You are walking your dog down a busy street, and he suddenly sees another dog turn the corner. He begins to bounce and cry, pulling on the leash and yelling as he wags his tail excitedly. He wants to go and see the other dog!
This is just one example of barrier frustration. Barrier frustration is when your dog is blocked from doing something he wants to do and feels frustrated about it. The barrier could be:
- Wanting to go out but the door is shut
- Wanting to come in but the door is shut
- Wanting out of a kennel
- Wanting on the other side of a fence
Barriers don’t have to be physical. As an example, if a dog is trained not to go into a specific room but wants in, they may sit at the open door and whine. The barrier is mental, but they still feel frustrated because they can’t go in.
Signs of Barrier Frustration
If you’re new to dogs, it may be hard to tell when a dog is feeling anxious, aggressive or frustrated. In general, dogs are experiencing barrier frustration when they are whining, barking, growling or lunging while being held back by something.
Although the dog may also be feeling a bit anxious or aggressive, barrier frustration is still a big part of their actions.
Managing Barrier Frustration
Barrier frustration can happen with almost any part of your dog’s life. Maybe you have their food bowl in their hands, and they want it! Now! They rear on their hind legs and howl. They’re experiencing barrier frustration in that one tiny moment, and that’s just one part of their day.
Part of barrier frustration is working with your pet through counter conditioning. If your dog gets frustrated by seeing people pass by while they’re on the other side of a fence, you might ask for help from a friend to practice walking by at a distance while you reward your pet for not reacting.
If your dog still reacts, you’ll need the friend to go farther away and stay at that level to make counter conditioning successful. When the dog is at a level where they can see the stimulus but aren’t reacting, feed them a small succession of high value treats so they associate a person (even at a distance) with a positive thing.
Great books that detail how to counter condition your pet include Control Unleashed: Reactive to Relaxed and Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0: New Practical Techniques for Fear, Frustration, and Aggression in Dogs.
Another way to manage barrier frustration is to help reduce the chances of it happening. If your dog is constantly barking out a window, covering the window so they can’t see out it can help. Privacy screens and bushes to give the dog distance from a fence can help make it harder to see and fence fight with a neighbor dog.
A good management program for a dog with barrier frustration will likely include both reducing the areas your dog is frustrated, and counter conditioning to help them feel more comfortable with the problem area.
This article may contain affiliate links. Affiliate links let us receive a small commission if you purchase the item through the link. It costs nothing additional to you, but helps us maintain the website.
Similar Posts:
- Separation Anxiety in Chihuahuas
- Final Results: Protocol for Relaxation
- Review of Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful or Reactive Dog
- Keep Your Pup from Table Surfing this Thanksgiving
- Halloween Events For Your Dog
[…] to work for Tank. It did help, however, in that I realized his issue isn’t so much anxiety as barrier frustration. He whines when there is a door that is shut, when his leash is on and he knows he’s going out, […]
Great information, Andrea! I do need to work on barrier frustration with Henry. He gets overly excited when he sees any other dogs, critters, or people. How dare they come into his line of sight and not play with him. LOL Great article, which has inspired to work on this more with Henry.
I’m sure it’s annoying, but that’s also so adorable!
Excellent info, Andrea. I all too often see other dogs who definitely have barrier frustration. Right after we adopted our Chelsey (A GSD/Akita mix), I trained her so well, she’d never enter a room unless I gave her the command! She was so amazing and easy to train. Enter our five Huskies…very different, LOL! Although they could have learned from taking a few tips from Chelsey, they did respect boundaries (unless a cat or squirrel meandered by)! You have some great helpful tips! Sharing and Pinning!
Fascinating. I did not realise this was a genuine issue for dog owners. I am sharing this and scheduling a re-share because this will open a lot of eyes! Having some idea of how to cope is important and I appreciate your suggestions for managing this issue. Thank you.
Fantastic post and as I am learning with Nili daily and training her it was just what I needed to read to understand more her actions so that I can work on them more. Thanks so so much