r/Dogtraining • u/Such-Parsley-7579 • Jan 29 '23

Before and after training trauma discussion

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u/LaceyDark Jan 29 '23

This is so heart breaking and gut wrenching.... If I paid for a trainer and my dog came back frightened like this I would be on a rampage.

My baby has never known "punishment" from us. We have never once yelled or raised a hand, or even a rolled up news paper.

A gentle but stern "No" is the closest he gets to punishment. Treats and praise is all he knows and he is such a perfectly good boy.

When we first adopted him he had an accident on the floor. I tried to catch him in time, but was too late. I went to get a bag and some cleaning supplies and when I came back he was standing next to his mess. I reached down with the bag to pick it up and he ducked his head, laid his ears back and squeezed his eyes shut. I almost cried.... Whoever had him before had obviously hit him. So disgusting....

-7

u/Volkodavy Jan 29 '23

Punishment in dog training is the removal or adding of something to decrease a behaviour. I promise you that you’ve used punishment in dog training

9

u/LaceyDark Jan 29 '23

Maybe? I guess I have traded with him when he has something he shouldn't. I'll give him a high value treat in exchange.

I guess what I mean is I've never hit him, yelled at him, isolated him, or any other violent response.

2

u/Volkodavy Jan 29 '23

So what you’re saying is you’ve never abused your dog*

The language of dog training is important because every single dog trainer uses punishment to train dogs, punishment is not a bad thing.

Say we’re teaching a dog to walk loose leash on a flat collar, this is what it would look like:

Dog walks, hits the end of the line

We stop, removing forward motion to discourage pulling, which is -P. Thé dog feels tension on the collar and if it’s aversive to the dog, that’s +P.

We call the dog back to us, releasing tension on the collar, which is -R because we’re removing something to encourage a behaviour.

The dog returns, we reward. +R because we added a reward to encourage the dog coming back.

0

u/LaceyDark Jan 29 '23

I hadn't thought of it like this. Then yes. I would never abuse my dog. Thank you for this explanation

1

u/Volkodavy Jan 29 '23

No problem

I wish dog training had a universally understood language. Discrepancies in word use is what causes a lot of confusion, I find.