Something to give you thought in your dog or bird training (or another species): If you react to your pet’s unwanted behavior in a way that is aversive to your pet whether that inflicts pain, stress or fear (or all of them), you may (or may not) change that behavior – at least in the moment – but you also will likely cause your pet to react by avoiding, shutting down or aggressing instead of WANTING to participate.
It is an important consideration when you think about solving pet problems. In the moment, you may find yourself irritated, angry or even embarrassed. And those emotions may cause you to respond abruptly to stop the behavior.
It’s understandable. I get it. However, when we react in the moment, spontaneously, to something that has just upset us, it can lead us into doing or saying things that may have adverse effects.
MAYBE your dog is barking at a passer by either while on leash or in your yard and you just want it to stop. You may yell, jerk or tighten the leash, or force your dog to sit to get your dog to stop.
MAYBE your bird bites you when he steps onto your arm and you respond by yelling and/or shaking your arm to get your bird to stop.
MAYBE your dog bolts to the end of the leash pulling you along to get to something or someone he wants to visit. Again, you may yell or jerk your dog’s leash, or try over and over again to coerce your dog to stop focusing on that thing.
MAYBE your bird screams a lot and you try to stop your bird by yelling at him, spraying him with water or shaking his cage.
MAYBE, when you are in a class or your dog with you in a public venue, your dog goes up to another dog, growls at, humps, or just gets in that other dog’s space without an invitation. You may yell at your dog, jerk his leash and pull him away.
These scenarios have a lot in common. Below are some of the commonalities:
You are being reactive instead of proactive in your actions. Often, that fails to solve the problem for a variety of reasons. Among them, once the behavior has been practiced, your dog (or other pet) is already potentially learning that the behavior works to get something of value whether that be more of something pleasant or avoidance of something negative.
You are using positive punishment (P+) or negative reinforcement (R-) as your behavior change strategy, both of which have the potential for negative fallout. P+ is a consequence that involves adding something aversive to the environment to reduce the probability of a behavior. R- is a consequence that involves removing something aversive to increase the probability of a behavior. Both of those strategies have the potential for creating a lot of stress in the learner. Learn more about that here.
While you ‘may’ succeed in stopping the behavior in the moment, you may not have lessened the frequency of that behavior happening in the long run. This can happen for a number of reasons. Maybe your punishment strategy is actually not punishment but a reinforcement from your pet’s perspective. For example, you might have thought that your moving your dog away from something was punishing but your dog actually wanted distance. Maybe what you are doing is less aversive than the reinforcer is positive and so your pet will continue to do the behavior. Even though a child knows he may get scolded for eating that piece of chocolate cake, the decision to eat it is so worth it. Or maybe you have not addressed the underlying cause such as fear or arousal (which circles back to being reactive vs proactive).
What is a better way to work toward a positive solution?
When it comes to behavior change, I am very committed to using and teaching the most positive, least intrusive strategies (referred to as LIMA – Least Invasive, Minimally Aversive).
This involves looking at behavior in a wholistic way. What is the role of the environment? Is there an underlying medical issue that needs to be addressed? What is the motivation or reinforcement for that behavior? What other behaviors would be acceptable for that animal to do in that circumstance that would be acceptable to you?
Sometimes, the least intrusive solution is simply arranging the environment so that your pet can not practice the behavior whether that involves blocking access to a window, walking a different path, or giving your pet something else to do. Sometimes it is important to rule out a medical issue as that can cause different physical responses in your pet.
Always it is best whenever possible to be proactive instead of reactive.
Typically, a plan involves a number of components: management to prevent practice of the unwanted behavior and emotions, assuring the pet’s needs are being met, teaching and strengthening the behaviors that you would rather see in that situation, and giving no reinforcement in the happenstance that the unwanted behavior accidentally occurs.
Here are just a couple of ways I worked through problems.
My pionus (bird) Dreyfuss used to bite my arm when I presented it in front of her while she was in her cage. I taught her that she needed to move to the opposite side of the perch in order for my arm to be presented on the other side. Then she ran over to it with her head held neutral.
For the dog that pulls on a leash to get to something or someone, we’ve taught that loose leashes, or attention to handler gets proximity to that thing.
MY ENCOURAGEMENT TO YOU IS THIS: The next time your pet does something that you do not like, remember, your pet has a very good reason for doing it. Instead of just thinking about stopping it (in a negative way), take a step back and come up with a proactive plan for solving your issue.
