Aversive Dog Training

In aversive dog training, you discourage a dog behavior by applying an aversive or unpleasant stimulus (positive punishment) and you encourage a dog behavior by stopping the aversive stimulus (negative reinforcement).

Different aversive dog training methods may place more or less stress on your dog. In general physical based aversive training methods are the most stressful.

May get more consistent and prompt responses to commands.

As with any animal, dogs are very sensitive to danger (threats), as this is crucial to their survival in the wild. When faced with a stressful stimulus (e.g. pain or a dominance threat), dogs will most likely try to resolve the stress quickly and return to a safe and comfortable state.

Many dogs will perform a Sit, Down, or Stay, consistently and quickly because they do not wish to face the stress of an aversive stimulus. Once you get consistent and prompt responses from your dog, you can give him more freedom and let him participate in a wider range of activities.

Many aversive dog trainers point out that a good command response is crucial when you are yelling Stop and your dog is running into danger.

May show results in a shorter time-span.

As described above, dogs can be very motivated to avoid an aversive stimulus. You will probably start to see results to simple commands in a shorter period of time compared to reward dog training.

In fact, your dog will respond best in the initial obedience training sessions.

Performance may degrade later once your dog gets used/habituated to the aversive stimulus.

Do not need to carry around rewards such as treats or toys.

You always have what you need with you - your hands, collar, and leash.

May cause loss of trust.

One of the most dangerous aspects of aversive dog training is losing your dog's trust.

Care must be taken not to over-correct your dog. Try to set him up for success and reduce the chances of him making mistakes. If you are seen as the frequent source of unpleasant things, your dog will lose trust in you and may start avoiding you.

The trick of implementing aversive methods is redirection. You want to make it seem like the source of unpleasantness is not coming from you, but is a direct result of your dog's inappropriate actions.

Spraying bitter apple on furniture is an effective and safe aversive method because the dog does not associate the smelly furniture with you. Instead, he discovers on his own, that certain pieces of wood and stuffing are unpleasant so it is best to avoid them.

Follow up an aversive correction with praise and rewards once your dog complies with your command. This shows him that you are also the source of happy praise and good things.

When using aversive obedience training, timing is crucial.

Time your aversive correction and subsequent praise accurately, so that your dog does not get confused and frustrated because he is unsure what the aversive stimulus is for and how he can make it go away.

May encourage aggression and other unwanted side effects.

There are four ways a dog can deal with the stress of an aversive stimulus: fight, flight, freeze, or appease. Depending on the temperament of your dog and his level of trust and respect for you, he may choose to fight or flee rather than follow your command (appease).

You can correct this by refining your aversive technique. In particular, ensure that you are:

• using the appropriate level of force,
• using the right timing,
• not over correcting, and
• redirecting the source of correction away from yourself.

If your dog continuously chooses to fight, then you are encouraging aggression in him, and he may ultimately become a dangerous dog. This happened with Sephy, my Shiba Inu. If your dog continuously chooses to flight then you may break his spirit and he may become a fearful and unstable dog.

If you are not careful, your dog may also associate the aversive stimulus to the environment or other objects in the environment. For example, if a leash jerk is always applied whenever your dog sees another dog, he may associate the pain with the other dog rather than to his lunging and jumping actions. This may make your dog aggressive or fearful towards other dogs.

In fact this University of Pennsylvania 2009 study shows that 1 in every 4 dogs that are trained with aversive methods exhibits aggression during training.

"... 25 percent of dogs trained with “aversive” techniques react to their training with an aggressive response of their own. Dogs trained in a more positive, encouraging manner, by contrast, showed almost no aggressive behavior."

May injure your dog if not implemented correctly.

When you are using a training collar such as a choke chain, prong collar, or martingale collar, make sure you consult a trainer on how to fit it and use it properly. The choke chain is especially dangerous as it can cause harm with extended use, even when fitted properly.

Use of all pain and dominance-based aversive methods are best implemented under the direction of a trained professional.

Incorrect implementation of some of these techniques may cause physical harm to your dog, as well as physical harm to you and others if your dog becomes aggressive.

May become ineffective once your dog gets habituated to the aversive stimulus.

If you overuse an aversive method, it is very probable that your dog will become habituated to it. Once this occurs, your dog will be less motivated to respond to your commands because the pain or aversive stimulus is no longer unpleasant.

At this point, increasing the force of your aversive stimulus may be necessary, and this will increase wear and tear on your dog. To avoid this possibility, apply the proper amount of force from the beginning (not too hard or too soft). The actual force needed will depend on the reason for the correction and on your dog's temperament.

Get a professional trainer to show you the proper amount of force needed so that you do not over-correct or under-correct your dog.