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 how this training strategy should be used to help you effectively use it 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, thus strengthening that behavior (refer to Reference 1). Punishment, on the other hand, is defined as something that decreases behavior (refer to Reference 1). However, something scientists have also discovered is that punishment only works in the presence of the punisher (refer to Reference 2). There are two types of punishment: positive punishment and negative punishment. Positive punishment requires that an unpleasant stimulus is added to stop behavior (e.g., yelling or poking). Negative punishment requires that a desired stimulus or object is removed to stop behavior (e.g., taking a prized possession or toy). Both of these types of punishment only work when the punisher is present to add or take things or stimuli away.
The Problems with Punishment
Though punishment when used properly (which can be hard to do) can decrease the frequency of a behavior, there are some problems with punishment. First, punishment might stop behavior in the moment, but it does not teach the dog what it is supposed to do. Actually, when using punishment, the animal is focusing on everything but what it is supposed to be doing (e.g., pulling get my collar yanked on, barking gets me yelled at, jumping gets me pushed away. What am I supposed to do?). Second, punishment causes stress in the animal as the dog is focused on avoiding unpleasant stimuli or the threat that prized objects may be taken away. The more this happens the more stressed the animal 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, so the behavior won’t always happen unless the punisher is present, or a certain amount of pressure or stress is applied. Third, relationships can be seriously damaged, resulting in dogs who tend to avoid their owners and/or the instructions their owners give them.
Ignoring Unwanted Behavior
So now we have a problem. We want desired or “good” behaviors to happen, but we do not want undesired or “bad” behaviors to happen. However, if we punish bad 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. Now some of you might be wondering if that is 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.
The LIMA Principle
Ignoring behavior does not add an unpleasant stimulus (positive punishment). However, occasionally it might involve removing attention (a form of negative punishment). This brings up an important point: both reinforcement and punishment exist everywhere. What is important in training and interacting with our animals is that we focus on decreasing the amount of stress involved to allow the animal to focus on the task, process the information effectively, and enjoy learning. This concept brings me to the LIMA principle. LIMA stands for “least intrusive, minimally aversive”. Instead of taking a prized possession away (highly invasive and very aversive for the animal), we find the least intrusive and minimally aversive way to communicate to the animal that we want them to try again. Removing attention is a common way of doing this that is least intrusive and minimally aversive to the animal. It also allows for the learning process to continue and clear communication to remain, which helps improve both the learning process and relationship building between human and dog.
Focus on Rewarding Desired Behavior
When we do take something away, such as attention, we should not be focused on punishing, but rather we need to be actively looking for an opportunity to “give back”, to reward behavior. What we as the trainer and “parent” focus on impacts the way we behave and communicate with the learner. When we are focused on punishing behavior, we are in an emotionally charged mindset and this impacts the way we behave. In my experience, when we focus on punishing behavior, we often display tension in our posture, frustration on our faces and in our tone of voice, and we are much more inclined to escalate our own behavior. This impacts the dog’s level of tension and frustration as well. Some dogs react right away, while others tolerate the punishment until they have had enough, then they snap back or simply live with a considerable amount of stress. However, if we focus on giving back and reinforcing behavior, we change the way we behave yet again, but in a more productive and less stressful way. In my experience, when we are focused on what we can reward we often become more thoughtful in how we approach things and thus less reactive (we stay calmer), unwanted behavior can become less stressful to us as we are more focused on finding what we can reward and strengthen, and we tend to relax our posture a bit and smile and laugh more often. This in turn can impact our dogs by helping them relax and focus on the task at hand.
Strive to Reach the Goal
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, giving us an opportunity to train a replacement behavior. When we use markers, we also identify exactly what is it that we want the dog to repeat (the replacement behavior), thus giving the dog not just a goal, but an achievable and repeatable one. Also, because this process does not involve a stressful punishment but does involve an enjoyable outcome, the animal can build a positive emotional association with the behaviors, increasing its desire to perform the behaviors. The dog can actually learn to enjoy performing the behavior! When you put these two things together, this also creates behaviors that are much more reliable. By giving your dog a clear and achievable goal and associating that goal with enjoyable consequences, your dog can develop more enjoyment and a stronger drive to perform for you.
How To Ignore Unwanted Behavior
So how do we properly utilize the act of ignoring unwanted behavior? First, you must understand the “what” of the situation. It is important to understand what we are ignoring. When we use ignoring unwanted behavior as a training tool, we are not necessarily focusing on ignoring the dog, but rather we are ignoring the unwanted behavior by withholding the reinforcement for that behavior. This means that we must also understand what is actually reinforcing the behavior in the first place. If your dog is jumping on people, ask yourself what is reinforcing that behavior? Is it people laughing? Is it affection? Is it any form of attention or is it a specific type of attention? Once your figure that out, then you will be much better equipped to use this tool.
Second, we must know the “how” of the situation. 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, ignore the unwanted behavior (e.g. stay silent), but respond to the situation by redirecting your dog or asking for a different behavior. Next, make sure to work on training your dog to keep its paws on the ground and remove the food and anything else that will motivate your dog to jump up there again.
Third, your dog must understand what “to do” and we do this by reinforcing a replacement behavior. If your dog jumps on people, first decide what you want it to do instead (e.g. sit). Then, ignore the jumping (tell the person to respond by turning their back on your dog or walking away) and reward your dog for performing the replacement behavior. 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 sit or 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 until it finds the one that earns it a reinforcer (remember a reinforcer can be anything from treats to attention such as laughing or speaking). So make sure you teach your dog what to do.
Ignoring Behavior Is a Tool
Ignoring behavior is a tool that must be used properly in order for it to be effective. Once you figure out how to use it, it can be an extremely effective tool. 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. Simply ignoring a behavior will not teach your dog a specific behavior and still leaves your dog open to coming up with his own solution. So please make sure to train your dog using positive reinforcement to teach your dog what it to do.
Getting help from a professional trainer can be a huge help in figuring out how to effectively use this tool. If you would like more information, or help getting a better understanding of this topic, please contact me at happyats@outlook.com!
References:
Comments