Does Punishing My Dog Really Work?
Punishment is the use of an adverse stimulus on your dog in order to reduce the probability of a problematic behavior in the future. Punishment is generally considered to be only marginally effective in dog training due to the time gap between behavior and reinforcement. An example of punishment might be: An owner comes home to find some shredded paper on the floor. He angrily proceeds to drag the dog to the mess and both verbally and physically reprimand the dog for the mess.
This dog will almost certainly be afraid of his owner’s actions. This dog may show subordinate behavior or even aggression as a result of the forceful nature of the punishment. The dog may not make the association between the act and the punishment. The timing between events makes it extremely difficult for the dog to make a connection.
Punishment should be avoided whenever possible. Those who have used punishment as a training tool often say it rarely works out, admitting that the technique may not teach the dog anything and may very well cause conflict in the relationship between the dog and its owner.
dogandmaster on December 26th 2006 in Dog Training
