Bad Behavior is Not an Option
When I was a student dog trainer, enrolled in group classes with my dog, while I could see the positive changes that my dog was making, all I could think about was what I should do when the dog does something bad!
Despite all his good behavior, I was focused on the bad stuff. Many years later, with clients of my own, I hear the same question over and over, “What should I do if the dog is being bad?”
Apparently, good behavior doesn’t stand out to the dog parent the way bad behavior does, otherwise I’d be getting lots of calls from humans wanting to gush over their perfect dog :)
We humans seemed to be wired, so to speak, to squash bad behavior by punishing it in some form, but we tend not to reinforce the very behavior that we want our dog (child, cat or significant other) to repeat!
I understand that it takes a lot more than just reinforcing desirable behavior, because when we look at behavior, what you may be calling “bad” or what I like to call undesirable behavior, is something that the dog likes to do, and when allowed, even unintentionally, he’ll continue doing it!
So let’s take a common dog-parent complaint such as the dog (or cat) counter surfing for goodies. If he’s successful, you can bet this fun activity is not going to stop! The human instinct is to find some way of punishing the dog for jumping, so yelling, pulling the dog’s collar, using a squirt bottle etc. are strategies that many pet-parents do, only to have the dog repeat this behavior over and over, leaving the frustrated human looking for harsher ways to punish their dog.
A different approach is to set up the environment where “bad” behavior is not an option! In other words, we start by making sure that we PREVENT the dog from engaging in unwanted behavior. As an example, we can set up a gate, so Pup doesn’t not have access to the kitchen counter when we’re preparing meals. We can use a blocking board such as the plastic lid from a large storage container so we can make a preemptive move to place the board between the counter and the dog to keep him from jumping. And once we have figured out how to thwart Pup’s activities, we can then find numerous ways to make other options even more inviting. As an example, when Pup is standing near the counter, we can take some delicious bits of food to reinforce him for standing near the counter. We can fill a Kong with Pup’s meal to give when we’re preparing food at the counter or place Pup in his crate for extra prevention, with the food-stuffed Kong.
My clever little dog could not reach the counter to surf for goodies, but he was agile enough to jump on a stool to access the counter. I prevented future reinforcement of this behavior by moving the stool away from the counter. Problem solved and I didn’t have to punish him :)
When we spend our time looking for “bad” behaviors to punish, we end up increasing the artillery, so to speak. In other words, if a squirt of water doesn’t work, what about putting lemon juice in the squirt bottle to teach him a lesson?
The problem is that if it works, it actually reinforces the human who will continue punishing the dog for any behaviors that he finds undesirable. If however, we spend our time, preventing undesirable behavior and then reinforcing the heck out of the behaviors we want Pup to do, we then will be reinforced for our humane behavior!
Please consider “Bad” behavior not being an option in training…Bad human-behavior, that is!
HAPPY TRAINING & ENRICHMENT!
© Fran Berry CPDT-KA, UW-AAB all rights reserved 2021
