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Dog Discipline – Should We Beat or Hit a Dog as Punishment?

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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.

Shiba Inu and Siberian Husky lying next to each other. They are best friends.
Dog Discipline – Is It Bad to Beat or Hit a Dog?

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.

Do your own research and don't just blindly follow whatever a dog trainer tells you.
Resource based dog discipline results in a stronger bond and a happier relationship.

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.

Siberian Husky Shania doing a sit, and licking the hand that feeds her. Reward training.
Reward methods result in a dog licking our hand rather than running away from it.

Siberian Husky licking/kissing girl on chin and doing chin nibbles.
Reward methods result in a dog licking our face rather than biting it.

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.

Dog training - Man doing focus exercises during a play break.
Reward based dog discipline is safer because there is little danger for our dog to become fearful, aggressive, or stressed.

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.

Girl training three dogs using rewards (group shot).
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.
Husky Lara play-fighting with Shiba Inu Sephy (close-up).
Just because dogs hit and bite each other, does not mean that *we* should do the same, in play or otherwise.

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]

Girl in blue petting and showing affection to Siberian Husky puppy (Shania), with Shiba Inu in the background.
Ultimately, reward training allows us to forge a stronger bond with our dog, and makes him into a responsible canine, who works for what he wants.

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Comments

  1. hi, my dog digs up plants and I have tried disciplining him by smacking him and putting him in a low stimulus, isolated area but he has not learnt the lesson. any thoughts?

    Reply

  2. i rescued a puppy a couple of days ago and im training her to stop biting us and ny year old daughter. i tap her nose because she gets too rough with her. should i stop or is there an alternative method. she also won’t eat her puppy food and cries whenever we are eating. i want her to eat since i just rescued her, any tips to get her to eat?

    Reply

  4. Hi,

    My dog just bit another dog in the face whilst on a walk. We walked straight home, under a tight lead and verbally told her off, then at home she wah banished to her bed. Is this the right response?

    Molly is a 18 month old jack russel cross pug and is a bit if a handful!

    She’s a lovely dog and very loving dog to me and my GF but is not very friendly to other dogs. Especially on the lead.

    Do I avoid all dogs on walks? I try and approach all dogs with a calm vouce to tell molly its not a threatening situation, but we still get nasty behaviour deom her.

    Is there a different approach? Any ideas would be much appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Lawrence

    Reply

  6. I agree with positive training however if you watch dogs interacting with each other they are CONSTANTLY using physical correction on each other. I even watched my dog once gently try to correct a puppy, the puppy did not listen, my dog “slapped” him (pawed) lightly, puppy still did not listen… then “WHAM”, puppy got slapped. The puppy got it and walked away. Did that make the puppy fearful? NO, the puppy learned his lesson and moved on. Dogs are constantly using physical force on my dog if he is being innapropriate, and my dog learns the lesson and becomes more apropriate (approaching a dog respectfully rather than in a hyper manner). I do believe in positive training but sometimes the dog needs a firm reminder of “NO!”

    Reply

  7. Hi, I have a dog which is almost 2 years old and he still does not like to pee in his potty. I recall when he was about 7months old or so he would go to his potty to relieve himself but then we sort of moved his potty to another place which I think it kinda confused him so we shifted it back to the original place but ever since then he wouldn’t relief himself there anymore. He does his business like almost everywhere and anywhere of his house. I’ll just bring him to the area where he peed at and let him smell it and then hit his muzzle and bring him to his potty to let him know that’s the place he should be relieving himself at. I’ve been doing this for the past 8 months and it doesn’t help. I’ve tried the reward based dog discipline but it didnt seem to help much. Is there anything else I can do to get him relief himself at the place he should soon?

    Reply

    • Dogs may not generalize potty training exercises across different houses or indoor locations. For example, my dogs are fully potty trained in my house, but this does not mean that they will be 100% safe in a different house, especially if there is a strong smell of other dogs, cats, and other animals.

      When I move to a different house, I do a refresher potty training course if necessary.

      The key with any kind of potty training is supervision. We need to *always* be there to catch our dog in the act, and then teach him what where we want him to go to do his potty. As you have observed, hitting him after the fact isn’t going to help, because he will not know what behavior he is being punished for. In addition, hitting a dog can result in submissive urination.

      Here is more on how I potty train my dogs.

  8. hi, i have a 7 month old boxer-bullmastiff, i bought him off of a friend only about 2 weeks ago. He’s overall a good listener. These are my issues 1. He runs for the door whenever someone opens it and when i end up catching him he fights me to bring him back in, even tho i take him outside almost every hour because i feel it is cruel to make puppys hold their pee(or number 2), also i am 6 months pregnant and its a struggle. 2. he will take anything, and i mean everything he can get his paws on, run it right into his kennel and chew it until i notice what hes doing and he looks at me with sad eyes KNOWING that hes doing something wrong ! and 3. i have a 1 year old cat, and i just cant seem to get him to get along with her, he will chase her, he will bark at her, anything i am constantly, CONSTANTLY trying to get him to ignore her, she barely ever comes out of my room because she knows that he will try to get her, she will let him sniff her, and shove her with his snout, but once he starts getting rough she tries to get away and he chases her and pounces at her, its starting to drive me mad !! I am scared that if i don’t get him to get used to her soon, and he realizes she isn’t going anywhere and he doesn’t constantly have to be trying to get her, that he might get too rough and actually hurt her… please help!

    Reply

  9. hi I have a 3 month old kelpie who bites me all the time I’ve tried slapping and time outs but he’s still doing it. any advice?

    Reply

  10. i have a 1 year old pit bull puppy and we have tried just about everything to get him to stop tearing things up for spanking him to the bitter cherry spray but nothing seems to work and im just about at my wits end i have no clue what to do. he does it when im not home or in bed asleep . i would like some advice about i might could try with him

    Reply

    • When you are in the bedroom asleep, is she trying to get into the bedroom to be with you? What is her routine like? How much exercise does she get every day? Has she always shown this behavior or did it just start? What does she chew on? Does she seem stressed when left alone?

      When retraining behavior, I first try to identify what is causing my dog to act in that particular way. For example, a dog may get destructive when left alone because of separation anxiety. Dogs may also chew on things as a way of draining energy, to relieve stress, and more. Sometimes, dogs chew on unsanctioned objects because they do not know what is ok to chew on and what is not.

      Therefore, the first step that I take to is identify the source of my dog’s behavior.

      To teach my dog what is ok to chew on, I supervise him closely. If he chews on something he is not supposed to, I no-mark, and redirect him onto something that is ok to chew on, e.g. a chew toy. If he redirects, I reward him well with a game, attention, and treats. If he does not redirect, then I body block him away from the area and engage him in doing something else. If he keeps going back then I put him briefly in a timeout area.

      In this way, my dog learns that
      Chew on chew toys = games, attention, and more,
      Chew on wires, furniture, etc = Get redirected or briefly lose his freedom.

      With my dogs, it is very important to time my rewards and correction close to the target behavior. Otherwise, my dog will not know what behavior he is being corrected for, and he will not know what I want from him.

      Here is a bit more on how dogs learn.