Self-Reinforcing Behaviors

One of the reasons “WHY” your dog does what they do. What does nail picking, pacing, foot tapping, leg jiggling, exercising, stalking, gambling, etc all have in common? . The answer: they are self reinforcing. Meaning: you can control your own behavior and the behavior in and of itself is rewarding. Nail picking is your own choice in behavior, and simply doing the behavior of nail picking is rewarding. Pacing is your own choice in behavior, and simply doing the behavior of pacing is rewarding. Must I go on? . Ok, so let’s talk dogs now that we understand self reinforcing behaviors. Your dog participates in things like: jumping, barking, zoomies, squirrel chasing, sniffing, whining, etc because simply the act of doing those behaviors are rewarding to the dog. What does this mean? . This means that if you do nothing, the behavior is going to continue...and over time become stronger and stronger because it is always rewarding to them. So, in order to change these behaviors, you must either: . Look at why the dog is doing those behaviors and redirect the dog into a different behavior (i.e. teaching incompatible behaviors) . Remove the dog from the situation completely so they can not self reinforce (i.e. Negative Punishment) . Or, apply a correction so the dog learns that the behavior is not desirable and will choose not to do that behavior less frequently in the future (i.e. Positive Punishment) . Perhaps even a combination of all of those things! . But, without doing one of those things, the behavior is going to continue. And since it is self reinforcing, that means that you must be consistent in always interrupting or stopping that behavior until the dog no longer does it or else the dog will find reward in doing it and will continue to do it. What self reinforcing behaviors have you had to work on with your dog?