I spanked my dog this morning... (Staffordshire Terrier, kennel, natural, children)
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I cringe............. the dog is non-aggressive, but you are aggressive and brutal! There is NO excuse for striking a loving animal. You do not have the temperament to be a pet owner because you have no self-control. Do NOT get another pet until you have gone to 'human obedience school'.
You and I agree on so many things we might be the same person. Tried to rep you but have to spread it around.
Generally, you sound like a good human to your dog. You got frustrated and you slipped up. It's obviously not a regular thing and it's not being abused.
I'd rather see that dog with you than with another person who would ignore it or leave it outside.
Or worse, see the dog in a shelter.
Kiss your pup, ask its forgiveness, and figure out another way to train it.
...and it worked. I feel bad though.
We are not yellers or spankers, with kids or animals, but today I got tired of "polite suggestions" for behavior not working.
Every morning when our dachshund, Freddie, thinks it is time to get up (6:30 or so) he starts going bat**** crazy. By this I mean he starts jumping on me in a crazy manner, and i tend to get scratched from his claws. Any other time of day or night, he is an angel, and has no behavior problems at all. Once I get out of bed, he becomes docile again.
So this morning I loudly scolded him and smacked his bottom, and he stopped the behavior instantly. I wonder if he will do it again tomorrow? If he does, I intend to do the same thing again until he stops doing it.
What do all you dog owners think this behavior is about? I am thinking that it is something that puppies do ...scrambling over the other puppies in the morning to get to their mom. Our dog is 3, and I am definitely "the mommy". He was a rescue, so not sure what his first years were like.
You're a horrible person, dogs aren't like humans, youre a bad owner. shame on you.
<sigh> Sometimes people get so wound up. I picked this post to quote because it comes closest to saying what I want to add.
Getting down to brass tacks. Dogs are creature of the moment - they live in the "now". Absolutely. Your dog loves to see you and get your attention - as you know. And, it expresses that love by trying to get you to awake and give it a pat or two, . . .or three. Just how they are.
I do not agree with those who say that any negative reinforcement is verbotten. Maybe I'm just the poorer trainer, but frankly, trying to do EVERYTHING the positive way just doesn't always get results. Sometimes I have to use something negative. I limit those occasions, and I work hard to use absolutely no more force than is necessary to see a result.
Just today, I was working with my dogs on pulling on leash. There are times when their attention simply goes outward to things that are not me, and not walking politely and nicely. Like other dogs walking past. Or deer in the field (or other game animals, e.g. turkeys, skunks, whatever). Or just some particularly attractive smell. You know, even if I was handing out treats like they were candy, I would loose the dog's attention at some point, and they will pull on the leash. As much as I would like to, I simply find that I can not always be the dog's central attention. I cen get that behavior for short periods of time only.
Two of the dogs I'm working are good. One is a B-, the other an A. The third usually gets a B-, until he sees or smells something, then he is an F. I've tried positive re-focusing, and I can not get it to work. Maybe I'm just not a good trainer. But, I CAN use an old-fashioned negative reinforcement to work. It is slow, but it eventually gets results. Using positive methods just doesn't resolve things for me.
So I am on the side that says: "Go positive, until you have to go negative". A minor swat, here or there? Is nothing in the scheme of things.
Good luck!
I'm with you on this too. A physical consequence is sometimes the best training tool when all the positive training is ignored.
(this story is from years ago) I'm a believer that labs are bred to be gentle family dogs. I was NOT going to keep an aggressive lab in our house.
We had a three year old son and a six year old son when we got our 9 week old lab puppy. When she was around 4 -5 months old, she started swinging around and giving indication of growling/snarling at our boys on occasion when they touched her. Our boys were taught to never bother her when she was eating, not to touch her by surprise, and to always touch/pet gently so it wasn't like she was being roughly handled by anyone.
I was worried that if she was aggressive as a young puppy, what was she going to be like as an adult dog? I scolded her for the first few times. The final straw came when my (adult) brother reached down to pet her under our dining room table and and she growled at him for no reason other than his hand on her side. It was no surprise to her. She knew he was reaching to pet her and he loves dogs. His eyes registered shock at her attitude. Even if it was a surprise, no dog should growl or bite at any person unless they have a damned good reason (pain)
The next time she snarled at one our sons, I was ready. I yelled at her and gave her a few good cracks on her butt with a rolled up newspaper.
She never showed aggression again to anyone, ever. She needed that aggressive behavior nipped in the bud. If she'd continued with this behavior, we were prepared to get rid of her.
