Prevent Mistakes
Because it can take a while to change a dog's behavior, owners find these prevention techniques critical to reducing the stress they are experiencing due to behavior problems. By preventing mistakes from happening in the first place, the behavior in question is not accidentally rewarded which would maintain the behavior or cause it to get worse. The reason dogs engage in undesirable behaviors is because those behavior serve a positive function for the dog. If your dog urinates in the house your dog has immediate relief of bladder pressure. Therefore urinating in the house is to your dog's advantage. If your dog jumps on a person, the person most likely gives the dog some type of attention. So jumping on the person is to the dog's advantage therefore the dog will continue the behavior. Preventing mistakes does not eliminate the behavior problem. It just stops it from getting worse, by eliminating the opportunity to display the behavior and having the dog experience the rewards of the behavior. The combination prevention plus the behavior modification techniques we teach in class is what will give you success in stopping unwanted behavior.
In order to resolve behavior problems consider the value of using some of these products so the dog is no longer getting rewards from the environment.
Crates
If used properly a dog crate is a great way to prevent unwanted behavior. During the day a dog can be in the crate no more than one hour for each month of age and never longer than eight hours. So, a two-month-old pup can only be crated for a two-hour stretch. Then it has to be let out, have a chance to eliminate and exercise and then it can be crated again if necessary. At night the metabolism slows down and dogs over 12 weeks old should be able to stay crated while you sleep. When you plan to leave the dog in the crate longer than one hour it should first have a chance to eliminate and be exercised. The crate should be large enough for the dog to stand up, and turn around, but you don't want it to be so large that the dog can eliminate in one end and sleep in the other. The ideal time to use a crate is when you cannot supervise the dog and to aid in housetraining. If you need to leave your dog for a period of time longer than what would be humane, use a baby gate or exercise pen and litter box instead.
Baby Gates or Exercise Pens
Baby gates and Exercise pens are also used to prevent mistakes. They make it possible for the dog to move around more within the environment. They are helpful in keeping the dog from stealing the kid's toys; restrict access to more valuable items, and sealing off more dangerous areas like stairs. The area the dog is baby gated into will still need to be either doggie proofed or the dog will need to be supervised.
Baby Gates and exercise pens are ideally used when the dog cannot be crated and you cannot supervise the dog. Be sure you provide a litter box for dogs that are not housetrained, don't put paper down.
Tie Down
Using a tie down at times when you are supervising a dog makes it so they have some freedom, but they just cannot get into as much trouble. A dog also has a much better opportunity to learn consequence for jumping and playbiting if they are on a tie down. Tie downs should only be used with supervision. A tiedown is a specialized leash made of plastic coated airline cable no longer than 5 feet long. Tie Downs can be attached to a piece of furniture or a wall.
Smell Deterrents
Smell Deterrents are products that have a mild smell to us but are repulsive to the dog. You can spray these products on things your dog should not be putting in its mouth. It could be your dog is chewing thing up or playbiting.
Appropriate chew items
Chewing is a normal behavior. The problem is there are so many inappropriate things a dog can choose from. The more you satiate the dog's need to chew by providing it with a variety of appropriate chew items, they less behavior problems you dog will have.
Preventing behaviors problems from occurring does not resolve a behavior problem but it does make it so the dog is not displaying the inappropriate behavior at times in which the owner can not be consistent with training. This is really important because each time the has the opportunity to misbehavior the inappropriate behavior will be rewarded somehow making it more likely that the dog will misbehave in the future. So as you are waiting to get into a training class or working on training. Make sure you prevent your dog from misbehaving at times in which you can not train your dog.