Love Shouldn’t Hurt: A Deeper Look at Punishment and Behavior Modification for Dogs

Why do dogs and humans (and all organisms) avoid punishment? We avoid it because it hurts! The punishment needs to hurt enough physically or psychologically to outweigh our need to perform the behavior the next time the opportunity arises. 

But, Officer…

A classic example of punishment influencing human behavior is the dreaded speeding ticket. The embarrassment of being pulled over, the monetary penalty, the court appearance, and the points on your license all serve to deter you from going over the speed limit the next time you have an open road in front of you. The punishment of the speeding ticket may stop your behavior, but the underlying motivator is still there: getting to your destination faster because of whatever emotion you were experiencing at the time.

If you choose to speed again but aren’t pulled over, the inconsistency of the punishment will justify the continuation of your behavior; sometimes you may ‘get away with it’, so you’re willing to play the odds to get to your destination faster. But if you are caught, the consequences are going to escalate to a bigger fine, getting dropped from your insurance carrier, or even the loss of your license, because obviously, the first punishment wasn’t painful enough to deter you from repeating the behavior. 

Here’s what punishment, regardless of consistency, doesn’t address: your emotions when you were speeding. Perhaps you were frustrated with how slow the cars in front of you were driving, or maybe you were late to pick up your child from daycare and were worried that you wouldn’t make it before they closed. 

Your speeding ticket and subsequent outlay of money and time didn’t change how you felt. In fact, the whole ordeal probably exacerbated your frustration and worry. And as an added “bonus”, there may now be a whole new layer of hypervigilance and negative emotion that you experience anytime you drive. Next time you consider speeding, you may decide not to because you are afraid you’ll get caught again, but it doesn’t help fix the circumstances and feelings that drive the urge to speed.

Read more: What to Know About Positive Punishment

What’s The ‘Why’?

How do speeding tickets relate to our dogs?

Just as with humans, your dog’s behavior is the outward expression of what your dog is feeling at that moment. All behavior has a function. It may not be obvious to YOU why your dog is behaving the way she is, but it serves a purpose for HER: 

• An attempt at gaining access to something she wants or needs
• An attempt to remove (or remove herself from) something unpleasant or frightening to her
• Maintaining or gaining a sense of safety

There’s Nothing Positive About Positive Punishment 

To streamline our discussion, we will concentrate on a term used in psychology called positive punishment (P+). It is a method of learning in operant conditioning that applies or adds a consequence that the dog (or human) finds aversive, to decrease the likelihood of that behavior occurring in the future.  

Punishment seeks to stop the outward symptoms (the behavior we see), but it fails to take into account the problem itself (the motivation and feelings that are driving the behavior).

For punishment to work, several objectives must be met:

• The consequence (punishment) must be meaningful to the individual dog 
• The consequence (punishment) needs to be applied immediately after the unwanted behavior
• Punishment needs to occur every single time the unwanted behavior occurs
• The consequence (punishment) must be aversive (painful) enough to decrease that behavior in the future after only one or two applications for it to be deemed effective

As an example of punishment being relevant to the individual, a raised voice may not deter your friend’s dog from bolting out the door as it is opened, but for your dog, a raised voice may not only stop her from door dashing, but it will send her running away from you in fear and make her reluctant to go near that door in the future.

It’s very, very challenging to achieve all the criteria for ‘perfect’ punishment every single time the behavior occurs. 

Punishment: Flooding, Force and Intimidation

Punishment, including intimidation, force, and flooding¹, has no place in working with fearful dogs or any dog. Use of leash corrections, e-collars, prong collars, slip leads, choke chains, or verbal or physical reprimands may suppress the unwanted behavior but does not change the underlying emotion driving the behavior itself. Punishment seeks to change the visible symptoms but leaves the underlying problem unresolved, which can lead to other, more serious negative behaviors in the future.

The worst part about punishment is that it is used on a dog when their behavior is generally driven by anxiety or fear. Their fear may manifest as reluctance to move forward, ‘ignoring you’, laying down instead of moving forward, growling, barking, snapping or biting, lunging, running towards a trigger, or running away from a trigger. Without understanding the function behind the behavior, you will never get to the root of the problem.

