Management 101
Management is a crucial part of any training plan, and a life saver when it comes to reactivity. Lady’s life revolved around our management plan and it kept everyone safe and under threshold.
Management refers to setting your dog up for success and doing what you can to prevent rehearsing reactions or undesirable behaviors.
The more rehearsed a behavior is, the more ingrained it becomes, and therefore the more likely it is to be repeated. So, preventing undesirable behavior from happening in the first place decreases the amount of unlearning the dog has to do. Preventing reactions can also be important for safety concerns for both the dog and other people or animals involved. Additionally, dogs, particularly anxious and reactive ones, have so many things to work on that training needs to be taken one step at a time. Management can keep things under control in the meantime.
Management can keep your sanity and frustration under control too! Having a dog that is reacting every time you step out the front door is emotionally and physically exhausting, and it is worth making the necessary lifestyle changes and compromises.
Management for dogs is similar to raising kids in some ways. Ultimately children need to learn what is safe and unsafe, what is okay to play with and what is not… but in the meantime, we don’t leave toddlers around hammers and chemicals and choking hazards! We use management by keeping these things out of reach until they are able to grasp these concepts and make appropriate decisions.
As dog parents it is our responsibility to change the environment to set our dogs up for success. This can look many different ways depending on your dog's specific needs and behaviors.
Here are some examples of what management looked like for us:
Using a car crate so Lady couldn’t see dogs out the car window
Draping a sheet over our balcony railing so she couldn’t react to dogs walking down the street
Lots of decompression walks in secluded places without triggers (usually at a cemetery or school sports fields)
Waking up early before anyone else is out for neighborhood walks
Only giving Lady access to half of the apartment when no one was home to prevent her from hearing people in the building hallway or from getting into trash or food in the kitchen
Management can also look like:
Using crates or gates in your home to keep your dog separated from people or other animals
Putting a film over windows or closing curtains to block visibility
Using a white noise machine or calm music to decrease noise sensitivity
Advocating for your dog and setting boundaries whether out in public or with the people in your life
Tossing a treat scatter to distract your dog from an oncoming trigger
Wearing a muzzle out in public in case of off leash dog encounters
My management system was so solid that Lady could go months without reactions, barring some extreme unexpected circumstances. Once we had a routine in place, I was able to pick and choose which areas I wanted to work on training first, and which systems would be more long term (it is also completely okay if you want to manage everything long term!). For example, Lady and I spent lots of time training on the balcony watching dogs walk by. But, sometimes I didn’t want to worry about it and just wanted to sit and read and give Lady an opportunity to relax and sunbathe, so I draped the sheet over the railing. We also did lots of reactivity training set ups, but walking past dogs on the sidewalk was still much too much for Lady. So, in the meantime, we walked in secluded areas or early in the morning while we worked up to sidewalks.
I think it is common for people to expect their dog to fit perfectly into their routine and lifestyle, when the reality is we have to compromise and meet halfway. Dogs are individuals who all have unique needs and boundaries too. We are responsible for setting them up for success based on who they are and not who we want them to be.
For a more thorough look at management, check out the book Manage It! by Juliana DeWillems KPA CTP, CDBC
