Dog Training: difference between discipline and punishment

In the hundreds of years that dogs and humans have spent  together living side by side throughout history, both species havedemonstrated a life long commitment  to accept each other despite  their differences  and co-habitat in harmony. With humans on one side: the brain and the ultimate guides, and dogs on the other side, the instinct and the followers, it comes as no surprise how they both helped each other thrive and survive throughout history. Dogs elected to follow humans as they showed superiority because of their brains and inclination to guide, while humans elected to lead dogs because of their utility and skill to obey to commands. It all came together thanks to the ability of dogs to obey and the ability of humans to provide tasks. 

Today, dogs are mostly companion animals, yet they bring along long term memories of the past in the form of instincts, prey drive and fight or flight  survival tendencies. Once these dogs were placed in a modern metropolitan world as today, owners often found themselves dealing with old instincts in a totally different environment.

We can see the consequences today when an owner must deal with a dog that pulls on the leash to reach that running squirrel, or when dogs bark at that siren because it hurts their ears or frightens them, or more, when they  become hyperactive after staying  crated all day while their owners are at work.

Most  modern behavior problems in dogs therefore seem to stem nowadays from the dog's inability to adapt into a completely different world where they are forced to live along with their pack leaders. While once, these dogs were working for their master in exchange for food, today they find themselves enclosed all day within four walls with little to do and often alone. Eager to find a ''job'' dogs will often resort to digging or chewing on that carpet or howl helplessly missing his pack leader. This is what  is called ''separation anxiety'' a behavior that was completely non existent many years ago.

So owners today must resort  a lot on discipline  as a method of teaching their dogs acceptable behaviors. Discipline is quite different from  punishment in many different ways. 

Punishment is the act of reprimanding a dog through power, abuse of force and intimidation, whereas discipline is the act of guiding the dog towards correct and wanted behaviors and setting the dog up for success. The goal of both forms of training is ultimately the same:  getting the dog to perform a task without making any mistakes, however,  it is the end result that really makes the difference.

Very likely a dog that is punished will become fearful, lack trust in their owners  and perform tasks mainly because they fear the consequences, while a dog that is disciplined will perform the task because he wants to please the owner and is eager to continue doing so. The end results are therefore dogs that work because they are forced to and dogs that work because they want to. Which dog would you want to own?

A good example between punishing a dog and disciplining a dog is provided in the following example.

Going back to a dog placed in a modern scenario with  antique instincts, an owner walks his Beagle on an early Sunday morning. The dog is walking calmly enjoying the morning breeze when out of the blue a squirrel decides to jump out of nowhere and the dog, mainly because of his primal instinct to chase, decides to run after it. The owner finds himself being pulled suddenly almost across the busy city street.

Here are two different approaches: 

Punishment approach

a) Annoyed by the dog's behavior, the owner pulls the dog forcefully towards himself, yells at him and gives a slap on the rump. The dog suddenly turns submissive confused  and scared by this sudden behavior from his owner. After all he only followed his instinct. And after all, as a purebred Beagle wasn't he bred all these years to run and chase after prey?

Discipline Approach

b) Annoyed by the dog's behavior the owner decides to calmly perform an about face and walk in the opposite direction, causing the dog to follow him. The dog follows him and the owner praises him for making eye contact and following him again as before. The dog has learned that pulling gets him no where, that he must always follow his master and that when he makes eye contact and is under control he gets praised and a treat. 

Which dog learned best the lesson? The frightened confused dog that now cowers everytime the owner yells or the dog that accepts the owner's guidance and gets praised for it?

Punishment really should have no place in dog training. Dogs are smart creatures with an inherited instinct to obey their masters. There are many positive training methods nowadays that allow us to guide dogs effectively using our brains and making us look superior to all the rest of animals. A well respected dog owner with good leadership skills will find that discipline gets their dogs where they want to faster, with dogs fully trusting their owners and keeping their heads high in confidence.