A “Spoiled” Dog or a Frustrated Dog?
Respond to behavior, not the dog’s history. Imagine that you just found this dog in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot with no information available. What would you know? You’d know what the dog shows you in his behavior. Start there. Do not bring the judgment of “he is spoiled” into an assessment of how the dog is behaving, or how you will respond to him…“Ignore unwanted behavior and it will go away” is inaccurate, and often ineffective. If you ignore a behavior that requires external reinforcement, then yes, that will probably diminish or extinguish. But if you ignore a behavior that is self-reinforcing, the dog won’t care one whit whether you ignore him or not. Read article.
