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| Frustration or friends? |
Although the poet, Robert Frost wrote, “Good fences make good neighbors,” in “Mending the Wall,” the poem is “anti-barrier,” describing
how walls and fences prevent interaction and therefore communication, setting
the scene for isolation, frustration, and misunderstanding. Our lives are full of barriers, physical as
well as lingual, intellectual, and cultural and we’re frequently frustrated by
them. We yell at our computer screen
when something doesn’t work, at our phone as we’re punching numbers, waiting to
talk to a “real” person, at someone who doesn’t share our language and we can’t
make our message clear. At sport
events, obsessed fans in the stands hurl insults at players on the field. People curse other drivers while they’re
driving. We vent our frustration by
behaving badly.
Dogs also experience barrier frustration. They bark and lunge at the window, on the
other side of a fence, and/or at the end of a leash towards other animals or
people. Like people in similar
situations, dogs are seeking a way to interact, to communicate. The barking and lunging could be a warning
sign for real or perceived trespassers to go away or an attempt to greet and
make friends. But without the
interaction, frustration builds and dogs have less control over their behavior.
While a consistent and “strong” barrier increases
frustration, a failed barrier fuels persistence. A dog that starts off running a fenceline,
barking at other dogs or people can start fence fighting and slamming against
the barrier. A dog pulling at the end of
a leash, increases to lunging and barking at the end of the leash. If the fence gives way or the leash breaks or
drops, the dog is in essence rewarded for challenging the barrier. Regardless of the outcome, the frustration
has been released. If the barrier fails more than once, even if
the events are weeks or months apart, a system of intermittent rewards is
established – a strong reinforcer that is also used in training desired
behaviors – and the behavior increases and intensifies with an end goal of
releasing that frustration.
For management, keeping the dogs away from the source of
frustration can help. Blocking access/view
to a front window or fence can prevent the dog from becoming overstimulated. On leash, limiting walking hours to “quiet
times,” when a minimal number of other dogs or people will be encountered, can help,
as can a Calming Cap (a device that filters a dog’s vision). During management, directing the dog’s
attention elsewhere or rewarding the dog for ignoring the stimulus can
reinforce the dog for keeping away from the barrier (the fence, window, or end
of the leash) encouraging self-monitoring. However, if the hope of breaking
through the barrier or the thrill of barking and lunging is more rewarding than
anything we offer, the behavior will continue whenever the stimulus or stimulus
point is presented. Management prevents
a behavior from happening, rather than eliminating the behavior.
Finding out why the dog wants to interact leads to a
solution to barrier frustration. Is the
dog frightened and trying to ward off a perceived threat to itself or its
home? Or is the dog overly enthusiastic
to meet and greet and make friends? Fearful
dogs need training to restore confidence that all is well and safe. Overly friendly dogs need training for
impulse control, to be taught that polite behavior might be rewarded with the
opportunity to meet and greet. While the behavioral end result is the same -
calm dogs in sight of a formerly overly exciting stimulus - the means to the
results are entirely different methods of training. In this case, simply rewarding for not
lunging and barking might not be sufficient, especially when fear is at the
root of the matter.
Punishment for barrier frustration, on the other hand, can
increase barking and lunging, shifting it to actual aggression, the intent to
attack. Because the frustration has
achieved such a heightened emotional state, dogs are unaware of their behavior. Punishment in this situation causes dogs to
correlate the pain/discomfort to the stimulus of their frustration, meaning
other animals or people. Dogs initially
frustrated by fear increase that fear. Happy
excitement changes to fear if the dog’s frustration originates with an
eagerness to greet other people/animals.
Punishment can also cause redirection of the frustration, the dog
reacting to the source of the punishment, frequently the handler or the suppression
of a behavior until the fear reaches a point where it explodes with
indiscriminate violence.
As with any unwanted behavior, addressing barrier
frustration in the early stages can prevent unwanted behaviors from accelerating. Training impulse control can help dogs greet
humans and other animals appropriately on and off leash. Limiting access to possible stimulation
points, pre-emptively rewarding for ignoring potential stimuli, and not
allowing dogs unsupervised time in potentially hyper-stimulating areas can prevent
guarding against unknown or perceived intruders. While we can’t eliminate all the barriers in
life, by altering the perception of barriers, we can keep frustration to a
minimum.
