When Vinnie was an adolescent dog he began to counter surf in earnest. As soon as no one was looking, he’d rear up on his hind legs, put his front paws on the kitchen counter and start sniffing. Somehow he managed to jump and stretch his muzzle farther than we could imagine and in the blink of an eye, he’d help himself to food on the counter. He scored quite a few yummies in this way including a third of a freshly baked pan of cornbread, a handful of cookies, a few hunks of cheese, a piece of chicken, and a burger.

This has got to stop, I thought. But the first order of business wasn’t training. It was management.

Early attempts at counter surfing

Management, a cornerstone of just about every training or behavior modification plan I can think of, means taking steps to prevent the dog from doing the undesirable behavior while training is under way.

When dogs are rewarded for behavior, the behavior becomes stronger in intensity and frequency. In Vinnie’s case, counter surfing had paid off big time in the way of uber-delectable food rewards. The more he scored food from counters, the more likely he would be to raid them in the future. The best laid training plan would have been ineffective as long as he was still able to nab food from counters, even if only occasionally. Preventing him from getting food on counters went a long way to stopping the behavior because it ceased to be rewarding for him.

Here are some common examples of management as compared to training:

Cody loves to rush the front door when guest arrive and jump and slobber all over them.

• Management: Strategic placement of baby gates to prevent Cody from rushing the front door until his greeting manners improve.
• Training: Teach Cody to stay on a mat while guests arrive and enter the home, then to hand target guests to greet them.

Sylvie growls and snarls whenever Rex, the other family dog, approaches her when she’s gnawing on rawhides, bully sticks and bones.

• Management: Separate Sylvie from Rex in another room behind a closed door whenever it’s chewie time.
• Training: Desensitize & countercondition Sylvie to have a positive response to Rex’ approaches when she’s eating chewies or bones.

Fergus pulls nonstop whenever he goes for a leash walk.

• Management: Prevent Fergus from pulling on leash by walking him on a front-clip anti-pull harness.
• Training: Teach Fergus to heel and/or walk on a loose leash.

Vinnie counter surfs in the kitchen every chance he gets.

• Management: Never ever leave food on kitchen counters.
• Training: Teach him to stay on a mat when food’s being prepared and to get down from the counter when asked to do so.

Like good training, effective management requires consistency on the part of dog guardians. Lapses in management enable dogs to engage (again) in undesirable behavior and to self-reward for doing the behavior, which in turn makes the dog more likely to repeat it.

If your dog is doing something you don’t like, think first about how to change the environment to prevent him from engaging in the behavior. Once a solid management plan is in place, train him to do another acceptable behavior instead. When his manners have improved through training, it’s time to relax management.

Many people find that effective management works so well, they don’t do training to address the undesirable behavior. If that works for you and your dog, wonderful.

One of the most frequent concerns among dog guardians is how to stop unwanted behavior. As Jean Donaldson explains in her phenomenal book, The Culture Clash, much of natural dog behavior is at odds with what humans find acceptable.

Dogs however, need appropriate outlets for their energies, which are usually significantly higher than ours. Without legal channels for behavior and energy, dogs become frustrated, bored, and stressed. In that unfortunate condition, it’s just a matter of time before dogs find other ways to vent. Behavior borne of frustration and boredom is often even worse and less acceptable to humans than the original unwanted behavior. Excessive barking, destructive chewing, fence fighting, and digging are just some of the behaviors in which frustrated and bored will engage. Besides all that, it’s not fair or humane to consign any animal to a life of chronic boredom, frustration or stress.

Enter, “Instead Of Thinking.” It’s not enough to find ways to shut down undesirable behavior. A far more effective strategy is to train your dog to do alternative behaviors that are acceptable and incompatible with the undesired behavior.

Let’s use jumping up as an example. Jumping up is a natural normal dog behavior. Dogs do it to greet us by getting closer to our faces. But most people don’t like it when Rover jumps on them. This is a classic instance of the clash between behavior that humans deem acceptable and that which is acceptable and common among dogs.

Well hello!

Typically humans think in terms of, How can I get Rover to stop jumping up? “Instead Of Thinking” asks a different question: What would I like Rover to do instead of jumping up?

Instead Of Thinking solves two problems at once: it stops the unwanted behavior while providing Rover with an acceptable alternative.

Sitting to greet people is an alternative behavior that’s acceptable and incompatible with jumping up. If Rover is sitting to say hello to people, he isn’t jumping on them. The training plan would be two-fold. You’d stop rewarding Rover altogether for jumping up, teach him to sit to say hello, and reward him with attention and lovies when he sits.

With consistent positive training, voila! Rover will learn that jumping up never works to get human attention but sitting does. If everyone who meets Rover follows the same plan, his jumping should decrease substantially and eventually stop. Instead of jumping on folks he’ll do lovely sits to say hello, and he gets a legal outlet for his exuberant greeting energy. Doing a short down stay or hand-targeting are two other examples of alternative behaviors that are incompatible with jumping up.

Rover won’t learn these things overnight, especially if he has a long history of jumping up and being rewarded with some kind of attention when he does that. Patient consistent practice will pay off so hang in there with your training plan.

The next time you find yourself wondering how to stop Rover from doing X, put on your Instead Of Thinking cap. Ask yourself, What would I like Rover to do instead of X? Then start training Rover to do the alternative behavior, reward him handsomely when he does it and stop rewarding him for doing X.

Rewarding Rover for desirable alternative behavior is a powerful tool in your training kit, and means he’ll do more of that behavior in the future.

Happy Training!