Spanking, beating, and hitting a dog, is sometimes used as a form of dog discipline or dog punishment.
After all, biting a dog’s ear worked for Cuba Gooding Jr. in the movie Snow Dogs.
Therefore, will such pain based techniques work for us too? To answer this question, we must consider how dogs learn.
Dogs learn through conditioning.
- They repeat behaviors that get them good results, and
- They stop behaviors that get them bad results.
Based on this, there are two schools of thought for stopping problem dog behaviors – reward obedience training and aversive obedience training.
Is It Bad to Beat or Hit a Dog?
Spanking, beating, and hitting a dog are all aversive techniques. Pain is delivered to sensitive areas of the dog, such as his ear or muzzle, when he performs a bad behavior.
The argument for this type of dog discipline, is that the pain will discourage a dog from repeating undesirable actions. Every time our dog does something bad, he gets an unpleasant result (pain), which will hopefully dampen his resolve to perform the same behavior.
However, the problem with aversive training, is that it is risky, too personal, and there is no good way to redirect the punishment.
Our dog knows that the pain originates from us, and is not a natural result of his actions.
As a consequence, our dog may end up learning the wrong lessons, including:
- Hitting, slapping, and biting is a fun game that my owner plays with me. Let me try playing it with him, and with others. A dog may arrive at this conclusion, when the pain is not delivered with enough force. Too much force, however, may result in fear aggression.
- A person’s hand or face coming toward me, is a bad thing. I should run away from people, or bite the hand or face that is a threat to me.
- My owner, or a person coming toward me, means pain. I should stay away from people, or keep them away by growling and biting.
If we do not deliver the pain with good timing, with the proper force, and in exactly the right circumstance, our dog may get confused as to why he is getting punished. He may become fearful and stressed, because he is unsure how he can stop the pain from recurring.
As a result, spanking, beating, and hitting a dog may lead to even more behavioral issues, including fear aggression as well as submissive urination.
For these reasons, using physical techniques to punish a dog, is not very good dog kung fu.
If Not Beating or Hitting a Dog, Then What?!
If beating or hitting a dog does not work, then how can we teach our dogs right from wrong?
How can we get our dogs to behave and not engage in destructive behaviors?
The answer lies in the other school of dog discipline, namely reward based techniques. Some positive based authors that I like include Patricia McConnell, Karen Pryor, and Suzanne Clothier. Contrary to what some may say, reward based methods does not just involve “giving food to our dog”. Rather, it allows us to gain pack leadership through the proper control of resources.
We may not realize this, but we already control all of our dog’s resources. For example, we decide when he gets to walk, when he gets to eat, what and how much he gets to eat, when he gets to play, what toys he gets to play with, when he has to go to sleep, what he can chew on, and much more. All we need to do, is teach our dog this fact –
He is NOT in control, WE are.
For example, if my dog jumps on me and bites my hand during feeding time, I tell him that this behavior is unacceptable, by using a no-mark. Then I ignore him, and he does not get his food, until he has calmed down. In this way, he learns that –
- Waiting calmly for his food in a down position = Get food quickly,
- Jumping and biting = Food preparation stops.
If he continues with his bad behavior, I say Time-out, and I remove him to a time-out area. This teaches him that if he cannot behave around people, then he does not get to be with people.
We respond to all other bad behaviors in a similar way – by restricting our dog’s access to his most desired resources, and only giving him rewards when he has earned them through good behavior.
Different dog behavioral issues will involve different tactics, but the overall strategy is one of resource control and proper management.
But Dogs Hit, Bite, and Physically Correct Each Other …
A common argument used to justify physical corrections, is that our dogs do that to each other, therefore, it must be natural and right.
It is true that dogs will sometimes hit and bite each other as a warning, or to correct behavior. Dogs also hit and bite during play. They are able to do this, because they have very good control of the placement and force of their bites.
However, dogs are not humans and *we* are not dogs. We do not have the same physical strengths or control as our dog. We do not have sharp teeth or claws, we cannot run very fast, and our jaws are not very strong.
