Fever pets

Training Your Dog Through Punishment Should Be a Thing Of The Past
By Darren Gibson

Punishment as a form of training is still widely used by dog owners who know no better when training a dog. What your dog sees as a punishment can take many forms: verbal (shouting or an angry tone), physical (kicking, hitting or other forced actions such as rubbing his nose in the carpet) or even the posture of his master. No dog wants to be punished, nor will he do anything 'on purpose' and be aware of the (physical) consequences beforehand.

If you come home to find your dog has upset the garbage can and spread the contents all over the house, he is unlikely to realize when he is being yelled at that it is because of the mess he made some hours ago. What he will do is associate the return of his master with physical or verbal punishment, making him anxious about you returning home. You may even begin to notice your dog showing fear towards you if your training methods have included physical punishment.

If you see your dog crawling or slinking around looking "guilty" about the time you have noticed something he did earlier, you might think he knows he has done something wrong. This is not the case. Dogs have no sense of right and wrong. When shouted at, he is not acting "guilty", but is in fact just showing submissive posture in response to your harsh tone of voice or angry demeanor.

There are forms of behavior modification that may be acceptable even though they are based upon negative reinforcement that you could use in correcting unwanted behavior in a dog. If this is a method you wish to use, it is best that the 'perceived punishment' does not come from you, but instead comes from the environment your dog is in. For instance, noise can be an effective form of correction. When the dog is caught doing something that is undesirable, a sudden loud noise can disrupt what he is doing. It is important that the sound does not appear to come from you, but is something that 'mystically occurs' whenever he is misbehaving - it can come from an air horn or a tin full of beans that is shaken to make a noise. In time, your dog will associate the unwanted noise with the behavior you want to correct and avoid doing it again, even when you are not around.

If any of the above sounds familiar to you, or punishment to correct your dog's behavior is not the way you want to train your dog, why not consider positive reinforcement as a training method? Positive reinforcement is the exact opposite of punishment as a dog training technique, and providing you are consistent, it can be much more effective, rewarding and enjoyable for both you and your dog.