Thoughts on: When to worry that your dog cannot opt into their basic care (and when not to worry)

This is a reaction to some of the thoughts and ideas that are presented in current discussions over neuroscience, consent/assent and cooperative care, positive reinforcement and reactivity in dog training — particularly the claims that cooperative care training is hurting dogs, is extraneous, or extravagant.

Human Fear and Training:

Some people claim that the current focus on cooperative care and husbandry is a fad, is shaming or pressuring people to achieve unreasonable levels of skill, or is actually spoiling or coddling dogs, making the dogs ‘soft’. These critics may say something like: “Do not let people make you think that causing your dog stress/forcing your dog to tolerate husbandry will cause aggression and reactivity. They are just making you afraid, and that is not an ethical thing to do.”

• actually, this area of animal care and training isn’t new, nor a fad - it is an established area of expertise and practice

• in fact, there are lots of things people train their dogs to be successful with (like herding sheep, hiking in the rain, and digging for truffles) but you should not feel ashamed that your dog cannot do something that does not align with the needs of your family. no need to onboard more guilt, folks! we can all do more…. but you do not have to do everything everyone else is doing to be a good person (that includes listening to bad advice).

• research indicates that giving safe ways for dogs to have agency and control lowers stress and increases resilience for those times when we cannot protect them from negative experiences - so probably this actually makes dogs tougher not “soft”

Yes, I fully agree that you should not be manipulated by professionals to buy into a long and expensive training journey that your dog does not need. I agree that you should not be made to feel guilty or afraid of having used force with your dog or of frightening your dog when you did not know any better, were overwhelmed, or when it was an emergency. Any professional who does this needs to pursue continuing professional education in nonviolent communication, TAG teach, and/or trauma-informed communication and teaching strategies.

I believe that most R+ trainers who support clients with cooperative care goals do not use fear as a tactic, because they do not need to. Their clients already align with the goals of the training.

Most of the time, forcing a dog to accept nail clipping (for example) will not “cause” a dog to become aggressive or anxious. This is because single events rarely cause a clinical condition such as anxiety. By definition. What could happen is that an already anxious dog experiences so much stress in their life already that when they are also forced to tolerate a frightening nail trimming, their anxiety symptoms worsen.

Some professionals who work in cooperative care do caution their clients that too many experiences of force, fear, or stress in a short period of time can cause a dog that is already struggling with anxiety or agression to display more of the unwanted behavior. This is not fear-mongering. This is the truth. Life is already hard for anxious dogs. Adding more stress to their everyday life can have fallout. Chronic stress is damaging.

Similarly, dogs that have already learned that aggression is a good way to communicate can easily deploy those tactics to a new stressful experience, such as forcing them to tolerate a nail trim. The uncomfortable experience of the nail trim is not “causing” the dog to be aggressive; I do not think most R+ coop-care trainers are claiming this is the case. The dog that already has behavior patterns of aggression is likely to quickly resort to those patterns if they are over-stressed or cornered. And it is only ethical on the part of the behavior expert to warn a client of this risk before they engage with their dog.

Finally: there are lots of dogs who live a life full of forceful nail trims and other aversive handling events and remain calm and gentle. In fact, in my experience this is the norm for most dogs. They are petted and talked to by strangers who surprise them or make them uncomfortable, but never bite. Children run up to them or pull their fur, and the dog simply walks away or curls up. They are left in crates and cars and houses all alone for long periods of time with strange noises and startling events happening all around them and with no way to get away, yet they do not destroy their surroundings to escape. They are required to wear gear that goes on them quickly and does not always fit well, and sometimes even causes them physical discomfort, but they do not become immediately ill with an autoimmune disease. They are expected to perform exercises before getting food, water, or access to the outdoors, and they cooperate with these . They are dragged away from interesting activities such as sniffing, foraging, chewing, digging, barking and chasing. They are scolded by strangers often. They are dragged into daycares, vet offices, and many other locations even if they are not ready to go.

aversive events are the norm for most dogs everyday life. and most dogs are admirably gentle about this.

So while I agree that forcing your dog to tolerate (or accidentally exposing your dog to) aversive events will not cause your dog to become aggressive and anxious, I do think that adding lot of aversive events to basic care interactions can make things worse for a lot of dogs. Stress can have fallout, and this fallout is sometimes cumulative and delayed. We all know this (especially about humans, and increasingly about dogs also). It depends on your individual dog how much and what kind of adverse experiences they can be exposed to before anxious and/or aggressive behavior emerges at such an intensity and frequency that we humans are forced to pay attention.

