Behavior Change Requires Environment Change
Positive reinforcement training sessions with your pet has an abundance of advantages and is undoubtedly helpful in a behavior modification program. Through training, our pets can develop rich reinforcement histories with desirable behaviors, we can use training sessions to strengthen our cues in lots of different environments, and we can use our cues to develop a dialogue with our pet to prompt alternate behavior in contrast to undesirable behavior. Training affords us an opportunity to help increase our pet’s behavioral repertoire which in turn enhances their behavioral health. Not to mention, frequent, short, positive training sessions improves your relationship with your pet. There’s data to back it up!
But what if I told you this? Training alone is not enough.
As Dr. Susan Friedman always reminds us, behavior does not occur in a vacuum. Behavior is a function of the environment. There are learned environment cues and naturally occurring reinforcers all around our pets’ environment.
For an effective and ethical behavior modification program, adjusting the environment to prevent further rehearsal of the problem behavior and setting the stage for desirable behavior is the name of the game. In fact, sometimes environment change is the recipe for behavior success all on its own- no official training required.
This could mean closing your blinds and incorporating a sound machine when you aren’t home to block out the auditory stimulus that’s been paired with a barking reinforcement history. Or increasing the distance between your dog and the thing they are afraid of with the assistance of physical barriers. Perhaps offering your hands lower to the ground during greeting interactions to provide reinforcers closer to the ground, reducing the need to jump.
These examples require a lot of assumptions so here’s a practical example from my cat, Louie:
Diet management for Louie has been an evolving program in our household and is one that requires zero training, just environment change. Louie has a history of gorging food then regurgitating. Feedings on a timed schedule (=environment cue that predicts food) increased the likelihood of eating too fast so I’ve opted for a “free feed” diet management strategy (also called “grazing” or “adlib feeding strategy”). Access to a bowl full of food had been effective on most days, but if he wasn’t particularly enriched one day or was getting chased by the other cat a little more one day, he would to turn to the bowl of food and engage in the gorging behavior followed by regurgitating a large portion of food. Also, if I was late to fill the bowl and it had gone empty, filling the empty bowl also cued the gorging behavior.
So I opted for a puzzle feeder. Cats are built to be opportunistic predators. They are hardwired to work for food. This simple change in the environment, along with my concerted effort to check that it did not go empty, has been a game changer. The puzzle feeder is an environment solution that 1) makes the gorging behavior harder to do and 2) sets the stage for the alternate behavior of using his paws to get food.
Early on, he wasn’t well practiced in using his paws, so there was a little trial and error in finding the right puzzle feeder that wasn’t too advanced for his skillset. He actually worked up to the pawing-out-food behavior with a tissue box flipped on its side and filled with food which was a little easier to practice with and build up the skill.
With all of this in mind, it’s important to remember that every animal is an individual, and what works for one animal isn’t necessarily the fix for another. After we adjust the environment, there’s a critical step that involves observing what the animal does next in these new conditions. Let their behavior be the measure of an effective management strategy, or if additional management or training needs to be done.
