When you urgently need to safely and quickly prevent or change your dog's behavior, a management plan can help take the pressure off.
What is "management?"
Have you heard of "quick fix" dog training? That might ring a bell because someone you know was talking about it or you went on a website that promised quick fixes for your dog’s problem behavior issues. The term "quick fixes" make positive trainers cringe, because even though positive training can work really fast, trainers who promise they will "fix" your dog’s behavior are likely to employ more punitive training techniques designed to suppress behavior, rather than taking the time to understand why a dog is behaving in a certain way, and working with you to change it.
At Positively, we caution people about using trainers that espouse these magical fixes, but we’re not totally against the phrase. In fact we employ "Quick Fixes" with clients and their dogs everyday, especially for people who are having serious issues with their dogs. In dog trainer world we call it "management," and it is incredibly powerful if it’s done correctly.
When we work with dogs, including those that have behavioral issues, we focus on teaching alternatives - new skills that dogs can utilize to replace unwanted behaviors we have been called into change. While we are teaching these new skills, we look at how we can manage the dog’s environment to help keep everyone safe and set dogs and their guardians up for success.
By managing the environment we can ease the pressure for both dogs and people by giving them a sense of safety and allowing them to breathe for a bit while a training plan is put into place. In other words, just by adding or taking something away from the environment, we can see an immediate change in a dog’s behavior and relieve stress for everyone.
What is an example of management?
Here’s an example of effective management. When we teach a puppy or adult dog to toilet outdoors, we prevent indoor elimination by setting up a pen, crate, or safe zone where the dog can safely stay unsupervised. By combining teaching (taking the dog outside at regular intervals and rewarding for toileting outside) with management (limiting where the dog can go in the house by adding baby gates etc.), our learners will have less accidents inside the home and will eliminate outdoors instead.
Management differs from training since it doesn’t actually teach a productive alternative but prevents a dog from practicing an undesirable behavior and earning its related reinforcement which serves to strengthen it. Consequences drive behavior, so even if a dog is doing something we don’t like, if the behavior has a favorable outcome for the dog, she will persist unless we take steps to replace the undesired behavior through management and teaching.
Key factors of management
The three key factors for management are:
- To keep dogs, humans and other animals safe; this could include using baby gates, leads, harness and/or muzzles.
- To make sure the dog’s needs are met by using enrichment; this could include exploratory walks, food puzzles, and training time.
- To prevent the reinforcement of “undesirable” behaviors; this could mean using baby gates, fences, and leads to prevent reinforcement of unwanted behaviors.
Adding things to manage behavior
While thinking about enrichment you should consider your dog’s needs and wants, and provide or add interactive toys, games and chews she can play with. You might also provide exercise equipment – platforms which are fun for most dogs including smaller pups who might feel more confident climbing up onto a raised surface. You can teach your dog new skills while playing stimulating or calming music, helping them acclimate to new environments or situations. And while you are providing enrichment, you can use prevention tools such as visual barriers – sheets, curtains, blinds and auditory barriers such as white noise, calming music or sound proofing - as well as physical barriers including baby gates, doors, crates and leashes, to limit or redirect movement.
If your goal is to stop your dog from chewing on your furniture, you can use management to encourage her to chew on appropriate toys instead by keeping her behind a baby gate and providing her with chew toys or games while she is behind the gate. If your dog pulls on the leash, you might use the Positively No Pull harness to manage her pulling while teaching her leash walking skills.
Taking things away to manage behavior
These are just a few examples you can use to manage your dog, but don’t forget that you can also manage the stimulus. If your dog gets excited when she hears the doorbell ring and jumps up on guests as they walk through the front door, you can use management by disabling the doorbell to avoid triggering the excitable behavior, and ask your guests to come through another door and avoid touching your dog when they come inside. You can put this management plan in place while you desensitize your dog to the sound of the doorbell and teach her appropriate greeting behavior.
Management as preparation
You can also create a predictable environment by managing your dog’s everyday life. If your puppy is afraid of thunder, for example, you can close the curtains, put on some calming music and create a bolt hole she can go to that makes her feel safe. Sometimes your dog will choose her own hiding place by taking herself off into the closet or going under a bed. If this is a location that is safe and a place where she feels protected, create a den-like space for her there and let her stay there until the thunderstorm passes and she feels confident enough to come out.
If your puppy gets stressed in the car, it might be because she is getting overstimulated by what is flying past outside the window. In this case you can manage the situation by putting her in a crate, drape a blanket over part of the crate to block her vision, and let her relax until you get to your destination.
If your puppy or adult dog is stressed being in the crate at home, place the crate in a safe area of your home in an ex-pen or safe room so that the crate door always stays open. This will give her the freedom to decide whether she wants to go into the crate or not. Not all dogs can tolerate being confined.
Planning for emergencies
Emergency situations will happen so plan ahead and create an emergency management plan. The primary goal of this is safety, followed by prevention. Say you’re walking along the street with a dog that lunges and barks at other dogs and you are doing a great job avoiding other dogs by crossing the road to give your dog the safety she needs when another dog is in view. Now you turn a corner and another dog is walking straight towards you. You might go behind a tree or parked car – using management by adding a barrier between yourself and the other dog. You can teach your dog an emergency U-turn for just this type of situation. The aim is to create distance in as short an amount of time as possible without causing stress for you and your dog.
Temporary or constant management
Management can be so effective that most dog lovers implement some sort of management strategy for the life of their dogs, but management as a training solution doesn’t have to be used forever. Some people may use management temporarily to take the pressure off and to keep their dogs safe and happy while they work on a longer term training plan. For example, walking on a front-clip harness may be fine for a client who does not wish to spend a great deal of time teaching their dog loose-leash walking, but these harnesses can also encourage a person to teach their dog to walk on a loose leash without fearing that they are going to be pulled over. When the new behavior is fluent, management can usually be relaxed or phased out.
While house training you might confine a dog to a small area of the house so the dog is less likely to eliminate indoors, but when the teaching is complete and your dog is consistently toileting outdoors, you can relax the management and allow your dog more freedom to be in other rooms of the house.
Have a management plan
Management is most effective if you plan in advance and set up a management plan before the problem occurs. In order to manage problem behavior, you can employ an effective strategy by managing your dog, the stimulus, or both. When managing your dog, consider all factors of management: enrichment, safety, and prevention, and when managing the stimulus, focus on safety and prevention. Management can also be used proactively (before the problem arises) and in an emergency (when the problem occurs unexpectedly). Choosing an appropriate management tool is key to a successful management plan.