If you can, taking stress and force out of your dog’s basic care and daily routine is an appropriate and reasonable goal. And most clients who are working with me on cooperative care have already observed signs that their dog is experiencing problematic levels of stress/adverse events, and have contacted me to help reverse the behavioral symptoms of this. If your dog is doing fine with a predictable system of nail trimming in which they do not have cooperative care in place, then there is not a problem and you will not in all likelihood be hiring a trainer who helps with aggression and anxiety.

Over-use of the idea of reinforcement

Some claim: we are making dogs worse by using too much reinforcement or relying too much on reinforcement. When people say that we are “overusing reinforcement”, I imagine they are usually talking about using food or toy play to artificially manipulate behavior.

I do think that sometimes we can become overly reliant on food as reinforcement. Using food as reinforcement can backfire in many ways if it is not used well - causing food aversion, damaging the dog’s trust in the training process, or even creating new unwanted behaviors such as jumping, nipping, or barking. Similarly I believe that sometimes we can use reinforcement to manipulate dogs’ behavior to a degree that is problematic or even possibly unethical. For example, using fetch (very reinforcing) for exercise every single day to the exclusion of any other physical activity could be very damaging for many dogs. Similarly, training a dog with an unstable temperament in protection and bite sports could be very reinforcing for the dog but very unethical and problematic.

This does not mean that we have a problem of providing too much reinforcement, however. This means we have a problem fully understanding the concept of reinforcement, or a problem with creativity.

Reinforcement is simply anything the animal finds reinforcing. How we use it and why we use it certainly matters. If the dog can cope with a little nail trim that is not opted into by the dog, I will bet you that this dog is still experiencing praise, affection, and/or freedom immediately after the nails are trimmed. Hopefully, these reinforcement strategies are good enough for that dog that their toleration of your nail trim is maintained.

Another thought: just because we use (food) reinforcement for cooperative care training does not mean that the dog is not also practicing self-soothing and recovery from aversive experiences during the training sessions. They most certainly are practicing these skills. In fact, in my opinion, allowing a dog to opt out of an activity when it is not necessary is actually a wonderful way to help dogs practice the very skills that lead to stress resilience. If we are practicing cooperative care training in a skillful way, we are already allowing the dog to practice their natural coping and communication skills that prevent fallout (or unwanted and dangerous behavior) by allowing those behaviors to work and work well for the dog.

Finally: just because we are training cooperative care does not mean that we refrain from taking care of our dog when necessary or in an emergency. In some cases, we may end up relying on a strategy that involves doing things that the dog is not ready or able to opt in to. Life happens, and a trainer who is well-versed in cooperative care training will be able to help a client anticipate and prepare for those events. This does not mean that cooperative care training efforts are frivolous or wasteful or damaging to dogs and people.

Ask the right questions

I do agree that we should ask the right questions in training. Certainly, thinking that we should be teaching a dog to be “good” at learning consent behaviors is problematic. In fact, if we approach coop-care training with this mindset, we are missing the very point of the training. This training should have pre-determined standards for increasing difficulty that include measurable signs of comfort, confidence, and agency from the dog. Most dogs will never enjoy nail trims. Most dogs can quickly understand what we want them to participate in. The training process supports the dog’s ability to regulate, feel safe, and recover. Consent/assent is not a skill. It is not something the dog has to learn at all. It is not something dogs can be taught to be ‘good at’; rather it is something that they do already, and something that we generally are too impatient to give them access to. Dogs can cooperate in a wide variety of interactions if we help them feel safe enough and if we learn to support them. There is a big difference.

Every trainer I know who works with clients on husbandry skills with sensitive dogs already approaches this training as a series of gentle, iterative and non-dictatorial conversations between the trainer and the client, and between the client and their dog. They are not telling clients that they are bad people for causing their dog discomfort in the interest of providing basic and necessary care.

If the trainer you are working with tells you that your dog should “learn to deal with it”, “toughen up”, or develop more resilience by being pushed on purpose into more stress than they can safely handle in training, I would encourage you to consider why this person is trying to shame you into ignoring the communication that your dog is clearly offering, and remain confident in the goals that you actually have for your relationship with your dog.