I recently had the opportunity to observe some police canine training locally where about 20 handlers were working on some complex detection exercises. There were quite a few handlers waiting their turn to work the detection exercises. Apparently, some of the dogs and handlers were getting anxious about what was ahead, but everyone seemed to be waiting patiently. SWOOSH, and a loud, resounding CRACK was the sound that rang out across the parking lot. One of the handlers had swung their leash all the way around and cracked their Malinois right across the nose with the handle of the leash for not holding the sit and stay position. My first thought was, “What an Idiot!”. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time that I had seen this and I am afraid it won’t be the last.
We commonly work with owners and handlers that consistently hit their dogs on the head or other places in order to correct unwanted behavior. They hit them with everything from their hands, feet, leashes, newspapers, or anything else that they can get their hands on. We recently spoke with the owner of a 6 month old Labradoodle who admitted to hitting it in the head whenever it did anything that they didn’t like. Some of the things it would get hit for would include, jumping, pulling, barking or getting on the furniture.
So, what do these dogs learn from being hit in the head? For one, they learn to stay at least an arms (or leash) reach from their owners at all times. They also learn to be afraid of leashes, hands, newspapers and anything else that they feel may strike them. Equally as important, they often never know why or when they will get hit next. There is often no clear direction from the handler as to what is and is not expected from them. Therefore, the dog experiences “learned helplessness” and feels as though they are trapped as an unwilling participant in a game of “WHACKAMOLE”.
About a year and a half ago, we had the opportunity to work with a dog that had been consistently hit in the head by his owners. After several short months of this, the dog began to bite. The dog would bite the hands of anyone who tried to pet it, feed it or touch it in general. This made it difficult for the owners to have company over, to take the dog to the vet and to work with the dog in general. It took months to rehabilitate this particular dog and teach him to trust people and their hands again.
Let’s just take a quick look at when and how we use our hands with our dogs. We give them treats with our hands. We feed them with our hands and we also pet them with our hands. Therefore, it is important to use our hands properly with the dog so that we don’t create a negative association with our hands in general. When we think about it, we also use a leash for walking, training and other exercises and it is equally as important that we do not create the same association with the leash by whacking the dog in the head or nose with it.
Plain and simple, there is no benefit from hitting a dog with anything, including your hands or a leash. There are much better and more effective ways to train a dog and to correct unwanted behavior in dogs without hitting them. Physically hitting dogs is not a positive punishment techniques that dogs can understand and not beneficial in training or living with a dog.
If you have any questions about our training methods or programs, please feel free to call us at 866.200.2207 or email us at training@highlandcanine.com.
