11/06/2025
This is a long post, but hopefully worth the read for you all, especially those of you with reactive dogs!
“But I don’t want to just throw FOOD at the problem” is something we occasionally hear in the dog training world. It’s not a huge surprise, since as positive reinforcement trainers we often are utilizing a lot of food to help shape the behaviors we want in our dogs, and sometimes this can be confusing for clients. ESPECIALLY when it comes to the reactive or aggressive dog. The idea of “rewarding” a dog for doing an “undesirable” behavior such as barking or lunging at something can seem TOTALLY counter-intuitive.
But here’s the thing. We AREN’T just throwing food at the problem, we are USING food to fix the problem and shape behavior. Let me tell you a story from a case this week that highlights just how good “throwing food” at a behavior problem can be when done correctly!
I had a zoom session with a client of mine about a month ago, right before I left the country. She was alarmed about a sudden change in her fearful dog’s behavior – suddenly he had started to bark HYSTERICALLY and ENDLESSLY at any people or dogs he saw walking by the house, even some cars! Since I was leaving the country in a few days, I didn’t have time to see her in person, so we scheduled a quick zoom session to triage, and an in-person follow up for when I returned, a month later.
I explained to my client that what I wanted her to do for the month I was away was to keep a treat pouch on her with some food the dog was highly motivated by. And every time her dog ran to the window barking and growling, I just wanted her to calmly walk over to him, and offer him some treats, if he would take them, and continue to feed him a few treats while he watched the person/dog/thing go by, EVEN IF he was still barking and growling. Then, when the trigger had passed, put the food away and call him away from the window and go about her day. I stressed it was important for her to do this every SINGLE time it happened.
This particular client is amazingly compliant so there was no question about “aren’t I just feeding a bad behavior” – but we talked about it anyway, so that she would understand. See, food isn’t just used to REWARD (or reinforce, in technical terms) a behavior, it can also be used to CHANGE AN EMOTIONAL STATE.
Here is where it gets a little tricky:
🐾Food only reinforces a behavior when an animal is DOING a behavior (for the purposes of this post, a “behavior” is a deliberate action the dog is doing thoughtfully, with the homes of obtaining a certain outcome).
🐾 Food does NOT reinforce an EMOTION. Meaning, if the dogs “behavior” is actually just a giant emotional meltdown – not thoughtful, not deliberate, just pure fear, arousal or chaos any food that is given in that moment is not going to be reinforcing anything, and can actually be very helpful in changing the underlying emotion the animal is feeling over time.
If this sounds confusing, just imagine a child who has just had a really bad scare and they are hysterically crying – having a complete emotional meltdown full of fear, or pain, or some other strong emotion. If we go to that child, and hug them and offer them a piece of chocolate or candy (not necessarily saying you should do this, just using it as an example) are we “rewarding/reinforcing” the child for “bad behavior” (crying hysterics) and would we assume that child is MORE likely to scream and cry in the future the next time they are scared or hurt, in the hopes of getting a piece of chocolate? Of course not! The child isn’t thinking on that higher level, they are just feeling big feelings and having a cry. The chocolate might make them feel a little better, and in that moment, that is what we are trying to do.
🐾 Emotions are NOT behaviors. It’s important to understand the difference. 🐾
Now, if my dog comes and sits in front of me, staring at me while I eat my dinner and barks over and over and over again and I offer him a treat – am I reinforcing the behavior of sitting and barking? Absolutely. Because that is a BEHAVIOR. The dog is hoping that by sitting in front of you and barking, they will get some food (probably because it has worked for them in the past). Does a dog who is sitting in front of you staring at you calmly and barking for food look ANYTHING like a dog who is barking and growling frantically and hysterically out the window while a person or dog walks by? Of course. When you stop and look at the situation, its very easy to tell the difference. One is a behavior. The other is an emotion. And we can’t REINFORCE (reward) an emotion.
So lets go back to our window barking friend. I explained that all we are trying to do is help the dog feel better in this moment of being triggered, by pairing “the scary thing” with something pleasant (food). Over time, with repetition, this dog will start to feel better about “the scary thing” and the emotional state will begin to change, and we will both help the dog feel better AND start to reduce the barking and hysterics.
The other day, I went for my in-person follow up with this client to check in on the progress. And guess what she said? It worked! Now the dog might see someone/thing passing the window, and instead of flying off the handle completely and having a huge emotional meltdown (reactivity) he barks a few times, much milder and calmer (while still a little worried) and can turn to his owner easily, understanding that food will appear because the scary thing is passing by. The owner reported he only barks a couple of times, only needs a couple of treats, and can be easily led away from the window and recovers quickly. She also explained that a couple of times he had barked, and then stopped, turning to look for her and the food, even though she hadn’t reached the window yet. This is EXACTLY what we were trying to get! The dog is showing signs of changing his emotional association with “the scary things” – is feeling better, is calmer, and not only is the hysterical reaction going away, the dog is showing signs of being able to think and control himself! BEAUTIFUL! All by simply “throwing food at the problem.”
The next step? To stop going to the window, and instead when he gives a bark alerting to a “scary thing” just try calling him gently, and see if he can come away from the window, get a treat, and settle back down. And from there? We watch for the dog to start to simply bark once (or not at all) and come to find the owner proudly, ready for his REINFORCEMENT (because now we ARE reinforcing a behavior, since the dog is performing a behavior not an emotion – the behavior of coming AWAY from the window calmly, rather than going bezerk). And after that, we can expect the dog to progress to the point where people/things passing by are no big deal, and no response occurs, and no reinforcement is needed.
Now of course, not ALL cases work this way, and there are a lot of factors that come into play when deciding how to address a particular behavioral case, but this case happened to be such a PERFECT example of how the appropriate use of food when a dog is display reactive/aggressive behaviors can truly be a magical solution!
