02/12/2025
Foot tapping in dogs ❤️
This morning, I’ve been thinking about stimming, or self stimulatory behaviour. In humans, self-stimulatory behavior is the repetition of physical movements, sounds, words, moving objects, or other behaviors. It can be both conscious and subconscious.
I’m AuDHD and I stim, it’s not noticeable, I tap my fingers, touch my hair, jiggle my feet, all sorts of low level repetitive movement. Sometimes I’m aware of it, sometimes not. I cannot sit still for any length of time without some movement.
People stim for a variety of reasons, sensory input and enjoyment, for example, listening to sounds/music, touching fabrics and watching lights, they may use it to stay calm, or to express joy or other emotions, for example, flapping hands with happiness or excitement, or rocking in distress.
And now onto dogs….
I believe many of our working dogs have what we would identify as autistic/neurodivergent traits in humans. Unlike in humans however, in working dogs, these traits have been selected for ‘because’ it benefits their working role, i.e. Labradors wanting to carry things around in their mouths, spaniels wanting to run and turn in circles and quarter. What are these behaviours if not repetitive behaviours that the dogs get huge amounts of enjoyment from.
I think I got to thinking about reinforcement of some of these behaviours.
Allie taps her feet when she’s excited. She always done it, it’s very sweet.
I’ve attempted to reduce it when training her indication for Scentwork as it looks ‘messy’.
But now I’m starting to question that. I recently posted a video of Allie training on my personal page, and there was quite a bit of discussion about whether that behaviour was being reinforced by myself in the training, I.e, training it as part of a behavioural pattern.
And then I started thinking about stimming. My stimming has ‘never’ been reinforced externally, ever. If people do notice, it usually annoys them and they ask me to stop 😆 But I NEED to do it. It’s intrinsic to my well being.
I think Allie ‘needs’ to tap her feet. She does it when she’s happy and excited. She does it in many contexts that are not training related, I.e. when I’m getting her dinner ready, when she’s having a cuddle. Sometimes I think she’s aware of it, but most of the time I think she’s not.
It’s an expression of joy x
Is it intrinsic to her well being? Maybe so.
Just as it’s intrinsic to mine.
So from now I’m embracing her tapping 😆 because it’s part of her, and just a by product of how her brain works ❤️
Food for thought x
