5 More Reasons That Punishment Doesn’t Work in Gundog Training

1). Timing Issues

The phone rings in the next room during breakfast. The owner leaves his plate of toast on the dining table to answer it. The dog steals the toast and then curls up in his bed for a snooze. The owner finishes his phone call 10 minutes later and returns, only to find his toast has vanished. He shouts at the dog but the dog has no idea why he is being shouted at for lying in his bed sleeping.

2). Revenge & Retribution

An owner has had a difficult journey home from work due to the traffic. He arrives home in a thoroughly bad mood and decides to take the dog for a walk. His mood doesn’t improve when his dog decides it would rather chase after another dog. When the owner catches up with the dog, he feels frustrated and a little humiliated in front of the people watching. He decides to take it out on his dog. It might momentarily make the owner feel better, but it doesn’t teach the dog anything other than whenever the human catches them he is likely to shout and scream.

3). Variability of What Is Seen as Aversive

Seen by humans as aversive – Without being able to talk to our dogs, how do we know precisely what each one finds aversive? This might lead to some owners using a punishment like squirting a bottle of water at a dog for barking (justifying its use as something that doesn’t actually ‘hurt’ their dog).

Seen by dogs as aversive –  Depending on the character of the dog; some would find being shouted at by their owner to very traumatic, where another dog might just shrug it off. Very easy for owners to get this wrong.

4). Threats Have to Be Carried Out

Electric Shock collars are programmed to make a loud beeping noise before the electric current is delivered. Their use is often justified on the basis that the handler only has to make the collar beep to get their dog to comply. In order for the bleep to work in the first place however, the collar must have caused the pain for the association to be made with the noise. Likewise, for the bleep to keep working, the dog must be periodically shocked again for the association to continue.

5). Severity to Keep Working

When you raise your voice to shout at your dog as a punishment, this volume soon becomes the norm. You have to shout louder for it to have the same effect. Eventually you may have to resort to physical punishment as well as shouting and on it goes.