Read more: If You’re Aggressive, Your Dog Will Be, Too

Invisible Doesn’t Mean Painless

A perfect example of punishment not taking motivation into account is the ‘invisible fence’. The invisible fence is widely accepted as an easy, minimal, and inexpensive way (compared to a fully fenced yard) to keep your dog on your property. It relies on an electrical wire buried around the perimeter of the containment area to alert the receiver, worn as a collar, that your dog is near the boundary by emitting a warning sound. If your dog continues to approach, the collar will send electricity through metal prongs directly into your dog’s neck. The shock needs to be painful and unpleasant enough that your dog doesn’t approach the property boundaries again.

Let’s say that your dog is a quick learner. Approaching the boundary is associated with pain, so she does not go near the edge of the property…until she sees her canine nemesis being walked on the other side of the street. She rushes up to the edge of the safe zone and is alerted by the warning signal. She is afraid and unsure of the other dog and shows her fear by barking and growling and wants the other dog to move away faster, so she rushes through the shock at the perimeter to chase the other dog away. 

If the motivation/threat is great enough, one or more outcomes can result:

• Your dog may decide that the pain was worth the result, and continue to break out of the yard
• She now associates the other dog with the shock, which results in greater fear and increased reactivity.
• She becomes sensitized to the sight of any dogs walking and views them all as threats 
• She can become sensitized to the warning sound of the system and start generalizing that all beeping is bad, including the microwave, oven, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, etc.
• She becomes fearful of going outside in general
• She develops a fear of getting in the car and leaving the property
• The system doesn’t protect her from animals coming onto the property, and it doesn’t allow her to run away from them unless she is willing to get shocked

These are all real, far-reaching, heartbreaking consequences of punishment that consumers don’t learn about until it affects their dog.  

We’ve Tried Everything

The following are some common justifications for using punishment, including shock collars, prong collars, or physical or verbal intimidation:

• We’ve tried everything else, and nothing worked 
• This is a last resort
• Our trainer told us we had to, in order to gain control
• Some dogs only respond to punishment
• These (methods or products) produce quick results, without investing a lot of time or effort
• It’s just a tap; it doesn’t really hurt

All those statements indicate a loss of connection, broken trust, fear, and frustration. When you are worried for your dog’s safety or the safety of those around you, you may reach for anything that appears to work quickly, but in reality, there are no quick fixes.

 Read more: Training Methods Based on Punishment Compromise Dog Welfare

From Bad To Worse

There is plenty of information, both scholarly and popular, that discusses the effects of punishment. It’s not that punishment doesn’t work; sometimes it does. The problem with punishment is the unintended fallout, especially for our fearful dogs: 

• Punishment doesn’t address the ‘why’ (function) of the behavior; it only addresses decreasing the behavior itself.
• Your dog may not know what she is being punished for, so the unwanted behavior continues.
• The punishment you use may not be aversive enough to stop the behavior, so escalation of the intensity of punishment is likely.
• Punishment does not take the ethics of inflicting pain on another being into account.
• Punishment doesn’t provide alternative behaviors to take the place of the unwanted behavior.
• Punishment breaks the bond of trust since you can no longer be relied on to keep your dog safe.
• Punishment can cause learned helplessness. (Looking calm but actually being frozen in fear.)
• Punishment may suppress the undesired behavior but does not address the underlying fear, and that unchecked fear can manifest itself in other ways.
• Punishment creates pessimism in your dog.
• It is reinforcing for the person inflicting the punishment because it makes the annoying/unsafe behavior stop. 
• It gives the person inflicting the punishment a sense of control at a high cost to the relationship.
• You have completely removed your dog’s autonomy and agency when you apply a punishment; your dog has no choice but to comply.
• Punishment can increase aggression.
• Punishment has to be physically or psychologically painful to be effective. 
• Punishment that includes prong collars or choke collars can lead to physical trauma including damage to the thyroid gland, skin inflammation, puncture wounds, breathing difficulties, and tracheal collapse.

Read more:
Fallout from the Use of Aversives
The Effects of Using Aversive Training Methods in Dogs
Shock Collars

Be Proactive, Not Reactive

Your dog’s behavior may evoke intense negative emotions for you, and that’s normal. Feelings of frustration, helplessness, fear, anger, and disappointment are all common (and completely understandable) as you struggle to manage or fix behaviors that make it difficult to live peacefully with your dog. But using pain to try and stop those unwanted behaviors is not the answer. 

