Does Your Pet Have Behavioral Problems?

Some very famous trainers and TV shows have recommended how you have to be the “Pack Leader” or “Alpha”. Do you know that those techniques actually INCREASE the risk of getting YOU bit? They don’t address the underlying reason your pet is acting that way. This is a lot of the information I give to all the behavior cases I see to help address your pet’s problem so we can solve your concern. When discussing behavioral cases there are several important general principles and several that will be specific to each problem.

The first rule of behavior is SAFETY and AVOIDANCE. These are imperative as we should never put any human or animal at risk of getting attacked or significantly injured. Each episode of aggression can reinforce the neurological pathways that aggression works and that certain stimuli are anxiety-inducing. So we must always try to identify situations that might lead to episodes of aggression or even episodes of anxiety and avoid them. This oftentimes involves finding their comfort zone/safety bubble for an anxiety and making sure that the anxieties stay outside of the bubble if possible.

Secondly, we need to be sure that we do not inadvertently reward a behavior that we do not want. Many behaviors are attention seeking and so trying to yell at them, or physically do anything, including eye contact, may reward the behavior. Many of the other behaviors arise from anxiety and fear so we need to be sure that their expression of anxiety and fear is not what resolves the problem or they will continue to do it. Instead, we need to prevent access to the anxiety or fear-inducing cause. If you find them accidentally exposed to the stimuli, try to redirect them by making some other noise to get their attention, then give them a command such as “Sit” or “Watch me” and reward that behavior instead. Keep a journal and write any behaviors you see that you want to change or correct so that we can address them at the next appointment.

Third, we need to reward behaviors that we want to occur more often. Try to catch them doing something good. It will help build their self-confidence, decrease anxiety, and increase how often they do good behaviors, as well as make them love you even more. While it is easy to ignore your pet when they are calm and quiet, this is often the most important time to reward them. By nature we focus on the problem and forget to reward the calm behavior. Instead find a behavior that is incompatible with the problem, like playing with a ball when the problem is barking. When you reward a behavior, you want to make it a great reward at first. Think that if someone could blackmail you with the video of you celebrating with your animal then you are doing it right. It can be easiest to make a list of what you don’t want or want to change. Then take that list and decide what you want them to do instead. It is best to pick an incompatible behavior so instead of barking you want them to pick up a toy in their mouth, or instead of jumping up, you want them to go lay down on a dog bed. They cannot do both behaviors simultaneously so the new behavior will replace the old behavior.

Fourth, it is critically important to avoid punishment and dominance based techniques. These should only be used when life or limb are at stake like a dog about to run into the street in front of a car or about to injure someone if there are no other options. Techniques like an alpha roll where you roll a dog on their back are only forcibly used when one dog is about to kill another. These techniques create fear and anxiety and while they may create a quick fix, they will cause other manifestations of fear and anxiety. They also degrade the bond with your animal and teach them that you are someone to be afraid of and not someone to love and be happy with. Fear of punishment is often worse than the punishment itself so using a shock collar or citronella collar, even if turned off, causes great fear and anxiety and creates further problems.

Fifth, behavioral medications can be a part of any behavioral modification plan. Medications can have their role but there are many things they cannot do. They cannot train an animal on their own, they only make training more effective. They still require significant effort and work to train your pet. Medications can often be divided into short term (work for several hours) and are used for things like fireworks or thunderstorms and long term (work for months but take a month or more to start working) and can be used for generalized anxiety or problems that cannot be prevented or anticipated. Anytime we are giving a medication repeatedly, or over a long period of time, we need to monitor their body to make sure it can handle it well. This often means measuring bloodwork after 4-8 weeks, and then again every 6 months on the medications. This is important to determine if there needs to be dose adjustments or changes of medication options. Any behavioral medication could help but some animals can get worse on them so we will need close follow up when starting or changing them. So while medications can help us, and often we wait too long before we try them, they are not a cure all and have many downsides so should only be considered after discussion together and lots of follow up.

The most important aspect about behavior is that it will not be a quick process, and it should always be a positive thing. There are many things your pet can do wrong, and you can spend years teaching them everything not to do and still not have a well behaved animal. Instead we want to teach them what it is that you do want. If you reward this behavior it will occur more often and the others will fade away. This also means that you are the person who gives them rewards and reinforces the human-animal bond. For good examples, try watching the TV show “It’s Me or the Dog” on Animal Planet/Amazon Prime Video or Dr. Sophia Yin on YouTube.

Now for the area(s) for improvement. We want to start where your pet is comfortable and not showing any signs of stress (like a stiff posture, backing away, showing teeth, hair on end, vocalizing, or avoiding direct eye contact). Then give them very tasty treats when the scary object is around but outside their “bubble.” Slowly they will realize that when the scary thing is around, they get great treats so the scary thing is now a good thing (at a distance). You can now very slowly (over days to weeks) bring the item/person closer while giving treats. Eventually they will do even better than not being scared around it, they will actually get excited to have it around. The key again is very slow steps, if your pet shows any signs of stress, then you are going too fast and need to slow down and back up.

Behavior is a long process but can be very rewarding and make them love you even more.
Lastly, I also recommend using a positive reinforcement based trainer to help give you exact feedback of how to implement these concepts and other subtle signs going on at home. I find that working with you, a trainer, and my team can create the best chance of reaching our goals successfully. Please reach out to schedule a very thorough behavioral consult with Dr. Sweitzer.