Abusive Dog Training: It Is Not Necessary!

The myth that puppies need to experience pain, physical discomfort or fear in order to learn persists widely today despite convincing evidence to the contrary. This often leads to ego crushing physical punishment and the trauma of social isolation. The result may be a guilt ridden owner applying such punishments during the pup's most impressionable age, between 5 and 16 weeks.

Clients should be made aware there are so-called "professionals" operating in many communities who still practice archaic correctional techniques. The following case was reported in the July, 1998 issue of Animal Behavior Consultant Newsletter:

“An obedience instructor in a training class was demonstrating a correction with a client's nippy puppy. She stuck her fingers down the pup's throat when it nipped, causing a gag reflex. She then took the puppy between her hands and shook it. The puppy collapsed. The instructor and owner took the pup to a veterinary hospital, where it died.”

Regrettably, this kind of abusive treatment abounds in popular books. Physical punishment can rarely be administered quickly enough to be associated by pups with misbehavior, or with proper consistency. Consequently the owner, who should appear to the pup as a model of consistency, is perceived by the pet as unpredictable. The owner's homecoming times produce ambivalent behavior as the pup vacillates between joy and hyper submissive "shamed" actions. Most clients are quick to appreciate that their puppy is responding to them, rather than to the fact that a pair of shoes has been chewed up in the bedroom. Interestingly, physical punishment often accompanies the onset of client complaints that their puppy will not come to them when called; understandable, when one considers that the pup has received punishment inconsistently from hands that also try to express tenderness through petting.

Puppies who learn that human hands and actions may be dependably associated with pleasure rather than pain seldom exhibit hand-shyness, submissive urination or defensive aggression. Training systems that use social rewards produce more healthy and stable behavior than those employing punishment. This is especially true in pups with highly excitable or inhibitable nervous systems. Accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative in puppy training requires patience and self-control, but the benefits outweigh the heartbreak of vexing behavior problems.

The puppy owners will be better equipped to influence their pet's behavior if they understand the behavioral effects of health, nervous typology and consistency in handling. Therefore, the veterinarian who spends a few extra minutes to explain these factors will help to prevent early fear imprints and resultant behavior problems that often prompt owners to get rid of their pets.