It’s Not Cheating, It’s Management

I was chatting with a client about working on manners when the owners are cooking dinner.  
 
Right now, they’re putting him in a kennel when they’re cooking because they want to focus on cooking without dealing with unwanted behavior from their dog. They looked ashamed and expressed to me that they felt like they were “cheating”; like they’re not they’re not taking the time to train him. By golly, I felt just the opposite! I was so proud of them for knowing what they needed and when they needed it. I was so proud of them for putting their dog somewhere safe, so he could practice those wanted behaviors of lying down, chewing on his bone, entertaining himself without getting underfoot, etc. I was so dang proud of them for being proactive. It is so much easier to prevent a problem than to fix one.  
 
Is using a leash to walk your dog cheating? You’re managing him with the leash; preventing him from running away by having him attached to you. Most of us don’t think of leashes as cheating. So why do we think of other management strategies as cheating? Management is a wonderful tool. It is immediately effective. If we go back to the cooking scenario, you get your needs met and your need is to make yourself food without tripping over your dog or having it stolen by a greedy canine.  
 
You are also preventing icky behavior from ever starting. Your dog isn't practicing jumping up on the counter and slobbering on your food and stealing it. Your dog is not getting the opportunity to practice that behavior. We know that behaviors that get practiced are more likely to be repeated in the future. With management like this, you’re preventing that whole cycle from happening!  
 
You’re also engaging in a long-term training plan. There is a learning mechanism called habituation. Habituation is the type of learning that happens implicitly. The learner is absorbing the information - no one is actively teaching the learner. Over time, your dog might just learn that humans cooking = dogs chilling in kennels. Your dog may very well learn to put himself in his kennel all on his own (and you may not even need to shut the door at some point) when you start cooking, because that’s just what we do when humans are cooking.  
 
Overall, management is the most important part of dog training, and it is most of dog ownership. All pet dogs need to be managed to some capacity for their entire lives. It isn’t cheating, it’s living.