The frustration, regulate it without suppressing it

What is frustration ?

It is an emotion. It is a spontaneous short-lived physiological and uncontrollable reaction, in response to the impossibility to get or access an element.

Examples :

- your dog barks for his ball has gone under the couch

- your dog pinches you for you stop him from passing

Your dog is not commanding you, he does not regulate his patience, or rather his impatience, or his powerlessness.

Case : J.

J. has learned to open a door with his nose when he sees his humans go through it and wants to see what they're doing. Sometimes, they leave the door open. J. is curious and loves watching.

When J. cannot open the door, he barks ; which he does not when he manage to open it. His frustration is expressed that way.

My goal is to ensure that his failure does not cause a "drama" for him.

My difficulty was to think of a plan without his humans having to intervene.

Extinction

In behavior, extinction occurs when the reinforcer of a behavior disappears, leading to the decrease or disappearance of that latter one. To illustrate the situation: the engine is no longer fueled, the car no longer runs.

The issue is that when extinction and frustration are combined, we often get an extinction burst: an accentuation of behaviors that were reinforced until then.

For J., the reinforcer was : see what is going on on the other side.

If I use extinction in his situation, I'll see for him to fail and will wait for him to resign himself to failing, at the risk of him barking over and over. The duration of this burst depends on each individual.

Furthermore, I won't have taught him that being frustrated isn't a big deal.

The strategy I saw to implement for J.

I mean to get the emotion of frustration (= to make him able to modulate it if it appears) off, not just to suppress the behaviors associated with it (= to stop allowing him access to the reinforcer).

Then I opted for two exercices :

- Place one of his favorite balls under a transparent lid > as he starts trying to get it, throw him another ball or toss treats.

- Place one of his favorite balls or some treats behind the door, which he barks at when he cannot open it to see what's on the other side > offer him a game or treats as he walks towards the door

My whole point is to change his perception of failing in getting something into success in getting something else. Little by little, the ratio is altered in order to create the possibility of getting something and to maintain that "failure is cool, not frustrating or annoying".