Understanding Barrier Frustration in Dogs

So there you have it; a dog that develops frustration when certain barriers prevent him from interacting with his environment in the way he desires. Often, these behaviors are seen in dogs that have a history of living at large, leash-free and allowed to wander around. Other times, they develop when the dog is deprived from regular social interactions with people or other dogs. This is often seen in animals that have been left in their yard all day with little stimulation in their life. Once they are out in the real world, things are too exciting to cope with!

So how do you treat a dog with barrier frustration? The solution may sound very easy: just remove the barrier! Yet, this will not help. First of all, because there are leash laws to abide to and living in a litigious society you certainly do not want to deal with problems derived from some incident due to your dog's unruly behavior and your neglect. Second, allowing your dog to interact freely with every dog he sees does not teach him any form of impulse control. After all, you won't buy your child every toy he sees at the supermarket just to make him shut up! Rather, you try to teach him more appropriate manners and coping skills. "Mommy can't buy you the toy now, but when we go home, we can play a fun game!"

A good way to help your dog with this problem is to enroll in a "Reactive Rover" class. Many trainers organize these classes where reactive dogs with barrier frustration are taught new coping skills along with other dogs with similar problems. These classes offer safe, remedial socialization, both on and off-leash if safety permits. The structured setting and systematic training approaches of these classes conducted under the supervision and guidance of a trainer, offer the ideal solution to the problem.

An alternative, is to try systematic desensitization under your dog's threshold levels so to help him better cope with the frustration since the trigger will be made less salient. However, you will also need to train a default operant behavior to replace the barking and lunging. You may, therefore, teach your dog to look at you, do a default sit or perform any other behavior that is incompatible with the barking and lunging. You can read more about this method by reading my article on "differential reinforcement of incompatible behaviors." A good place to start practicing this is with your dog by a pet store parking lot at a distance from other dogs where your dog is capable of responding to your cues. Happy training!