27/06/2024
If I do *insert punisher* he stops reacting!
I saw someone a number of months ago, not in a professional training capacity, who was absolutely adamant that a firm ‘no’ and a leash pop would stop his dog reacting to others. I stood and observed as he demonstrated for me his training. He told the dog to sit when another dog appeared and his dog turned his head away from the handler, ignoring the first cue. He then leash popped the dog with a firm ‘no’ and asked for a sit again. The dog again turned his head away and licked his lips, flashing the whites of his eyes but obeyed and sat. The handler was then very pleased and told his dog what a good boy he was, eliciting a soft tail wag. The handler informed me because he was confident that the dog was confident.
This got me thinking about how we view our dogs and how we often focus on obedience over emotional stability. In this particular dynamic, this handler valued obedience moreso than his dogs emotions in that moment. I’m not convinced the dog felt the same. I felt for the handler because he didn’t know better, and we can only do what we know. He went on his way and I saw him a few months later but more on that below.
Now I’m not a super fluffy trainer. I do interrupt behaviours I don’t like (and shock I even use the word no!) but I am a firm believer that punishment is not the solution to reactivity. ‘No’ does not change emotion and ALL behaviour is driven by emotion of some sort. Remember the last time you were crazy stressed and upset and someone told you ‘calm down!!!’ How did it make you feel? It probably did jack s**t.
Imagine you came to see me to deal with your fear of spiders. What I’m going to do is put you in a bathtub filled with spiders and every time you shout or kick or scream I’m going to give you a firm ‘no’ and hold you in place. Eventually you’ll likely stop screaming and kicking off, but have I dealt with your feelings about the spiders? Not likely.
‘But it’s not always fear!’ I hear the fanatics shout! Say you came to me because you’re addicted to chocolate. You just can’t stop! So every time you reach for the chocolate I tell you ‘no’ and hold you in place. You’ll probably stop reaching for the chocolate but when I’m not there, you’ll go right back to it!
Behaviour work can be tricky and you can get bogged down in the details, but put simply, good behaviour work is about working with the emotions of the animal in front of you (dog and human!). For long term changes to behaviour, avoid the quick fix that seems to elicit immediate response. Look at WHY it works too.
The leash pop dog I spoke about at the start? He didn’t react because the worry of his handler was greater than the worry of the other dogs. Six months down the line I spoke to that same handler who told me he had to rehome the dog as he had started becoming destructive in the home and his reactivity was worsening with other dogs and turning to reactivity to people too. The reality is that the lead pop and a ‘no’ had put a sticking plaster on the problem that had no long term viability in terms of behaviour modification and created a pent up ball of stress that had nowhere else to put that stress, and his couch and his neighbour got the brunt of it.
Now obviously this story is on the more extreme end of the scale, but I’m seeing more behavioural fallout from trainers that don’t understand body language or communication or basic behaviourism who have stopped a behaviour without considering the emotion that led to the behaviour to begin with.
Deal with the emotions first, then work on the obedience. Enforced obedience alone is never the fix.
