How Do You Manage?
A patient walks into the doctor and says, “Doc it hurts when I move like this.”
And the doctor replies, “Well, don’t move like that!”
Most behavior modification plans are going to incorporate some kind of environmental management. If your dog has a habit of barking at people passing by the window, we may suggest you keep the blinds closed. For a mouthy adolescent dog with a penchant for ripping fabric, we may ask you to not wear your flowy silk blouse when you interact with him. If your dog jumps up on visitors, we might recommend you to keep her on-leash when guests arrive. We know it may feel like sweeping a problem behavior under the proverbial rug, but there are many reasons why management is helpful, and often necessary, to successfully change behavior!
1. Your dog does not need to make mistakes in order to learn!
We notice that clients frequently want to show us the unwanted behavior. “Watch, he’ll growl if I touch him like this!” First of all, we believe you! Especially when dealing with potentially dangerous situations, our goal is to reduce the frequency of the problem behaviors and prompting those behaviors to happen will not help. Second of all, it isn’t necessary to know the wrong answers in order to know the right ones. A second grader does not need to learn that 2+2 does not equal 5, 7 or 8 in order to learn that 2+2 does equal 4. Similarly, your dog does not need to understand that jumping up on guests is wrong in order to understand that sitting in front of guests is right.
We humans have a tendency to anthropomorphize and assign human feelings to our dogs, but this does both ourselves and our dogs a disservice. Even though we may want our dogs to understand that a particular behavior is unacceptable, they are not capable of feeling guilt or remorse. A 2009 study debunked the popular “guilty look” dog owners report and demonstrated that these dogs are actually expressing fear!
2. If a behavior is occurring on its own, something in the environment is already reinforcing it.
Every dog will do what works, and every behavior has a specific function. It may not be immediately obvious to us, but even the undesirable behaviors are happening for a reason (your dog isn’t just trying to be obnoxious, we promise!) The dog who barks at the window as passersby may be reinforced by the “intruders” leaving, and the dog who mouths clothing may be reinforced by the simple joy of ripping fabric or getting a dramatic reaction from their person. Employing a management strategy to limit this behavior is essential because if the behavior is being consistently reinforced by something in the environment, it is not only going to continue to happen, but will become stronger and more difficult to change over time as they practice it.
Even if you are also working on training alternate desired behaviors, management needs to be incorporated. Imagine you are trying to fill a bucket with water that holes drilled in the bottom. You pour as much water as possible into it, but without patching those holes, you’re not likely to meet your goal of filling the bucket. The same goes for all of your training goals!
3. Sometimes permanently managing a behavior is more practical than a complex training plan.
Is there a training solution for even the most complex behavior problems? Of course! In the words of brilliant trainer Karen Pryor, “everything is just behavior, and all behavior is modifiable.” Does this then mean that we need to have a training solution for every behavior problem? Not necessarily. What if on top of caring for a dog with a troublesome behavioral issue, the dog’s owner works 60 hours a week, takes care of their three children, has a packed social calendar, or has medical concerns? Not every behavior problem takes ages to fix with training, but sometimes training does not easily fit into a hectic schedule.
If a large and busy family has dog who is starting to build a habit of rushing out the front door when the kids leave for school, teaching and proofing a down-stay at the door with all of that activity may not be the most pragmatic approach to begin with. Instead, they may opt to simply install a baby gate in the hall to block the dog’s access to the door, have the dog on leash during departures, or put the dog in their crate with a kong. Let’s say a multi-dog household notices tension and resource guarding between their dogs over special raw bones. They could certainly work through a carefully constructed desensitization and counter-conditioning training protocol to systematically help the dogs work through those emotions. They may, however, decide it’s easier and just as effective to have the dogs chew on their bones in their individual crates or separate rooms. A person with astigmatism could get lasik surgery to “fix” the problem, or they could choose to just “manage” the issue permanently by wearing prescription lenses.
At Clickstart Dog Training Academy, we want our clients and their dogs to succeed! A thoughtful combination of training and management with the guidance of an experienced certified professional trainer is the best way to help you and your dog achieve your goals. Are you struggling with your dog’s behavior? Contact us today and one of our trainers can help you create a plan to get you on the path to success!