Field Guide · Glossary
Frustration tolerance
Reactivity and fearHow well a dog copes when something they want is delayed, blocked or taken away.
How it works
Frustration is the emotional reaction to an expectation being broken: the treat that does not arrive, the door that stays shut, the leash that stops forward movement. Dogs with low frustration tolerance react quickly and strongly in those moments, with barking, whining, pulling, digging at a barrier, mouthing or grabbing, and sometimes growling or snapping. Veterinary behavior researchers who built a questionnaire to measure frustration in dogs found that younger dogs tended to score as less tolerant. Tolerance is generally built in small steps, by practicing short, predictable waits that end well and lengthening them gradually.
What it looks like
A dog is asked to sit for dinner. At first the bowl goes down after one second of sitting. Over a week the wait grows to three seconds, then five, then a pause while the handler steps away and back. The dog who once barked and jumped at the bowl now waits with nothing more than a lip lick.
Commonly confused with
- Impulse control
- Impulse control is a trained skill: choosing a calmer behavior when a faster one is available. Frustration tolerance is the emotional capacity underneath it, how upset a dog becomes when the faster option is blocked. Practicing impulse control is one of the main ways frustration tolerance is built.
Related terms
Sources