to freak out over there. You don’t have to do the guilt spiral thing, I promise. We can fix this)

3. Is it play biting? Nah, it’s frustration biting (or “no one knows what the hell anyone is saying to each other”)

At the risk of stating the obvious, puppies don’t speak our human languages.

They’re trying desperately to piece together what your weird mouth-sounds, tone, and body language mean. All while teething, trying to navigate a strange new world, and wondering when their mom is coming back.

It’s a lot to deal with. Especially for a critter who’s younger than the condiments in your fridge.

When your communication isn’t clear, Sparky gets confused. And confused puppies don’t sit politely and say, “I’m sorry madam, could you clarify your request?” They get cranky.

That crankiness can look like:

• Biting even harder
• Jumping all over you
• Wandering off during training like they suddenly forgot you exist
• Melting down when you try to say “all done” with treats

It’s not that they’re stubborn or defiant. It’s that they literally don’t understand what you want.

Puppies need predictability and clarity to feel safe enough in their new life to chill out and focus. Right now, nothing makes sense. Little Sparky’s world is in a tailspin.

4. The Dog World somehow makes everything way too dramatic and way too simple at the same time

Especially on social media.

“Always do this with your puppy”

“NEVER let your puppy do this”

“Three simple steps to solve [insert incredibly complex problem here]”

Bold statements get attention, not results.

(Even that statement is too simple to be accurate 100% of the time. It’s a PARADOX)

Real life is too complex for that sh*t.

Even when the trainer is really good, you can’t cram a whole tutorial into a 60-second reel without losing all of the nuance that would actually make it effective.

(Don’t even get me started on the sea of generic AI-written articles that Google likes to throw at you)

The thing about a lot of those “three simple steps” tutorials: they show you the broad strokes, but gloss over the fine details that matter. The mechanics, you see.

So you end up following the instructions exactly… but your timing is a little off. Or your body language sends mixed signals, or you reward (or withhold the reward) at the wrong moment.

To your puppy, that’s the equivalent of trying to follow a GPS that keeps glitching and changing the route every three seconds.

This matters, because…

5. It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it

A conversation I have with Academy students every day:

Student: “I tried [insert training exercise here], but it didn’t work. What should I do?”

Me: “No worries! Send me a video of your training session and I’ll let you know.”

When I watch their videos, I can see exactly why it didn’t work. It’s almost always a mechanics issue. I see a human working very hard, and a puppy who is hopelessly confused and lost.

This isn’t the human’s fault; again, a lot of training advice only gives you the broad strokes. Redirect to a toy. Reward good behavior. Lure the dog into a sit. End on a positive note. Etc.

That’s not specific enough.

To help you troubleshoot your training, I don’t need to know that you tried to “reward good behavior.”

I need to know how you delivered the reward.

And what else was happening in the room?

And how did you move your body?

Were you too fast? Too slow?

Did you ask for too much too soon, and therefore miss 3-5 moments where you should have reinforced? I see this one a lot when watching student videos. (And also my own training videos)

The best training exercise in the world is useless without clean mechanics. So instead of chasing some mirage of a better training exercise, do the same one again. But better.

Don’t worry – in most cases, with a few simple tweaks, the exercise becomes clear enough that the pup can easily figure it out.

6. Your puppy is really smart. TOO smart

You know those frustration-based meltdown behaviors we were just talking about? The ones that come from a lack of clean mechanics?

I’ve noticed a fun little fact about those: smart puppies are the ones who struggle the most with unclear communication.

Surprising? Well, it makes sense if you think about it. They like learning. Their powers of observation are off the charts. They pick up on patterns super fast.

So they are hyper sensitive to broken patterns.

When you combine that mental sharpness with their toddler-level emotional regulation skills (and physical toothy sharpness), you get a recipe for pain.

For example:

You’re teaching Sparky to sit. She’s getting the hang of it. Yay!

She sits, she gets a treat. She sits, she gets a treat. She sits, she gets a treat.

But then your spouse pokes their head into the room to ask about dinner plans. You get distracted for a second.

Sparky sits. She does not get a treat.

Huh? What gives? I thought I got it right! If you don’t want me to sit, what the heck DO you want from me? AHHH BITEY ATTACK INCOMING

That’s a bit oversimplified, but you get the idea. We see this all the time, especially with intense types like working breeds. These dogs can be a ton of fun, and someday they’ll up for whatever adventure you want to throw at them.

But if we want to ask a lot of them, we have to ask a lot of ourselves first. We have to step up and meet them with the cleanest mechanics possible.

