Is Punishment Good or Bad?

A dog is the perfect addition to our family. We cherish that fuzzy faced, cute bundle of joy that we choose to bring into our household. The first few weeks are great! He seems nearly perfect, except for the occasional accident, which we know is our fault. Then IT happens. That little darling has become a paper shredding, wood chewing, noise making, leash pulling monster, seemingly overnight! Not to mention all those accidents when he should "know better," right?

We add a dog to our life to compliment our family not complicate it. It's easy to feel frustrated and that's when owners react by punishing the dog. Well intentioned friends often suggest punishment based tools to "correct" the behavior. Unfortunately without UNDERSTANDING THE CAUSE of the behavior devices such as prong collars, shock collars, spray bottles, and air horns can have the wrong impact. They can serve as unintentional reinforcement, which unfortunately keeps the behavior going. They can create fear, which creates a whole host of other problems. Often these problems are worse than the original challenges. Owners often remark that the "behavior is better, as long as I have the insert punishment tool here." This is called suppression. You haven't really CHANGED the behavior. All you've done is minimized the behavior when the punisher is being used. When it comes back, and it typically will, it usually comes back at an even higher level. 

So IS PUNISHMENT USEFUL? The answer is YES! Punishment is a useful training tool if the following is also applied:

1) It is applied AT THE SAME TIME, AND AT THE SAME LEVEL EVERY TIME.

2) It is applied AT A LEVEL THAT DOES NOT CAUSE A FEARFUL RESPONSE.

3) It CHANGES THE BEHAVIOR WITH ONLY ONE OR TWO APPLICATIONS.

So let's define Punishment. Punishment is something that makes a behavior less likely to be repeated. It's counterpart, reinforcement, makes a behavior more likely to be repeated. So in order to change your dog's behavior YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHAT IS DRIVING IT! 

Now comes the confusing part... Punishment can be Positive or Negative. WHAT?

The training tools listed above are ADDED to try to reduce the behavior. Adding something is called Positive Punishment. It can be effective. One example is the use of a Scat Mat for counter surfing. A tingling feeling when the dog puts his paws up on the now booby trapped counter can reduce the incidence of it recurring. But without teaching the dog some other behavior that can be rewarded, such as a place stay during times he previously explored the counters, the behavior is likely to continue. You can't rely on the use of punishment alone. 

Now let's look at a behavior like pulling on leash. Why do dogs pull? They pull to explore. They pull towards others to greet them. They pull to eat that nasty thing in the grass. Can you punish this behavior. Yes, you can! You can stop walking when the leash is tight, or turn and walk a different direction, thereby preventing access to what the dog wants. Taking away something the dog wants is called Negative Punishment. But stopping every time your dog pulls, or constantly turning around is boring and frustrating for both you and your dog.  You need to teach fundamental loose leash walking skills that your dog can use to ask for permission! Once again you can't rely on simply trying to punish. 

If you look at why a behavior is occurring you can decide IF punishment is useful. The most common behavior problems owners face are often normal canine behaviors that collide with the human family model. These behaviors can often be changed quite easily by removing the reward that the dog receives AND replacing the behavior with something the dog can perform TO GET REINFORCED! Yes, it takes time and training. We send our children to school to learn acceptable behavior. Why is it that we often fail to give our dogs the same basic schooling and resort to simply trying to punish? 

That's why the use of punishment is considered "bad" by many trainers. Because as humans we don't take time to understand WHY. We just want it to end. And we think the dog "should know better." There is no way they can unless we teach them. It's our responsibility as owners to teach the dog a better option, instead of simply punishing. Trust, respect, and love are what we give our children. Don't our four legged kids deserve the same?

Influences of Behavior

Why Does My Dog Do That?

