Appropriate Punishment

It has now been over a year since I began my desensitization programs with Holly and Miko, my fear aggressive dogs. I often try to visualize them as obedient and wonderful pets like the dogs you see on tv, or the well behaved off leash dogs I look at in awe. With that in mind, back to the reality! No matter how hard I meditate on that ideal, I still have two very rebellious young dogs, who without the right guidance could easily harm people out of fear or even out of self preservation. After many months of training through play, clicker training and pure positive reinforcement and food rewards, I have a two year old male dog with trust issues and a three year old bitch with dog aggressive tendancies. Where do I go from here? When what I am doing isn't working, what to do now?

Well, firstly, I must admit, some of what I have been doing has been working! Granted my dogs are not calm and focused one hundred percent of the time, but they are now manageable. I can walk them together without getting injured, which is a definite improvement! All our treat training and obedience games has produced a loving and fun bond between us. I now have two fun loving young and very rambunctious animals, who listen to me most of the time. The glass is half full. They love treats, but will sometimes choose to do their own thing over the food reward. I do sometimes feel like giving up! Nevertheless, as they say, "don't throw the baby out with the bath water!" Now that I have established the basics of obedience with them, it is possible to further shape their behavior using corrections and not ruin all the positive training we have done thus far. What I have been practicing has taken me a long way in their training. Now it is time to fill the glass to the top!

Punishment is the use of an adversary to decrease a chosen behavior. Leash corrections are a type of adversary that are commonly used in traditional dog training. I had to ask myself....why do corrections work? Perhaps they work because they interrupt the behavior. They also work because they let the dog know, in a clear way, that a certain behavior brings negative consequences, the basis of classical conditioning. A dog will be more likely to repeat behaviors that bring about desired outcomes and less likely to repeat behaviors that result in unpleasant or unwanted results. So, then how is it that sometimes punishment doesn't work? I believe it doesn't work because of its ill effects, like the stress it can put on the dog and the negative impact it has on the relationship we have with our dogs. Most punishment doesn't work out well because it is too harsh, badly timed, mis-used in anger or is inconsistent. I believe that there is a way to correctly correct a dog that won't damage it, but would alway recommend using positive methods over punitive. Nertheless, in some cases, especially where the dog is either causing harm or danger to itself or to humans, punishment can clearly be used in a constructive way.

When we watch wolves, the untamed but genetic equivalent to domesticated dogs, we see certain pack behaviors. These are based on instinct as well as learned practices. However, it does not suffice to say you can simply dominate your dog, as an alpha wolf would and solve the problems you are having with your dog. You must first take into consideration that you want a tame and people friendly pet, not a wild animal. If we simply use a few tricks to set up chain of command, no physical dominance is ever necessary. These are rules, such as humans come first, enter the room first, exit the house first, eat first and get first dibs on the couch. In fact they get access to all resources first and are the keepers of all that is good. Those good things include treats, toys, freedom and lots of affection. It can be an effective adversary to simply withdraw attention or access to something to decrease a desired behavior. The tricky thing is that the adversary must be administered immediately and calmly in order to be effective. Dogs like wolves are very physical in the way they communicate. That is why people often use physical corrections. Nonetheless, punishment doesn't mean abuse or physical dominance!

In my personal opinion, you should only use punishment when the dog clearly understands what is expected of it and that the correction is directly linked to non-compliance. You must use adversaries responsibly and thoughtfully. I have just introduced an e-collar into my training for Holly and a choke collar into my training for Miko. It is important to prelude this statement by saying I have already trained both my dogs to heel and now I am using the collars to correct them when they are simply not paying attention. I use the collars to give them a TICK or a POP on the neck, which is ideally very quick and relatively painless. It interrupts pulling and also lets them know not to pull because it results in discomfort. It is NOT okay to use this method on a dog that has learned to pull incessantly. It is used as and interruptor and a correction, not as a collar. If you use a choke or slip collar on a pulling or aggressive dog that hasn't got the basic of obedience training, you will end up frustrating the dog or making it resistant to the interrupter. It will essentially mean you may have to use more and more force to get the dogs attention. There are some dogs who can handle and possibly require strong corrections, but that kind of training should be left to seasoned professionals. For most dogs harsh adversaries can be dangerous and detrimental.

In closing I would like to stress that all corrections should only be done properly and calmly in order to decrease a behavior, NOT to "punish" the dog. Punishment is most often practiced in moments of anger and used inconsistently, sometimes after the fact. A dog simply cannot link a correction to something that is not going on simultaneously. It will associate the punishment with what is present at the time of the correction, most likely the handler. People unintentionally create serious fear and aggression issues by using inappropriate correctives. In training, the well being of the dog is the most important thing to keep in mind. Every dog has a different threshold for stimulus and a different temperament. Not all dogs respond equally to punishment. If a correction is not working, then it is not appropriate to simply increase the intensity of the correction. It may be that the dog is confused, or overwhelmed and shutting down. Also, I cannot stress enough the importance of reinforcing good behaviors and providing the dog with an alternative behavior to set it up to win. When you set your dog up to succeed, you both succeed!