On the Punishment Callous
Are you dealing with nuisance behaviors from your dog such as jumping up, counter surfing, pulling on the leash, or barking?
You may have searched on the internet for instructional videos to address these issues. Dog trainers vary widely in their approaches to behavior modification, and you may have seen many different techniques aimed to address problem behaviors. Some of these techniques may actually conflict with one another. One trainer may tell you to correct your dog while another trainer tells you that correcting your dog is the last thing you should do. How are you supposed to know what’s best for not only your dog, but also your family and your home?
If you’re getting information from trainers on the internet, chances are you’re looking for some proof that these methods are working. If the method doesn’t work immediately, it must not be working, right? This isn’t necessarily true.
Correcting your dog for jumping up, counter surfing, pulling on the leash, or barking with a loud noise or physical punishment can work great in the moment. Your dog stops doing the annoying thing, and you can get a moment of peace. Then the moment is over, and your dog is right back to doing the thing. Why?
When we use aversives, or stimuli that are unpleasant or annoying for our dogs, we may temporarily see a pause in the problem behavior. This pause is a naturally reaction to something that feels weird or scary. This pause is intended to be the space where you can redirect your dog to something more appropriate. There are a few issues with this.
When something bothers or frightens your dog, you may see them freeze for a moment. If used repeatedly, the aversive stimulus begins to carry less and less weight. If you are using a sound to correct behavior, our dog may start to realize that the hissing, clattering, or ultrasonic screeching does not necessarily mean something very bad will happen. If you are using physical punishment, such as leash pressure, a bean bag, or a squirt bottle, your dog is likely to develop a punishment callous, meaning they acclimate to higher and higher levels of force. When using these methods, they work well initially, and then they start to lose their zing over time. For these reasons, many dog handlers prefer using prong and e-collars. Because of the high amount of pain these tools are capable of inducing, you will run less of a risk of your dog being tempered in to the punishment callous. For these to work as intended, however, you will have to start at a heavy hand with the prong or a high level with the e-collar. You should only need to use these tools a few times if you are attempting to stop behavior. If you are using these tools long-term, that could mean that your timing is off, your dog is not in enough pain to want to stop the behavior, or the need your dog is attempting to meet is more valuable than the absence of pain.
Instead of worrying about administering the right level of discomfort to your dog, you can skip that whole distressing process and jump right to the root cause of the issue.
Behavior is driven by a few different components. Your dog has biological needs to be met, such as the need for food and safety. If your dog is counter surfing, your dog is attempting to access food (or fun chewable items), and if your dog hopes to feel safe, they may pull hard on the leash, endlessly seeking comfort in a scary world. The environment plays a part in your dog’s behavior. If your dog is barking at the scary mailman and then the mailman starts to walk away, your dog learns to keep watch over the window to protect the house. A history of reinforcement for nuisance behaviors may assist in maintaining this behavior even if punishment is used. A puppy that jumps up is cute, while an adult dog who jumps up may be annoying or even dangerous for the same family who reinforced this behavior. Your dog’s behavior may also be affected by their health, diet, sleep, age, breed, housing history, walking equipment, or level of exercise. That’s a lot of factors to consider!
With positive reinforcement training, we look at all aspects of your dog’s life so we can identify the root cause of their behaviors. We can then come up with a plan to manage your environment before selecting training exercises to teach new skills. Managing your environment can prevent rehearsals of those problem behaviors, which helps to break habits. When your dog starts to learn what to do instead, we can start to relax the management protocol.
Positive reinforcement training is great for people who won’t always have the time to train. Unlike punishment, positive reinforcement is required less and less over time. Your dog who was initially working with a high rate of reinforcement will start to do more for less as we change their schedule of reinforcement. A certified positive reinforcement trainer can guide you in the process of phasing from treats to life rewards.
If you have a dog who is jumping up, counter surfing, pulling on the leash, or barking, we’d love to hear from you! These are very common issues, so please take comfort in knowing you are not alone. You are a good pet parent. You did the research that led you here.
If you do continue to use the internet for dog training advice, you are now armed with the knowledge of punishment callous, so you can better make decisions for your dog and yourself. Keep up the good work and remember to trust your gut.
Happy training!
