You’ve probably heard it before. The old advice that gets passed down like a worn-out training manual: misbehaves, so you need to correct him. Show him who’s boss. Make sure he knows what’s not acceptable. It sounds logical enough, right? The problem is, when it comes to dogs, punishment doesn’t work the way we think it does. Honestly, it can do way more harm than good, and most people don’t realize the damage until it’s already done.
Let’s be real. If you’ve ever yelled at or given a sharp tug on the leash, you’re not alone. Most of us have been there. We’re human, we get frustrated, and sometimes we react before we think. The question is, what’s actually happening in ‘s mind when you do that? Spoiler alert: it’s not what you hope. So let’s dive in and explore why punishment should be left out of your training toolkit entirely.
Punishment Creates Fear, Not Understanding
Here’s the thing people miss. Dogs don’t process punishment the way humans do. Dogs don’t understand punishment the way humans do, and yelling, hitting, or using excessive force creates fear rather than teaching a lesson. When you scold for chewing your shoes an hour after the fact, he has zero clue what you’re upset about. He just knows you’re angry, and that’s terrifying for him.
A punished dog often stops attending to you and you become something to be avoided, and if you overstep and really scare the dog, you have taught him that you are a threat. Think about it. Would you want to spend time with someone who randomly becomes frightening and unpredictable? feels the same way. Over time, this builds anxiety, not obedience.
It Damages the Bond You’ve Worked So Hard to Build
Punishment-based training damages the human-animal bond and leads to mistrust, pain, fear, agitation, and increasing anger as the dog develops a strong negative association with the punisher. This is huge. Your relationship with is built on trust, and punishment chips away at that foundation every single time you use it.
Some training approaches actually depend on having a strong, trusting relationship to work. Some training and rehabilitation plans are only successful because they are built on trust and a strong bond between owner and dog, particularly for separation anxiety and reactive behaviour, and if punishment is used in other elements of training, it will undermine this work. So even if you think you’re just correcting one small thing, you might be sabotaging progress in other areas without realizing it.
The Science Shows Punishment Hurts Welfare and Learning
Dogs trained using aversive and mixed methods displayed more stress-related behaviors, such as crouching and yelping, and showed greater increases in cortisol levels after training than dogs trained with rewards. Cortisol is the stress hormone, and when it floods ‘s system, it actually makes learning harder. Stress shuts down the thinking brain and activates the emotional, reactive brain.
These findings indicate that aversive-based training methods, especially if used in high proportions, compromise the welfare of companion dogs both within and outside the training context. It’s not just about what happens during training sessions. Due to repeated exposure to aversive stimuli, training with aversive-based methods is expected to affect dogs’ affective states in a longer-term, transitioning to outside the training context. The damage lingers.
Punishment Can Make Behavior Problems Worse
This one surprises people. Use of punishment or aversive techniques correlated with higher rates of aggression and fear-related behaviors in companion dogs. You might temporarily suppress a behavior, but you haven’t actually changed how feels about the situation. The punishment might work there and then, but the experience can make dogs feel more insecure and wary, and it is common for dogs punished in this manner to keep reoffending because they have not been shown another way to behave, and the behavior might be suppressed but the dog still feels the same inside.
It’s not uncommon for a dog to get punished and instantaneously redirect onto another person, child or dog, creating a fight or worsening the situation, and this is the worst thing that can happen. Imagine trying to stop from barking at strangers, only to find he’s now more reactive and unpredictable. That’s the risk you take with punishment.
Your Timing Has to Be Perfect, and It Never Is
Dogs learn through association, and if your timing is off, the dog might look at you the moment you shock them, causing your presence to stress them and making the dog avoid you more often. Let’s say is sniffing another dog when you yank the leash. If the dog looks at another dog the moment you shock them, the presence of other dogs causes stress and dog to dog aggression can develop. You didn’t mean to teach to be aggressive toward other dogs, yet that’s exactly what happened.
The stress of the aversive can cause cortisol and stress hormones to rise and remain in ‘s bloodstream for up to 72 hours, and as a result, other behavior issues may pop up. So you might solve one problem and create three more. Not exactly a winning strategy, right?
Positive Reinforcement Actually Works Better
Two separate questionnaire studies found that dogs trained using only positive reinforcement are more obedient than dogs trained with punishment. When you reward the behaviors you want to see, learns faster and retains that information longer. Dogs trained through positive reinforcement learn faster, tend to show fewer stress behaviors, and form more trusting relationships with their handlers.
When dogs receive a treat or praise, their brains release dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, reward, and motivation, and over time, the behavior that leads to this pleasurable outcome becomes more ingrained. You’re literally changing ‘s brain chemistry in a positive way. They become eager participants in training rather than fearful ones. I know it sounds almost too simple, but that’s the beauty of it.
Dogs Deserve Better, and So Do You
Violence not only breaks our bond with dogs, it damages us too, affecting how we deal with all of our relationships, with particularly worrisome implications for people with children, and people who have used violent training techniques often become devastated when they realize they’ve made their animals worse and are truly damaged by the terror they inflicted. You got a dog to add joy to your life, not to become someone who hurts a creature that depends on you.
Training built on trust lasts, and when we work with a dog instead of against it, we’re building connection, confidence, and communication, and by embracing positive reinforcement and rejecting outdated training myths, owners can raise happier, more confident dogs while strengthening a bond built to last. That’s what we all want, isn’t it? A dog who listens because he trusts you, not because he’s afraid of you. The science backs it up, trainers recommend it, and honestly, it just feels better for everyone involved. What do you think? Are you ready to try a different approach?
Andrew Alpin from India is the Brand Manager of Doggo digest. Andrew is an experienced content specialist and social media manager with a passion for writing. His forte includes health and wellness, Travel, Animals, and Nature. A nature nomad, Andrew is obsessed with mountains and loves high-altitude trekking. He has been on several Himalayan treks in India including the Everest Base Camp in Nepal.
