"Training" VS "Management"

The distinction between the two is important to understand, as it allows us to allivate significant stress and approach our dog's long term training in a more organised fashion.

Training - teaching your dog to make the wanted decision

Management - preventing your dog from making a decision

A trained dog is a dog which can be relied upon to make the correct decision, within the situation and extent of their training, without outside help.

Dog training is all about teaching your dog to make choices, which is why in quality training so much emphasis is typically put on having your dog be conciously aware of the choices they're making.

When to train?

First ask yourself if you believe that your dog is likely to succeed, including with your help. If they are, then ask 3 questions:

1. Is it safe?

2. Am I prepared if it goes right?

3. Am I prepared if it goes wrong?

If you can say yes to all 3 questions, and you believe your dog is liekly to succeed (even if you're helping them), then you're good to go. Be ready to give feedback and guidance at the choice point.

Be aware that sometimes the desired decision is to make no decision at all (for example, in the case of a dominant dog).

If you are not ready to train

Then you want to manage - avoid the choice point. If you believe that your dog is not likely to succeed (including with your help), or you answer no to any of the 3 questions, then do not train.

Note, that we do not want to completly avoid the possibility of error. We need a genuine challange to generate motivation, and their ability to learn is heightened by the occasional incorrect attempt. Also, when teaching a dog to not preform an unacceptable behaviour a controlled failure is required for them to learn what not to do. Indeed, an essential component of genralisation is to show what not to do. Rather, we don't want to present a situation where the dog is just unable to succeed, or the challenge so great they could not be reasonably motivated through it. The possible exception here, is when we are training a dog to stop an unwanted self-reinforcing behaviour.