ATTENTION SEEKING IN DOGS

All dogs seek attention from their owners to some extent and this only becomes a problem when the frequency or style of attention seeking is undesirable for the owner, or attention seeking represents a symptom of an anxiety disorder.
Dogs will usually use methods such as licking, nudging, parading with toys, however any kind of behaviour can become a mehod of seeking attention including barking, stealing, biting and destructiveness. Some of these are very hard to ignore, and tend to be unwittingly reinforced by the owner with responses such as eye contact, touch or even scolding.
Attention seeking problems are often made worse as calm behaviour often gets ignored as the owner does not want to disturb the dog when it is being good.
As the dog discovers that extreme behaviour such as stealing, biting and destructiveness always gets a response, it progressively abandons the lower levels of more acceptable behaviours.
Dogs are highly sociable animals and therefore require a lot of interaction and contact, particularly if they have been at home alone all day. Where interactive play is not available, dogs may entertain themselves with destructive play such as chewing, shredding and tearing objects. These behaviours are derived from normal acts of prey handling and feeding behaviour; biting legs off prey, ripping its skin off etc. It takes little imagination to see the connection between these behaviours and their domestic equivalents: chewing table legs, ripping fabric off a sofa or wallpaper off a wall. It takes only one or two opportunities for the dog to learn that damaging things is not only pleasurable in itself but also guarantees some attention from the owner.

TREATMENT

Treatment of attention seeking is difficult as most of the time the owner is unwittingly reinforcing the behaviour by scolding the dog, making eye contact, touching or talking to the dog. The owner must become highly self-conscious of their actions when responding to the dog. It helps if the dog is taught a signal that tells it that its attention seeking has failed, but this must be done through a training method or the dog will become frustrated. You should actively ignore all attention seeking and give lots of attention at other times when your dog is calm and relaxed or has done something you want him to do.

THE ‘NO’ SIGNAL

What do dogs want when they seek attention? They want to be touched, or looked at or spoken to. Unfortunately, we often try to stop attention seeking by looking sternly at the dog, pushing it with our hand and telling it to go away. This is little different from what the dog has been asking for so what they have done has been successful. We need to teach the dog a simple signal that shows him that his attention seeking is going to get him nowhere, but without causing frustration and irritation.

· Two or more people sit or stand a few feet apart, each with a clicker (if trained to the clicker) and a treat pot.
· One person calls the dog and asks him to sit or lie down. Do not shout or get angry if he does not perform immediately, just wait a moment and try again.
· While your dog remains sitting, give him a series of rewards, keeping your hands away from the food between rewards.
· If your dog stands up, calmly ask him to sit again.
· After 5-20 consecutive rewards you can end your turn: look away from your dog and say ‘no’ calmly with no anger or tension in your voice.
· When you have said ‘no’ the next person takes over and repeats the procedure.

To begin with, your dog will be confused and will hang around the person who has just finished their turn. Continue doing this training every day until you can see that the ‘no’ signal is working effectively.

CONSISTENTLY IGNORING ATTENTION SEEKING

You now need to use your ‘no’ signal whenever the dog seeks attention. To begin with it helps if someone else calls your dog away after you have said ‘no’ .They should ask the dog to sit and reward with attention.

Key points:
· Use your ‘no’ signal with all forms of attention seeking, even nudging and other friendly gestures.
· Never allow your voice to sound cross.
· If there is anyone else present, get them to call the dog away after you have said ‘no’.
· Once your dog is obeying your signal, you can cease training sessions.

GIVING ATTENTION FOR GOOD BEHAVIOUR

Your dog is used to getting plenty of attention and if you just ignore him all the time he will get frustrated and angry. Now that he is not getting attention for his misbehaviour, you must also start to give him attention for the behaviour that you want to see more often. You need to make sure that your dog gets small amounts of attention very regularly. The aim is that your dog gets at least as much attention as before, but for the good things instead of bad.