This week we have talked a lot about frustrations, today I just wanted to provide some further context about why it can be so prevalent in shelter. If we consider the oxford dictionary description of frustration “The feeling of being upset or annoyed as a result of being unable to change or achieve something” we can see that frustration is a negative emotional state relating to working towards a goal. In 2016 Kevin McPeake produced a great operational definition of frustration in dogs which can be broken down to, an emotional state which occurs when an animal is prevented from obtaining something it is motivated to gain, where previously learnt expectations aren’t met or where there are actual or potential barriers to control.
Frustration is a useful emotional motivation as it is what drive us to work harder to achieve our goals, invigorating our behaviour to help us to gain access to the reinforcer. However, frustration can become problematic if the dog is unable to work through the frustration, using appropriate behaviour strategies.
If we think of the operational definition, we can see that shelters and rescues have the potential to produce more frustrated dogs than most other contexts.
- A lack of ability to obtain a something they are motivated to get – Such as not being able to meet another dog they have seen on a walk and this happening three times during one kennel outing. Being unable to toilet freely due to being clean in the kennel and not having the option to leave without human influence and utilising training plans but making sure the criteria is clear to the learner and teacher, and the criteria is achievable.
- Previous expectations aren’t being met – Often shelter staff maybe unaware of previous expectations that the dogs have, we may not know what cues or behaviours the dogs have been taught or what their routines looked like. Often our own routines are varied by the nature of shelter work, we may have multiple staff working with individual dogs who all may approach something in a different way. For example, the first three days a dog is in kennels the handler uses food to lure the dogs head through the harness and then rewards each time they do up a clip, the next day a different handler is working with that dog and doesn’t use any treats around the harness, therefore triggering a frustrated response from the dog, which could look like lots of jumping up, bouncing and potentially escalating to grabbing
- Barriers to control- Shelters are full of barriers, and activities happening behind those barriers which the dogs want to be involved in, the dogs are kept in kennels, walked on lead, have people moving around the blocks carrying food bowls or serving as a constant predictor of potentially leaving the kennel. As well as the obvious physical barriers there are often a lot of times where the dog is being restrained, such as grooming or vet visits which may also be triggering frustration in that dog.
As we can see there is plenty of opportunity to build frustration during a dogs stay in kennels, this may occur gradually where you see a worsening of behaviour over time or varied day to day as the dog tries to navigate shelter life without the appropriate skillset or management in place.
Understanding where frustration comes from and remembering to utilise our ABC, Antecedence- behaviour and consequence. Can help us to decide how we move forward with the dog. Identifying what the behaviour is that we are seeing, which is a concern, looking at what the triggers are for the behaviour and what are the consequences or potential reinforcers/punishers and then manipulating one or more of the ABC sections to help change that dogs behaviour is an important part in resolving frustration type behaviours. For example, if we look at a dog who always pulls and barks (behaviour) when seeing another dog (antecedent) and is then either prevented access or moved further away (-R, consequence) we may look at teaching the dog to look back to us (behaviour) when another dog comes into view (antecedence) = good things such as rewards, but also being able to greet the dog (+R consequence) is showing the dog a way better way of gaining access to the reinforcement (sniffing the other dog), and we gradually build this criteria at a level the dog can cope with to progress that dogs training.
Sometimes we also need to support our dogs to learn to manage their own emotions, often this means taking the dog slightly closer to threshold than we normally would, letting the dog problem solve and then reward for making the right decision alongside taking appropriate steps to manage frustration such as, offering choice and control where possible, gradual introduction of restraint and more complex enrichment minimising the risk of negative punishment and ensuring we are rewarding the dogs for making appropriate choices.