Does Positive Dog Training Mean No Discipline?

Does positive dog training mean no discipline? Discipline is good. Punishment is not. Do you know the difference?

Punishment was king for many decades and not only in dog training. In more recent years, society has struggled to progress beyond such unnecessary cruelty and has made great strides, but not without creating some confusion about what the difference is between the discipline and punishment.

Positive dog training comes in two flavors, from what I can tell. One side advocates discipline combined with reward. The other side advocates rewarding the right behavior and ignoring the bad.

We’re in the first group because we believe ignoring bad behavior causes confusion for the dog and consequently prolongs their learning curve. We’ve also found that changing your tone of voice, facial expression and body language is all it takes to convey your displeasure or disappointment to your dog. No yelling is necessary. No hitting. No punishment at all. And usually no discipline is necessary either. The key to making this work, however lies in how you reward your dog.

Since your tone of voice is so critical for conveying your pleasure and displeasure to your dog, it’ll be hugely important for you to express your pleasure concerning their correct action much more exuberantly than you express your displeasure. Go ahead. Sound silly. Use a high-pitched “kiddy” voice. Smile and wiggle all over.

Figure out what motivates your dog the best. It could be physical affection, verbal praise, toys, treats or any combination of these. The big message is to make those moments between you and your dog rewarding enough that your dog wants it to last forever.

The following quote is from an article that does a great job of describing the difference between punishment and discipline in dog training. A link is included in case you’d like to read the entire article.

“… punishment is the act of reprimanding a dog through power, abuse of force and intimidation whereas discipline is the act of guiding the dog toward correct and wanted behaviors and setting the dog up for success.” -Dog Training: Difference Between Discipline and Punishment by Alexadry

If you have empathy for your dog, the art of positive dog training will come easy to you. However, keep it balanced. Don’t confuse your dog by being afraid to openly convey your displeasure. Just do it in a firm, consistent manner. Your dog deserves to understand both sides of the coin because it will give him a much better chance of growing into a confident, well-mannered and low maintenance dog.

Remember your tone of voice is very important, so be consistent. Even if your dog doesn’t understand the words, he’ll understand your tone of voice.

• Good dog tone – high-pitched
• Bad dog tone – deep
• Command tone – firm

The following article does a pretty good job of explaining tone of voice and includes audio files so you can hear examples of each: Dog Training Tones of Voice

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