It’s OK to Hit Your Dog. . .

Not! There are some training methods that encourage hitting your dog to get it to understand what not to do.  One of the techniques is whacking the dog on the nose with a rolled up magazine or paper.  And, I’m not talking about a tap either.

I won’t say this form of training doesn’t work.  It does.  It works like spanking kids with a paper worked.  We may have flinched every time the person who enforced that discipline walked by whether we had done anything or not.  This may also be true for the dog “trained” in this manner.

Most people who ask me my opinion on hitting a dog, are asking because it’s not an action they want to take – they just don’t know what to do.  They don’t want to intentionally inflict pain on their pet.  Nor should they.

If you have reached the point of frustration because your dog just doesn’t get what you want from them, step back and see if you’ve actually shown them in a way they understand.  If this behavior is out of your control or has to do with aggression, contact a behavorist for assistance, or send me your question in the box to the right.

Hitting your dog can make them hand-shy and it’s not an action they will always respect.