Unfortunately punishment based training is still alive and well with pet owners, the dog trainer community and with dog sports enthusiasts. But how is punishment defined. For the purposes of this discussion, I will define punishment as adding something the animal DISLIKES or finds AVERSIVE in order to stop the behavior.
Listed below are a few of the excerpts from the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior; These findings are based on research and documentation on Punishment based training. To read the full article refer to www.AVSABonline.org
- Punishment can lead to a bad association with the person that is implementing it. For instance when punishment is used for training dogs to come when called, the dogs may learn to come at a trot or a walk (or cower while approaching) rather than returning to the owners at a fast run as if they enjoy returning to their owners. Or when punishment is used during obedience competition training or agility training for competitions, dogs may perform the exercises with a lack of enthusiasm.
- When owners use punishment, they are often angry, thus the expression of force is reinforcing to them because it temporarily decreases the anger. They may develop a habit of frequently becoming angry with their pet because it “misbehaves” in spite of their punishment. This may damage the bond with their pet.
- Punishment does not teach more appropriate behavior. Owners may punish the bad behavior some of the time, while inadvertently reinforcing the bad behavior at other times. From the dog’s point of view the owner is inconsistent and unpredictable, forceful or coercive.
- Punishment can suppress behaviors, including those behaviors that warn that a bite may occur. For example, if the animal is aggressive due to fear, then the use of force to stop the fearful reactions will make the dog more fearful while at the same time suppressing or masking the outward signs of fear. Once it can no longer suppress its fear, the animal may suddenly act with heightened aggression and with fewer warning signs of impending aggression. In other words it may now attack with no warning.
- Punishment can facilitate or even cause aggressive behavior. Animals in which the punishment does not immediately suppress the behavior may escalate in their efforts to avoid the punishment to the point of becoming aggressive. Those who already show aggressive behavior may exhibit more intense and injurious aggressive behaviors.
- Regardless of the strength, punishment can cause some individuals to become extremely fearful and this fear can generalize to other contexts. For instance, some dos on which the citronella or electronic collar are used with a preceding tone may react fearfully to alarm clock, smoke detectors, or timers.
- Punishment can strengthen the undesired behavior. If the animal is not punished every time for a behavior (if you decide to go that route) then the times it is not being punished, it it actually receiving a reward. This is termed Variable reinforcement and it is a powerful reinforcement schedule that is used to maintain behaviors trained with positive reinforcement. The animals know the reward will occur eventually, but since they don’t know which time the reward will come, they keep performing the behavior with the expectation of an eventual reward.
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