PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT - WHAT IT ACTUALLY DOES TO YOUR DOG’S WELLBEING: WHAT SCIENCE SHOWS.

There are many types of dog trainers in the world, with a wide range of techniques. These techniques include balanced, positive, holistic and unfortunately in some cases physical corrective measures. 

Physical corrective measures are also known as aversive techniques. When you do something physically to your dog to stop an unwanted behaviour what you are in fact doing is causing your dog fear, pain, discomfort and breaking their bond with you. You are NOT correcting the behaviour or teaching them what you want them to do. You are in fact just scaring them. If you keep hurting your dog in a physical way it can lead to learned helplessness; this is when your dog emotionally breaks, gives up as they see no way out of the situation. The are emotive animals, being treated in a negative way can cause DEPRESSION, FEAR and AGGRESSION.  

If your dog is lunging, barking or being what you term a ‘nuisance’. There is a root cause to their behaviour, hitting or shouting at them isn’t going to prevent this behaviour. They are communicating! They may be scared, over stimulated, struggling with their impulse drive, sore there are many things that could be behind the behaviour you are witnessing. This is why it is crucial to get to the bottom of it and train them to deal with situations such as disengage from a dog and focus on their owner to learn to be calm around dogs!

Aversive techniques and aggression:

People can sometimes enhance or unfortunately be the cause of the aggressive behaviours whether this is through environmental factors or training techniques. If adverse training techniques are utilised whether that is shouting, physical punishment or the use of shock collars, prong collars etc this can actually exacerbate fear based aggression in dogs that are of an anxious/nervous disposition. These techniques can not only be detrimental physically but can cause extreme emotional distress causing learned helplessness and breaking the bond between the human and the dog.

Research which has directly compared reward based and adverse training techniques has demonstrated the detrimental effects of adverse methods on a dog's overall wellbeing. Dogs who received adverse training techniques displayed more stress related behaviours (lip licking, yawning and panting), were overall more ‘pessimistic’ in cognitive casks and exhibited higher levels of cortisol post training than their counterparts. Reward based training techniques have been researched for many years. Positive training techniques include Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning, Positive Reinforcement, Counter-Conditioning and Desensitisation. 

When we talk about a dog being ‘conditioned’ we are referring to learning something. Classical Conditioning refers to the act of learning through association. It is based on associating a stimulus to a new associated response. The associated response can be emotional (happiness) or an event/activity. For instance picking up a lead and the dog doing a happy dance. This piece of material had no association until the dog learnt it meant going for a walk or adventure (e.g. car ride, play date), thus now sees the guardian picking it up and gets excited by the association. Operant Conditioning is based on reinforcing behaviour through consequences. Skinner's model of Operant Conditioning is based on 4 quadrants; positive reinforcement, positive punishment, negative reinforcement, negative punishment. Positive Reinforcement adding something good (e.g. treat) and negative reinforcement, removing something bad (e.g.the action of pushing on bottom to enforce ‘sit’ stops once the position is achieved) both increase the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated.  Positive and negative punishment both decrease the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated. Positive punishment refers to the addition of a punishment (e.g. using a shock collar and shocking the dog for barking) and negative punishment means removing something pleasant (e.g. taking away a toy as the dog did not lie down when instructed). The most beneficial technique for a dogs wellbeing is to use positive reinforcement; it strengthens guardian/human and dog bond, builds confidence and protects them mentally and physically. 

It is important to remember that the dog in front of you is an individual; they have their own personality, past experiences (environmental, human and dog interactions, food) and confidence level. All of these need to be taken into account when finding the right training approach to help them overcome their aggression/ fear or anxiety. Now when it comes to positive reinforcement, what one dog deems a reward may not be suitable for another.   

The reward can be food based (high value treat), physical contact ( a scratch or belly rub), a toy or game engagement (tug of war toy) or if they love chasing you can play a game of bowling with some food. Ultimately the aim is to make the training enjoyable for the dog; also not to overwhelm the dog (keep training sessions short and focused).