Attention-Seeking Behaviors

Dogs are great at learning how to get our attention. They bark at us, scratch at the door, whine, nudge us with their noses, paw at our hands – anything to get us to pay attention to them. These annoying behaviors never seem to go away no matter what we do because we often inadvertently reinforce the behavior with our attempts to stop them. Essentially, we give the dog the attention they seek when we yell at them or push them away. You see, even negative attention from a beloved owner is better than nothing.

Dog owners need to understand how dogs learn. Behaviors that are rewarded will continue to occur and may even increase in frequency. Even if the reward only comes 5 out of 10 times the dog exhibits the behavior. This variable reinforcement actually makes the behavior stronger. It’s like you are a giant walking slot machine, and the dog becomes addicted to pulling your handle, hoping they will eventually get the payoff. Jackpot!

The only way to eliminate these annoying attention-seeking behaviors is to remove the reward completely. Figure out what the dog gets out of the behavior (attention, food, going outside, etc.) and then take that away in response to the behavior.

An example is the annoying behavior of barking at you for attention. If the barking causes you to get up and walk out of the room (something they certainly don’t want), the behavior will no longer be rewarding. You will be taking away something good (your attention) in response to the unwanted behavior (barking). If done consistently, the dog soon learns that barking no longer “works for them” to get attention. Dogs do what works for them – plain and simple.