7. You’re focusing too much on “training” (rewarding good behavior and/or punishing bad)

When your puppy keeps biting, crying in their crate, or terrorizing your toddler, it’s easy to get laser-focused on how to put a stop to the behavior RIGHT F***ING NOW.

But that’s just treating the symptom.

It’s like if your kitchen sink had a leaky pipe, dripping dirty water all over your floor. Would you spend weeks Googling “best paper towels to absorb dirty water?”

Or would you fix the pipe?

To fix the problem, you need to address what’s actually causing it, not just try to stop it in the moment.

8. You’re trying to do the right thing at the wrong time

To help your pup grow up into a functioning adult, Mother Nature has set clear priorities for each stage of their development.

A lot of the stress puppy parents experience is just plain unnecessary, because it comes from having projects and expectations that don’t fit the reality of where their puppy is at.

The classic example: Trying to teach boring obedience commands to a three-month-old puppy whose brain is screaming at them that socialization and exploration is more important right now.

(Their brain is right, btw)

When the tactic doesn’t match the developmental phase, the tactic doesn’t work. Or it eventually works, at the cost of your sanity.

So the key is to work with nature, not against it.

Pick the right tactic for the stage your puppy is in, and suddenly training feels doable, annoying behaviors improve, and raising a puppy becomes a lot more fun.

9. You’re burning aallll the way out

The Dog World puts a ridiculous amount of pressure on people. “Do this right or you’ll ruin your poor innocent wittle puppy forever!”

But, hot take:

The best training plan in the world is useless if you’re too exhausted to implement it.

Your training plan needs to take YOU into consideration too. Your life, your schedule, the way your brain works. You matter too.

SO. WHAT ACTUALLY WORKS?

Hopefully it’s now clear that your puppy isn’t a lost cause. And the problems you’re experiencing have very little to do with you or how much effort you put in. All of this can be fixed.

Just the fact that you’re here -reading this post, caring enough to beat yourself up about all this- puts you way ahead of most people.

The kind of system that actually works:

Isn’t an assortment of random, scattered advice. It’s a consistent methodology across every part of your puppy’s life. So that no matter what you’re working on, from leash manners to potty training, your rules and behavior makes sense to them.

Establishes a strong foundation of skills that build on each other. Instead of tossing together a bunch of disconnected “quick fixes” that are not, in fact, quick and do not, in fact, fix anything.

Puts your relationship with your puppy first (or patches it up if trust has started to fray), and focuses on clean mechanics so you learn not just what to train, but how to train effectively.

Puts obedience training on the backburner. And focuses on what really matters at this age: good habits, socialization, engagement, trust-building, and bonding.

Is sustainable and doesn’t burn you out. You deserve to have a life, too.

Tackles the root cause of behavior problems. Instead of slapping bandaids on them (but, I mean, probably includes SOME bandaids for when you really need a quick win).

Most importantly, it meets your puppy where they are developmentally. So you can work with nature instead of waging a one-sided war at every step.

What a coincidence – that’s exactly what our PEACE framework is about!

It’s designed to address all the reasons nothing has worked for you: inconsistent methods, unclear mechanics, oversimplified advice, developmental mismatches, household stress, and impossible standards.

Here’s how it works:

The Puppy PEACE Roadmap

Prevent the chaos

Constant corrections create more tension and get in the way of bonding.

We’ll help you set up your home and routine in a way that stops problems before they start, so you can focus on building a happy relationship between the pup and all members of the family – instead of waiting for things to go wrong and then doing damage control.

Enrich their life

A “tired dog is a good dog?” Ha! Sometimes exercise just makes dogs more energetic, as you’ve probably noticed.

But a fulfilled puppy is a chill puppy. The right kind of enrichment doesn’t just reduce biting, barking, and destructive chewing. It also builds confidence, supports healthy development, and lays the groundwork for great socialization.

Acknowledge the good

Despite how it feels, your puppy is actually doing a lot of things right. You just haven’t been taught what to look for. We’ll show you how to to reinforce, and build on, the good stuff that’s already happening. This lets you establish really strong good habits without doing a ton of formal training all day.

Communicate clearly

Get your mechanics locked down and become a well-oiled puppy training machine. Incorporating solid dog training principles (not obedience commands) into your life reduces frustration, builds trust, and gets your puppy to listen to you.

Empathy first

Meet your puppy where they’re at. When you look at things from their perspective instead of just making them conform to yours, everything gets easier.

We teach the full PEACE framework inside Puppy Survival School. Tap the button below to learn more: