What can you expect when you hit your dog?
There is a constant flood on this site from people who talk about hitting their dog as a training method. Alpha rolls, shaking the dog by the scruff, hanging a dog with a choke collar, etc.
You have to be leader of the pack! You have to let the dog know who’s boss. You’ve seen how other dogs discipline other dogs.
I want the people who train dogs to chime in and give people some of the consequences of that type of training!
As an aside, I’ve taught obedience for 30+ years and I’m judge for the AKC and ASCA.
I was given the opportunity to do graduate work with L. David Mech who wrote the original book about wolf behavior.
Dogs are domesticated animals. Wolves are not. Wolves live in packs. Our pets do not view our households as packs, there are TOTALLY different dynamics going on in households versus packs.
The ONLY time I’ve used physical means with a dog is to stop a dog fight situation, or in a situation where a dog went after a human.
Some breeds have extremely high pain tolerances. To use physical pain means to try to train these dogs is beyond crazy.
October 30th, 2009 at 12:19 am
bite igi
October 30th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
the dog can become aggressive and bite people #1JeffHardyFan
November 1st, 2009 at 1:24 am
The dog will fear you instead of respect you. Which causes behavioral issues in the long run. Dulcie
November 4th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
you can expect to be bitten and have a dog thats absolutely horrible to deal with. eyeluv
November 5th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
If you beat your dog and people find out, guess what? You’ll get arrested. Sara H
November 7th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
NO! Never hang, hit or shake a dog or puppy! If the dog is biting, try firmly saying ‘no’ to him and ingnoring him untill he calms down. hitting can cause lack of trust, and it can even lead to jail time or fines, if an animal lover reports you. Hitting is abuse, but law allows some disapline to be delt to dogs. If the dong doesn’t trust you, he will not learn to be house trained or tricks or even simple commands because they will think something like ‘Why should I obey someone who hurts me?” They need to trust you. If the dog was taken away from it’s mother, it has most likely not learned the consequenses of biting. Socalazation helps this. if you have a neighbor with a dog, ask to set up play dates. if your dog rough houses with another dog too much, it will disapline it itself, and the dog will learn not to but on most anything, for fear he may get hurt. If you can get a play date, when the dog does something bad (NEVER use this when trying to house train), use you nails and pinch his ear somewhat hard and quickly. This will make it feel like a nip from another dog. This works on most any breed. Alex P
November 10th, 2009 at 4:27 am
Your animals will turn on you and your family members.. Lets look at this with some common since why would you treat your animals like this if you would not treat a human this way ? christycricket78
November 12th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Hitting your dog doesnt teach him/her anything. Just that you are mean and to stay away from you. Say No in a stern voice and your dog will learn. Hitting your dog will make your dog mean and the dog may turn on you. msmegan06
November 15th, 2009 at 3:25 am
If you do these things to excess, inappropirately and unfairly you will have a poorly socialized dog who will be fearful of you and its surroundings. If you do these things with just enough force to get the dogs attention and only do it after the dog has not paid attention to your voice command then you will have a well behaved dog. Physical punishment has its place and just like with children it should be the last resort. You do need to let your dog know who is boss, or you will end up with a dog who won’t listen and will end up getting itself hurt. I personally don’t use the above methods, because fortunately I have never had to, but I have seen them implemented correctly by owners and trainers and it has resulted in a happy and well behaved dogs. I am not advocating hitting your dog in the face or hanging them with a choke collar, but spanking a dog on the butt or giving them a quick, light jerk with a choke collar can be appropriate so long as the force just sufficent enough to be an attention getter, not to cause injury. New Dog Owner
November 17th, 2009 at 6:11 am
I’m not comfortable with aggressive training. I can be alpha to my dogs pretty well without it and have yet to be challenged for my spot as pack leader. I learned obedience training with people who were training GSDs and Siberians and they didn’t use force training either, so I am not used to using it and worry more I might get bit back! I don’t think I’d trust one of those dogs at all as at some point they are going to use what you taught them to come back on you and take over…that is also natural pack behavior. That downtrodden shal overcome and rule one day! The leader is always being challenged for that spot. No thank you. I want love and respect to be the basis of the relationship, not who has the biggest bite. I own a Pit/GSD cross who is highly trained and has never been hit, nor have I been challenged in the 11 years I’ve owned her. I have seen her eat a rabbit like it was a hot dog. I never want her to turn that on me! The worst aggression I’ve had to deal with came from a teeny Pom. That guy wanted a piece of me sooo bad. I am thankful he was tiny and easy to control! He worked hard to chew my arm off. After a while of nonthreatening behavior modification, he got to be a most charming little fellow…. ibbibud
November 18th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Well, there is a difference between showing the dog who is boss, and hitting the dog in excess. I wouldn’t recommend hitting the dog anyway, but there are methods like that. Dogs are very physical in the wild when it comes to discipline, so we’re not far off from that kind of training. My dad would bite my dog’s ear when he was training her. It might sound mean, but that is what mother dogs do to their pups. When the dog is being trained, it has to have a consequence for doing something wrong, but the trainer needs to have a hefty amount of patience when training a dog as well. Dogs learn from repetition, and if you don’t have the patience, the dog won’t have the attention span. Plus, if you’re going to scold a dog for something it did wrong like peeing on the carpet, you need to scold the dog immediately. Otherwise, the dog won’t know what it did wrong, and that is what results in the animal fearing you. There are limitations to how far you should go with scolding a dog. If the dog does get violent, then you have been too violent with the dog. That means you’ve lost the dog’s trust. There is a fine line between discipline and abuse. The dog will know when you’ve crossed it. Ciao!!! Opera Yogini
November 21st, 2009 at 2:59 am
The same thing you will get from hitting your child.
Either a meek and scared, shaking pathetic creature or an animal that will return the violence to you or others.
Will you act as others expect if they beat you?
Go to the local library and get a training book.
I have trained for 30 years and have used corporal punishment a bare handful of times.
IT DOESN’T WORK.
Positive reinforcement is the answer.
Remember, the poor animal doesn’t understand what you want from it. Time, consistency and patience is required. tnerb52
November 22nd, 2009 at 3:17 am
With two exceptions, a newfie and a bearded collie, my dogs have all been sight hounds. And I know for a fact that if you were to try these despicable “training” tactics on a sight hound, you’d end up with one of two things - either a fear biter, which is arguably the most dangerous dog out there, or a neurotic wreck that’s good for nothing at all, certainly not a companion. Dogs who learn through fear are not only not reliable, they’re dangerous.
I’ve read posts on here from people who have 7 or 8 or 9 week old puppies and they want to know how they can show their dog that they’re the alpha! Where did this crap come from? And what kind of a relationship can they ever hope to achieve with their “companion”?
I’ve trained afghans, an Irish wolfhound (the only 1 of the bunch who wasn’t really a bright dog!), a pharoah hound, whippets I handled for conformation only, and my greyhounds. They all learn quickly with positive reinforcement and/or clicker training, they remember what they’ve learned forever, and I have one 9 year old in particular who’s always anxious to learn something new. I believe that’s because he thinks of obedience as “play time”. walkinglady