Should my dog be punished for bad behavior?

No, you don’t need to punish them. What you want to do is to avoid the bad behavior. If you have a dog that potties in the bedroom, close the bedroom door. If you know they may be aggressive because of their food or special toys on the floor, then pick that up so that they don't guard that toy. So try to avoid problems to begin with, always use positive behavior, distract them, and have them do the right behavior and reward them.

It can be tempting to want to punish your dog when they misbehave, but really, it means that your dog is not trained appropriately. So punishment isn't really the best way to train your dog. The best option is to provide them with the appropriate instruction so they get it right. For example, when puppies wake up from a nap, they're going to need to go pee. It’s much better to take your puppy outside, tell them to go potty, and then praise them. If you're still busy making your coffee and your puppy's sniffing around the corner inside the house, is that the puppy's fault or is that your fault? This is why it’s best not to punish them.

They're going to learn much more quickly from positive reinforcement. There is some training you can do with a clicker. You can train them to respond to a click or a sound, and that can be a negative stimulus for them. Clicker training needs to be done correctly, however, or you can actually make it much harder for them to understand what is going on. So you should really only use more advanced techniques from a special trainer.

The short answer is no, absolutely not. An example of how people have implemented negative reinforcement is when a puppy goes to the bathroom in the house, they put the puppy's nose in the urine or spank them. Two components to this are important to understand. Firstly, research shows that dogs will not learn the behavior you want them to by teaching punishment-based behavior. You're not teaching them what you want by doing that. Secondly, you will potentially end up causing your pet to be more fearful and anxious in certain situations by implementing punishment-based behavior. It not only fails to teach them the appropriate behavior, but it's also causing more harm in the long run and leads to your pet being driven by fear.

I already went over that. No, they don't recognize negativity. They just don't react well to it. It breeds fear and aggression in their lives. Stick to the positive reinforcement if you can, especially if you rescued or adopted a pet. You never know what kind of history they have, and you want to take things slow. Always positive. They'll do anything for whatever treat you find out is their favorite. However, stay away from cheese because it tends to have a lot of fat in it. Some people like to use cube cheese. It's just too fattening for them. A little bit of cubed cheese is like giving them a whole cheeseburger, so stay away from that. You don't want to give them pancreatitis. That's the technician in me going down that road.

Punishing a dog for bad behavior is not recommended, as dogs cannot make the connection between their action and the punishment. Instead, focus on rewarding your dog for good behavior with treats or praise. This will help reinforce the behaviors you want them to repeat and create a more positive learning environment.

Let's talk about punishment. Punishment can mean a bunch of different things. When someone says punishment to me, I'm thinking it is like when I got spanked for going out in the parking lot when I was little without looking, because that happened, and I do have that core memory. We have to look at the spectrum. I believe in levels of punishment, but I don't like that word. I almost want to use, like, correction or redirection. We don't necessarily need to punish, but we need to redirect the situation, and they need to know that they haven't done something right, but we don't have to hurt them to let this happen. You can use negative reinforcement.

For instance, my husband's cat is kind of a turd. He's been like us since he was a kitten. He bites, and I could not train him out of this. He knows that if he tries to bite me, he’s going to get flicked in the nose. Am I trying to hurt him? No. Am I trying to get him to stop and he knows not to do it? Yes. He knows exactly what that means. If I go up to him like this because he's gnawing on me, he knows that's not good. So punishment can be if they potty in the house and you do something surprising and you put them outside. That's not really a punishment. You're redirecting the behavior because most dogs don't have a long attention span, so there's also the possibility that they're not going to know why they're in trouble. If you catch them in the act, I usually like a big exclamation to startle them, and you pick them up and go outside, and when they make potties outside, you reward them.

Crate training is also great. I would say if they're doing things that are not allowed, like if they are growling at a child, friends, or family that are coming over, then they get put up in their crate. That's negative reinforcement. If they're jumping on you and won't stop jumping and they're clawing you up, ignore them until they have four paws on the floor. If they have four on the floor, they get rewarded. So it's not really a punishment. We have to be careful with that terminology.

Working with a trainer also can really be beneficial. I'm not a big fan of punishment unless it's something super bad and it's a knee jerk reaction. You might be able to handle it better. I've been guilty of this. I know my husband's dog is not aware of his body all the time, and he clawed me in the face the other day. Without thinking, I just shoved him off me and he fell off the couch. It was a gut reaction. So give yourself some grace if something does happen, but definitely reach out to a trainer if you're struggling.

I don't advocate for punishing bad behavior. If they're caught in the act, you can remind them that it's not okay, but physical punishment is not advisable. It's crucial to catch them in the act for them to understand what behavior is inappropriate. Rewarding good behaviors is a more effective strategy than punishing bad behaviors.