"MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE"

BY JEFF CAMPBELL, My Best Friend Obedience

Don’t you wish it could be that easy for your dog to ask you for your attention?  After all, your attention and acknowledgment are very important in his eyes.  How else can he get you to say “hi” after you’ve spent a long day at work, or to let him outside when he has to empty his bladder before bed, or even tell you that you are paying too much attention to that puppy on your walk.  Attention seeking behaviors can be really annoying and sometimes damaging to your relationship with your four-legged friend, so lets examine a few ways to address these issues.

Perception is the key to dealing with attention seeking problems.  We have to realize  what rewards  your dog is perceiving that he is getting out of these “bad” behaviors.   Defining what attention is will allow us to recognize and deal with our problem.  Attention, to your dog, can come in one of three ways: talking to him, looking at him, and anything tactile, that is, touching him.  We have to understand which of these things your dog is getting from you and how we are reinforcing his behaviors through these actions, because, the things your dog wants may  not change but the way he asks you for them can. 

An interesting aspect of dealing with these problems is that most of the time just correcting the behavior will not work.  You must give your dog something else to do.  How does he know what is right unless he keeps trying things until something works.  For example, lots of dogs jump up to greet their owner.  Sometimes this is okay with the owner, when they are in old clothes, and sometimes it isn’t, when you get home from work and are wearing a suit.  

First off, don’t make your dog have to make the distinction as to what you are wearing.  Just make the rule that he is not allowed to jump on you no matter what you are wearing.   It is much easier for your dogs to learn something if you are totally consistent.  Now when the dog jumps, the owner will do a multitude of things like telling them “NO,” pushing them off of them, or raising their knee into the chest.  All of these responses are forms of  attention.  Bad attention a lot of the times is better than no attention at all.  Remember the class clown in high school?  At least your dog knows that he can get you to acknowledge him if he jumps.  

The better option is to first let him know that there is a better behavior that will get you to acknowledge him such as sitting.  Reward him heavily throughout the day just for sitting.  Cookies, petting, throwing the ball for him are all great ways to reward a sit.  

But how do we let him know that the jumping is wrong?  Simple, totally ignore it.  When he jumps on you, remove all of the rewards.  Turn your body away, fold your arms and hands so they are out of his reach, and don’t make direct eye contact.  If you have reinforced the sitting behavior enough as a positive, then most likely he will move in front of you and sit.  When you see this with your peripheral vision, then heavily reward that behavior with praise and affection.

Modifying attention seeking behavior is not that difficult of an undertaking, you just have to keep some things in mind.

1) Figure out what your dog wants. (Attention - jumping to get it)

2) Figure out what you are doing to reinforce the unwanted behavior (saying no and pushing him off of you)

3) Decide what you would like as an appropriate behavior (sitting to get petted or a treat)

4) Reward the behavior when you see it happen.

Remember if your dog is not getting anything out of  a particular action then they will stop doing that action and try something else.