Because so many factors that may require considerable time and effort to resolve often come into play when problem animal behavior occurs, I think a lot about ways to prevent it. When I do this, one thought keeps recurring: The most valuable skill we can develop to prevent problems is the ability to serenely do nothing with confidence.
Doing nothing with confidence. Given the pace of most of our lives, who wouldn’t want to do nothing and improve their pet’s behavior and their relationship with that animal at the same time? Well, as it turns out, even though many people may want those benefits, nothing causes them more mental anguish and distress than doing exactly this. How can this be? Not surprisingly, both animal and human factors contribute to this problem.
In previous commentaries and articles I’ve discussed the animal parent model as the ideal way to relate to pets, based on what we know about the effects of domestication. And I noted that, one way to differentiate animal parents (or leaders in the canine realm) from youngsters or other subordinates is to apply the mantra, “Leaders initiate, followers react.” Like us, companion animals reinforce those behaviors that get them what they want using the least amount of energy. For example, young puppies and kittens want the maximum attention from their mother or other adults because the more the adults do for them, the less they must do for themselves.
On the other hand, if you watch skilled adult teachers, they’re marvelously energy-efficient. When attention-seeking youngsters harass them, they calmly ignore them. If the pups or kittens crawl all over them, they calmly get up and walk away as if the youngsters didn’t even exist. In such a way, the adults set the young up to choose to extinguish the behavior themselves. Not only does this save the adult a lot of energy, the fact that the youngsters choose the proper response rather than get forced into it enables them to internalize it much faster.
Relative to wild animal behavior, we can readily see the advantages of this approach. Adults who react to a pup’s or kitten’s attention-seeking behavior put the lives of the whole litter as well as their own in jeopardy. If predators don’t remove those willing to let youngsters manipulate them from the gene pool, the manipulators will eventually do it themselves.
Here’s how it works. In the first generation, youngsters who successfully manipulate adults do gain the advantage. However, the more time the adults spend with them, the less time to mate and reproduce, so that decreases the number of future manipulators right there Additionally, manipulation only works if there’s another willing be to manipulated. When the successful manipulators reproduce, they give birth to more manipulators. Now we have manipulators trying to manipulate manipulators, which wastes a lot of time and energy and greatly reduces the chance of survival. In such a way, over time the manipulators eliminate themselves from the gene pool.
Now let’s consider contemporary pet owner life. We get a new pup and we and everyone else reacts to that cute little ball of fluff. We take the pup to puppy kindergarten and pass the pup around so everyone else can react to the puppy, too. By the time the class ends, pups have learned that, quite unlike adult animals, humans react to them, just like their littermates. And although we don’t usually think of it this way, the pup also has learned how to train humans. While we think we’re training the pup to sit to get a treat, the pup may very well think he’s training the owner to give him a treat when he sits. How do we know if the latter occurs? By when the pup sits on command. If the pup always sits on command, regardless of the circumstances, then we can say the owner has trained the dog. However, if the pup only sits under certain circumstances, such as in the livingroom or back yard, but not when there are people or other dogs around, then it’s most likely the other way around.
We do the same with kittens, with the classic example being the human response to feline vocalization. Every time Siamese Meto meows, her owner, Jill, replies, “What? Would you like a treat? Do you want to play?” By reacting to MeTo this way, Jill teaches the kitten how to train her. If Jill has nothing better to do with her time than play Cat Maid, the relationship will work.
However, sometimes in our attempts to please animals, we pursue unhealthy practices that undermine animal health, behavior, and/or the relationship. For example, if Jill decides MeTo’s meow means the cat wants food and MeTo doesn’t eat what Jill offers and meows again, Jill might offer something less nutritious, like ice cream. This rewards MeTo for not eating her own food and Jill can wind up with an obese cat with all the health problems associated with that.
Other times, owners get fed up with the noise and want the cat to shut up. “Stop it!” Jill shouts and squirts MeTo with a water pistol. “You’re driving me nuts!” To say that cats may become greatly stressed and confused when previously reinforced behaviors suddenly become taboo is an understatement!
So what do we do when we inadvertently create a pestering pet whose behavior undermines our relationship? We take a lesson from good animal parents and do what we should have done in the beginning: calmly and confidently ignore the behavior. However, the highly reactive nature of our society as well as some of our individual temperaments makes that easier said than done. Still, gaining this skill can do so much to improve the quality of animal life and the relationship that I’ll discuss ways to do this in Part II next month.
If you have any comments regarding subject matter, favorite links, or anything you’d like to see discussed on or added to this site, please let me know at mm@mmilani.com.
