If your dog is pulling on his leash so hard that he’s taking you for a walk, he might need professional help. And although Spot won’t be treated to a relaxing talk on a leather couch, he most likely will be diagnosed with a behavioral problem, and should begin obedience training at once.

The woman who may help Spot admit he has a problem is Kim Langholz, clinician for veterinary clinical sciences. Langholz’s seminar, “Understanding canine behavior: what your dog doesn’t want you to know,” will focus on ways to counteract bad behavior in dogs. Langholz has been a part of the College of Veterinary Medicine since 2004, and in that time has discovered even her own two dogs suffer from behavioral problems.

“I went to a behavioral conference this weekend, and I learned that my dogs are naughtier than I thought,” Langholz said. “If my dog is pulling on its leash, then it doesn’t have respect for me. If my dog sees a piece of food on the ground, it needs to look at me before eating.”

Langholz stressed dog owners should make sure their dogs don’t eat random things on the ground because of the threat of poisoning their pups.

During Tuesday’s seminar, Langholz will go over basic training principles that owners need to learn. A key component to dog training is the use of food or toys. Langholz said rewarding your dog with a treat will encourage it to continue the desired behavior.

“Your dog might be stubborn for a while, but most dogs will work for food or some kind of attention,” she said.

Langholz believes owners should stand their ground and not give in to their dogs’ behavior.

“If you don’t give in, the dog is eventually going to learn that this is not appropriate. That’s the hard part for people to do, not to give in to their dogs’ behavior,” Langholz said.

Langholz said owners let their dogs get away with too much, but as a dog owner herself, she admits she lets her dog get away more than a fair share.

“My older dog is deaf and has visual problems, so I let him get away with a lot of things,” she said. “My new puppy is going through training now.”

Langholz, who works with small animals at Vet Med, said she has experience in conducting seminars and looks forward to seeing a nice-sized crowd. She anticipates owners will have many questions about dog behavior during the seminar, which is why a short question-and-answer period will be incorporated.

“Unfortunately, I know there will be a lot of questions and I won’t be able to answer them all. For most behavior problems it takes an hour and a half to two hours to figure out what the actual behavior problem is and then to come up with a plan to change that behavior,” Langholz said.

Langholz said some dogs can be trained better than others, mainly because of their breed. She said a bloodhound may tend to stop listening to its owner when outside because of its hunting instincts, for example.

She said several things can contribute to behavioral problems, such as health problems.

Broken bones, internal injuries and other medical problems can contribute to dogs’ hyper or nonresponsive behavior. Langholz said if you believe this is a concern with your animals, you should seek professional medical care for them immediately.

Langholz also offered one simple tip to keep your dogs’ (and all other pets’) noses clean: exercise.

“If you wear them out, they can’t get into trouble,” she said.