During the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy Know the Nose 2.0 conference panel, we got into a conversation about motivation vs. drive. vs. arousal…. and then today I started repair on my drywall from one too many body slams from Powder…. the thoughts prompted me to make this post….
The distinction of arousal and drive is critical. Our dogs come with their drive naturally. When I picked Powder up from her breeder, my breeder told me “she is a hot puppy”. Not only a Maranatha Lab… but a “hot” Maranatha Lab! I should have known from Day 1 that I had a spicy girl that would live up to her name “Gunpowder”…. she is definitely a lot of dog (and a massive cuddler). There is one thing though that I have learned these last 5 years. Our dogs not only come with natural drive, but they also come with natural arousal. Arousal can be influenced and to get the dog working their best, we need to keep them in their comfortable range. For Powder, her comfortable arousal range is high to very high. Her saving grace is that her drive is equal or greater than her arousal. If she wasn’t a very high drive dog… our journey would have been very different.
When you have natural arousal that is higher than the dog’s natural drive, you get frantic behavior. When you have high arousal that is almost as high as the dog’s drive, you get massive intensity. The difference is in effectiveness.
If your dog is frantic and exhibiting telltale behaviors that block their ability to work at all, you don’t have a high drive dog. You have a higher arousal than drive dog. That type of dog is really tough because you need to drop arousal and increase motivation to get effectiveness. But, if you have an erratic dog who is just beyond being truly effective but is still capable of working and showing glimmers, your dog’s arousal is operating just slightly higher than their drive and nudging their arousal down can focus intensity.
Basically…. you need to know how to truly assess your dog’s natural arousal and drive levels. Arousal needs to be kept below their natural drive and if the arousal is generally higher than their drive, then you really need to build focused motivation.
Regarding the comfortable arousal range, my preference when working my dog is to generally have them at the higher end of the range provided than the arousal stays lower than their drive level. Interestingly, high arousal dogs CAN be in too low of an arousal state. I have seen this in Powder and it manifests in her as scavenging type behavior. In that case, I actually bump her arousal UP and I have my dog back.
Assessing my dog’s arousal state is a second by second affair, and when working my dog, I am constantly adjusting. Arousal state of the day will also feed my decision for on leash versus off leash as off leash generally spikes arousal… and I can regulate arousal to some extent by feel in the line.
My journey with Powder has been nothing short of a master class in the intersection of arousal and drive. It’s been trial by fire… sink or swim…. riding the razor’s edge between brilliance and a train wreck. She has truly been an incredible teacher and to come together with her as a teammate has been truly magical.
Powder SMTx4
1st Overall Gunnison CO Summit Trial
1st Overall Montrose CO Summit Trial
2nd Overall Centreville MD Summit Trial
1st Overall Cumming GA Summit Trial
Hello! I took your Introduction to Nosework class some years ago and loved it. So clear and effective! (I am not a competitor and haven’t gone beyond that intro level.)
Thanks for sharing this. I read and thought my way through this post and, of course, it makes so much sense.
Yes! So many of us confuse drive and arousal. Personally, I don’t want a high-drive dog. I want what I have in Dude – a moderate-to-high drive dog with an off-switch. If I understand correctly, we can moderate the dog’s arousal and I can definitely see when Dude’s arousal is higher than his drive. He’s a fast searcher but if over-aroused his searching can get frantic and there’s some frustration (containers!) He’s almost 10 and we’ve been at NW for 4 years but I still struggle with ways to decrease his arousal. I’m working on it! I appreciate the distinction since I’ve heard too many handlers misuse the term “high drive dog” when they’re just describing a dog who works consistently.
Great subject, thanks for sharing!
I have a lab with a lot of drive, but lately her arousal has gotten too high. She has always worked best in a moderate arousal. I can’t figure out how to help her in the situation. Trying to calm her down by giving her time to settle before searching seems to just stress her out more! At this point she is getting less and less effective and she has always worked in a very focused and smart way, now I get more running around and panting and less effective searching.
Could you share some pracital ideas for how to moderate arousal down, without loosing drive or motivation??
I can absolutely do that in future installments and I plan a webinar as the topic is not something that I can really adequately cover in a single comment. But based on what you are telling me, your dog’s natural arousal is higher than their natural drive. So you need to lower her arousal state AND build fluency in searching (probably more straightforward hides). Fluency is not sensitive to arousal fluctuation. I hope this helps!
Hey! I have a high drive Belgian Malinois. She’s an EDD. I’m curious if you have any tips on having a reliable “out” with her reward even when we are at work. I find that at home and at the park when we are practicing, her out is great. We have virtually no issues.
But at work and in training she gets much more excited or aroused and her out is not as reliable. I know a lot of it can be handler error, and some of it is definitely my fault and my own nerves flowing down leash around people watching her not listen to me, which I’m working on for sure.
But it just seems that her excitement level makes her forget most of her training on this and we have a hard time. Are there things I can do at work to bring her arousement level down a bit? I obviously don’t want her drive for finding odor to go down at all. Your article talked a lot about arousal vs drive. And it seems that when she has her reward her natural arousal is higher than her natural drive and that’s what creates this issue. And that arousal needs to be kept below drive and if not you need to build focused motivation. I’m just curious how this works when she is only behaving like this at work and not in other environments. And if you have any tips for bringing arousal down when she has the reward. I can actually see her arousal settle a little bit when she eventually gives me the toy. But I want her to “want” to give me the toy if that makes sense?