Houston's comprehensive dog training center from obedience to behavioral solutions.
03/14/2025
As usual, auntie Linda should sound pretty familiar…
There is a difference between *training* and *management*.
Although management can exist without training, training is augmented by appropriate management.
After all, what we allow, will continue.
If your 3 month old puppy is allowed to run freely throughout your house, you cannot get angry at the pup for any property violations you may have stumbled across, or for the piles of poo and puddles of urine scattered throughout the home.
Those are management issues.
The species with opposable thumbs is supposed to be a little more... self aware, at least... and able to foresee these problems before they arise.
But that's not the case, is it? I have been dismissed by clients who could not comprehend how the liberty they allowed their dogs was in direct conflict with the problems they were still encountering.
But, confining a dog is cruel, right? Keeping the puppy on a leash is too, I suppose.
What's even more inhumane is the extraordinary damage to a puppy's digestive tract when it ingests an errant sock your kid forgot to put in the laundry and away from pup's mouth. That really cool gel pen your bestie gave you is now perforating your puppy's lower intestine.
If he lives, the surgery will cost between 5 and 8 k.
And you thought kids were expensive.
About kids- did you ever let your 4 year old home alone? No?
I wonder why.
Did you give your 11 year old access to the family car and the PIN number for your bank card?
Probably not.
So don't let the equivalent of the vacuous K9 Kardashian "influencers" tell you that crates are cruel and puppies should be allowed to roam without restraint throughout your home!
Much like children, JUST like children, puppies need boundaries, ground rules and guidance!
Almost 100 percent of dogs overdosing on your pot stash, choking on your favorite hair tie or causing hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in damage to your property, can be successfully avoided through mindful management so training can occur.
Don't want to create a thoughtful plan or put forth minimal effort to keep your dog safe from itself?
Don't get a dog.
If you do get a dog, have a dog or are the care provider for somebody else's dog, do yourself and the dog a favor and confine what you cannot supervise, restrain when you are mentally and physically present to teach, and the dog is prepared to learn.
I am happy to dispense more incendiary but practical advice! Just ask!
