ARE YOU MANAGING?

Are we managing our dog’s environment to prevent or improve unwanted behaviour?

As people, we tend to prefer and look for more complicated solutions to problems. This tendency is termed “complexity bias” - the tendency to prefer complicated explanations and solutions instead of looking for the simpler ones.

Surely a complicated, time consuming, detailed solution has to be more effective, superior, impressive, or correct?

Complexity bias is so relevant when it comes to changing a dog’s unwanted behaviour.

We often get so stuck on trying to modify behaviour through counter conditioning, desensitization or detailed training plans when sometimes the simplest solution to the problem lies in simply managing the environment.

Dogs will do what dogs do – when an opportunity arises to help themselves to food left on a table, to bark at the gate at anyone passing by, to drink from the big water bowl we call a toilet, to go running off with irresistibly smelly socks, to rummaging through bins and eating anything that may or may not be edible, to running out an opened door in search of adventure - the list is long - dogs will be dogs.

Parents of little children use management all the time without giving it much thought. Baby locks on cupboards, covers on electrical sockets, valuable or dangerous items put far out of reach, fences and locks around pools, etc.

We wouldn’t just train a toddler not to stick their fingers in an electrical socket, not to open cupboards, not to touch a hot plate – it’s far safer, simpler and logical to first manage the environment, to prevent potential incidents.

The same principle should apply to managing a dog’s environment to prevent unwanted behaviour.

The more a behaviour is practiced the more difficult it is to prevent. The more a behaviour is rehearsed the better dogs become at it.

Preventing the behaviour from happening in the first place by using management is the logical, simple and effective way to address it.

Be a good manager – it’s far less stressful, for both us and our dogs.

Attention all members:
Please see the attached Press Release from Dogs Australia regarding Ehrlichiosis in Australia
https://dogsvictoria.org.au/media/6919/press-release_ehrlichiosis-in-australia-the-advancing-threat.pdf

Why won’t they switch off?
Because they don’t actually know how.

“Hey, you can’t reinforce an emotion.”
Correct.
But here’s the real kicker.

You don’t reinforce the feeling.
You reinforce the behaviours that make that feeling possible.

Stillness.
Disengaging.
Resting.

Switching off isn’t automatic.
Some dogs rehearse alertness and movement all day long.
Very few practice settling.

So we shape the environment and then calm has space to pop it’s head up (or actually down!)

What is reinforced is repeated and if it’s repeated often enough, settling and staying still stops being a rarity.

It becomes the “norm”.

Puppy biting can really get to you.
Not just physically but emotionally too.

You can love your puppy and still feel exhausted, frustrated, and a bit defeated by it all.

They bite when they’re excited.
They bite when they’re frustrated.
They bite when they’re tired, overwhelmed, teething or not quite sure what to do with themselves.

The good news is this is communication.

It is information you can use to adjust how you play, how much interaction they are getting, when naps happen and how busy their day really is.

What often helps most is not doing more.
More entertaining.
More exercise.
More reacting.
Even more trying to stop it.

It is often about doing a little less.

Less constant hand play.
Less non stop interaction when they are awake.
Less pressure to always be "on".

Sometimes though more really is needed, just not the kind people usually think of.

More rest.
More sleep.
More quiet time.

And for some puppies who are under stimulated, it may be more short training games, more gentle engagement, or more chances to build confidence in small, manageable ways.

Puppy mouthing is normal.
It means your puppy is still learning how to exist in a human world.
We tend to expect self control very early and very quickly from puppies who simply are not there yet.

This stage passes.
Especially when puppies feel safe, supported and guided and not constantly in "trouble" for something they don't yet know how to do differently.

If this is where you are at right now, you're not alone.
You're not failing your puppy.

You are just in the middle of a really normal, really hard stage.