Attention Seeking Behaviors pt 2 dog training advice …

In the last article we looked at what Attention Seeking Behaviors is, and what causes it.

Those things are important but on a dog training site, knowing how to correct these things BESIDES DAILY exercise off lead, is also important right?

Just to recap, you need to work out what the behaviour really is.

For instance if your dogs attention seeking behavior is one or a combination of; a lack of physical activity, boredom or no mental stimulation then you need to walk it, like all dogs need.

Then some habits have been going for so long that the dog does it out of habit with or without stimulus. They are hooked on the endorphins for getting attention and the cause of it is very secondary – so the main things in any dog training is consistency and practice over and over.

The other point you need to remember is to expect your dog to revert to the bad behaviour every now and then, as we humans do when we try and extinguish a bad behaviour we have.

If you are walking your dog enough, it is getting enough mental stimulation at home and real dog nutrition (meat) AND there is no mental illness present (very rare) then you should consider trying to change the behaviours.

DOG RULES MUST BE FOLLOWED BY EVERYONE.

You cant say the dog cant eat food at your table, but have a few of your family secretly feed them under the table.

Did you know that allowing your dog to occasionally practice an unwanted behavior, is actually reinforcing it.

Main methods:

1              to address the attention seeking behavior you need to remove the reward that is the driving fuel for it.

2              Ignoring the dog (if possible)

3              Positive reinforcement for a good behaviour, at last resort a negative reinforcement (not punishment- but something they don’t like (smell, sound a look, whatever works).

You will see that many dog trainers use clicker training, and that is really down to preference. A lot of dog trainers who work dogs for doing tricks for movies and TV in LA use clicker training, then stop the clickers when the dogs get on set. It can have great accelerated training for certain breeds, but you need to use what works with your dog.

Did you know that some dogs learn to enjoy the action of performing their attention seeking behaviour so much that they prefer it over other types of rewards. It is self fulfilling, regardless of the owners response, even negative

These types of behaviour which are deeply nested in complex self perpetuating needs satisfaction are much more complex attention seeking behaviours that will need a more specific approach to stop them.

The next few articles will look at some specific attention seeking behaviours and our specific suggestions about stopping them.