Last week I had a first appointment to meet this adorable jack russell terrier and his family. It was a pretty exciting occasion for him and he greeted me by jumping, wagging his tail, and fast movements. He was getting so stimulated between the new visitor and a room of kids plus two parents, that he also began humping my leg– a behavior many humans do not appreciate.
I knew that trying to stop the behavior by scolding him or pushing him away would not have solved the problem. Actually, pushing him away may have actually heightened his arousal.
I wanted to stop the behavior quickly so as to prevent him from continuing to escalate his humping behavior but I did it in a very calm way. He was attached to a leash so I simply held him at a distance from my leg where he could not physically hump it and then I proceeded to teach him to lay down with relaxed body muscles (as seen in the photo). After all, one can’t lay down and relax while humping a leg. The two behaviors are pretty incompatible. And after he learned this behavior got good stuff, he was feeling like doing this a lot – even when we moved into another room.
This process is called Differential Reinforcement of an Incompatible Behavior (DRI). 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.
Why are aversive strategies ineffective?
There are several possibilities.
Remember, that unwanted behavior is serving a purpose for your pet. It is getting your pet something of value – whether that be mental, physical or sensory stimulation, relief of boredom, attention, opportunity to play or go somewhere, or something else. When you tell your pet NO or use another aversive strategy, you are simply stopping behavior without letting your pet know what it CAN do that is acceptable for getting its wants and needs met. (Additionally, that aversive can create all kinds of negative ramifications from apathy to fear to aggression, and all those things can become associated with you – the giver of that aversive.) In essence then, you are not giving your pet all the information that it needs to succeed so you are basically setting your pet up for potential failure.
Another reason could be that what YOU thought was punishment was actually reinforcement from your pet’s perspective. (Scientifically speaking punishment is a consequence that weakens the future rate of a behavior.)
It could also be that in the grand scheme of things, the reinforcement that your pet gets from doing the unwanted behavior could far outweigh the unpleasantness of your intended punishment. Therefor your pet may choose to continue doing the unwanted behavior even despite the possibility of having to also endure something mildly irritating.
With DRI, you are helping your pet to succeed because you are not simply trying to stop the behavior, you are teaching your pet a replacement behavior fulfills your pets 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.
With any behavior modification plan, it is also very helpful to arrange the environment so that the unwanted behavior does not get practiced to begin with while you are building value for the replacement behavior. In the case of a dog or puppy that gets over stimulated, make sure it is getting its needed rest. You may also want to be mindful of the types of activities you engage in, shorten training and play sessions and give breaks in between.
Dr. Susan Friedman taught me, “If we select replacement behaviors carefully, we can teach our pets to communicate their needs in acceptable ways while preserving the valid function of these behaviors at the same time.”
The DRI strategy is most effective if the incompatible behavior produces a consequence of at least the same value, if not more, for the animal; and if the incompatible behavior is something the animal already knows.
