How much is it necessary to scold the dog in order to educate it? Are there other effective methods or is this the best? What every owner should know.
It’s true: some behaviors of our four-legged friends can annoy us, so we realize that it is necessary to ‘curb them’. But are we really sure that scolding the dog really serves to educate it? Not all experts agree: a study seems to have indicated the best way to take care of the dog without raising your voice. Here are all the useful details that we should adopt to give them the right education.
Scolding the dog to educate them: what reactions dog can have
Have you ever tried to scold your dog? What reactions did it have? Certainly the answer will never be the same, since each animal could react differently and more or less violently. However, it would be appropriate to ask ourselves if we owners are really able to understand when it is appropriate to yell and when not: in fact, very often we tend to scold them for a trifle.
This behavior of ours would therefore have devastating consequences on their psychology and they would feel (unnecessarily humiliated). A dog scolded often:
- lower your ears,
- make sweet eyes,
- it closes their muzzle in a sort of grimace of compassion.
Some may go on their backs, while others can’t hold their urination and pee, or just run away. In other cases however, especially if we don’t give them time to calm down, they could bite and become aggressive!
Does scolding the dog help educate it? What the experts have proven
But be careful: this does not mean that it feels guilty, since it almost certainly does not understand where it went wrong. Indeed, not only would it not understand the reason and would tend to repeat the wrong behavior, but it would also feel threatened by the same figure that it loves and that it would always like to please.
According to a study, scolding the dog not only makes them break down but increases their level of cortisol, the stress hormone. According to study, while our punishment seems to have positive effects at the moment, it could actually lead to serious consequences in their education in the future.
Finally, the experiment of the scientist on a sample of 92 dogs showed that dogs subjected to ‘negative reinforcement’ (therefore yelling and tugging on the leash) had high cortisol levels not only at the moment but also once they got home, so they couldn’t ‘get rid of’ the stress even once they got home.
But then how to educate the dog?
If you don’t have to scold the dog, should you let them do whatever it wants? Absolutely no! An education is essential to feel good with the dog at home and among others. It seems that the best and most effective method is that of positive reinforcement, i.e. giving a reward (a snack, cuddles, etc.) following the correct behavior of the dog.
In this way, dog will be encouraged to repeat it, as it will have associated it with something it likes and that it will always want to receive from their beloved owner (especially food rewards).