7d (edited) • Predation Tidbits
Behavior Suppression In Dogs
This week I want to talk about behavior suppression in dog training. SO many people misunderstand it and their poor (high energy) dog wants to be good and listen but is also on the verge of “exploding”.
Think of suppression as trying to put a lid on a pot of boiling water: you may contain the water at first but after a while it will spill out. Suppressing your dog’s unwanted behavior does the same thing!
With suppression your dog may stop the behavior but your dog has failed to learn how to CHANGE his behavior. Often times I see owners not even give their dog an alternate behavior to do instead, have poor timing or allow their dog to discontinue the alternate behavior and the owner is frustrated all over again. This cycle is then repeated and now we have a “misbehaving dog” that is “too wild to control” and “doesn’t listen”.
The alternative is that a dog that has been suppressed in expressing their needs or concerns in a negative way (i.e. shock collar, choke/prong collar, etc.) that they can eventually escalate in a bigger way especially if this method is used for aggression. I know that some trainers out there that use these methods will claim and potentially deliver a “better behaved dog”. In my opinion they do not.
I understand this sounds intense but to me what matters more is what the dog is learning and how you teach your dog not what you intend to teach. I’m sure we can all recall a scenario or two where we or someone we know had good intentions and the outcome was far from what we or they had hoped. This is something we need to keep in mind when training our dogs and when picking what methods we want to use.
Suppression of any unwanted behavior will just cause your dog to skip those steps that have been suppressed and jump to the behavior they were trying to get to or that suppression will be channeled in an even less desirable way. Think of the Predatory Motor Pattern chart and if one were to punish the safe part of the PMP (scent, stare, creep) then the dog will eventually just skip those steps and go straight to the chase which is what we thought we were avoiding in the first place!
Dogs are similar to humans in the sense that each dog has individual learning styles and a good trainer can adapt to that or know when to ask for help. It is also important to remember, especially if you have a dog that has been bred for decades, hundreds or even thousands of years to do a job and you are not going to provide that outlet for them, that behavior suppression over behavior modification is, I would imagine, soul crushing to the dog. I understand that may come off as dramatic but remember that dogs are only here for a short while, they live in the moment and enjoy what they were bred for. If they are robbed of that, just as if a person were robbed of what they were passionate about and forced to live what we deem a boring life, then they could go over the top out of control or lose love for life.
I don’t want this to come off as I’m opposed to structure and boundaries because I’m not. I just think that the method used to achieve those is so very important. How your individual dog interprets what you are trying to teach him is so important. Being able to see that something that you are trying isn’t working or will have an unintentional negative impact on your dog’s wellbeing is something that I do hope we can see before it becomes an issue and will adjust accordingly.
**I found this article that discusses behavior suppression and modification that I think would be a great addition to this topic: http://www.fairviewbehavior.com/blog/2017/1/31/response-suppression-vs-response-modification
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Behavior Suppression In Dogs
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