Until training has taken place, there are many occasions when management is imperative. Management is simply changing the environment, the way you, and other people, interact with your dog, in order to prevent your dog learning and / or practising undesirable behaviour.

Management involves setting the dog up for success by whatever means possible, ensuring that there is always something for you to reward. This is a proactive way of ensuring your dog is never given the opportunity to jump on people, run away, raid the garbage, etc.

Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

The first part of being proactive is to prevent unwanted behaviour.

Allowing the dog to rehearse unwanted behaviour over and over only puts you back in a position of trying to fix the problem.

What management strategies can you implement in order to change your dog’s behaviour?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Management does three very important things:

1^st        It prevents your dog from repeating inappropriate behaviour. The more a dog is allowed to perform a behaviour, (& get rewarded for it), the more ingrained that behaviour becomes and the harder it is to change.

2^nd       By implementing management strategies, we set up a high number of behaviours that can then be reinforced. We never have to deal with unwanted behaviour, such as chasing  the cat, chewing the furniture, etc. We never get to it. We ensure that our dog never learns the incorrect behaviour.

3^rd        It replaces unrealistic training expectations                                                        

You may still be wondering why, as many times as you have punished him for getting into the garage, chewing your shoes, etc, he hasn’t learned to leave it alone.

The answer is: He thinks he is getting punished for you coming home, being in the room, etc. Not for anything he may have been doing earlier.

            My question to you is, given how many times your dog has gotten into the garbage, chewed your shoes, etc, why haven’t you found a way to manage the behaviour or change the environment so he can no longer do it?

After all, aren’t we supposed to be the more intelligent species?