Dogs Do What Works

Understanding Self-Reinforcing Behaviors

You sit to write your weekly newsletter then your dog nudges your hand while you're typing, maybe plops their head in your lap, or gives you that heart-melting paw touch. You pause what you're doing, look at them, maybe give them a quick pet. In that moment, your dog learns something powerful - being pushy works to get your attention. Before long you either learn to type with one hand or decide you need to set some boundaries on when you reinforce this adorably pushy behavior.

Or, you ignore the bids for your affection and instead, she discovers that magical buffet we call the kitchen counter. One day you neglected to clean that little morsel of scrambled egg that fell off the plate, she extended her neck and balanced gracefully on her back legs while steadying herself with one paw on the cupboard door, and voila - a powerful reinforcement for a new behavior that will be repeated. From that moment on, checking the counter becomes a cherished hobby. Why wouldn't it? It's a winning strategy and is a perfect example of variable reinforcement, it doesn’t always pay off, but oh boy, just keep checking because one day soon, it will pay again.

This is what we call a self-reinforcing behavior, and it's fascinating stuff. I've spent years watching dogs figure out these incredibly effective strategies to navigate their world. The truth is, they're brilliant at finding what works, and sometimes what works for them creates friction in their life with us. Barking out of the front window, jumping up on our guests, pulling the leash, gobbling morsels off the ground, there is something so powerful about an animal discovering a self-rewarding behavior on their own. It seems to have a certain stickiness to their short and long-term memories.

Sometimes as a professional dog trainer, I have to work hard with clients to do enough repetitions during training sessions for the dog to actually acquire the new skill and understand how to earn rewards but these behaviors seem to leap right into their fluent repertoirs.

The Lightbulb Moment

Here's something that could shift everything about the way you consider your dog’s behavior: Dogs aren't trying to be difficult - they're trying to meet their needs in the most efficient way they've discovered. Every behavior has a function, a purpose, a "why" behind it. When I sit with pet guardians and dig into what's really going on, we usually find the behavior falls into one of four categories: