What is Learned Helplessness?

Have you heard the term ‘learned helplessness’ before? This is an important term in dog training, so we’re going to dive into what it is and why it matters.

Learned helplessness is something we see too often. In our consultations, dog guardians report that their dog stopped walking, laid down on walks, froze, or refused to walk. This usually occurs in multiple situations, the car, vet, new places, and even the park.

In other cases, we arrive at the home and see listless dogs, not excited or running away, lying down looking. Often these cases show no natural dog behavior, e.g., barking, jumping, tail wagging, mouth open relaxed, or curiosity.

The Unfortunate Truth About Learned Helplessness

We have been on both sides of training, so we know firsthand what learned helplessness looks like. What we see in these cases is a history of punishment.

Most adult dogs have been corrected from an early age for exploratory behavior, which may be putting things in their mouth, jumping up to sniff counters or humans. Something bad happens if they offer a behavior, so they stop offering exploratory behavior. When we punish an animal or small child, they don’t make the connection to the punishment, only that this human is hurting or scaring them.

In the case of a leash correction, the dog is sniffing on their walk, which may lead to them pulling to a bush, the human jerking the leash, shocks, or verbal reprimand; the dog stops because this scares or hurts them, not because they understand what the handler wants. Dogs have the cognition of a 2.5-year-old child. For example: If you were at Disneyland and your toddler was pulling toward Tomorrowland, you verbally reprimand them for pulling. Would a 2-year-old child make the connection? What would happen to that toddler if you verbally reprimanded them multiple times a day?

Learned helplessness is the inability to escape an aversive stimulus. The animal/child can not communicate to anyone for help and will stop trying. This happens to abuse victims; they no longer feel they can leave, so they stay.

A Learned Helplessness Study

Learned helplessness was first discovered by scientists studying human clinical depression. The study was done on three groups of dogs;

Group 1) would receive electrical shocks that they could turn off with a lever

Group 2) would be shocked, but they could not shut off the levers themselves

Group 3) did not receive any shocks.

The inescapable shock was how they tested for learned helplessness, and for this state to occur, the event had been traumatic, leading the dogs to feel that the events were out of their control. When they tested this theory, they put the dogs inside a box, where one side produced electric shocks, and the other side did not. The dogs could jump over the low partition to escape the shock.

The results were that the dogs that did not receive the shocks and those that learned they could push the lever to stop the shock jumped over the wall to escape. The dogs that received the inescapable shocks lay down and whimpered; they did not try and escape.

Both cases above are cases where the dogs have no choice or agency. Dogs have to do what we say, and often the most kind-hearted clients also force walks, car rides, etc. These actions are often for the dog; the client is trying to help them. The vet visits often have to happen, but we can do better than this and should.

 

If you are experiencing any of the symptoms listed above, don’t panic. You’re not a bed pet parent. Dog training is complex, so we want to help you navigate this situation as soon as possible. Reach out today!