This is why it is a very bad idea to physically challenge stray or loose dogs. Logic dictates that we do not wrestle, hit, or physically engage with unknown dogs, that may be aggressive. Similarly, we should not slap, beat, or hit our own dog either. Rather than do a bad job at pretending to be a dog, we should play to our human strengths.
As a human,
- We can open and close doors.
- We can drive to the store and buy food, toys, and other good stuff.
- We can open sealed bags, cans, bottles, and more.
- We can reason, build, and develop long-term plans.
In essence, our human abilities give us control of *all* the things that our dog needs or desires. This makes us into natural leaders, because by controlling the pack’s resources, we control the pack.
Finally, when a dog physically corrects another dog, the other dog may decide to fight back.
A puppy may allow an adult dog to correct him initially, but when he grows up, he may learn to respond in-kind with aggression. For this reason and more, I do not allow my dogs to physically correct or bully each other. As pack leader, I set the rules, and I enforce them through the control of resources. If there are any conflicts, my dogs will alert me. I will then do my best to resolve the conflict in a fair and consistent way, which does not involve any hitting, biting, or puncture wounds.
Just because a dog may sometimes hit and bite other dogs, does not mean that hitting and biting is good, effective, or even particularly humane. The assumption or assertion that physical punishment is better because our dogs do it, is a logical fallacy. In fact, there are many things that dogs do to each other and to other animals, that we need to manage, redirect, and retrain. This includes –
- A dog’s drive to hunt neighborhood cats,
- A dog’s instinct to guard resources (with aggression if necessary),
- A dog’s inclination to bully a weaker dog,
- A dog’s impulse to fight-back, and more.
Does Beating or Hitting a Dog Work?
Pain based techniques may stop problem behaviors in the short term, but it is not the most effective type of dog discipline.
There are many difficulties and risks that may cause our dog’s behavior to degrade, rather than improve. Using it to stop one problem behavior, may inadvertently cause five other bad dog behaviors to crop up. In addition, the effect of beating or hitting a dog may degrade over time, as our dog gets habituated to the pain.
In contrast, reward based methods are safer because there is little danger of our dog becoming fearful, aggressive, or stressed. We are not delivering any pain to him, but simply withholding the rewards that he has failed to earn.
- Reward based discipline encourages our dog to figure out how he can get in our good books, because that is the quickest way to get what he wants most.
- Aversive dog discipline, on the other hand, encourages a dog to avoid us because there may be pain involved.
Ultimately, resource based training allows us to forge a stronger bond with our dog, and makes him into a responsible canine, who works for what he wants.
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
~~ [Mahatma Gandhi]
hello,
i have a 10 month old whippet mix and he is very naughty. sometimes when he gets into things he shouldn’t such as the trash or food, i tell him “no” but he begins barking and biting, and once snarled at me for trying to get plastic out of his mouth. and after play he will sometimes get very hyper and bark like crazy and trying to bite my hands, arms, legs, anything. i thought it was puppy biting at first but he seems too old for that now. i try not to hit him but it’s hard to control him. or at the park sometimes he will run into the carpark to try to look for food, and i try to lure him away with treats but i am scared he will see it as a reward.
My 8 months old Labrador female is very greedy on food. Everything is fine with her but in case of food, she is very clingy. She keeps on waiting for food while we are having dinner and jumps on the dining table. Also, she keeps on making weird sound continuously when there is meat at lunch or dinner. I try my best to avoid physical punishment to control her but it gets out of control sometimes. She has become so aggressive and has begun to tear clothes, towels, socks etc. We live in an apartment and we have no more space.My elder brother is planning to keep her away from home and leave somewhere far away. But I dont want that. How can I control her? Please help.
How on earth do you keep a sheltie in your own yard? This dog chases everyone and everything!
Today my sheltie went through the shock fence and would not return. The walkers he went after treated him like a bear and shouted at him to go away. If they would just keep walking or say hello in a friendly way I’m sure he would leave them alone. This guy was yelling so much the dog could not even hear me.
