"You can't reward an emotion"

I'd grown up believing that you never reward a dog for "bad" behaviour. Barking is bad therefore it should not be rewarded.

So I didn't understand when the advice was to keep giving George treats when encountering a trigger, even if he is not behaving how I would like him to behave.

Once I got a greater understanding that the underlying emotion driving the behaviour is fear, it made a bit more sense.

When George reacts to a trigger, he's not using his thinking brain. His emotional response is so strong, he can't help it.

Pairing the stressful thing (the trigger) with something positive (a treat) will over time start to slowly change the associated emotion, providing the distance is great enough so that the dog remains under threshold.

You're not rewarding the fearful behaviour by giving them treats or moving away from the scary thing. You're teaching them that the appearance of a trigger means that good things will happen, and therefore there is no need to be scared.

Although once George is over threshold, the best thing we can do is increase the distance, block the visual trigger and get out of there as soon as possible.

In these cases we're not hanging around for treats. We might try engage-disengage at a greater distance depending on the situation.

I've seen this question about rewards asked often in fearful and anxious dog support groups. People explain it much better than I can. I'd recommend looking up the guides on fear in Dog Training Advice and Support.

The sentence I found really helpful when people expressed concern that they would be rewarding bad behaviour was that you can't reward an emotion. You can't reward fear.

If a person is afraid and you give them a chocolate bar and say encouraging words, that doesn't make them more afraid, or more likely to be afraid again.

It took me a while to get my head around this. I feel the judgemental looks from strangers when I am not correcting the behaviour and, even worse, it looks like I am rewarding it. I get it, I thought that too.

I had similar concerns with separation anxiety training. Surely if I come back when he whimpers or barks, I am teaching him to whimper or bark to make me come back?

I made some dreadful mistakes along the way. But when I realised that separation anxiety is a panic disorder, how could I not come back?

I don't want George to learn that I won't help if he is distressed and suffering.

The key with separation anxiety training is to come back at the very first sign of distress. Using a camera and becoming familiar with your dog’s body language is really helpful.

Every safe departure where George is under threshold teaches George that being by himself is OK. If he panics because he is alone, it reinforces the learning that being alone is scary.

Demand barking has a different approach. Luckily George hasn't had much of an issue with this beyond the puppy stages (yet...you never know!) so I don't have much experience to share.

But for a dog in distress, the best thing to do is stop the distress as soon as possible.

You're not rewarding the fear. You're trying to teach them that it's OK and they don't need to be afraid.