Do you punish your dog?
Do you ever punish your dog?
What even *is* a punishment??
We automatically think of the obvious, harsh, awful things such as using a prong collar or an electric collar or hitting the dog with a stick and because you don't ever do any of those things you will confidently say, "Oh no, I never use punishment on my dog, I love him to pieces!!"
But what about if your dog is lunging at other dogs & barking as you walk past them.
What do you do?
Are you tightening up on the lead? Yanking them back? Telling them, "NO! That's enough!!" Possibly tapping them on the nose or forcing their butt down into a "sit" position ....
They're all forms of punishment.
If the dog finds it unpleasant then, by default, THAT is a punishment.
If your dog is barking at a stranger and you say, "Oi, that's enough!!" then you have just used a form of punishment to stop an unwanted behaviour.
I would go even further and say that if you KNOW your dog is going to react towards the other dog coming towards you and you *only* choose to stand to one side then that is already a punishment in itself. You KNOW that your dog is going to find this experience unpleasant. You KNOW that he will struggle & that he will react ..... You KNOW that you'll tell him, "no" ..... So you are fully aware that a string of negatives are about to happen and yet all you chose to do was to stand to one side and wait for all of the above to happen .....
And you will likely repeat this over & over.
This becomes how your walks are.
Day after day.
You'll have good days where your dog copes better than others but mostly, for the next 10 years of your life and that of your dog, this is how your walks will be.
Daily punishment.
Negative experiences over & over.
The trusted human who your dog loves more than life never really learning to fully trust his human because his human never really helps him out.
What if there was another way?
A kinder, gentler, way that didn't use any punishment at all.
No, I'm not talking about shoving loads of sausages into the dogs mouth to distract him.
Distraction is not a training method I ever use or recommend however, we can use rewards to positively change the emotional state of our dogs and to turn those nasty, negative experiences into neutral. That's always my aim. To get the dog to be neutral. To just not care that another dog is approaching.
You don't have to go full circle and be best mates with every dog you see. You don't even have to stop & greet other dogs. But I just want you to be neutral. To be ok. To walk past and to not fret.
There's never any need to use any form of punishment in dog training. I cringe every time I hear the words, "yeah, but these dogs need to know who's in charge and I need to be firm with him"
No, you don't need to be firm.
Or be in charge.
Form a partnership & become a team that works together. It's far more beneficial all round and far less stressful especially for the dog.
If there's a kinder, more ethical training method available that works and that doesn't involve using punishment anywhere on the scale then why wouldn't you opt for that method??