Whenever we share our lives with another being (whether a person or non-human companion), there are going to be behaviors come up that we don’t like. It is just a fact of life.
Telling your pet NO or using some other form of aversive punishment is not only not the most humane way of solving the problem – much of the time, it does NOT solve the problem. That can happen for a number of reasons. Maybe the reinforcement that your pet got from doing the unwanted behavior greatly outweighs the negative of whatever punishment you are using. Maybe the punishment you are using really is reinforcing the behavior (pushing down or yelling at a jumping dog can be interpreted by your dog as ‘game on!). It could be that your timing in delivering the punishment was too far away from when the unwanted behavior had occurred (learning the association between a consequence and behavior occurs the quickest with the least amount of time between them).
Even if the punishment strategy did work to stop or change a behavior, there are so many possible negative side effects that could occur. When you use aversive strategies, you are likely to see more avoidance behaviors, calming signals, tucked tails, stiff body muscles, even a growl or worse.
Dr. Susan Friedman reminded us in her LLA online course that punishment results in a ‘double-whammy’ – the addition of an aversive consequence AND the removal of the reinforcement that had been maintaining the unwanted behavior. It is why ‘fair pairs’ are important to the behavior health of an animal.
A fair pair is A behavior change plan that includes focusing on both teaching/strengthening one behavior (increasing the frequency of that behavior) while also focusing on decreasing the frequency of an unwanted behavior. By doing this, you are both helping to ensure the rate of reinforcement for your animal remains high and that you are staying focused on reinforcing the behaviors you want to see.
Differential Reinforcement of an Incompatible Behavior (DRI) is an example of this. DRI is a systematic process of reinforcing a wanted behavior that cannot be done simultaneously with the unwanted behavior while also completely and totally stopping reinforcement for the unwanted behavior.
With DRI, you are helping your pet to succeed because you are not simply trying to stop the behavior, you are teaching your pet that doing a replacement behavior can fulfill its wants and needs – one that can not be done simultaneously as the unwanted behavior – so that, when you withdraw reinforcement from the unwanted behavior, your pet chooses to do something acceptable to you instead. In DRI, it is best if the replacement behavior is one that your pet already knows and one that is associated with at least the same value of reinforcement history as the unwanted behavior.
Examples
A client was not liking that their large dog was jumping on people when they walked in the front door. They had been working on teaching their dog to sit with lots of high value reinforcement in a variety of situations and environment so we determined that could be the replacement behavior. However, in order to teach this, we first needed to manage the environment so their dog could not physically practice the jumping behavior. A gate was put up before I arrived and their dog was behind it when I came over. As expected, their dog began barking and jumping. We ignored that behavior and as soon as their dog began showing more calm behaviors (in which their dog could respond to a cue), they asked their dog to sit. As soon as their dog sat, they gave their dog multiple treats one after the other. Since this was new, their dog got up and began barking but this time he chose to sit down after about 15 seconds – and guess what happened then? He got more treats! It didn’t take very long at all actually before their dog stopped barking and jumping all together. When this happened, I went over and with a semi slow hand, gave their dog some scratches before moving away and they gave their dog more treats. With practice, their dog was doing a lot more sitting and a lot less barking and jumping. The other good thing – their dog was getting his needs met and getting lots of reinforcement for the wanted behavior. What a win-win for everyone!
Below is another example of my work with Dawson, my maltipoo (a work in progress). Dawson has a tendency to want to jump on little kids when he meets them (and also bark at other dogs and run to the end of the leash) so we are working on that.
The other day a little girl we met wanted to help me teach Dawson and my friend, Sue Schindler recorded it. His fair pair – pulling on the leash to get to the child DOES NOT get him to move forward but walking with me on a loose leash DOES. I reinforce him when he does walk with me toward a child.
In this video I (and the little girl) am working to keep Dawson’s focus down and reinforce him for having his paws on the ground in the close proximity to the girl. I also am reinforcing him for walking with me away from her.
Teaching Dog Calm Greeting Skills from Lisa Desatnik on Vimeo.
Something to think about – the next time you get frustrated with your pet, ask yourself, “What is a behavior I can accept that I can teach my animal to do INSTEAD?” Then TEACH it with lots of reinforcement while working to NOT give reinforcement for the problem behavior.