She turned into a lovely family dog, followed our boys everywhere (we lived out in the country) and lived to the ripe old age of 14. Our boys bawled like little kids the day we had to take her to the vets to put her down.
I used the spray from the water bottle and that helped train my Chihuahua not to bark all the time. Then when she stopped barking she got a treat. Positive reinforcement. A firm NO and putting your dog back on the floor might have worked. I'm assuming a Dachshund can't get up on your bed without you putting it there or do you have stairs?
I'm in the camp of people who don't believe in using your hand to "spank" a dog. Your hand will be something they learn to fear. If you feel you have to spank the dog don't let him/her see your hand doing it. Use something small like the empty cardboard from the paper towel roll or a small rolled up newspaper.
I have a Catahoula. He is stubborn and headstrong, but an incredibly good dog. I yell at him and occasionally scruff him as needed because he goes over threshold and needs a check, but it's not something I do frequently (hardly ever these days). Those are my nuclear options. Weirdly, he appreciates the boundaries - he's a high-anxiety dog, and it seems to make him feel safe when I lay down the law. I'd never do that with my super-sensitive kelpie.
I think where the the OP went wrong was allowing this behavior to develop to start with. As soon as my dog goes over threshhold, I make him go into a down-stay and wait for me to release him. He freaks out about his dinner time? Down-Stay. He starts shrieking at the entrance to the dog park? Down-Stay. Everything is about him waiting for a reward.
Rather than spank my dog and giving him a reason to flinch from my touch, I'd have had a toy by my bed, put him into a down-stay and then tossed the toy and had a brief game of fetch. Or had the dog do some tricks or hand touches. They just want that interaction.
I grew up in the late 50s-early 60s, and back then it wasn't unusual to discipline the family dog with a slap on the rear. It was considered normal, as was rear-end-slapping a child who was acting out or not listening.
My take now on this sort of training - for either child or pet - is that it is not the best way to handle things. A dog who is not listening, or keeps repeating a behaviour, is doing so for a reason. Generally (imo) the problem with a dog who isn't learning not to do the undesired action is because whatever method is being used as a correction isn't working - i.e., the dog can't understand what the owner is trying to communicate to them. Sometimes the issue is one that can be a relatively easy fix (chewing shoes); others can be much more difficult (aggression, guarding). And often the case is that the owner may be teaching the dog - without realizing it, that the unwanted behaviour is okay (subtle body cues and responses from the owner may tell the dog "Oh hey, I'm supposed to do this!"). End result, the dog is responding to a cue that the owner doesn't know they are giving, and the owner gets frustrated ("why isn't he listening!?!"). A rolled-up newspaper slapped onto a piece of furniture, or a slap on the rear certainly will get the dog's attention, and will usually stop the behaviour at the moment, sometimes it works for a longer period of time...but honestly, it is negative training, and startling/scaring the animal - to me - is a bad way of going about things.
If the dog is nervous - such a my dog, a real nervous Nellie, so nervous that he used to be reactive to the point of biting - that type of discipline would set him back exponentially. It would also create a huge wedge between him and me...the bond we have, and the trust that he has in me would fly out the window, and he would become a cowering, quivering mess. And to use negative training on a dog that has fear issues (dogs with guarding behaviour, growling, insecurity)...striking them, or even making loud fearful sounds around them - a resounding slap of a paper on a surface - can aggravate the problem so much that one risks creating a dangerously aggressive dog.
I believe in positive reinforcement with an animal, positive training, and learning how to truly communicate with the pet. If something isn't working, there's a reason for it. The dog isn't being stubborn or willful (with perhaps the exception of what we might call 'the terrible twos' in children...a teenaged dog who tests boundaries); what's broken is the communication with that dog. Resorting to striking or frightening a dog may be a quick fix, but it's not a correct one. Taking the time to figure out how to stop unwanted behaviour with positive reinforcement, encouragement, redirecting, and reward goes a very long way to creating a dog that feels secure and safe, and trusts his owner. And if the problem is a serious one, such as displays of aggression, then bringing in a professional who deals with understanding what's triggering the dog's fears, and works the owners to help fix the problem, is absolutely the best way to deal with the issue.
I have issues with using a crate as a form of discipline. Especially if used so exclusively.
That is just asking for trouble if one needs to put the dog in a crate for traveling or safety.
If the dog is only ever put in a crate when bad, they will not want to go in the crate when neccissary.
It will only confuse them as well.
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