Ready to see a change in your dog’s behavior? Your first thought might be training: teaching new skills and reinforcing good habits. But that’s only half the picture. The other, equally powerful tool is management. Do you know how to use it, and how to use it to quickly solve your dog’s behavior challenges?
What is management?
Management is anything YOU can do right now to prevent or reduce unwanted behavior. Instead of relying on your dog to make different choices, you change the environment so those unwanted behaviors either can’t happen—or become much less likely.
Ask yourself:
What can I adjust in my dog’s surroundings that will immediately affect their behavior? Even better: Can I make the unwanted behavior inconvenient—or impossible—for them to do at all?
Common management strategies include:
- Put up a gate
- Use a leash
- Close a door
- Use a crate
- Fence in the yard
The benefit of management: It’s fast. Management can be an instant solution — your problems could be solved today.
The limitation of management: It won’t create lasting change. Once the gate comes down, the leash comes off or freedom increases, your dog may go right back to the behavior you were trying to stop.
What is training?
Training is how we teach your dog to behave differently in the future. Because learning takes time, you won’t always get immediate results. Training is an investment up front. But the pay-off: your dog will learn to make better choices on their own.
The limitation of training: It takes time and consistency. The more complex or emotional the behavior, the longer it will take.
The benefit of training: Training creates lasting change. You’re teaching entirely new skills and responses—behaviors your dog can choose independently. (Of course, it’s still wise to keep reinforcing those good choices!)
Five examples of management
JUMPING ON PEOPLE ON WALKS
Management
Keep your leash short
Have a plan to politely stop people who allow your dog to jump up
Drop treats on the ground to refocus your dog’s paws to the ground
Training
Teach sit with strong distractions
Reinforce for four-on-the-floor
Transition: Use learned skills like tricks or hand touch / hand target to redirect your dog’s body and attention away from the friendly human
COUNTER SURFING / COUNTER SHOPPING
Management
Gate off the kitchen
Clear the counters
Keep pup on leash in the kitchen
Training
Practice Off / Leave It exercises
Teach settle on a mat
Click and treat for four-on-the-floor
Transition: Begin to let pup into the kitchen only when supervised and when you’re able to reinforce for good choices
NOT COMING WHEN CALLED
Management
On-leash only in unfenced areas
Run loose only in fenced / safe spaces
Training
Name response
Attention around distractions
Voluntary collar holds and leashing up
Transition: Begin to practice outdoors on a long line. Confirm a solid long-line recall from ten or twenty feet away before trying unleashed
LEASH REACTIVITY
Management
Take only short walks in predictable areas or times of day
Stop all walks and do all exercise in the yard
Drive to a quieter zone for walks
Use strategies like Treat Bomb and Treat Magnet to redirect your dog
When appropriate, Get Outta Dodge
Training
Practice a variety of impulse control exercises first in quiet areas then with increasing distractions
Transition: Practice new training skills, but at a safe distance from triggers, and fully prepared to deploy management strategies when needed
SEPARATION ANXIETY
Management
Have someone stay home with dog at all times
Arrange daycare or neighbor or pet sitter for dog when you need to leave the house
Turn on music or television
Provide fantastic edible chews and long-lasting treats
Training
Practice short departures
Use remote treat dispenser like Treat & Train
Work on crate training
Transition: Gradually increase length of departures while continuing to use any of the management strategies that were helpful
The value of management
If I want fast results, I will always start with management. No matter the behavior challenges, there is almost always something I can change right away that will help to address the problem.
An interesting phenomenon? The more experienced the trainer, the more likely we jump right to management options. We may even stick with management options and forgo the “training” part altogether. As young trainers, we go to workshops and seminars, and we get excited to see all kinds of cool training that is possible. We get more experienced, we often conclude that many things CAN be trained, but may not be with the effort.
Here’s an example behavior that I *could* train, but really don’t care to. My dogs get bark and get excited when visitors come to the door. Common advice is to teach dogs to go to place, i.e. to settle on their bed or their mat. The advice continues that you can invite guests over to set up training sessions to help your dog practice. This is a great idea, but the truth is that it is very easy to teach your dog to go to place when nobody is around, and extraordinarily difficult to teach them to settle on place when someone comes to the door. In addition, it sets you, the human, up for failure too. In every real life situation where someone comes to the door, you are also distracted, and you should be free to interact with the human at the door. But this protocol requires that you attend to your dog when someone comes to the door—even in the best case scenario, you have to reinforce your dog’s good behavior if you want it to continue. If you have a multi-dog household, this also requires that every dog is compliant, or else it turns into chaos.
My preferred solution? I’ve taught my dogs to Race to Their Space, where I ask them to run upstairs to the bedroom or out to the backyard. I greet my guest with my full attention and on MY terms and timeline. Once I’m ready to turn some attention back to my beloved pups, then I can choose to release them. I can also choose some additional management options: I can bring them in one at a time, I can toss treats on the floor, I can bring them in on leash, or I can put a bed down so that we can practice settle on mat while I chat with my guest. I’ve still addressed the main problem, but I can save my training hours to work on something more fun!
So does your dog have a behavior you want to change? The advice from this trainer is that it’s not all about training. Management comes first.
