The other day I was walking, or should I say being dragged, through the pet store by my super-exuberant 1 year old goofball of a pup named Rocket. Rocket loves everyone and just has to greet anyone that passes by. The result is something that resembles more of a ski trip through the aisles, rather than a leisurely stroll like you see on all the pet store commercials.
A lovely sales associate who has seen me in the shop numerous times before, came to save me. She suggested that I might have unintentionally, reinforced his behavior. She said, by letting him see everybody whenever he chooses, I have been teaching him that the ultimate reward is coming from them…not me.
The fix, she explained, was simple. It just takes a little practice in helping your dog to see where the true reinforcement comes from. So how do I go about doing this?
“First” she said, “you need to come prepared with a variety of your dog’s favorite treats!” She showed me a selection of delicious, freeze-dried goodies that apparently came highly approved by her own dogs. I found that the freeze-dried liver and beef food topper were heavy-hitters with Rocket and quickly purchased a couple bags so I could jump on this.
The next step was to stand a distance away from all the people and dogs where Rocket could see them pass by. When he would try to pull towards them, I would stand still and hold my ground. My job was to wait and see if Rocket would look back at me. I had to be patient, but eventually he did it! I marked this behavior with an exuberant “YES!” and then showered him with the delicious goodies, affection, and play. I was to continue this process repetitively until his glance back to me became routine. Eventually, each time he saw a person or dog, he would look to me first before bolting into action.
Once my dog reliably started looking to me for direction, we started giving him a type of reward and penalty system. If he looked to me, he got all the yummy treats and got to greet them. If he started pulling, we took “penalty steps” away and did not get to greet them. All this helped us to build an amazing relationship. Rocket started to learn that looking to me before acting out on his impulses reaped some heavy rewards.
The last step was to be selective in who Rocket was allowed to greet. Gone were the days of letting him just drag me to everything. Some people we would walk up to and say hello. Other people we would walk right by and my whole intention was to reward with treats, praise and play so he was more excited to watch me than to greet the stranger.
Fast forward a couple weeks and I swear I have a different dog! Rocket is already becoming a gentleman when we visit the pet store and I feel like I can stroll down the aisles like pro!
