Please Don't Report Me To The Management: What "management" means to dog trainers and why we love it so much

Management, in the dog training context, is a bit tricky to define. It is worth the effort to understand it, though, if you share you life with a dog or two. Management essentially refers to anything (item, habit) that prevents a dog from doing, or experiencing, a thing we don’t want them to. I think a great way to explain is by triangulating with a bunch of examples:

A dog is jumping up on guests. The guardian puts a leash on the dog to ensure they don’t have access to the guests during the initial exciting moments.

A dog pulls hard on leash during walks. The guardian uses a front-clip harness, which prevents the dog from pulling by changing the angle of attachment.

A dog is scared of fireworks. The guardian goes camping in a quiet location during holidays.

A dog is scared of the veterinary office. The guardian uses a vet who does home visits where possible.

Two dogs scrap when they are eating supper. The guardian feeds them in separate rooms.

A dog is underfoot in the kitchen during cooking times. The guardian uses a baby gate to keep them out of the kitchen during prep times.

A dog chews shoes. The guardian buys a monthly box service of great new toys and keeps shoes in the closet.

In every example, there is a behaviour or emotional response that the dog has, which is being prevented by changing up the dog’s environment. It is not the same as training and behaviour modification. Behaviour modification would work in some of these cases, but it would look like this:

A dog is jumping up on guests. The guardian trains the dog to stay in a sit-stay when guests arrive, in order to earn greeting time and treats.

A dog pulls hard on leash during walks. The guardian trains the dog to walk with a loose leash, in order to earn forward movement and treats.

A dog is scared of fireworks. The guardian trains the dog to enjoy the sound of fireworks using classical conditioning, with the help of medication from their vet.

A dog is scared of the veterinary office. The guardian trains the dog to feel safe during veterinary appointments and procedures.

Two dogs scrap when they are eating supper. The guardian trains the dogs to eat comfortably across the room from each other.

A dog is underfoot in the kitchen during cooking times. The guardian trains the dog to lay on a mat during meal prep.

The difference here is that instead of preventing the dog from experiencing the trigger or being able to respond to the trigger in ways we don’t appreciate, we are changing the dog’s behaviour or emotional state when they are confronted with the trigger. Perfectly acceptable, but a different process! And, alright, I’ll be frank: a lot more work. Dog training is all about repetitions, my dear readers. Repetitions upon repetitions.

And if you’ve read any of my blogs in the past, you’ll know one truth about me: I’m pretty lazy. We’ll get back to this in a bit, but you’re probably already suspicious about where I’m heading. Hey, fun fact: you’re right.

Dog trainers use management in two main ways. One way is as the entire solution to a problem. When something as easy as using a baby gate or switching up walk times will solve our clients’ issues, we’re usually game. Or if a dog is fearful of something we can easily remove from their lives, we are doing our dogs a service to do so. When management is the whole solution, our clients tend to be delighted, their dogs tend to be happy as little canine clams, and everyone wins!

Dog trainers also use management as a stop-gap to prevent inappropriate behaviours or emotional responses while training takes hold. Training protocols can range from easy enough to welp this will take a pretty comprehensive incremental training plan. It’s a blessing, and in some cases it’s desperately important, to give our clients’ dogs (and our clients) a break from the behaviour or issue they hired us to solve. But management-only solutions can’t always be the end: some of these issues we really do need to train for. A dog who is scared of the vet will need to see the vet at some point, so helping them feel comfortable is welfare-boosting. A lifetime of management (home vet visits, or more likely and more distressingly, just avoiding the vet altogether) won’t really work, or has awful consequences. There are many other scenarios where a dog’s welfare and ability to have normal social interactions with other dogs or other people are at risk with a management-only solution as well, and welfare and joy should never be on the chopping block when we’re making dog training decisions. In addition, some people just genuinely like training their dogs, and like having non-management solutions. We dog trainers love these people, but we get that most people don’t really have that gene.

So, back to me. I’m personally all for easy solutions (except when welfare and joy are compromised, of course). I love management-only solutions and do a ton of management in my own home. If you’re struggling with your own dogs—if their behaviour is getting on your nerves or causing discord, or if you can tell they are experiencing distress—consider management. Take a real healthy step backwards, take stock of when and where the issue is happening, and ask if you could change up your dog’s environment to simply prevent your dog from being triggered. If the changes you’re considering will, over the long-term, reduce your dog’s welfare, then reach out to a dog trainer and consider the management to be perhaps an interim solution. But don’t feel like management is somehow second best. It can be life-saving, ear-drum-saving, dollar-saving, and family-saving.

There’s a reason why us dog trainers are delighted with, and experts at, management: it works, and it’s a beautiful thing.

This blog was written and published for the Academy for Dog Trainers March Is Management Month media blitz.

Cover photo by TranStudios Photography & Video from Pexels