Extinction Burst
What do dinosaurs have to do with dogs?
Nothing at all! When we think extinction, we think dinosaurs. Before training dogs, dinosaurs were top of mind. Now, the thoughts of dinosaurs are long gone. With dogs, extinction is very different, and an everyday affair.
To effectively explain an extinction burst, we need a scenario:
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Your friendly little puppy, Fido, has grown into a substantially sized, bouncy, adolescent dog. When he was little, Fido would jump on you to be picked up. No one ever turned him down - he was just.so.cute. Jumping up for Fido meant attention and closeness to his humans. The attention and closeness reinforced the jumping.
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As Jean Donaldson says, "dogs do what works." Jumping up worked for Fido. When we see a behavior in our dogs, that behavior is working. This means that your dog is being reinforced in some way for doing that behavior.
Let's take a closer look at unwanted jumping. The once cute behavior has become a nuisance. How do we stop this behavior?
We have a few ways to approach this. (1) We can teach a different behavior, and have that behavior be reinforced by what the dogs wants, or (2) we can ignore the behavior.
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For now, we will discuss option 2: all of a sudden, we stop paying any attention to Fido for jumping -- we have removed Fido's reinforcer for jumping. What does Fido do? Most likely, he will jump higher, harder and/or more frequently. Why? He is frustrated! The behavior that used to work for him, is no longer working. The increase in intensity and frequency is an extinction burst.
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An extinction burst happens when a previously reinforced behavior is no longer being reinforced. To send the behavior to extinction, we have to power through this burst (and this can be HARD) and never reinforce the behavior in the old, undesired way again (this can be harder).
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To effectively squash a behavior using extinction, follow the rules below.
The
Rules
If you want to stop a dog's behavior using extinction, follow these rules:
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Identify the behavior (jumping)
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Identify what is reinforcing the behavior (attention)
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Remove the reinforcer from the behavior every time (turn away, ignore, etc.)
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Stick through the increase in the unwanted behavior (this is the extinction burst)
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Continue not providing the behavior's reinforcer if your dog tries again
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The Even Better Way
Combining extinction with a different behavior is very powerful and is more effective and efficient than extinction alone. Here's what to do:
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Identify the behavior (jumping)
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Identify what is reinforcing the behavior (attention)
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Identify a behavior that you would like instead of the jumping (sitting)
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When your dog approaches you to jump, preempt the jump with a "sit" cue. When he does, give him the reinforcer he used to seek with the unwanted behavior (attention)
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If/when he tries the unwanted behavior, ignore for a few seconds, then cue the alternate behavior and provide the reinforcer (Fido jumps, you turn away, when all four feet are on floor, you turn around, say "sit" and when Fido does, he gets an abundance of attention)
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Do this every time until jumping ceases because your dog has figured out it is more rewarding to come to you and sit to get his much desired attention.
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