I had a really interesting remote session this week.

One of my “particular interests” is in how to minimize extinction (where behavior that has worked before stops working), and its unpleasant side effects (often labeled “frustration”), in situations where at least some unavailability of reinforcement seems unavoidable.

One of those situations is persistent, long duration barking directed at a person who is not in a position reinforce something else or to simply cope with the barking. This type of barking has often been shaped up by a combination of trying to ignore (causing an escalation in intensity) and then redirecting (often with a food item). The dog learns that this situation (i.e., person is talking to a computer on the desk, guests are over, etc) predicts that now is when this type of barking is needed/will produce an outcome they want or need.

As some know, I’ve written about, presented on, and done research toward the question of how we might reduce the amount of frustration (in layman’s terms) that the dog will experience when, inevitably, a person can’t respond to their requests right away. One way I think holds great promise is to teach the dog signals for when the behavior will work and when it won’t, or when there will be a delay that they need to wait through--sort of like telling a kid "I'll be on the phone for 20 minutes; do what you want within reason but I won't be able to talk to you or get you a snack until I'm off unless it's an emergency." Since we can’t simply state “rules” to a dog, we have to teach them what the conditions for reinforcement are (and aren't) through experience. That means looking at all the “cues” that may currently tell the dog barking will work and changing them in some salient way before changing what we reinforce and when. (A lightbulb about this went off for me during a talk by Jesus Rosales-Ruiz called "Don't Fight Extinction" at ClickerExpo a few years back.)

In the conditions under which the problem already occurs, you are likely to see the dog keep trying, and escalating, because it’s harder for them to tell (especially when their behavior has worked on a slot-machine type schedule) that it’s no longer going to be effective. The change in the antecedent conditions can also become the cue for new behavior.

One approach I've tried in the past is to add something to the problem situation for the new rules to get attached to. Another, arguably less intrusive approach if it's possible is to look for antecedent conditions that already cue the behavior you want, and see if you can incorporate them into the situation where the dog barks. I discussed this idea with a new client yesterday whose dog persistently barked at, climbed on, pawed, and licked her while she was trying to talk on Zoom in her dining room. The first thing we tried was removing all the toys, treat containers, etc. from the Zoom setting, but the behavior started right away and went on for probably half an hour during our evaluation, growing more frantic. This pup leads a lovely and enriched life, with lots of off leash time and attention from his human. She had tried preventively reinforcing a settle during Zoom with treats, and giving food toys or chews in advance of calls, but as soon as the goodies ran out, the dog would go back to these behaviors, and because she was on Zoom she would feel compelled to quiet him by feeding again or refilling the toys.

After our discussion, she came up with a fantastic idea: when she cooked or baked in the kitchen, she had never “trained” her dog to settle with food; she simply had gone about her business regardless of what the dog was doing, and the dog had typically laid down near the warm bottom of the fridge or on a doormat while she worked. I loved this suggestion so much because she didn’t take away a recipe from our discussion—she took away the core concept and was able to apply it! So we moved her laptop and a chair to the kitchen island, and in 12 minutes his barking and climbing decreased quickly in intensity and he went and laid down on the doormat. I’m kicking myself for not recording the session, but above is a screenshot.

Doing Zooms at the kitchen table instead of the dining room table are a comfortable alternative for this person right away. We are also going to try to introduce a new environmental cue for the behavior, and the temporary unavailability of attention or food, in this setting that we might be able to transfer back into the dining room.