How management can help with dog training

When it comes to training your dog, preventing them from practising unwanted behaviour by managing the environment plays a huge part. This might be with play pens or dog gates, putting your dog on a lead or simply remembering to shut doors and not leave food on the kitchen counter.

Eventually, of course, you may want to remove the barriers and know your dog can make good choices, even with more freedom. And that’s where training comes in.

Puppies and older dogs very quickly learn to repeat things that work for them. If jumping up at the kitchen counter is rewarded with a tasty morsel of food, or they find chewing a chair leg or your favourite shoe enjoyable, those activities will soon become habits.

As we know all too well ourselves, it can be far harder to break a habit than it is to create one. So, it makes sense to manage your dog’s environment from the start to prevent the behaviour while you teach them to keep four paws on the floor in the kitchen and show them which chews and toys are theirs to eat or destroy!

If your dog has already started to practice behaviour that you don’t want, such as racing out of the door or jumping up at people, you will need to put suitable management in place to prevent things escalating while you train alternative behaviours. The sooner you can do this, the easier training that alternative behaviour will be.

In some cases, and with some dogs, you may need to keep management in place long-term. Indeed, most of us do already, for example by keeping even generally well-behaved dogs on lead when passing a field of sheep and not leaving the dog alone in the kitchen with the Sunday roast (even the best-behaved dogs might be tempted).

When you bring a puppy home, it’s advisable to use crates and pens or barriers to create a safe place for the puppy and to prevent unmonitored access to your home and possessions. It’s also important to make sure you’ve tidied away items you don’t want them to break or chew. Just as you would with a toddler in the house.

On walks, leads of course are very helpful for managing your dog until they learn how to appropriately meet and greet people and other dogs. And long lines can give them more freedom while you train them to come back when called.

Here are a few examples of how best to manage a situation by controlling the environment, until you’ve taught your dog an alternative behaviour. 

Does your dog bark out of the windows at passers-by?

If so, you need to make sure they can’t access that area either by simply shutting a door (sometimes the solution is very simple!), using a gate across the doorway, keeping the curtains closed or, in more extreme cases, using a film on the window to prevent them seeing outside.

If your dog is getting into the bins

Depending on the size of your dog, you could get a bin they’re not able to tip over. Or don’t leave the dog and the bin alone in a room together for the time being!

Does your dog jump excitedly on visitors as they try to get through the door?

Have your dog behind a barrier, in a pen or another room before you let your visitors in.

Sometimes, if the outcome isn’t going to be disastrous, it’s just easier to keep managing a situation, but for most problems there will be a training solution you can work on. If you’re not sure how to implement this, there are plenty of places to get advice on modern, positive training methods from books, online courses or a local trainer.

 

For more training advice, please visit our dog coach Vicky Carne's website.