Punishment – The definition

 

Punishment is defined as ‘the infliction or imposition of a penalty as retribution for an offence’.  When dealing with dog behaviour, punishment is used to change behaviour and when reinforcement is used to maintain behaviour.  I will focus on punishment in this article but will discuss reinforcement as a counter to punishment in the last section of this essay.

 

Punishment is more accurately described in two ways: negative punishment and positive punishment.  Instead of the words negative and positive being used in a ‘moral’ way, when used in behaviour they are used in a ‘mathematical’ way; positive meaning a stimulus is added and negative meaning a stimulus is removed. 

 

An example of positive punishment is using a corrective pull on a lead when a dog pulls when walking.  The aim of the punishment is to stop or change the behaviour of pulling.  The positive aspect is the addition of the pull or tug on the lead. The addition makes it positive punishment.

 

An example of negative punishment could be turning or walking away from a dog who is constantly jumping up for attention.  The behaviour of jumping up is trying to be changed, therefore punishment is used. Attention is removed from the dog, so it is negative, resulting in negative punishment. 

 

Positive punishment has been used to train and change the behaviour of dogs.  Recently, humans have questioned the use of punishment on a physical level and most trainers will prefer training and reinforcement.  However, the trainer who says they ‘do not use punishment’ should be questioned. Even ignoring a dog or putting it into a ‘time out’ is officially classed as punishment, albeit negative punishment.

 

 

‘Natural’ punishment

 

When researching for my diploma I found there is a very clear division of thought. One camp says that a dog cannot learn to live with humans if not punished from time to time. Others strictly denounce punishment in all forms, seeing the dog as an equal who deserves our respect.  Perhaps an answer to ‘should a dog be punished?’ lies in looking at how dogs act and learn.

 

In his book The Dogs Mind, Bruce Fogle discusses the role a mother has in the early weeks of a pup's development and learning.  Fogle uses a study done by Eric Wilson of the Swedish Dog Training Centre, where he studied the social interaction between mothers and litters of German Shepherds from 3-8 weeks old.  He states that the relationship between mother and pup moves from one of care/dependency to one of dominance/submission (I personally use the word ‘dominance’ hesitantly – see the previous essay).

 

Wilson gives us great detail about the care the mother gives her pups in the early weeks.  Licking, grooming, pushing the pups to position for feeding and warmth, allowing the pups to feed, etc.  The pups will seek that care by whining, tail wagging, yelping, licking mum’s face, jumping up, and pawing.  This behaviour is ‘allowed’ whilst mum is still providing food. 

 

At around 4-5 weeks, the change from care/dependency to dominance/submission starts.  The mother will walk away from the pups when they are trying to feed or seeking attention.  Wilson noted that when the pups try to suckle some bitches would ‘punish’ their pups using inhibited bites. Growls and mouthing threats also lead to submission from the pups.  These punishments reached their peak at around 7 weeks when the relationship reached the dominance/submission state.

 

So, as Fogle goes on to say, mothers do punish their pups and so, it can be argued that punishment is an integral part of the development of a dog's mind.  Physical punishment continues into adulthood but virtually all dog/dog punishments are related to dominance/resource management.

 

 

Training and behaviour

 

To summarise, I have discussed how punishment can be used to influence behaviour and how this occurs naturally between dogs.  Punishment and reinforcement can be used to train dogs.  This still comes full circle to the question of ‘should we punish dogs?’  

 

Typically, this confusion and desire to ‘do the morally right thing’ comes from us as humans.  A quote I read says, ‘humans are not dogs but dogs are not humans…they cannot be treated the same'.  This quote enforces my belief that communication between us and dogs is very difficult.  A dog can’t actually understand our words and meaningful sentences.  It can however learn associations between words and past experiences.

 

In a modern, moral, humane society should we punish dogs?  No.  However, I would also like my dog to go to the toilet outside and not chew up my post. Teaching your dogs to have ‘good manners’ so that they may live with us in our homes should be common sense.  Training using reinforcement techniques has been shown to be and is now widely accepted as a better alternative than abusing a dog, which can lead to fear and can make a bad situation worse in many ways.  If punishment is used then it should never be abusive and never be as a way to create fear, but as a training, aid to change a behaviour that can then, in turn, be reinforced.

 

Punishment is a natural occurrence in dogs, especially in their early weeks and months.  It aids in teaching social skills or rather what is and isn’t acceptable.  We, as humans, can choose to adopt a dog-like method of punishment in our training and behaviour and can, if we know how to, adapt these methods to train and live harmoniously with dogs.

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Thanks for reading,

Paul