I am going to discuss with you today a simple concept that is making rounds in the dog world and becoming more and more prominent as people start questioning outdated means of explaining and dealing with dog’s behaviours. For students of mine and people who have read my blogs, this concept is nothing new. It is a concept I have been talking about in class for years BUT is a new way of explaining things. That concept is called “Applied Behaviour Analysis”. For any student of psychology, psychiatry or social work out there, you know ABA is a way of studying, explaining and modifying behaviour using empirically proven evidence based means. It does not rely on the pseudo psycho babble that I have talked about in other blogs. Google it and you will find a wealth of information out there which can be drawn into the dog world and in your training.
One aspect of ABA that I really enjoy discussing is what is called the “ABCs” of behaviour. Each letter stands for a specific step of analyzing and changing a behaviour.
A: Antecedent: What precipitates the behaviour.
B: Behaviour: what did your dog do
C: Consequence: what were the consequences, positive, negative or neutral, to the dog performing the behaviour.
If you examine these three critical aspects of behaviour, most times you can figure out why a behaviour occurs and if needed, modify it. So let me explain in some concrete terms and examine a dog jumping on you for attention.
I have discussed learned behaviour before in these blogs and explained how most rude behaviours dogs display are actually taught to them by their owners. In many cases, these behaviours are often rewarded and therefore reinforced. There is a break down in communication between owner and dog.
I will paint a picture…you just brought home a cute, eight week old lab puppy and called him Shadow. Shadow is a little fat ball of fur. He runs over to you, jumps at you to be picked up and you gladly accommodate getting a face licking every time. Life is good!!!. Shadow gets older, larger and stronger. At 8 months, Shadow is 70 pounds of pure unbridled loveable energy. He greets people at the door enthusiastically, jumping on them, licking them and climbing all over them. Some visitors respond just as enthusiastically and Shadow LOVES the attention. Other respond half heartedly, which makes Shadow respond even more vigorously as he tries to use what knowledge he has learned from previous interactions to ensure he gets that attention he craves. Other times he is knocked down, pushed away, shouted at or kneed in the chest (cringe) and called a “bad dog”. These times leave Shadow confused BUT the other times leave Shadow happy as he is performing exactly what has worked for him in the past AND he is getting exactly what he wants….ATTENTION. The problem is, Shadow does not understand the difference between jumping on the family friend who loves dogs and the three year old that is afraid of dogs. Shadow is getting positive, negative or neutral reinforcement for the exact same behaviour. How is Shadow supposed to know when he can and when he cannot jump on people? Well, we change or modify the behaviour.
Obviously, if you have been following the discussion closely, the BEST way to handle this would be to teach Shadow from the start that jumping on people is a big no no, BUT if he sits in front of the person (a behaviour that is desired AND counter productive to the jumping) he will get all kinds of great attention immediately lavished on him. The second his front paws leave the floor, the attention will stop, the second they are on the floor, the attention starts again. Shadow quickly learns…sitting means wonderful attention, jumping means the attention goes away. Shadow is happy, his owner is happy.
However, let’s say that you did not realize this was the best way to deal with things and the whole jumping behaviour has been learned, how do we modify this behaviour?
Let’s examine using the ABCs using a more traditional way of looking at them.
Antecedent: People arrive, Shadow greets and he wants attention
Behaviour: Shadow jumps on people
Consequence: Shadow gets scratched, played with, pushed down or kneed.
If you look at the antecedent, as most people do, they quickly point out, the later should control things. People say “ok, I will get everybody to ignore Shadow and if Shadow does jump up, I will give him a quick correction…that should stop the behaviour…right?” For people who try this, too often, it does not work. The dog tries to figure out a way to avoid the correction by sneaking around the owner, or the dog accepts the correction but jumps anyway or the dog gets fearful of visitors coming to the house. The owner than typically responds with “well, he is just being stubborn (insert willful, dominant, stunned, sooking…whatever)” However, this is NOT THE CASE. There is a break down in the communication here and the problem lays squarely on the owner’s shoulders.
Can anybody spot it?
If you said “Well Ken, the problem with a scenario like this is you are teaching a dog what NOT to do but you are not teaching it WHAT YOU WANT it to do”, you are correct. It makes for some sad and very frustrating times for owners and dogs alike. So let’s change things up and manipulate the “behaviour and consequence” portion of the equation.
Antecedent: People arrive, Shadow gets excited and wants attention
Behaviour: You show Shadow to his bed and reward highly for him staying there…or you bring Shadow to the door with you, rewarding highly for sitting behind you.
Consequence: People come in, Shadow is sitting, Shadow gets attention from the people for sitting. Attention goes away immediately if Shadow breaks the sit, attention starts immediately upon Shadow returning to the sit.
OKAY!!! Now we are talking. Now you have the lines of communication open. Using this approach, you are teaching Shadow a desirable behaviour i.e.: sitting behind you or staying on his bed. This desirable behaviour is being HEAVILY positively reinforced by you. In addition to this, by Shadow performing this behaviour, he is also going to get that positive interaction from the visitors and thus the behaviour is being positively reinforced AGAIN. Shadow gets HUGE bang for his buck…he gets DOUBLE the reward for being calm, and at no time did you have to correct, look at things like dominance or get overtly physical with Shadow. If you do this CONSISTENTLY, each and every time setting Shadow up for success, very soon Shadow will realize what is expected and he will voluntarily start offering up these behaviours. How cool would that be?
Using this SIMPLE approach to analyzing behaviour and learning to more effectively communicate with your dog will pay HUGE dividends and make for happy dogs and owners.
Questions?