To Train or Not to Train?

When your goal is to modify an unwanted behavior, whether it’s from your dog, your kids, or yourself, you always have two options:

1. Management. This means you can create a situation in which the undesirable behavior simply can’t occur. You’re not teaching or training the subject to do anything, but rather manipulating the environment to prevent the problem from being able to happen.
2. Training. You can teach the individual how to engage in a more desirable behavior instead of the old, frustrating one.

In dog training and in life in general, both management and training have their place. It’s up to you to decide which option fits your needs. Let’s look at an example.

Problem: My dog gets underfoot while I’m cooking in the kitchen.

Management Strategy: Block his access to the kitchen. There are several ways to do this.

1. Use a barrier such as a baby gate to prevent him from entering the kitchen.
2. If your kitchen is open to the main living area, you can use a different method to block his access. Put him in his crate or in another room with a peanut-butter filled Kong toy to keep him busy.
3. You can also create a comfortable spot to tether him: have a leash (secured to a stable object like a railing) and his dog bed set up in a spot where he can see you in the kitchen, and give him a chewy on the bed while you clip the leash on.

If managing the situation is good enough for you, then voila, problem solved! However, you could go the next step and train your dog to replace his old, irritating behavior with a new, polite one.
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 Training Strategy: Teach him to go to his bed while you cook.
Teach your dog a Place cue, which is a behavior that is incompatible with kitchen scavenging. (If his butt is firmly on the dog bed, he can’t be walking around the kitchen.) I prefer teaching an alternative behavior like Place to simply telling the dog, “No!” or “go away”; shooing him away simply tells your dog what he shouldn’t do (and that’s if he understands it at all), whereas Place tells him what he should do instead. It’s a win-win.

For almost every undesirable behavior, it’s wise to consider both management and training, as they can often complement one another. In the example above, until your dog has learned a solid Place (which will be discussed in detail in future posts), the management strategy can keep the problem from exacerbating.
 Stay tuned for future posts outlining management and training strategies to address a number of urban dog issues. Got a request? Email me!

Management: Sorry, Batman, no dogs allowed.

Training: Batman gets to watch the action while politely staying in his "place."