Dog training vs. management: pick your battles wisely

Your dog can be trusted with the run of the house, as long as you're home.  But as soon as you get in your car and leave the driveway, he makes a beeline for the garbage bins and has a field day emptying them, eating what he can and ripping apart the rest.  You're tired of getting home to find shredded paper and apple cores all over the floor, along with worrying whether or not you there were chicken bones or anything else dangerous to your dog in his self-serve buffet.  So what do you do?

The simple answer: make sure the garbage bins are empty before you leave the house, or confine your dog in areas where he cannot get to them.

Can your dog be trained to leave the garbage alone when you're not home?  Possibly.  But since you can't intelligently train when you're not there, it would involve elaborate set-ups with booby-traps that could backfire on you by creating phobias or even physically harming your dog.  It makes much more sense to manage the situation by preventing access to the garbage.   Not only will this solve your problem much more quickly and easily, but if the dog is prevented from practicing the behavior for a period of time, the habit can be broken and there may actually come a time when you can leave him alone with the bins and it won't occur to him to dumpster-dive.

To have a dependably well-mannered canine companion, training is required.  A large, powerful dog may not be able to be walked safely unless you teach him to walk on a loose leash.  All dogs should be taught how to leave objects alone on cue and, even more importantly, to spit things out of their mouths when asked.  These behaviors, and many others that are taught in a basic family pet training course, are mandatory if you want to feel confident taking your dog out and about with you. 

But some behavior issues are not only easier to solve by management, they are far safer and more dependable.  If your dog has a tendency to chase your cat, separating them when you're not present to intervene is the simplest and safest solution to prevent injuries.   Training your dog to stay within an outdoor boundary may be achievable, but only a leash or a physical fence (NOT an electronic fence!) will reliably ensure that he doesn't take off after a rabbit or a jogger. 

When you are trying to break the habit of an undesired behavior, there are two steps.  The first is management; the environment must be set up so that the dog is unable to continue to practice the undesired behavior.  The next step is training an alternative behavior that will replace the one you are trying to extinguish.  If the habit is jumping on others to greet, the management step may require stepping on the leash whenever your dog approaches a person he wants to greet.   This way he is physically unable to jump up, so the well-meaning human doesn't get a chance to reinforce the unwanted jumping behavior by petting him.  In this case, it makes sense to add the training step (sit for greeting) because it is relatively easy to train and results in the benefit of a dog who can be trusted to approach people politely.  But if the habit is getting into the garbage when you're not home, management alone can solve the problem quickly and easily.

In most cases, behaviors that happen when you aren't there are much more easily managed than trained.  Another example would be a dog who barks so excessively while you're at work that your neighbors are disturbed.  Management options could include crating or confining to a part of the house where he can't see or hear the triggers that cause him to bark, or in some cases simply closing blinds and windows. 

If you need professional help in managing and/or training your dog, in the Orlando area you can contact Dog Willing Positive Training Solutions.  In other areas you can find a good, dog-friendly trainer at the following trainer rosters:  Truly Dog Friendly, Peaceable Paws, Karen Pryor Academy, International Positive Dog Trainers Association, and Jean Donaldson's Academy.