Attention-Seeking Dogs

[LaurenG]

I found this humorous because I'd not seen or heard of this specific behavior in dogs before.

One thing I always find amazing is dogs’ ability to engage in numerous weird and wonderful behaviors in order to get attention. In that respect they're like children. A colleague forwarded me a video of a 3-year-old child throwing a tantrum. The boy hurled himself to the floor and started rolling around and screaming. His dad, videoing the incident, moved out of sight behind a room divider, but kept filming. The boy picked himself up, ran to where his dad could see him, and threw himself on the floor again, kicking and screaming. This happened several times, each time when the dad walked out of view.

Kids’ tantrums appear volitional, interruptible, and designed to attract maximum attention. A positive result – attention or some other positive outcome – assures more of the same. A negative result – attention withdrawal – has the opposite effect. It’s the same for dogs.

One owner reported to me that her dog was “fish tailing": She said he'd throw himself on the ground and writhe around “like a fish flipping around in the bottom of a boat.” Her vet thought the dog was having seizures, and a veterinary neurologist, consulted for a second opinion, agreed. The dog was treated with an anticonvulsant. When this approach didn't help, I was consulted.

Although I was tempted to concur with the neurological diagnosis, I thought I'd try the technique of “attention withdrawal” before I proceeded with more sophisticated therapies. I instructed the dog’s owner to blow a duck call (a neutral “bridging” stimulus) and then withdraw all attention from the dog whenever it engaged in the behavior. After one week the dog was 50 percent better, and by three weeks it had ceased its antics.

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http://wholelivingdaily.wholeliving.com/2010/09/attention-seeking-dogs.html