The Squeaky Wheel
As the idiom goes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
We’ve all witnessed the toddler having a tantrum in the grocery store, the condo resident screaming at the board meeting or perhaps the employee being vocal about their achievements to get a promotion. These are a few of the many ways that we can draw attention to something whether it’s a raise, a condo issue, or a toddler who may have been hungry.
The obvious point is that the loudest gets heard.
By now you can probably guess how this relates to dog training, but I’m going to digress anyway, because with dogs it’s not necessarily being loud to get the guardian’s attention, but something all together different…
I often get called by clients to discuss how to resolve their dog’s barking behavior. That’s not uncommon because the average dog guardian does not know how to interpret the dog’s communication, and believe me I am very happy they called before they decided to watch the latest imbecile on Tik Tok demonstrating how to be the alpha boy.
Barking is one of the ways dogs communicate and like a toddler without an ability to speak language, they too have their own vocalizations that we try to decipher which unfortunately our conclusion is that the dog is being dominant, stubborn, spiteful, just to name a few fallacies.
But the squeaky wheel I refer to is not about the dog trying to tell us something, per se, but actually just acting in typical doggie behavior of which the human deems bad and therefore has a knee jerk reaction to.
The dog greets his human by jumping is often met with a knee to the chest.
The dog counter serfs and the human grabs the dog’s collar to remove the dog.
The dog pulls on the leash and the human jerks the dog back.
It seems that there’s no shortage of dog behaviors that humans find intolerable. Actually they find plenty of human’s behaviors that they also react to as evidenced by road rage, or less risky, yelling at the barista at Star Bucks, although that can be risky too, since that person is handling your coffee!
Part of the issue is our human wiring that looks for something to correct, rather than looking for something that they like. Bad dog behavior, is “noisy”. It draws our attention, it can increase our anger or frustration which doesn’t spell anything good for the poor dog who was just being a dog. But what if, we started looking for the good behavior?
For example, rather than wait for the dog to great you by jumping, I suggest walking into the house with a handful of delicious treats and BEFORE Fido even thinks about launching himself, toss a few treats on the floor a few times until he settles. Now notice ANY behavior that isn’t jumping, and reinforce that good behavior.
Instead of waiting for Fido to jump on the kitchen counter, notice when he’s just standing or sitting near the counter. This is good behavior that should be reinforced.
And for the pulling Fido, in addition to walking him on a longer leash and increasing your own pace a bit, how about noticing when there’s slack in the leash or when he looks back at you? These are the “silent” good behaviors and reinforceable moments!
The good behavior is “quiet” in that it doesn’t draw you in, but over time, when you shift your focus to look for good behavior, you will also do good for your dog.
There’s even something good to see in the “lunatic” driver who cuts you off on the expressway. Instead of becoming upset and reactive, you could choose to see this driver not as irresponsible, but rather as someone who is on their way to the hospital to see a loved in the emergency room. This is a way to feel good in your own behavior by changing your thoughts.
We always have a choice, to react to the LOUD squeaky behavior, or alternately, seek out the quiet, good behavior, not just for the sake of your dog relationship, but perhaps to improve your human relationships too.
HAPPY TRAINING & ENLIGHTENMENT!
© Fran Berry CPDT-KA, UW-AAB all rights reserved 2026
