Dog Training To Punish Or Not To Punish

Dog training has a tendency to be a little frustrating at times. That is because dogs do not always act in the manner you wish they would. Then again, this is something that should be considered expected. Dogs are not human beings. They will not automatically be on the same page as those of the two legged variety. So, there comes a point when you need to correct the dog's behavior. This does raise the question whether or not you should punish the dog.

Here is some advice scratch the term �punish� from your lexicon because it has a number of unsavory and unnecessary connotations associated with it. The word punish is often misconstrued with mistreating a dog. Swatting a dog with a rolled up newspaper (or worse) is not how you want to punish you dog. It is mean spirited and, more importantly, self-defeating. You may end up with an overly aggressive dog that can be highly problematic as opposed to being better behaved.

Another common error owners will make is to yell at the dog. Here is some news dogs do not speak English or any other known human language. All they pick up on are tone and emotional content. Yelling, screaming, and acting in an irrational manner towards the dog will do nothing more than confuse it or make it disoriented.

Merely firmly and stating the word �NO� could be more than enough to get the needed message across to the dog. The notion that the dog must be berated is just not an accurate assessment of how training should be undertaken.

But, you will need to correct the behavior in a manner that makes the dog alter how it acts. Really, if the dog does not change its behavior then the training is not working well at all.
Now, you could �punish� the dog by shooting it on the nose with a water gun. The dog will most likely not enjoy getting squirted with water and it might opt to change its behavior. Best of all, it will not be hurt in the process. This always needs to be a key point of order to address you can correct behavior without being cruel or mean to the dog. Needless to say, this will do nothing more than confuse or disorient the dog in a manner that will not instill in it positive behavior.

There are even other forms of positive punishment which could be employed to tweak the pet's behavior in an effective manner. Among the easiest manner this can be done is simply by taking a dog's toy away from the pet when it does not following along with the training plan. The dog will likely wish to have its toy back so it will decide to go along with the training plan.

Should you punish your dog when it does not go along with the training paradigm you have in place Honestly, you do not need to punish the dog as much as you need to cajole its behavior.