As a trainer I hear statements from owners almost daily about what they do not want their dog to do, and very few where the owner tells me what they would like instead. It is rare that an owner calls me and says “can you help me teach my dog to do (insert behavior here).” Some of the more common frustrated proclamations sound like this:

“I’ve got a 4 month old Golden Retriever (or Labrador, or Doodle, or any other sporting dog) and I want him to stop stealing my (insert item here!)” 

Or:

“My 6 month old Aussie (or any other herding breed) won’t stop chasing my children, and now he’s starting to nip (or herd them.)”

Or:

“How can I stop my Schnauzer (insert any other terrier breed here) from digging when he’s outside?” 

Or another frequently heard emergency call:

“My year old German Shepherd won’t stop barking at people.  How do I make him stop barking?”

Problem behaviors in dogs do not just happen overnight. When an owner is frustrated it is because the behavior has reached a point where it is affecting the owner’s quality of life. All too often the owner doesn’t understand that the behavior has many factors that have influenced the dog, some that they may have had control over, some that they may not. 

With behavior we know that there are certain aspects of behaviors that are hard wired, or have served some significant purpose for that breed in the past, and those that are shaped by life experiences. We often refer to these as Nature vs. Nuture. Behaviors that are selectively bred for, over generations, are difficult, if not impossible, to erase. The sporting breeds have been used for centuries to leap through tall grass to flush and point, jump out of the boat or off the bank to retrieve the bird that was shot, and carry back whatever they can. That 4 month old Golden isn’t going to stop putting things in his mouth! What the owner needs to do is train a solid recall and drop it cue, AND manage his house so that inappropriate objects are not within reach of his puppy! Those Doodle’s are genetically programmed for this as well, and that Labrador puppy purchasedfrom a “field breeder” because the “show types” are “unhealthy” has been pre-programmed with enough energy to be out in the field ALL DAY LONG! That means that the owner now has to deal with how to channel 5 or 6 HOURS of energy everyday into something positive. 

Terriers dig, herding dogs circle, chase, and nip (when they have too much energy and no self control,) and dogs bred to be guardians require extra positive socialization in order to learn that strangers don’t mean danger!

That brings me to the “nurture” aspect. Don’t blame the dog if his social skills are not what you expected. There are several critical early development periods that shape behavior. 

4-6 weeks of age – Puppies must be exposed to a variety of different people, sights, and sounds in order to help them develop confidence and sociability. 

6-8 weeks of age – Puppies MUST REMAIN WITH LITTERMATES or they fail to develop social skills critical later on, such as bite inhibition. 

8-12 weeks of age – Primary imprinting period that also encompasses early fear period.

12-16 weeks of age – Age of exploration but also the first primary fear period. 

17 weeks to maturity – Continued POSITIVE associations are needed to create a stable, well behaved adult. 

In addition to these learning periods your dog’s genetic makeup also influences behavior. Puppies from high strung, fearful, or poorly socialized mothers (and fathers) are often genetically programmed to behave the same way. 

Pet store puppy? He probably didn’t see anyone until he was shipped to the store. Transplant rescue dog from “the south?” He may not have lived indoors, with people, or near traffic. Puppy shipped in from out of state internet breeder. Congratulations! You may have just won the behavior nightmare trifecta! If you do not know where your puppy came from then you don’t know what genetic and poor or non-existent early learning influences are at work to shape his behavior. 

So don’t blame the dog if you failed to train him properly. Don’t blame the dog if you don’t know his history. Don’t blame the dog if you failed to socialize him as a puppy because you were “too busy” or didn’t think it was “necessary.” Blame Mother Nature. Blame yourself. But don’t blame the dog. And yes, we can help teach behaviors that can replace “naughty ones,” and with patience and an understanding for how the dog feels we can help many learn to be more comfortable in the world  around him. 

Connection vs. Correction

When I first started offering private lessons over a decade ago I thought that success as a trainer was gaining results as quickly as possible. I worried about the owner's emotional state (a happy owner refers others) and less about the dog's emotions. After all an owner who has spent money to solve a problem that still persists isn't satisfied, and you know the old saying "a happy client tells 3 people, an unhappy client tells 30." If I could solve the problem the dog would remain in the home, tell others how good the training was because I "fixed" their dog, and everyone wins, right? 

