#16 - Can't decide? Displace!

Drinking From the Toilet: Real dogs, Real training

We've all seen and experienced displacement behavior... but what does that mean? Displacement behavior is most likely to be exhibited when you (or your dog) are faced with tough choices... conflicting sources of motivation. Should I stay or should I go? If it's an easy decision... maybe staying is super amazing and going is very sad, no problem! But if both decisions are fairly equivalent (on either a good or bad scale), then we feel tension. Displacement behaviors show up right in that spot. Scratching your head, chewing your nails... or scratching, sniffing, or personal grooming if you are a dog. These are all behaviors that serve a normal function in one context, but make no sense at all in others. When we see a normal behavior like that out of context, we are often looking at a displacement behavior. Noticing displacement behavior in your training sessions? Then we should look for sources of conflicting motivation and/or social tension. Addressing the source will go a LOT farther than addressing the displacement behavior directly.
More description
We've all seen and experienced displacement behavior... but what does that mean? Displacement behavior is most likely to be exhibited when you (or your dog) are faced with tough choices... conflicting sources of motivation. Should I stay or should I go? If it's an easy decision... maybe staying is super amazing and going is very sad, no problem! But if both decisions are fairly equivalent (on either a good or bad scale), then we feel tension. Displacement behaviors show up right in that spot. Scratching your head, chewing your nails... or scratching, sniffing, or personal grooming if you are a dog. These are all behaviors that serve a normal function in one context, but make no sense at all in others. When we see a normal behavior like that out of context, we are often looking at a displacement behavior. Noticing displacement behavior in your training sessions? Then we should look for sources of conflicting motivation and/or social tension. Addressing the source will go a LOT farther than addressing the displacement behavior directly.
2017-05-22 28 min
Listen elsewhere

Available Results

Generated results are saved to your library for reuse and search.

No generated results are available for this episode yet.

Transcript

No transcript is available for this episode yet.
Sign in to generate a transcript for review.
Sign in

Chapters

No chapters available.