Management means doing whatever I can to reduce George's exposure to triggers allowing his stress and cortisol levels to reduce.
This is challenging as it requires some (quite big sometimes) lifestyle modifications.
I didn't quite get it at first. Surely avoidance is not going to help him get less anxious and more confident around triggers.
But before I implemented management techniques, George's stress bucket was constantly overflowing. He didn't have any tolerance for more stress.
It is impossible for dogs to learn when they are constantly in high-stress mode.
So the management techniques might not be forever (although some might need to be), but they reduce the stress levels so that learning and behavioural modification can then take place when your dog is ready.
For us, management means:
- Walking only in quiet areas at quiet times.
- Not walking near the house.
- Booking Sniffspots.
- Avoiding (trying to) the neighbours.
- Hiding in bushes and around corners.
- Parking around the corner at daycare and waiting until the coast is clear.
- Carefully considering every parking spot.
- Booking the groomer at quiet times and ringing before going in to check if reception is empty. Same for the vet.
- Minimising visitors and only those in the circle of trust.
- Putting a sign on the door asking people not to knock or ring the bell.
- Having a baby gate in front of the door so he can't get close to unexpected visitors.
- Having him in daycare and booking annual leave if a maintenance person needs to come to the house.
- Blocking the gap in the fence so he can't see through.
- White noise machines.
- Not leaving him alone for longer than he can handle (about one minute).
- Tinted window film in the car.
The change that made the most significant difference at home was window film. I can't rate it highly enough if your dog reacts to visual triggers.
In the spare room/office, I have full length windows. As we didn't spend too much time in there, I didn't think window film would make much difference.
On the advice of our trainer, I (eventually) covered the lower half with window film.
I can still see outside the top half when sitting at the desk.
It made such a difference. Once George realised he couldn't see the triggers, his alertness and anxiety massively reduced at home.
I can't recommend it highly enough!
The one area I'd like to still improve management-wise is getting from (and back to) our house to the shared car park.
I call it "running the neighbour gauntlet", and it's arguably the most stressful part of our day.
As George does better if he can't see triggers, I'm working on techniques to block the visuals.
I bought him a calming cap, but it's a very slow desensitisation process as he's quite sensitive to things touching his face and head.
I've bought a travel crate thinking I can carry him in and out. It's sitting in the living room at the moment so he gets familiar with it.
My current technique is to try and time our entries and exits at quieter times and carry a wooden spoon with peanut butter.
I don't think it would help at all if we saw a trigger, but I think it is slowly helping to build positive associations and lower George's stress levels in this space - very slowly.
Management really does impact on your whole life and every little thing that other people can do without thinking requires careful planning in advance - even just leaving the house. Even staying in the house.
I still feel a bit stuck in management mode.
But every management technique has improved George's quality of life.