Because so many factors that may require considerable time and effort to resolve often come into play when problem animal behavior occurs, I think a lot about ways to prevent it. When I do this, one thought keeps recurring: The most valuable skill we can develop to prevent problems is the ability to serenely do nothing with confidence.
Doing nothing with confidence. Given the pace of most of our lives, who wouldn’t want to do nothing and improve their pet’s behavior and their relationship with that animal at the same time? Well, as it turns out, even though many people may want those benefits, nothing causes them more mental anguish and distress than doing exactly this. How can this be? Not surprisingly, both animal and human factors contribute to this problem.
In previous commentaries and articles I’ve discussed the animal parent model as the ideal way to relate to pets, based on what we know about the effects of domestication. And I noted that, one way to differentiate animal parents (or leaders in the canine realm) from youngsters or other subordinates is to apply the mantra, “Leaders initiate, followers react.” Like us, companion animals reinforce those behaviors that get them what they want using the least amount of energy. For example, young puppies and kittens want the maximum attention from their mother or other adults because the more the adults do for them, the less they must do for themselves.
On the other hand, if you watch skilled adult teachers, they’re marvelously energy-efficient. When attention-seeking youngsters harass them, they calmly ignore them. If the pups or kittens crawl all over them, they calmly get up and walk away as if the youngsters didn’t even exist. In such a way, the adults set the young up to choose to extinguish the behavior themselves. Not only does this save the adult a lot of energy, the fact that the youngsters choose the proper response rather than get forced into it enables them to internalize it much faster.
Relative to wild animal behavior, we can readily see the advantages of this approach. Adults who react to a pup’s or kitten’s attention-seeking behavior put the lives of the whole litter as well as their own in jeopardy. If predators don’t remove those willing to let youngsters manipulate them from the gene pool, the manipulators will eventually do it themselves.
Here’s how it works. In the first generation, youngsters who successfully manipulate adults do gain the advantage. However, the more time the adults spend with them, the less time to mate and reproduce, so that decreases the number of future manipulators right there Additionally, manipulation only works if there’s another willing be to manipulated. When the successful manipulators reproduce, they give birth to more manipulators. Now we have manipulators trying to manipulate manipulators, which wastes a lot of time and energy and greatly reduces the chance of survival. In such a way, over time the manipulators eliminate themselves from the gene pool.
Now let’s consider contemporary pet owner life. We get a new pup and we and everyone else reacts to that cute little ball of fluff. We take the pup to puppy kindergarten and pass the pup around so everyone else can react to the puppy, too. By the time the class ends, pups have learned that, quite unlike adult animals, humans react to them, just like their littermates. And although we don’t usually think of it this way, the pup also has learned how to train humans. While we think we’re training the pup to sit to get a treat, the pup may very well think he’s training the owner to give him a treat when he sits. How do we know if the latter occurs? By when the pup sits on command. If the pup always sits on command, regardless of the circumstances, then we can say the owner has trained the dog. However, if the pup only sits under certain circumstances, such as in the livingroom or back yard, but not when there are people or other dogs around, then it’s most likely the other way around.
We do the same with kittens, with the classic example being the human response to feline vocalization. Every time Siamese Meto meows, her owner, Jill, replies, “What? Would you like a treat? Do you want to play?” By reacting to MeTo this way, Jill teaches the kitten how to train her. If Jill has nothing better to do with her time than play Cat Maid, the relationship will work.
However, sometimes in our attempts to please animals, we pursue unhealthy practices that undermine animal health, behavior, and/or the relationship. For example, if Jill decides MeTo’s meow means the cat wants food and MeTo doesn’t eat what Jill offers and meows again, Jill might offer something less nutritious, like ice cream. This rewards MeTo for not eating her own food and Jill can wind up with an obese cat with all the health problems associated with that.
Other times, owners get fed up with the noise and want the cat to shut up. “Stop it!” Jill shouts and squirts MeTo with a water pistol. “You’re driving me nuts!” To say that cats may become greatly stressed and confused when previously reinforced behaviors suddenly become taboo is an understatement!
So what do we do when we inadvertently create a pestering pet whose behavior undermines our relationship? We take a lesson from good animal parents and do what we should have done in the beginning: calmly and confidently ignore the behavior. However, the highly reactive nature of our society as well as some of our individual temperaments makes that easier said than done. Still, gaining this skill can do so much to improve the quality of animal life and the relationship that I’ll discuss ways to do this in Part II next month.
If you have any comments regarding subject matter, favorite links, or anything you’d like to see discussed on or added to this site, please let me know at mm@mmilani.com.