Dog Discipline: Does Hitting a Dog Work?
Learn how to discipline your dog with markers and treats instead of physical violence so your dog learns to respect you, not fear you.
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How to Discipline Your Dog Properly?
Slapping a dog on the muzzle or spanking a dog into submission are now considered antiquated forms of dog discipline. When I was growing up, another popular method was to beat a dog with a rolled-up newspaper. Some individuals may even consider the use of shock collars as a form of pain-inflicting discipline. All of these methods use pain to punish a dog for bad behavior.
Nowadays, physical discipline has gone out of style and may even be punishable by law. Painful discipline has been replaced with more acceptable deterrents, such as jabbing or poking the dog with a finger or correcting the dog with an alpha roll. Yet, these methods are still controversial, and are they even effective for stopping bad dog behavior?
Some people suggest that dominance techniques are effective because dogs are pack animals. As such, dogs understand the language of dominance and physical dominance. To become an effective pack leader, must we beat our dog into submission? Is that the only way to get them to follow our lead? Can leadership only be achieved through pain and physical domination? We will consider all of these important questions and issues.
In This Article:
- Positive Training vs. Physical Punishment
- How Aversive Training Can Correct Bad Dog Behavior
- Does Hitting or Beating Work?
- Is Hitting on the Nose Okay?
- Do Dogs Try to Physically Dominate Each Other?
- How Can I Establish Dominance?
- Teaching Your Dog to Respect You
- How Reward-Based or Positive Training Works for Discipline
- Encourage Good Behavior With Markers and Treats
- Reward-Based Training for Discipline
Positive Training vs. Physical Punishment
| Item | Reward-Based Training | Physical Discipline |
|---|---|---|
Trust | Builds trust between dog and owner, and dog and humans | Breaks trust and breeds distrust of owner and humans throughout the dog's lifetime |
Attention | Conditions the dog into focusing on a prompt or command | Creates insecurities around whether or not or when the next painful punishment will present |
Discipline | Encourages desired dog behavior | Creates an inconsistent means for discipline. Dog may exhibit undesirable behavior based out of fear, such as hiding, urinating, or freezing in submission |
Boundaries | Dog learns to respect physical and environmental boundaries | Dog may become overly dominant or overly submissive, lash out with aggression, and/or potentially lash out if challenged |
Legalities | No legal repercussions | Time and place dependent; can be punishable by law |
Aversive training tools include yelling, air horns, spray bottles, shock collars, prong collars, and choke chains.
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How Aversive Training Is Used to Correct Bad Dog Behavior
When a dog is hit or beaten, pain is applied to the sensitive parts of the dog's body, like the ears or the muzzle. The pain is used as an unenjoyable stimulus. If applied with the right amount of force and at the right time, an aversive stimulus will interrupt a current behavior and cause the dog to stop in an effort to avoid further pain and stress. Aversive dog training does not have to involve pain. Some methods, such as shaking a can of pennies, use an unpleasant sound to discourage bad behavior.
Not all aversive methods are equal. Some people suggest that if you shout at your dog, it equates to delivering an electric shock because both are considered aversive methods. This is clearly false. Pain is a much stronger aversive stimulus than a loud noise. Pain also carries much greater risks.
In addition, an aversive stimulus can be applied with different strengths and for different durations. If a dog is hit with more force, it will cause a stronger aversive response. Similarly, a painful electric shock can be induced for a millisecond, a second, or longer.
Does Hitting or Beating a Dog Work?
That depends on what we mean by work. Hitting or beating is thought to discourage bad behaviors when applied with the proper force, timing, and redirection. However, pain-based aversive techniques are risky. Studies show that they significantly increase stress, lower a dog's quality of life, and may even increase dog aggression.
Is It Bad to Hit My Dog?
One of the key risks of hitting or beating a dog is that it may learn that we (and people in general) are the source of pain and stress. That is why it is very important to redirect the source of our aversive corrections. If we spend most of the time physically correcting our dog without proper redirection, our dog will learn to associate a hand or a person coming near him/her as a threat. This may lead to several responses:
- A fearful dog will most likely try to flee first. If running away is not an option or if the dog feels cornered, he will probably try to protect himself with his teeth.
