Is your dog’s behavior a nuisance to you or anyone else?

There are two common groups that canine behaviors are divided into, Nuisance Behaviors & Problem Behaviors. Nuisance behaviors in general seem to be easier to fix, less serious than Problem Behaviors, and quicker to see results. That is not to say that Nuisance Behaviors are NOT a problem and ALWAYS adhere to these characteristics, but they generally do.  I will address Problem Behaviors in a future post. Today we are going to address Nuisance Behaviors.

The list includes:

    Counter surfing & Begging           

    Jumping & Door dashing                                       

    Potty Habits & Poop Eating                                                   

    Polite Leash Walking & staying close                    

    Barking & Whining  

Many of these annoying or nuisance behaviors stem from expectations not being clear to the dog, some of the dog’s needs not being met, or good management strategies not in place.    

In our comprehensive approach at How 2 Speak Dog, we look at those three things first, rather than only trying to fix or change the behaviors. It’s kind of like treating the symptoms and not the disease if you do it the other way around. Traditionally, dog training has worked this way, by just addressing the behavior itself. 

For example, a good management plan for a counter surfer would be to eliminate the opportunity for the behavior to be practiced (which is reinforcing to the dog, i.e. they are rewarded with the item they were after). We had a yellow lab that loved bread and would steal any loaf left on the counter. Honestly, he never bothered with anything else left on the counters. So knowing that, we chose to simply be extra careful in our house not to leave bread where he could potentially reach it, and that was good enough for us. In other cases, where that is not good enough, you can eliminate the opportunity for the dog to steal items temporarily (management) while also teaching them impulse control which can then transfer to counter surfing and stealing behaviors (modifying the behavior). 

Using aversive methods to keep the dog off the counters can be minimally effective or potentially cause more problems. Telling them to get down, only works when you are there when they jump on the counter. Using mousetraps or other frightening or uncomfortable sounds or textures, does teach the dog to dislike jumping on the counter when you are not around, however you are also not around to help the dog deal with the frightening noise or uncomfortable feeling which for some dogs can lead to anxiety when they are alone which then becomes a bigger problem altogether.

If we instead use management techniques to immediately address the concern and stop the reinforcement, then modify the actual cause of the counter surfing, (impulse control), we can eliminate the need for the behavior to occur at all.     

This also gives the best of both quick results and long term success!

Which of your dog’s annoying behaviors might be occurring because their needs are not being met? Or because they don’t clearly understand what you expect them to do instead? Or because the opportunity to misbehave is consistently available to them with its reinforcing rewards?