Recognizing Displacement Behavior While Training Your Dog

Recognizing Displacement Behavior While Training Your Dog

By Steve Cote


Displacement behavior is displayed by a dog to show that he's confused or unhappy within a situation. Regularly shown during intense dog training sessions and often missed by inexpert trainers, this behaviour is typically an indication of a stressed dog.

When he isn't sure what is expected of him your dog will show a displacement behavior, regularly right in the middle of a training program. A real instance of this is the dog that sits and scratches his neck whilst you are asking him to lie down. This dog is stalling, he is not certain what you expect thus is using a delay method to put off deciding what to try next.

Another displacement behavior is a yawn. People can find the yawn amusing saying that their dog is exhausted or bored. This is not the case, a yawning dog during training or another probably stressful situation is often worried or unhappy. Excessive sniffing the ground is another stalling strategy. The dog that sniffs an area of the ground continuously, despite the incontrovertible fact that he showed small interest in the blank area formerly, is avoiding his next move.

If you employ a good dog coach they will recognize these signs in your dog immediately. Be careful of any tutor or dog whisperer that doesn't recognize signs of stress or confusion in your dog. To be a good dog trainer suggests that the dog's happiness is always at the forefront of one's mind.

Professional and positive reward based dog trainers are continually looking for this kind of behavior. These actions are indications that the dog is unhappy and a sad dog will not learn simply. To avoid your dog showing these behaviours keep sessions short and positive. Set your dog up to succeed each time you train and use a lot of praise and incentive when training your dog anything new.




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