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{"id":5987,"date":"2020-10-20T12:01:49","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T12:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/starpetstore.com\/?p=5987"},"modified":"2021-03-02T11:35:36","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T11:35:36","slug":"ignore-at-your-peril","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpetstore.com\/ignore-at-your-peril\/","title":{"rendered":"Ignore at Your Peril"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ignoring should work, right? One of the first bits of behavior science that we pick up as dog trainers is that behavior is driven by consequences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u2022 If something good happens after a behavior, that behavior is likely to be repeated.<\/p>\n
\u2022 If something bad happens, the behavior may diminish.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u2022 And if nothing happens at all after a behavior, there\u2019s often no point to the behavior. It may well fade away.<\/p>\n
Those are all true statements. So if a dog greets us by jumping in the air and pounding us with his front feet, or barks demandingly as we prepare his meal, how come he doesn\u2019t quit when we ignore the naughtiness?<\/p>\n
KEYS TO UNDERSTANDING<\/strong><\/p>\n
When seeking to change behavior, we start by identifying and describing the behavior. Then we seek to identify the consequence that is driving the behavior. We identify antecedents:<\/em> We note the situations and environments in which the behavior is likely to occur. We then create a plan to change the consequences and\/or the antecedents in order to change the behavior.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to describe five reasons why \u201cignoring\u201d may fail as a strategy; each corresponds to failures in a behavior-change plan. They may occur because we fail to identify the consequences that could be driving the behavior. They may occur because we misidentified the emotional state of the dog (an error in identifying an antecedent). Or they may fail because our plan was not complete or we just couldn\u2019t carry it out. Here are five common ways the \u201cignoring\u201d plan can fail:<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0Other reinforcers are present<\/strong>. A very common reason why ignoring fizzles as a strategy is that paying attention to the dog is not the reinforcer of the undesired behavior in the first place, or it is not the only<\/em> reinforcer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
The classic example of this is the behavior of jumping to greet. Surely part of the reason a dog jumps on his owner or arriving visitors is to interact with them. It is so tempting to assume that if we remove that interaction \u2013 \nif we look away, turn away, and don\u2019t speak to him \u2013 he will quit that annoying jumping. Good luck with that, though; it rarely works by itself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
The dogs who continue to jump when ignored \u2013 what are they getting out of it? One consequence is that they get closer to our faces. We are vertical creatures and it takes a good jump to get up to where the action is!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Also, we have to consider that the behavior just may feel good to the dog, even when he\u2019s being ignored. It\u2019s fun for dogs to use humans as a backstop or a launching pad! Jumping may also be driven by anxiety or over-arousal.<\/p>\n
If we use ignoring for the dog who barks demandingly for his meal, we are even more off-track. What is the ultimate reinforcer that results from meal preparation? Food!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Wise trainers pay close attention to what their dogs are doing for the period before such a big reinforcer. Barking, twirling, head butting, hand nuzzling, getting underfoot in the kitchen, and jumping can all be beautifully maintained by the presentation of a meal\u2019s worth of food at the end of it all. You can get any of those behaviors without paying any attention to the dog. Consequently, removing the attention does nothing to decrease the behaviors.<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0People are confused about what, exactly, constitutes \u201cignoring.\u201d<\/strong> It\u2019s difficult to define and hard to carry out! Ignoring might<\/em> work in a few more cases \u2013 if only we really knew how to do it. Also, it\u2019s hard to define the term \u201cto ignore\u201d without using negatives; you don\u2019t do this; you don\u2019t do that . . . .<\/p>\n
What you do<\/em> is to proceed as if the dog, with her annoying behavior, is not there. That\u2019s hard, especially if the dog is making physical contact with you. And there\u2019s some truth to the \u201cdon\u2019ts\u201d in the common definition. It can take as little as a quick glance from us to connect with our dog. They are the world\u2019s best noticers! That quick look, that \u201cOof\u201d noise, that lurching body movement you might make \u2013 all those can be responses to the dog. They affected your behavior and they noticed!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
And then there are the things we sometimes try to get them to stop. Turning our backs just gives them a clearer vertical surface to carom off of. Pushing them away \u2013 what a fun game! For some dogs, even being yelled at is more enjoyable than being truly ignored.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
There are some dogs out there for whom certain behaviors are so driven by attention that ignoring could<\/em> work. But a good trainer would use it as only part<\/em> of a strategy for behavior change \u2013 and it still has to be done correctly. A great trainer friend of mine teaches her clients a targeting behavior when she implements that plan for dogs who jump. But the behavior is not for the dog; it\u2019s for the person! She teaches her human clients to make eye contact with her (if she is present) or read a magazine (if the client is home alone). It gives them an alternative behavior so they don\u2019t look at the dog.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
But that is only a part of the training plan. The dog is learning a behavior, too. She and her client are working on reinforcing a more acceptable behavior that doesn\u2019t include knocking down visitors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
3 \u00a0We don\u2019t ignore the dog for a sufficiently long period.<\/strong> Even in situations where ignoring might work, we have a hard time sticking with it long enough.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a different behavioral example: Let\u2019s say your tiny dog has learned to get attention by pawing at your leg. Perhaps she gets picked up, petted, spoken to, or even fed from the table when she does that. How many hundreds of times has that worked for her in your life together?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n