In the world of positive reinforcement, a common training tip you will hear is the instruction to ignore your dogs unwanted or “bad” behavior. This instruction seems to get transferred from person to person in a game of dog training themed telephone. As a result, many people seem to use this training tool without truly understanding how it works and how to use it. In this post, I am going to explain exactly that to help you effectively use this training tool with your own dog.
How It Works
Over the years scientists have discovered that reinforcement drives behavior. In psychology “reinforce means to strengthen” (refer to Reference 1). The act of reinforcing behavior increases the chances of that behavior being repeated, and it strengthens the behavior (refer to Reference 1). Punishment, on the other hand, is defined as something that decreases behavior (refer to Reference 1). However, something scientist have also discovered is that punishment only works in the presence of the punisher (refer to Reference 2). Now there are two types of punishment, which are positive punishment, and negative punishment. Positive punishment requires that an unpleasant stimulus is added to stop behavior. Negative punishment requires that a desired stimulus is removed to stop behavior. Both of these only work when the punisher is present to add or take punishment away. However, there are some problems with punishment. First, punishment might stop behavior, but it does not teach the dog what it is supposed to do. Second, punishment causes stress in the animal as the dog is focused on avoiding unpleasant stimuli or faced with things being taken away. The more this happens the more stressed the animals gets, and this can lead to chronic stress and aggressive outbursts when the animal feels the need to defend itself or its belongings. This also leads to unreliable behaviors as the behaviors depend on the amount of stress the animal is feeling, and the animal is focused more on what it is not supposed to do.
So now we have a problem. We want desired or “good” behaviors to happen, but we do not want undesired or “bad” behavior to happen. However, if we punish behavior, we end up with a stressed-out dog who will simply resume the unwanted behavior when we leave and is focusing on everything but what it is supposed to be doing. So, what do we do? This is where the act of ignoring behavior comes into play. Ignoring behavior is used to withhold rewards. In other words, the dog has not done something that we want to strengthen, so we simply do not reward it. This act of not being rewarded is something that some might categorize as punishment due to the fact that it seems to stop behavior and is something that the animal might want to avoid. However, there are a couple of important distinctions. First, ignoring behavior neither adds an unpleasant stimulus, nor does it remove a pleasant one. Ignoring behavior simply withholds a desired reward. Second, when we focus on rewarding behavior, and ignoring unwanted behavior, we also help reorient the dog’s focus onto what it should do. The dog wants the reward, so it goes through its behavior list and finds the one that “releases” the reward. This means that the dog’s goal becomes to gain reward, rather than avoid a punishment. This goal to gain reward means that your dog is interested in working to get something from you. Because this also does not involve a stressful punishment but does involve an enjoyable stimulus, the animal builds a positive emotional association with the behaviors, increasing its desire to perform the behavior. This creates behavior that is much more reliable because it is more reliant on the dog’s internal association, rather than the external motivator.
How We Use It
So how do we properly utilize the act of ignoring behavior? First, it is important to understand what we are ignoring. When we use ignoring behavior as a training tool, we are not necessarily focusing on ignoring the dog, but rather we are withholding reward for a behavior. This means that we must understand what is actually rewarding the behavior in the first place. If your dog is jumping on people, ask yourself what is rewarding that behavior? Is it us laughing? Is it affection? Is it any form of attention or is it a specific type of attention? Second, we must know how to ignore the behavior. If your dog is being rewarded for jumping by the fact that someone down the hall is laughing because it is cute, then you would actually ask other people to ignore your dog as well. If your dog is counter surfing, rather than “ignoring” your dog while it is eating the food off the table, respond before your dog grabs the food, then while ignoring your dog for putting its paws on the table, move between your dog and the food (do not use this strategy if your dog deals with possessiveness) and remove the food and anything else that will motivate your dog to jump up there again. Third, you must reward something. If your dog jumps on people, ignore the jumping, tell them to respond by turning their back on your dog or walking away, then reward your dog as soon as its paws touch the ground again. This third step is extremely important because if you never teach your dog what you want it to do, then your dog will come up with something on its own. That means that if you don’t teach your dog that it should do something like lay down on its bed when people come through the door, it might go through a list of things like jumping, then grabbing someone’s shoe and running away with it.
Ignoring Behavior Is a Tool
Ignoring behavior is a tool that must be used properly in order to be effective. Once you figure out how to use it, it can be an extremely effective tool. However, even if you are still learning how to ignore behavior, I will tell you that it is a much better option than using aversive techniques, especially when you also train a replacement behavior, as it is much less stressful for the animal. The more you practice the better you will get at using this tool. But always remember that this tool must be accompanied by training a replacement behavior. So please make sure to train your dog using positive reinforcement to teach your dog what it should be doing.
If you would like more information, or help getting a better understanding of this topic, please contact me at happyats@outlook.com!
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