- A more confident and stubborn dog will most likely fight back to keep the threat away.
- Dogs that are somewhere in-between may choose an appeasement behavior such as rolling over and exposing their belly. They may also exhibit other calming signals, such as lip licking, turning away, etc. Through these appeasement behaviors, a dog is indicating that he/she is not a threat so that, hopefully, he/she can avoid a conflict.
This is why hitting and beating a dog can lead to increased aggression and loss of trust. However, some dogs may choose appeasement behavior. Even in these cases, there is still a lack of trust and an increased level of anxiety and stress for the dog.
When you yell at your dog, smack them on the nose, and engage in physical or psychological violence, you are not helping them become a better pet.
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Is Hitting a Dog on the Nose Ever Okay?
Whether hitting, tapping, or bopping a dog on the nose as a means of discipline, this aversive technique still falls short of the success found with reward-based or positive training. Contemporary experts urge against all uses of physical discipline. Tapping or bopping a dog on the nose can be misconstrued as playful behavior, and being too rough with your dog can actually trigger biting, reactive, or defensive behavior.
You should be especially sensitive to your dog during its formative years as a puppy. Any negative impact you have on your puppy from an early age will shape their lens of the world for their lifetime. Any level of abuse, intentional or not, will ultimately damage the relationship between you and your pet.
Dogs that develop an aversion to hands due to physical punishment are at risk of biting a human, child, or another moving target later in life. You essentially put the public at risk and put yourself at risk of legal repercussions.
Imagine taking your dog to the veterinarian. Suppose there is an emergency situation at hand and veterinary staff have to place a catheter but can't get near your fearful dog because he/she is trying to bite. If your dog is in respiratory distress, they won't be able to safely apply a muzzle, and time is of the essence. You've created a lose-lose situation.
What if the veterinary team can't get near your dog in adequate time? What would happen if your dog bit veterinary staff? What would happen if a child reached over your dog's head to pet him/her when your back is turned? A dog bite can change someone's life forever and cause irreversible damage, both cosmetic and mechanical. That's right. Hitting your dog on the nose is a recipe for disaster. Let's talk about appropriate methods of discipline.
Do Dogs Try to Physically Dominate Each Other?
The concept of dominance exists for dogs, but it also exists for non-pack animals. Lions, for example, have dominance over most other animals because they have size, power, and big teeth. We have even greater dominance, not because of our physical strength and speed, but because of our brains and opposable thumbs. Therefore, dominance does not necessarily mean physical dominance.
It is true that dominance can be achieved with big teeth, strength, and speed (like the lion). Keep in mind that effective dominance is not achieved through pain, hitting, and beating, but rather through the control of resources.
How pet parents handle their dog's aggression varies depending on whether they favor traditional dog training (discipline first) or a more modern approach (rewards and positive reinforcement).
If Dogs Are Pack Animals, How Can I Establish Dominance?
Dogs are not human, and humans are not dogs. We do not have sharp teeth, we cannot run very fast, and in a physical contest, we will lose to our dogs. Instead of trying to poorly imitate our dogs with hits, jabs, and alpha-rolls, we should do what we are good at and gain dominance through the control of resources.
Dogs may stop a behavior when hit, beat, finger-jabbed, or alpha-rolled because they want to avoid further pain and stress, not because they see us as the dominant species. This form of discipline is futile and has nothing to do with establishing our dominance in "the pack."
Some people claim that physical dominance techniques are more effective because dogs are pack animals. To be the leader of our dog or dog pack, we must speak to them with pokes, jabs, slaps, hits, and electric shocks. Anything else is thought to humanize the dog.
It is true that dogs are pack animals. This means that they are social beings who should not be left alone for long periods of time locked up in the backyard. Just because dogs are pack animals does not mean that they only understand the language of physical dominance.
Teach Your Dog to Respect You and Lead by Example
Lead your dog by example. Leadership is not demonstrated through pain, intimidation, and physical dominance, but rather by composure and consistency. When you remain calm in a perceived (or actual) crisis, your dog will be calmer because of your steadiness in a challenging or confusing situation.