In my class last night, I got to thinking about how easily it is to reinforce unwanted behavior. In my classes, I have tethers set up so that owners can listen and watch without having to struggle to contain their dogs.

One woman had a little dog who kept jumping up on her to get her attention. Every time he would do this, she would unconsciously stroke him, inadvertently rewarding the jumping. She wasn’t doing it intentionally but the results were just as powerful as if she was giving him a treat every time. Later I asked her about his jumping and whether or not it bothered her, she told me that it did. When I pointed out to her what she had been doing, she was horrified.

Later in the class, we were doing attention exercises while walking around the store and I noticed that this same person was following the dog every time he pulled her; totally reinforcing the pulling behavior.

This is why bad habits such as pulling and jumping and demand barking are so hard to resolve. It’s because we unconsciously reward it with forward movement, petting or attention. Remember that behavior that is rewarded will never go away. If you are trying to extinguish behavior and you are not having much success, try to figure out how you may be rewarding behavior. Becoming conscious of how your behavior affects your dogs behavior is the first step on the road to recovery.