My sheltie always breaks thru the shock fence and runs around walkers. These people think they can scare the dog away. The only thing that scares my sheltie while it’s outside is someone trying to grab him. So if they lunge for him, he runs right back across the fence. If they swat at him, he’ll just keep running around them, snapping at them. He’s way too fast to catch.
We have a stronger manual shock collar that really sucks. It makes him yelp, but unless I hold down the continuous button for 5 seconds he just continues chasing after whatever he’s got his eye on. The continuous shock makes him stop. Which really sucks, because he treats it like an annoyance on anything but 100% and just keeps chasing. One time I got him with a nick on 80% on a wet day. He went right to the door. I really scared him that day!
My husband is adverse sometimes I’m more into positive rienforcement we disagree in our training methods my staffie lab mix ( only responds well to positive) pulls on her leash no matter what I try any advice I’ve done clicker Training harnesses I don’t want to put a gentle leader on her I get glared at enough even when she’s minding herself to many people mistake it for a muzzle. Also she gets real excited to greet other dogs whining and tail wagging and hopping I’m glad she’s so happy to meet other dogs even after being bit by the neighbors dog but since she gets a bad rep I’m trying to get her on a good loose leash walking habit. Im not opposed to walking I’ll walk my dog or jog her but she seems to only have two speeds run and sleep.
My staffiemix is great she’s friendly an behaves well inside shares but I can’t for the life of me get her to walk on a leash
all that money my mother inlaw spent on a trainer she dose even do what trainer said a to by grabbing them by the scruff of ther neck my mother in law was messing with George by taping him in the face with her shoes on then that when gjnger whent afer George and ginger start going after each other for a couple of min and the finally got them to break it up and took George in to the kitchen and and she smacked her in but and then smacked her in face like twice and I was like that abuse and she was like she going to learn one way or another. and to me and she going is to be fearful of her not want to be near her what so ever
I prefer not to hit my dog but it sometimes is necessary. It’s a dog not a human.
Hi, I have a 5 year old shih tzu, normally I do not like to give him spankings but every time I give him a command, he doesn’t listen to me and instead he will growl at me when I keep telling him the command, and honestly it gets so frustrating but I do not know what to do anymore. Lately he has been very irritated because I have to put the cone on him to avoid him from biting his butt, but every time I do it he growls at me and seems like he wants to bite me and it is not like I am punishing him with the cone, I just want him to stop biting his butt because that is what was directed by his doctor. Even telling him to stop and that his action was bad he will still growl and me for telling him that he was being bad. I want him to start listening to me instead of being treated as his equal. What can I do?
Hi there!
Thank you so much for your article, I understand that this is quite a few years later bit if you get this, a response would be so appreciated because I am at my wits end!
I have a 3 month old Rottweiler – German shepherd cross, he’s a very sweet and gentle boy, and so eager to please. He’s very clever and learns tricks and words in a couple days but for some reason, he does not understand housetraining at all. We live in a big apartment with a garden outside but the garden is communal and has two other dogs in it. He loves to play with them but unfortunately this means that when I take him outside to do his business he’s too excited to run and play with the other dogs and when he comes back inside, sometimes hours later, pees and poops all over the place. I try to take him out after every meal, every morning and before bed but still he goes inside only. I tried encouraging him to pee outside I also tried rewarding him when he goes on newspaper inside but it hasn’t seemed to work..
I’ve tried hitting him (although I’m ashamed to admit it) but it makes him so afraid and sad that it breaks my heart especially because he is a very brave boy so for him to be scared is quite something.
I really don’t know what to do anymore, he pees once or twice on the newspaper but will then go all over the apartment to do the rest of his business. I’ve read soo many sites but I can’t seem to find anything that actually works
Thanks
Dominique
I was surprised to see the poll after i voted. Can’t believe 56% think its ok to sma. I think pinching ears work better. That’s what their mother used to do.