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Accidentally Rewarding Unwanted Behavior
I’m working now with a wonderful client named Jan. She’s done some lovely training with her 2 y.o. lab, Geo, and he has a lot of skills under his belt. But one of the issues she needs help with is Geo barking at any dogs he sees on the TV.
For a bit of relevant background: Geo has a hard time just settling and/or keeping himself entertained. He routinely pesters Jan to get attention or training started, or gets into mischief to gain her attention.
After discussing the TV issue, I suspected his barking may be just another way to get Jan’s attention and some redirection and training started. I asked Jan if she’d be willing to test the theory, and she agreed. Here were the instructions:
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Choose a time of day when Geo isn’t overly active and when other family members aren’t around (who may be disturbed by the barking)
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Queue up a still image of a dog on the TV and then bring Geo into the room
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Jan then entirely ignores any/all barking or attempts to gain her attention, as if she doesn’t hear the barking or see the dog
The results were so interesting! Here’s Jan’s report of two sessions this week. Note: the bracketed wording is mine.
#1: “He would bark and run to the tv 2-3 times then back to me. Repeat bark 2-3 times back to me. This went on 4-5 times. I sat in the calm position [this is part of a separate, relaxation protocol] – he laid at my feet. Then up, bark and back. After a bit just laid on the ground in front of me. It then went to woofs and not getting up (laying on hip) looking at the tv then me. I tried not to make eye contact. When he settled I stayed for a bit and then got up and washed my hands, got some water. He left and got some water.”
I applauded Jan for that final act of genius, getting up to wash her hands, as if nothing had happened!
#2: “Geo is doing great with the still image on TV. It’s now down to 0-3 barks if I am not in the tv room (kitchen is ok). If I am in the TV room it’s more 8-10 though the first time I started in there I had to leave to the kitchen for him to settle. [Sounds like an extinction burst, right?] I do believe in a week or so he will be down to no barks (ok, maybe longer but I’m hopeful).”
This feedback confirms for me that Geo’s barking was indeed accidentally reinforced in the past by Jan trying to redirect him and then rewarding for alternative behavior, which had become a long loop of bark/redirect/treat/bark again/redirect/treat, etc.
Have you experienced something like this, too, where your dog or a client’s dog learned an undesirable behavior because it was accidentally reinforced?
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13 Replies
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I know I have done this in the past!!!! One example is my golden, she would love being pet and would paw at you and I would pet more. Starting this at 3 months old- easy she still does this behavior at almost 11 years old. This is something I always keep in my mind personally. When I see a behavior happen – I always ask myself Did I reinforce this behavior somehow? I love that you bring this up, I just had a conversation with a client about her puppy recently and we found out the behavior was reinforced. Thank you for sharing!
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Love the example you shared, @pawsup !
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My cocker also paws at me when she wants attention…hard…and yet I continue to reinforce. ????????♀️
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Only you get to decide what behaviors you’re okay about tolerating, @Tripod_Mom . ????
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Right on!!!
I tolerate lots. ????
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There are worse things than responding to a request for some cuddles! Bliss’ go-to attention seeking behavior is a chin rest on my knee… I LOVE it and you bet I’ll reinforce it!
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So interesting!!! Yes, I think people underestimate the power of not reacting to the behavior. It is SO HARD for us!
I love the experiment, Virginia. I love the way you set it up and how Jan executed it. So fun to see the dog’s apparent reaction and possible frustration, then redirecting to non-chalance (and a water break)!
Thanks for sharing. I have had similar clients issues with TV barking (cattle dogs) or barking when someone comes upstairs in the house (small dogs).
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@bernerlabreclectus , what technique(s) did you use to resolve the client dogs’ barking issues in the past?
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Thanks for asking…I took a break because I had to consult my notes and remember the specific cases. They were both in 2020 and at early stages of my training career.
With the ACD who barked at the TV or to demand interaction, we used rewarding the dog when he wasn’t barking. Also, we made sure he had PLENTY of exercise and stimulation in his daily routine, which was hard because both the young owners worked away from home, even during the pandemic, and he and his older brother dog (another ACD) were home alone in the apartment. They eventually moved into a single family home with a yard, which was out of my travel distance. While he was in the apartment, he got to socialize at a nice dog park, too. The owners insisted on spending lots of time with their dogs, doing fun things. Installing a cue for bark and never asking for it helped for a bit, but he was very demanding when the owners wanted to come home and relax together on couch watching TV. The TV dogs sometimes entertained him, and sometimes frustrated him. Praising him for quiet time with enrichment went a long way. Also, folding their arms and looking away from the dog while on the couch helped.
Another dog, a little dachshund, barked at everything and just some basic obedience training went a long way to communicate with her. When the owner’s grown sons came upstairs from their bedrooms, she would freak out barking, even though she knew perfectly who they were.
With this case, I had the owner reward and pay profusely when we did a slow-motion “son coming upstairs”…She got a treat for every step she didn’t bark for. “Too bad” and canceling treats was hard. We would attempt trials by having the son go back to the last step (yes, actual tread) she was successful at.
The hardest part, I feel, was that both clients eventually accepted a much less/fewer barks over working completely towards abolishing the behavior. As always, the motivation level and acceptance of the behavior problem by the owner
often outweighs completion. It’s frustrating at times for us as trainers, but, I get it.
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Thanks so much for sharing, @bernerlabreclectus . I agree it can be hard for trainers to just accept whatever level of training the client is willing to do when we know so much more can be accomplished. But I often say to them, it doesn’t matter what I think about what training is needed, what matters is how they define acceptable behavior and what they’re comfortable living with. I personally have an extremely low tolerance to barking, but I understand a lot of people can comfortably accept a good deal more than I can. ????
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My 8 week old male berniedoodle barks when initiating play – my 5 year old female standard poodle barks back. I have been redirecting in a sit. They must sit for a while – 8 week old really can’t. I know poodles bark but I feel ignoring it will make it worse. It’s not like demand barking. But the barking can get out of control and I don’t want the barking reinforced. Any thoughts?
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Ah, this can be hard, @JCongdon , especially when the barks are used to initiate play between dogs as opposed to escalating to barking after play has gone on for a while (in which case, I’d use frequent calming breaks to cut barking off at the pass). I agree the barking is very unlikely to go away if ignored in this context.
A few suggestions for your situation — I’m not sure they’ll be of any use but let me know what you think:
- Try to encourage toys in mouths, maybe tugging with a long fleece braid, to mitigate barking.
- Sit in on the play so you’re a calm, third play partner trying to shape the play bout in a quiet direction.
- Exercise the dogs first, separately, before having them join in play together.
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