What My Son’s Interaction in the High Chair Teaches Us About Dog Behavior

With dogs and humans, it can be so easy to simply miss the more subtle behaviors that might occur before a bigger “problem” behavior.

Editor’s Note: I made a little video to accompany this article with additional questions you might have after reading the story. I’m calling it “The But What Abouts.” I’m also adding a quick “but what about” section to the end of the article.

The other night, my husband, Ben, was sitting down next to son, Ford, eating dinner while I was doing a few things in the kitchen. Ben didn’t get much food into his mouth because he spent most of the time helping Ford. As Ben tried to shovel in a few more bites, Ford signed “all done” with his hands. Ben didn’t seem to notice. Ford then switched to calmly saying “all done,” which really sounds more like “ah-nyun.” Ben heard that and said, “I hear you. Give me a few minutes to finish eating please.” Ford then started raising his arms up in the way that little kids do when asking to be picked up. Ben was still shoveling food in his mouth. Ford calmly switched tactics again and said, “Up, up up.” While eating with a very mobile toddler running around is harder than eating with a toddler in a high chair, I asked Ben to take Ford out before he escalated to crying. I knew neither of us were going to sit there eating while he screamed, and I didn’t want crying to be the behavior that got reinforced with a parent pulling him out of the high chair. This was such a tiny little moment – maybe a total of 30 seconds – but it made me think of two things that are deeply applicable to life with dogs.

Lesson One: It’s Easy to Ignore Subtle Behaviors and Inadvertently Build a Big Reinforcement History for More Escalated Ones

Ford signed and used a range of words and phrases to try to get a parent to get him out of the high chair. If none of those behaviors had worked, he would have escalated. And because we don’t want him just sitting there screaming while we eat, we likely would have gotten him down. And beyond that, we would have gotten him down anyway when Ben finished eating three minutes later, so even if we lived in an alternate universe and just ate while he wailed, the screaming would have contacted reinforcement. The more subtle behaviors of signing and saying words like “up” and “all done” didn’t work in those conditions – and guess what happens to behaviors that don’t work? Individuals do less of them in the future under similar conditions. That means that in the future, he might jump to screaming faster (luckily we took him out when he said “up up up” before he moved to screaming!).

With dogs, it can be so easy to simply miss the more subtle behaviors that might occur before a bigger “problem” behavior. For example, my dog Otis tends to hump if the environment signals that play or food is available but it isn’t coming. However, before he humps, historically, he would stand and look at you, do a little playful shuffle, and then boop your hip. If those behaviors don’t work, then he’d move to humping. Most of the time now, I try to arrange conditions so that those behaviors don’t get cued if interaction/food/play isn’t available. But if they show up, I sure as hell am going to respond to the earlier, subtle (lower intensity) behaviors so I don’t have to reinforce humping, which is harder to ignore (I’ll have to do a whole other post on “ignoring” because there is much more to say).

If the individual is performing these behaviors, it’s because the environment has signaled that some outcome is available contingent on those behaviors. Two things pop into my mind here: I can change what the environment signals is available (i.e. change conditions), and if the behaviors are already showing up (like in the moment) or I can’t easily control (or even predict) the conditions I need to change, I can try to reinforce one of the earlier, lower intensity behaviors so that is what gets reinforced (technically, I could reinforce some other behavior that isn’t showing up in those conditions but would meet the same function of the behavior, but I don’t need to do that given that precursors are showing up with these examples). With Ford, that’s taking him out of the high chair as soon as he communicates via sign language or a word/phrase that he’d like to be put on the ground. I want those behaviors to contact reinforcement rather than screaming. With Otis, that’s grabbing the toy that’s in the yard when he stands in front of me and does that playful pounce so that that behavior is reinforced rather than humping.

If getting down from the high chair isn’t available to Ford or play isn’t available to Otis, it’s ultimately on me to teach that (this is related to stimulus control).

To be clear: I am not saying that I think you need to always give kids and dogs exactly what they want when they want it (mostly because I know that’s not practical). I am saying that if the escalated behavior is likely going to contact reinforcement, then I would rather have the lower intensity precursor behaviors contact reinforcement in most cases. If I don’t want any of those behaviors to get reinforced, then I need to change conditions and teach when certain outcomes are available and when they are not. I am still likely to reinforce the lower intensity behaviors in a moment when they’re already showing up and sort out what to change for next time (if reinforcing these more subtle behaviors poses a problem), and that is the main point I am trying to make with this article.

(For what it’s worth, we can also teach dogs and kids redirection cues. But I am not going to go down that tangent here.)

Here Are Some Takeaways Related to Reinforcing Lower Intensity Behavior Before Your Dog Escalates

• If behavior is showing up, it’s because the environment signaled that some outcome is available contingent on that behavior (this is an oversimplification – there’s lots that goes into “conditions” that predict behavior).

• There are often lower intensity behaviors that show up before dogs escalate to higher intensity behaviors (these precursor behaviors can be our best friends!!). If the higher intensity behaviors are likely to contact reinforcement, I’d be very inclined to reinforce the lower intensity behaviors to avoid the escalation and adding to the reinforcement history of the higher intensity behaviors.

• If you don’t want any of the behaviors showing up in that context, then we need to change what the environment is signaling. We need to teach our dogs when certain things are available and when they are not.

• If you’re ignoring the subtle behaviors, be honest about whether you’re capable of ignoring the escalation (or if the environment is likely to reinforce the escalation in some way). (Note: I don’t generally recommend ignoring as a strategy in the first place – it’s a lot harder to do than it sounds and tends to just suck for the learner! If you plan to use any sort of extinction, I think ethically we should be taking data and doing it systematically.)

Lesson Two: Big Behavioral Repertoires Can Help Prevent a Lot of Frustration

I watched as Ford tried four different behaviors before he got what he was behaving to access: a parent taking him out of the high chair. When one didn’t work, he moved onto another. He has a reinforcement history for all of those behaviors.

When reinforcement is signaled but blocked, that’s usually where the feeling we describe as frustration shows up. But if your dog has a big behavior repertoire, they are more likely to keep trying other behaviors. People like to label this as resilience or persistence. You can call it whatever you want. In order to have it, you generally need a big reinforcement history for a big variety of behaviors.

Behavioral health is an important part of health.

Here Are Some Takeaways About Dog Behavior, Health and ‘Resilience’