Set Your Dog Up For Success
Management is all about setting up your environment in a way that helps your dog make good choices by taking away the option to make not-so-good choices, and it is a part of any good training plan. For example, if your dog likes to steal food off of the counter, you can do all of the training in the world to no avail if your dog keeps finding food to eat up there. If counter surfing results in eating delicious food, your dog will continue to do it. That is where management comes in.
There are a number of ways to choose from for how you could manage this situation. Different options will work better for different people depending on your preferences, lifestyle, and the layout of your home. If you can easily shut the door to your kitchen, that is a simple fix to prevent your dog from getting in there when there is food on the counter. You could also use a baby gate or x-pen to accomplish the same thing. You could also choose to not leave food on the counter and immediately wash every dish so that there is never anything to steal on the counter. Maybe you have a busy household where those are not options, but you could tether your dog to yourself or to a piece of furniture so that they are unable to get to the counter.
You might be reading all of those options and are thinking that they all sound inconvenient. That's fair. Coupled with training, however, whatever management option you choose is temporary. In this case, you may choose to teach your dog to go to a mat when food is out. Regardless of what you decide to train your dog to do instead of counter surfing, management is an important piece of that.
Maybe all of that training sounds like a lot of work, and you would rather just keep the door to the kitchen closed at all times. That is a totally valid decision. There are lots of things that I have chosen to manage instead of train because it just makes more sense. I buy garbage cans with lids, put the cat litter in a spot that the dogs are unable to reach, and I keep plush toys off the floor so that Troy can't eat them. Other people may use management methods like keeping shoes in a closet so your dog can't chew them, having your dog wear a muzzle so that they can't eat foreign objects that they find on walks, or crating your puppy while you shower so that they don't pee on the floor.
Around the House
I already mentioned crates, gates, and tethers because they all make great options for management at home. Keeping a puppy tethered to you helps you to keep an eye on them when they are first learning the rules of the house. Puppies tend to get into the most trouble when they sneak away from you and get out of sight. By the time you notice that they are no longer beside you and go looking for them, you might find a present pile that they left on the floor, chewed furniture, or something expensive that they've destroyed. Even if you are watching your puppy like a hawk, following them around can get exhausting. The tether keeps them close to you.
When you are unable to have your dog tethered to you because you have to go to work, run some errands, or even just go to the bathroom, crates keep them from getting into trouble while you are busy. If a young puppy gets into the habit of going potty whenever and wherever the urge strikes, house training gets challenging. If a dog learns that the garbage contains tasty snacks or that ripping the couch apart is really fun, they are likely to do that again. While I'm sure that you would probably prefer floors that are clear of urine or garbage and that your furniture stays in one piece, it can also be dangerous for your dog to have too much freedom. The garbage may contain food that us toxic to dogs or foreign objects that could cause an obstruction. Couch cushion stuffing could back their digestion up too. If they are in a crate, it keeps them and your belongings safe.
Eventually your dog may get to their point where they can be mostly trusted to stay loose in the house when you are outside doing yard work, but they are still likely to wreck the kids' toys if they are left to their own devices. This is where gates come in handy. You could use a baby gate to keep the dog out of the living room where the toy box is or from going upstairs to where the kids keep their toys in their bedrooms. Gates allow your dog to have a bit more freedom, but they keep the kids happy because all of their toys stay intact, and the dog does not choke on small pieces. You can buy inexpensive gates, but there are also lots of nicer ones that are made to match your decor. Everybody wins.
Out in the World
My favourite management tool to use when my dogs are out on adventures is a long line. I have a few different lengths, but I like ones that are 20-30 feet long. They give my dogs the opportunity to run and get a bit more freedom while still keeping them safe from running off and getting lost. They make a great temporary solution as you work on your recall training but, honestly, they also make a great permanent solution for my anxiety. I have a much better time out on the trails when I don't have to worry about everything that could possibly go wrong. Instead, I just enjoy the outdoors while my dogs explore safely.
Another way to manage the environment while you are out in the world is to change the time of day that you walk. You may be working hard on teaching your dog to walk on a loose leash instead of pulling towards every person that you see. If you go for a walk as soon as you get home from work, which happens to also be the same time that all of the neighbourhood kids are walking home from school, you will have to deal with a lot of people for your dog to pull towards. The more people your dog sees, the more excited they will get, the harder it will be to get them to focus on you, and the more you will want to rip out your hair. While you are working on this training, it may be more productive to walk an hour or two later. Once you have practiced walking by the occasional person and/or dog, you can work your way up to walking at more busy times of the day.
Also related to your walks, changing your route can help with your training. If I leave my house for a walk, I can go left or right. If I go left, I will have to walk by a house that often has a dog tethered out front that will run towards the sidewalk barking. If I go right, I don't have to walk past that house. Sometimes I go left knowing that I might have to work on some training to help my dogs feel safe while walking past such a challenging distraction. Other times I just want to enjoy an easy going walk with my dogs, so going right saves me some trouble. This isn't foolproof, unfortunately. If you see a dog coming towards you on the sidewalk and don't feel up to training, you may choose to turn around to go back the other way and avoid the dog. Occasionally, you will find yourself trapped, but there is more management that you can use to help you through that situation. You can cross the street, go up a driveway, or just distract your dog with treats until the coast is clear. These methods won't teach your dog how to calmly walk past distractions, but they can be useful on off days where you just want to take it easy.
Some Other Examples
Covering your dog's crate in the car so they can't see dogs and people out the window to bark at
Keeping the lid to the toilet closed so that your dog can't drink out of it
Putting the cat food up on the top shelf of the cat tree where the dogs can't reach it
Putting your dog in your bedroom when guests come in so that they can't run out the door and play keep away in the street
Bringing your dog downstairs on a leash to keep them from jumping all over those guests once the door is closed
Keeping your puppy on leash in the backyard until they learn to come inside when called instead of trying to initiate a game of chase
Giving your dog a KONG stuffed with peanut butter and treats to keep them from pestering you while you try to get work done
Asking your friends to text you when they get to your house instead of knocking to avoid having your dog bark
If you have more than one dog, feeding them in crates so they can't steal each other's food.
There are all kinds of other effective management solutions. What else can you think of?
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