Many times I
hear how some animal owners are annoyed of behaviors which are
performed by their pets; dog or any other animal.
“How can I
fix that barging or screaming?”, or hopping or whatever it is they’d like to
change at that time.
I believe
that often times we focus more on so called “wrong” behaviors our animals are
performing than to the proper ones. Therefore we are actually giving more attention to the misbehaved patterns than
to the ones we’d consider to be the good behaviors. In
short we are … yes;
reinforcing the behaviors we consider being the bad ones.
Great ! That is exactly what we don't want to do! The balance of our communication and interaction is gradually getting more and more into the negative side of reinforcement.
Great ! That is exactly what we don't want to do! The balance of our communication and interaction is gradually getting more and more into the negative side of reinforcement.
 |
| Zooming into something we actually don't want to reinforce |
I believe
that small kids are reactive just like animals are. If there’s something they
don’t like - they will surely show it instantly. The same goes for the things
they like. Make a game out of cleaning their toys
and you are winner of the situation. I believe the salt in working or
being with kids and animals is the enthusiasm and intensity
they react upon on our feedback. Therefore, in my opinion, it is far more fruitful to try to redirect their
attention into something that is interesting and which makes them focus
on a positive way of acting. It is also far better to get there a little bit in advance
than a little too late. I believe many of you have experienced this. If you know your animal well enough you can
tell if it is going to bark or jump.
Absolutely
the best way to correct that behavior is when it has not yet happened!
Does that
surprise you?
Well this
is true. If you can anticipate correctly i.e. you dogs or bird’s behavior - you
can modify its behavior before the misbehaving occurs. This methodology can be
found in most articles and literature concerning any kind of aggressive
behavior management. Just redirect the attention of your pet into something more acceptable
when you see the first small hints or the "head lifting" of the
unwanted behavior. On the other hand we
have to be careful not to anticipate too much as the animals tend to take
advantage of our predictable behaviors. Balance between these two therefore
plays a key role in finding the proper way of behavior management in this kind
of situations.
Quite some
time ago I was listening to one psychologist and I think the best thought she
gave to me was that when we are focusing ourselves on some action or emotion,
we are at the same time emphasizing our energy to that state of mind. In
general I don’t like to talk about energy when I’m talking about animal
training but there are a few exceptions. This one is one of them.
I believe that animal training in many cases
is actually redirecting the attention of the animal in question to something
that will avoid the execution of the disliked misbehavior. By paying our
attention to these kinds of disliked behaviors we are at the same time focusing
our energy on that particular action.
Anticipation
is very important together with successive approximation.
Let me tell
you an example from our cat at home. She
is a sort of a wild one as she was an orphan for quite some time after she was
born. Therefore she never fully got marked to humans at
her early days. I knew that
there would be occasions when I’d have to transport her by car
for quite some distance.
The trip would take more than 6 hour. By using good approximations, taking short trips with
her i.e. to the nearby grocery occasionally I managed to have her successfully
in my car also on those long trips. I
even have taken that “wildish” little fellow in a plane to fly small distances.
In short I
focused on a behavior I wanted her to do. I focused on a calm response of being
in a car for a short period of time. By using a little anticipation and
approximation one can make a great difference. Gradually we extended the time
of transportation and ended the trips on a high note. I managed to keep her in
good comfort level and therefore I was not forced to direct my energy into that
particular type of bad behavior.
Try it and
you’ll fall in love with this simple way of behavior management.
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