Is it ok to spank your dog?

Aggression - in this case hitting - towards any living thing - animal or child - is more a reflection of the person doing the hitting than of the animal being hit. Aggression in this (hitting) generally comes from a perceived lack of control, and frustration and anxiety stemming from that. And that is what you need to focus on and work on.

I agree with Anne's point that you should probably try to get yourself into the hands of a good trainer - one that not only teaches your dog *stuff*, but that can teach you to understand your dog and show you how your dog learns, and help you to learn to control your own emotions and give you the skills you need so that you can be a more effective teacher.

Effective teachers don't get angry, rather they teach with kindness, patience, and trust. Well, we are humans, so we do get angry, and anger can be natural, but when you have learned more skills, you can learn to deal with it in nonviolent ways and learn not to teach our dogs when we are in that state. But hopefully, if you get some help in understanding your dog better, you will find you will no longer get angry to start with as you'll know what to do next time.

 I won't address the hitting issue, it's just wrong. Though I will spank a child to get my point across in matters of life and death.

I *do* repeat commands though. Usually only when the dog has lost focus on what I asked. (Jackson) He gets distracted by birds and butterflies and planes flying overhead, etc. So he does need a repeat of the command just to remember what he was doing before the distraction. I do feel as though I know the difference between his puppy brain just fell outta his ear vs refusing a command. I don't repeat refusals. I will wait those out.

You get more out of a dog with softer handling than with dominance based handling. It's really hard to understand that unless you see it work with your own eyes. The hardest part is to retrain how you react to situations. I've seen a lot of frustrated handlers because "dominance" stuff doesn't work over the long haul, but once the handler is retrained (and it takes time), the dog and the handler get a lot calmer and work much better together as a team. The dog responds willingly because it learns that praise and attention come with making the right decisions. This is very different from a dog who is yelled at or smacked for making the wrong decision.

3girls

 I won't address the hitting issue, it's just wrong. Though I will spank a child to get my point across in matters of life and death.

You would spank a child, but spanking (hitting) a dog is wrong??

BlackLabbie

3girls

 I won't address the hitting issue, it's just wrong. Though I will spank a child to get my point across in matters of life and death.

You would spank a child, but spanking (hitting) a dog is wrong??

I think she meant that hitting a dog in an attempt to train it is wrong, but in a "life or death" situation she would have no problem spanking/hitting to make a clear point.

I agree with her. I would never "spank" a dog, or a child, for bad behavior. I don't think hitting a dog (or kid) has any place in training. But, if they were about to do something dangerous, like the dog is about to eat something dangerous (cooked bone, poison, etc), I'm not going to just sit there and ask the dog nicely to "leave it" if it could potentially kill them. If a kid was about to stick a fork into an outlet, I wouldn't just stand there and say "Now now, you aren't allowed to do that", I'm going to smack their hand away before they can do it.

I spank my dog all the time when we play.  He likes to tug and fight (play-fight) and rough house.  If I spanked him he'd just think we were messing around.

BlackLabbie

You would spank a child, but spanking (hitting) a dog is wrong??

 I could understand this situation. Humans, even children, can usually string together sentences better than dogs can. If I tell a child, "you are getting a spanking BECAUSE yesterday you lied to me", they can understand that at certain ages. If I tell a dog, "you are getting a spanking BECAUSE you didn't sit when I told you to yesterday".... it's unlikely they will realize their behavior yesterday caused the reaction today.

Yes, in the instance where a child is in imminent danger I could *almost* understand a slap, but IME the voice is more affective.

However, I don't think we'll make much progress in this situation if we continue to discuss hitting kids vs hitting dogs.  IMHO niether is ok.

Liesje

I spank my dog all the time when we play.  He likes to tug and fight (play-fight) and rough house.  If I spanked him he'd just think we were messing around.

 

Ditto to this. Ari likes to play rough, and smacking her around is something she loves. I will use touch to get her attention if she's not listening to a command because she's off in la la land, but its me gently placing my hand on her (like a pat) just to remind her that I'm here and I'm expecting something from her. If she's just being stubborn, if I will tilt my head to my side and just give her a look, she'll do what I had asked her to do lol.

3girls

I *do* repeat commands though. Usually only when the dog has lost focus on what I asked. (Jackson) He gets distracted by birds and butterflies and planes flying overhead, etc. So he does need a repeat of the command just to remember what he was doing before the distraction.

Repeating a command to reinforce a position to keep the dog from stepping out/moving from that position is one thing.  Repeating a command on a dog that is NOT in the position but is distracted by something is an indication that the dog isn't yet completely trained to that command and this is a chance to continue training/teaching that sit means sit even when there are butterfiles and sparkly things around. :)  I highly doubt you would be thunking Jackson on the head once he got into the sit position because he was distracted, though.

It's one thing to tap/swat/thump your dog during play, and many dogs love physical rough-housing.  Not all of us have delicate flowers, and they can take some serious physical bashing from other dogs.  However, hitting when you're angry, frustrated, tired, whatever is just displacement behavior for your OWN feelings, not the dog's.  Find a different/better behavior to offer when you feel the need to displace your feelings of frustration.  It's like shaking a crying baby when YOU are tired/frustrated.  There is no valid reason, ever, to physically engage in anger with a being who is smaller, dependent, and in much less of a power position than an adult human.... unless that being has somehow gained leverage and is threatening your life.  (Think, say, a rabid dog attacking you.)

A huge chunk of training the dog is being a trained owner. Yes, you have to train yourself how to understand why your dog is doing what it does. There are many great professional dog trainer who can help you with that and a tone of good books out there. Being a good trainer mainly comes from experience and making mistakes along the way. So although your method may not be acceptable, you just need to learn what is and how to use it.

I try not to touch the dog during training, that includes pushing the dog down into a sit, tapping or moving the dog physically. Sometimes if I'm working with a puppy I will move it around but that's because the puppy is still learning how to use it's body and does not have the full range of motions as an adult. With a grown dog I tend to lean more towards shaping exercises and +R. I'm a lot more successful training this way then being forceful. I use methods that are natural to the dog and me. I'm not a loud person and I don't have it in me to be aggressive so I use my personality for the dogs benefit.

Fortunately, dog training has evolved over the years and much has been learned about how dogs learn and what is effective. Hitting, spanking, etc doesn't appear to be very effective in the long term and creates fear and a lack of trust. Positive reinforcement when dogs do what you would like them to is a great way to send a clear signal that you are pleased with that behavior. Brenda Aloff is a great author on the subject of dog training and I know of other great reading, too. Best of luck-

NO, and I do not even like that word spank.

 I usually just whack 'em on the muzzle not very hard at all and say no. It doesn't hurt them yet they know they've done wrong.

ADog'sBestFriend

yet they know they've done wrong.

They may know that they've done wrong - they certainly know that you are mad - but that does not teach them WHAT they did wrong, or what they're supposed to do instead. That's why it's not an effective training tool.