How ANTs Can Influence Your Dog Training
Humans tend to be negative.
If you have ever been to a party filled with wonderful, friendly interactions but still left blushing over your poorly told joke, it is because of something called negativity bias. Neuroscientist Dr. Rick Hanson writes, “The nervous system scans for, reacts to, stores, and recalls negative information about oneself and one’s world. The brain is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones. The natural result is a growing – and unfair – residue of emotional pain, pessimism, and numbing inhibition in implicit memory.” Having a negative (scary, embarrassing, stressful, etc) experience activates our sympathetic nervous system, which impacts almost all of the processes in our bodies. Our pupils dilate, our breathing becomes short, our heart rate accelerates – and our thoughts are affected, as well. This is because when the SNS is activated, we are in what is typically known as “fight or flight”. Under these circumstances, the most reasonable people have the potential to lose control of the way they would ordinarily think. A situation does not need to be enormously catastrophic to illicit this response, and the results linger long after the fact (and that is why dropping your perfect coffee could be enough to ruin your morning).
What do ants look like?
Automatic negative thoughts, or ANTs, are often radical and unfounded. They can also lead to impulsive or poorly reasoned decision making. There are many types of ANT’s, including…
Overgeneralisation, or coming to a conclusion based upon a single event or piece of information: “I’ll never be able to bring my dog to the pet store. He humiliated me the time that I brought him!”
Catastrophising, or overestimating the chances of disaster: “If I were to take my dog to class he’d just disrupt the whole time and probably wouldn’t learn anything, anyway.”
“Should” and “must” statements: “I’m sick of taking treats on every walk. He should just get over himself (fear of dogs, cars, etc) already!”
Filtering , or focusing on something negative while choosing to ignore positive information: “He’s doing great overall but I can’t get him to ‘stay’. He could never pass the Canine Good Citizen test.”
Fortune Telling Error, or anticipating an outcome and firmly believing your predictions to be correct. These have a great chance of becoming self-fulfilling prophecies: “He’ll always be crazy. Training him won’t work anyway, so there’s no point in trying.”
These statements and others like them have the potential to completely sabotage any attempts at training or behavior modification. Once we have started thinking negatively, ANT’s will begin to multiply and become increasingly difficult to ignore. It is extremely important to challenge feelings of negativity, and realize that we have the power to change our thoughts with the right skill set.
Getting rid of ANTs:
If you would like to stop ANTs, first try to realize that they are happening. Remember that you can turn your thoughts around – even if it doesn’t feel like it, yet. Stop what you are doing and remove yourself from your stressors if possible. Many find that breathing techniques (like deep or 4-7-8 breathing) help them to become grounded enough to re-examine their thoughts. Others have more luck with taking a walk or listening to music. If this isn’t enough, you may find yourself being carried away by an army of red ANTs, which could lead you to fatalistic thoughts like, “I hate this dog! I wish I never got him.”, or “I’ll never be able to fix him. I should just give up.” When ANTs are overpowering, experts have recommended that you challenge them with questions, like…
Is it true?
Can I absolutely know that it’s true?
What would I tell someone who I loved that was in this situation?
Where would I be without this thought?
(It’s a great idea to write the above answers down, too!) Some people have luck with minimizing their ANTs. A question as simple as “so what?” or “who cares?” can be profoundly impactful if truly considered. Additionally, some people may find they befit from reading up on the autonomic nervous system, which controls the sympathetic nervous system (as well as it’s more reasonable counterpart, the parasympathetic nervous system). Doing so can help those who would like a better idea of what is happening to their brains when faced with these thoughts and situations, and help provide deeper understanding of why it can be so easy to lose control. Negative thinking will never lead to positive change. If you would like to make a difference in your dog’s behavior, the first step is knowing and believing that it’s possible. If you’re struggling to believe that, learn to argue with your negative-self. Yell “stop” out loud. Take a walk. Take a deep breath. Count down from ten. Whatever you do, don’t let ANTs take away from your success.