Why don’t we use punishment in clickertraining?

Because there isn’t a lot of information in punishment. If your dog pees on the expensive Persian rug in the living room and you scold him for it, there are still a million other places he might choose to pee. And for all he knows, you might be yelling at him because he is wagging his tail – remember, your dog doesn’t speak English!

Your dog will learn very quickly that the behaviour isn’t safe to perform in front of you.

Learning through association happens 24/ 7. If you jerk on the choker every time your puppy pulls over to greet another canine/ human etc. you may quickly teach him to associate them with pain and he may quickly learn to fear them.

The only consistent variable is you – being associated with punishment isn’t the best way to start off the relationship between the two of you.

Punishment creates inhibition in your dog and can lead to him fearing you. It has also been linked to aggression, which may be displayed against you, as well as seemingly random targets.

Punishment needs to be incredibly precise. You only have about a second within which your dog would actually be able to make the connection between the punishment and the “crime”!

Punishment needs to be hard enough to inhibit a similar response in the future. How do you know what’s hard enough? Continuous punishment equals abuse!