Try to remember that your dog isn’t giving you a hard time; she’s having a hard time. She is struggling to meet her need at that moment: to keep herself safe. Rather than reacting to her behavior with punishment, you can proactively use these humane alternatives to help her feel secure: 

• Become educated in dog body language, so you can take action at the earliest signs of your dog’s discomfort and remove or redirect her from the situation before problems arise. 
• Sharpen your observation skills and put in the work to understand what motivates your dog to do the behavior in the first place. Your dog’s feelings on the subject may be different or more complex than you initially thought. Don’t assume.
• Managing or changing the environment or situation that causes the behavior can often decrease the unwanted behavior. Avoid putting your dog in situations that you know will trigger the behavior you are trying to decrease.
• If management alone doesn’t decrease the behavior, teach your dog a desirable behavior to do INSTEAD of the unwanted behavior.  The substitute behavior can be:
  • Anything else other than the unwanted behavior. e.g. hand target or sniff the ground rather than barking at a dog in the distance. 
  • Incompatible with the unwanted behavior. e.g. keeping four paws on the floor instead of jumping on a guest.
  • A specific behavior to substitute for the unwanted behavior. e.g. jumping into their person’s arms rather than rushing at a guest’s feet. 
  • Or even simply a lower intensity of the unwanted behavior. e.g. barking three times at the mail truck instead of barking continuously. 
• Always apply the fair pair rule: the new behavior needs to fulfill the same function as the unwanted behavior. e.g. supplying a teething puppy with frozen rubber toys filled with food and blocking access to the furniture, rather than scolding her for chewing on the chair legs. The new behavior (chewing on soothing, delicious toys) serves the same function as chewing on the chair legs: teething.  
• Just as adding a meaningful aversive as a consequence makes a behavior decrease (P+), adding a positive consequence (food rewards, play, or whatever your dog loves) can increase the frequency of a behavior in the future (R+). Wouldn’t you prefer to reward your dog for doing something right, rather than punishing her for doing something wrong?

No Quick Fixes

Just as you wouldn’t go to your first appointment with a psychologist for a serious, long-standing problem and expect to walk out completely trouble-free, the same is true of your dog’s behavior challenges. Nor would you expect your therapist to stride across the room and punch you if you said something that wasn’t in line with her method of treatment, under the guise of helping you overcome your challenges.

Change takes time, patience, and skill. Modifying dangerous or ingrained behaviors often takes partnering with an experienced, educated training professional highly skilled in behavior, who uses humane, force-free, scientifically backed methods to change your dog’s emotional state. After evaluating your dog, the professional may suggest bringing a Veterinary Behaviorist on the team for further support, which may involve prescribing behavioral medication or other interventions.

It Takes Two

Just as you are trying to modify your dog’s emotions and behavior, you need to take the same care with your own emotions and behavior. Following are indicators that you need to change, in order to successfully help your dog:

• Your style of interaction may be inconsistent, especially if you are frustrated with or scared of your dog. (Dogs thrive on predictability.)
• You may be putting your dog in situations that are overwhelming to her, without first asking whether it is really necessary to be there in the first place. 
• Management is lax, allowing the behavior to be rehearsed often, which ultimately makes it stronger.
• You put your dog in challenging environments without practicing the foundational skills to succeed in that situation.   

Behavior challenges are hard. They take a toll on your dog, on you, and your family. Let science and kindness be your guide. Use humane management and modification practices to give your dog what she needs and deserves; safety and security without punishment. Love and training should NEVER hurt. 

More Resources*
Pet Professional Guild Trainer Search
Association of Pet Dog Trainers
American College of Veterinary Behaviorists

*Ask about experience, methods, and equipment preference with every professional you interview, and be your dog’s advocate in all things.

Footnote:

1. Flooding is the act of forcing your dog to stay in situations that frighten her and that she cannot voluntarily leave until she stops reacting to the trigger. Flooding may suppress the undesired behavior but does not address the underlying fear. Unchecked fear can manifest itself in other ways, causing more (and new) behavior problems. ↩︎

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