Do you have a rollercoaster dog?
You know the feeling when you’ve decided to ride the rollercoaster? You’ve made the choice to be there but, when the restraint locks in place and you start ascending your way up the first ramp you have that sudden sinking feeling. Do I actually want to be here? This is going to fun right, I mean I can’t change my mind now so - oh crap what have done….get me off this thing - followed by the high of it actually being fun or white knuckle terror depending on which way you end up feeling about the experience. I’ve been on rollercoasters that I’ve loved and some that have battered me around so much I’ve come off saying never again. However, given the opportunity I always join the line for the next ride. Why? When I actually don’t know what physical and emotional outcome I’m going to face…..well for some, me included that’s part of the thrill. We put ourselves in situations that we know may turn out bad, we are conflicted but we still do it, some dogs are no different. I like to call these wee dudes rollercoaster dogs and they are riding that rollercoaster of emotions sometimes, multiple times a day.
Check out the front row, the adult is having a great time! Kids coaster not so scary and knew exactly that when they got on. Wee one on her lap - thought it would be fun and looks like it hasn’t quite worked out for them! Even the dude in the second row is having his hands held up for him. YOU ARE HAVING FUN!! Sure he looks fine but what’s going on underneath.
Behaviour is driven by emotion. Sure you can help your dog control their emotions with training but if you are having the sort of behaviour problems that are often apparent in a rollercoaster dog then if you really want to solve them and make the dog’s life better then you need to address their emotional state.
A great example of one of the things you will see from a dog who is conflicted about their emotions is rushing in to greet other dogs or people. Imagine seeing someone at a distance and feeling like you had to run as fast as you could in order to meet them, you were SO excited that you felt compelled to do so. Sure it happens in the movies, loved up couples running through airports to passionate embraces but it’s not something you see on the average high street. Then imagine a few of the times you did this, bearing in mind you are so excited that you do it to every person you meet you got a punch in the face. Now when you are running up to people there’s this niggling doubt in the back of your mind that it might not be a positive experience. You might get a hug, you might get a punch. Just like the rollercoaster though you carry on getting on the ride, because you are a natural optimist and things might be OK. Now imagine someone put’s you in the line for 5, 6, 7 or more rollercoasters a day - you’ll soon be emotionally on the edge! This is, sadly, what we often do to dogs.
It might not be other dog’s that your dog has these conflicts of emotion about, it can be something as simple as a harness. I really don’t like having my harness or collar on, a common problem for a lot of dogs, however I really love to go for walks! It’s the rollercoaster effect in a much less obvious way and over the course of a day, week or months this stuff all really builds up. Even if you love rollercoasters you don’t want to ride them all day everyday. Extremes of emotion, even positive emotion are not good in big doses.
When you clue into the fact that extremes of emotion are quite often what are causing our dog’s training and behaviour ‘problems’ and certainly the behaviours given the reactivity label in the dog world you can start to appreciate why trying to tackle these issue with corrections or obedience, while they may make life better for you if the dog starts to choose to remain quiet over acting out, they certainly don’t help the dog. You are just adding more conflicts of choice to the dogs already overloaded emotional plate. This is where the ‘out of nowhere’ explosions and bites come from. I’ve been making lot’s of progress with my dogs training, they respond really well to my ‘NO’ now and don’t bark at the other dogs - but there’s been no change in the emotional state so every now and again when the ‘insert correction used here’ isn’t enough to make your dog think twice (out of fear of you) they explode into a snarling, biting and lets face it dangerous mess.
If you have a rollercoaster dog - then have a real think about the emotion they are feeling and what you can do to help them regulate that emotion, should you even be putting them in that situation in the first place?
If any of this rings true for you - get in touch because all is not lost. With positive, fun and concept based training we can turn your dog’s emotional problems round with time and care!