We are emotional beings and when something hard happens to us, emotion drives. Cognition or thinking is not sitting shotgun to behavior in the cab of the truck. Thinking and behavior are hogtied in the back and emotion is driving like a bat out of hell. –Brené Brown, Dare to Lead
If that doesn’t scream reactive dog, I don’t know what does. Emotion is driving like a bat out of hell while thinking is hogtied in the back.
Understanding that behavior is absolutely fueled by emotion is at the cornerstone of my dog training philosophy. When I’m approaching a behavior challenge, I am thinking about the behavioral and emotional wellness of the dog, not just the obnoxious or unwanted behavior. I think about what’s fueling that behavior and that is what I want to change because by changing that emotion, the behavior should be resolved or easier to resolve as a side effect. I also know the likelihood of a new behavioral manifestation of that emotion is small (since we changed the emotion), and I know I’m helping that dog feel better and improving their quality of life.
I work with a countless number of dogs who are struggling with reactivity, fear, aggression, and a growing number of dogs with compulsive behaviors. If we try to address the behavior, the manifestation of emotion, but we fail to address the driving force of the behavior, it might look like we are getting somewhere, but in the end, we will often end up in the same spot, worse off, or with a different problem behavior fueled by the unchanged emotion.
We can make things worse by suppressing behavior using aversive tools or punishment focused training. Punishment works, it can absolutely stop behavior, but I’ve seen fearful dogs become exceptionally dangerous dogs when they’ve learned not to display the warning signs to a bite or reaction but the emotion was never addressed. According to the owners of these dogs, initially it looked like it worked great since the dog stopped the unwanted behavior but that only lasts until the fallouts of punishment started to pop up and the dog was having less frequent but more ‘unpredictable’, more explosive (less build up), and more violent outbursts of behavior. The dog who had just been barking at and charging guests (but not making contact with them) was no longer barking and charging, but would ‘randomly’ attack a guest resulting in injuries. The dog never felt good about guests, just learned not to show their discomfort, but when the discomfort eventually outweighed the motivation to avoid the aversive punishment, the dog would explode and do some serious damage (or when the dog knew the aversive punishment wasn’t possible, they’d react).
Another issue I see is that we can build more tension and stress around the triggers when owners rely on trying to force them into work–“watch me,” “sit…sitt…. siiiiittttt”. There’s so much conflict in that dog–the feelings about the trigger… then feelings about complying with a cue… then, in some situations, the stress of not being able to watch the trigger (if they aren’t watching it, it could totally swoop in and kill them). So instead of helping to improve the emotions, we are building in an incredible amount of stress and tension. They might be able to look at you or sit more often, but still have tension, and often increasing amounts of it, toward the trigger.
Can these dogs get though life with fewer outbursts, yes (or at least some dogs with high enough value food)–but many don’t move beyond that and in some situations, their arousal and stress responses continue to rise until the sit/watch/etc no longer functions. They still feel really yucky emotions about seeing their triggers and we can exacerbate that by adding more conflict.
My approach to modifying behavior is about changing emotion while also working on improving the behavior (and putting an emphasis on ensuring the dog’s physical needs are met including medical care!). It might not look sexy, but I want a better behaved dog AND a dog who feels better about life because I think emotional wellness is important (for humans AND dogs). I don’t spend a ton of time on strictly counter conditioning activities (though I give that as a piece of homework early on for most dogs since it can make a lot of difference and is fairly easy for owners to implement right away with some instructions)–but we do lots of operant activities that produce happy emotions in the presence of a trigger. Dogs learn desirable behaviors while we also address the emotions that are trying to drive the damn truck.
When the emotions start to change, the behavior changes and/or becomes easier to fully change. If the dog doesn’t feel yucky when they see the man in the hat, they aren’t as likely to be as reactive towards him. If the dog gets excited and happy to see another dog, the likelihood that they will have a yucky emotional meltdown is pretty small. There may be habitual behavior residue (this is just what I do when I see a dog) in some situations, but that behavior is so much easier to modify because there’s nothing fueling it beyond habit.
Years ago I had a client dog who had some aggression issues towards guests in the home. When I first met him he was alarm barking, teeth showing, lunging, growling, snapping, spitting at me (on leash)–stiff body, hard eyes, couldn’t easily be removed from my presence (he had a bite history so if given the option, he had shown himself capable of biting). We’d worked for a handful of lessons and he’d come to get really excited about our sessions (though I never did touch him) and was rehearsing much better behavior and had learned lots of things about how he didn’t need to act like an ass for people to leave him alone AND how it was really great when people came over.
However, during our last lesson, he was laying down calmly on his mat (on a leash) while I moved around. At one point he caught my motion out of the corner of his eye after eating a treat and he leapt up, alarm barking at me with teeth showing (as is typical of the breed)… but this time his body was loose, his tail was softly wagging, and his face was soft (even if he teeth were showing while he barked). His owner easily redirected him and he quickly settled–we had some residual behavior that had become habitual, but because the yucky emotion about me being in the home had been changed, he was easy to redirect and go back to all the desirable habits we were looking to build.
That emphasis on changing emotion made behavioral change easier and longer lasting–which is what I want for my clients and their dogs!