HOw To Address typical appeasement behaviours
Active submission (appeasement)
By Pat Miller
Some of the gestures exhibited by a dog who is demonstrating active submission can be obnoxious to us humans. The important thing to recognize is that, with these behaviors, the dog is communicating his recognition that you are his leader, a higher-ranked individual. Be a good leader and let him know how he can best appease you by redirecting his behavior into something less bothersome.
• Nuzzling – Dog pushes muzzle against you, perhaps under your arm or hand. If you respond by giving the dog attention (petting, making eye contact, speaking to him) you are positively reinforcing the behavior and it will continue or increase. This is fine if you like the behavior – and some people do. It can, however, become annoying if the dog is very persistent.
You may prefer to extinguish the behavior using “negative punishment.” When the dog nuzzles you, turn away or even walk away. The dog is seeking attention. If nuzzling consistently evokes the opposite of the intended response – attention goes away – the behavior will stop. Of course, you must educate all family members and visitors to respond to nuzzling in the same way, or the behavior will be randomly reinforced and will persist.
dog appeasement signals
Another option is to put the behavior on cue, and teach the dog that nudging only works to elicit attention when you ask for it. You can also preempt the nuzzle by consistently asking the dog for an incompatible behavior that gains him the attention he seeks. A “sit” or “down” can serve as incompatible and polite attention-seeking behaviors if you consistently give your dog attention for those.
• Licking – Dog licks body parts and clothes, including lip-licking, ear-licking, and nose-licking. Again, if you like this behavior, you can encourage it with positive reinforcement – giving your dog the attention he seeks when he licks.
If you don’t enjoy your dog’s licking, use negative punishment (licking makes you go away) and install an incompatible behavior in its place. Having your dog hold a toy in mouth when he approaches people is a great attention-eliciting behavior that’s incompatible with licking.
• Jumping up – Dog puts paws on human body, often projecting body against human with some force. A lot of small-dog owners don’t seem to object to jumping up as an attention-getter, and a lot of small dogs are incorrigible jump-uppers as a result. Not all people with small dogs like this, however, and most people who live with medium-to-large dogs much prefer four-on-the-floor.
Jumping as an attention-getting behavior is positively reinforced by attention, even behavior that dog owners may offer to try to reduce jumping up, such as pushing the dog away, or telling him to get down. Once again, removing yourself from contact with the dog – taking the attention away – will reduce the behavior, especially if you replace it by reinforcing an incompatible behavior such as sit or down. See the pattern yet?
• Paw lifts and pawing motions – Dog lifts paw or paws at human. While uncontrolled pawing behavior can be annoying, a simple paw lift is a lovely behavior to put on cue and turn into a series of fun and useful behaviors. A paw lift on cue can become “shake,” “wave,” “high five,” and “salute,” and pawing motions can be useful for turning appliances on and off, indicating found objects for dogs doing scent and search work, pushing a ball (canine soccer!), and playing an electronic keyboard. Persistent, annoying pawing is best extinguished by ignoring the behavior and putting an incompatible behavior on cue, such as four-on-the- floor, or a gentle paw lift.
• Teeth clacking – Dog’s teeth click or chatter. This is an innocuous behavior, and one that you can simply ignore – unless you’re an avid trainer and want to encourage it by clicking and treating when the dog offers it, then putting it on cue.
• Crouching – Dog lowers his body closer to the ground. This is also an innocuous attention-seeking behavior. If it bothers you, ignore it, and reinforce your dog when he approaches you standing taller. Training, using positive methods, will also increase your dog’s confidence and decrease incidents where he feels compelled to make himself smaller.
• Pretzeling – Dog corkscrews his body into a “C” shape. This is also a harmless, kind of cute behavior that I’d be tempted to reinforce and put on cue!
• Play bow – Dog lowers his forequarters while keeping his hindquarters elevated. This is a lovely behavior, and I can’t imagine someone wanting to extinguish it. I’d reinforce and put it on cue.
• Smiling – Dog lifts his lips into a grimace that is unaccompanied by other behaviors that would indicate at threat. I see no reason to try to make this behavior go away as long as humans around the dog understand that it’s not an aggressive behavior. I think it’s quite cute! I’d encourage it by clicking and treating when the dog offers a smile, and then put it on cue!