This is such an easy trap to fall into – its basically your dog learning things you don’t want them to.  For example, a really common problem is the dog barking at you for treats – you ignore them (or tell them off) and then they jump up/grab at you or your clothes… This commonly comes about for inadvertently giving the dog treats when they are staring at you, or when they bark at you (as they are frustrated that there are no more treats coming) as you want them to stop barking. The escalation in behaviour – barking, jumping up, mouthing, biting all comes as a consequence of the frustration.

Frustration

The 2 most common causes of frustration are loss of/restricted access to something that the dog values – food, dogs, people, toys etc, and/or due to inability to carry out ‘dog normal’ behaviours such as being on lead, restrained at the vets or groomers, removing something of value such as food, toys or social contact .

Meeting the dog’s needs will help prevent goal frustration. Reinforcing behaviours which allow access to what they want will help reduce goal frustration and teach them a way of getting what they want/need.

So how to avoid – or address this?

Ideally we try to avoid this at the start – so for the example above, making sure we don’t feed the puppy when they are staring at us expectantly, or just standing and feeding them for free. This leads to frustration in the dog when you don’t feed as they expect – showing as an escalation in behaviour you don’t like.

If the dog is barking – looking at you directly – and barks and looks at you, this is likely to be frustration based.

Find something small that the dog can offer and then give them access to the thing they want e.g. the dog stands still in a more relaxed body posture, without staring at you expectantly, then results in access to the thing they want – treats, petting, going into the garden, saying hi to a dog or human, etc.