4 Paws University Sacramento Dog Obedience Training. Good and Bad Attention.

WHAT ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION TO?

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By Kelly Ryan

Dogs will repeat any behavior that gets them attention. ANY ATTENTION. What is attention? Attention is petting your dog, talking to your dog, looking at your dog, chasing your dog, yelling at your dog, throwing something at your dog, and so on and so forth. Notice, I did not say dogs will repeat any behavior that gets them positive attention; I said dogs will repeat any behavior that gets them ANY attention.

So, Angel is running around the house like a maniac, carrying Dad’s

best gym socks in her mouth and generally making a complete nuisance of herself. Dad, in turn, runs around the house chasing after her and yelling at her, cursing the day he ever thought getting a dog was a good idea. Then, tired from her great game of chase and make-daddy-crazy, Angel lies down nicely on her bed. Dad, frustrated and angry at the demise of those gym socks, ignores Angel, and gets on the phone with Aunt Becky to bemoan Angel’s existence. What behavior will get repeated? You got it! Running around like a maniac with Dad’s sock. That’s the behavior that got attention. Lying down nicely on the bed got Angel ignored. She becomes less and less likely to lie down nicely and more and more likely to grab socks and play chase.

If a dog has a choice between a behavior that gets ignored and a behavior that gets negative attention, it will choose the behavior that gets negative attention.

Here’s the good news. If a dog has a choice between behavior that gets it positive attention and behavior that gets it negative attention, it will choose the behavior that gets positive attention.

This means, there is a ready-made solution to the problem of Angel and the gym socks. To the extent a bad behavior can be ignored, it will be eliminated. If you can’t ignore it, and let’s be realistic, a lot of it you can’t ignore, make sure you find a way to minimize the behaviors you don’t want with minimal attention, and to emphasize the behaviors you do want with positive attention. When Angel lies down and is behaving how Dad wants her to, he needs to reward her for that. “Good girl to settle”

Think about the things you give your dog attention for; make sure you include subtle kinds of attention such as looking at your dog and negative attention such as yelling at your dog. Think about the things you don’t give your dog attention for, including lying down nicely on his bed. Now, think about ways of giving your dog positive attention for the behaviors you want. I promise you will see a difference in your dog’s behavior.