Well in those early years I quickly realized that every dog has an emotional side that drives behavior. And all too often the dog's emotional state was at least, in part, an underlying cause of some of those more common complaints from owners. If I failed to take the dog's view of what was happening into consideration the dog was still "losing," even if the owner was satisfied. I changed the way I work with each dog, dropped a professional membership that seemed to conflict with the way I wanted to train, and set out to begin educating owners about their responsibility of looking at situations from the dog's point of view first. This philosophy is not for everyone and yes, I'm sure it has cost me some business, but it is the way I want to train. 

So often we work with owners who can Identity behaviors from their dog that they would like to change, and yet they haven't thought about the miriad of things that could be driving the behavior. They haven't thought about what they would like the dog to do instead. They don't give the slightest thought about the dog's emotional state or well being. All they know is that they want the behavior to stop as quickly as possible. Words such as "correct," "punish," and "bad" are almost always a part of the owner's dialogue. 

I now always ask owners to try to understand that a dog doesn't magically know what we want from them. Every behavior serves a purpose from the dog's perspective, and it is a human definition when the dog is "bad."  Many owner defined "bad" behaviors are often quite normal to the dog.  When we understand the dog's view of our world we begin to become "connected" to him. If we are "connected" to the dog we can often change the behavior quite easily and it may not require a "correction!" The brilliant trainer Suzanne Clothier uses the phrase "how is this for you?" when working with any species. It is this phrase that embodies the importance of connection! 

Let's look at some specific examples of connection vs. correction:

"Bad " behavior at the front door? When connected we look to the dog for signs of anxiety, stress, fear, or simply excitement. Knowing what the dog is feeling helps determine how to best change the behavior. Should we move him away from the door, and place him in another room with a chew toy before guests arrive to help him be more comfortable? Some forms of punishment designed to "correct" barking and jumping when guests arrive can exacerbate fear based behaviors, making a dog's behavior at the door worse instead of better. Dog's who suffer physical punishment at or near the door, or repeatedly in the presence of unfamiliar people entering, often resort to biting if given the chance. Dog's who are helped to " feel better" about guests often learn to relax. Dogs who are simply over exuberant greeters can learn that jumping means they don't get to greet if we ignore them, walk away from them, or move them away from guests using gentle guidance from the leash. 

Pulling on leash! When connected we learn what the dog finds interesting, worthy of exploring, and important in the environment, as well as anything that makes them nervous, scared, or intimidated. Interesting places, smells, and people can be used as rewards for good decisions on the dog's part. What's a good decision? Sitting quietly, paying attention to the owner, and above all else, not pulling towards it! Any combination of these can result in the dog being allowed to sniff, eliminate, investigate, or "say hi!" Repeated leash pops, designed to "correct" pulling, are simply nagging as most dog's don't learn what it is we really want. Intimidation through collar corrections in the presence of something scary, or making a young dog move closer toward something it is frightened of, may serve to ingrain that fear forever.

Barking! This is the behavior most owners want to "correct" quickly, yet all barking does not mean the same thing! A bark is a communication attempt, plain and simple. What the dog is saying dictates how we change it. You cannot change it if you don't know what it means! Being connected affords you the opportunity to learn if the bark represents "Go away! You frighten me!" "Hey mom, play with me," or "I'm so lonely!" "Correct" two of these and you've now got bigger problems! Connect and you make changes that make you and your dog happier! 

I choose to connect to both my clients and their dogs. I approach every class or private lesson knowing that they both have individual needs. I try not to "correct" my clients, preferring instead to empathize with them, "connecting" to their view as well. I see better training outcomes from those owners willing to connect instead of just correct! And the relationship improves, which truly is a win for everyone!