“However, remember that a fundamental criterion of emotional and behavioral health—not to mention enrichment—is agency. Forcing a dog to receive petting or massage against their will is the opposite of giving them control over their environment and outcomes. To the educated eye, the body language and behaviors being exhibited by those dogs are not bad or defective; they are communicating discomfort and stress in healthy, appropriate ways, and those signals are being ignored by the humans. Eventually the dogs learn that nothing they do changes their outcome, so they give up and lie still. That is the very definition of learned helplessness, not counterconditioning and desensitization, much less relaxation.”