Discipline vs Abuse: where does one begin and the other end?

In the modern world of dog training, discipline is something that comes under severe scrutiny in a society which sees positive reinforcement and non-punishment based training methods as the only way forward.

Pre-1980's dog training saw a time where today's values and ideas of dog training were very much in the minority and discipline, like with children and adults, was seen as a vital aspect of the dog's learning process whether it be a sharp tug on a check chain, a rolled up newspaper on the rear or a raised, yet, firm voice. It believed in teaching the dog what was right with purely verbal praise and maybe the odd treat and then showing them there was quite disagreeable consequences to, what we perceive as, negative actions. The degree of consequence relied heavily on the severity of the action exhibited and how quickly the handler wanted to extinguish the possibility of this action being exhibited again.

The police dog trainers & handlers of old relied heavily on 'the crack', a simple clout across the head with the lead handle or your hand to either shock the dog out of its bad behaviour or give quick yet firm 'discipline' for a fickle attempt to refuse to complete an exercise or follow instruction. Much the same as the cane with school children.

The fine line between intentional and suitable discipline and abuse has been argued for years. Most modern day dog trainers would argue that discipline is an out-dated method of educating an animal as complexed and intelligent as a dog and would much rather purely reinforce the positive actions a dog exhibits to slowly decrease the possibility of error, ultimately labelling any type of method that causes negative feeling in your dog as abuse. This requires time and correct judgement on your part regarding reward value and placement to be able to use this method to its most effective. I have seen several cases where this has worked well but can be time consuming not to mention costly depending on which reward motivates your dog the most. (I wonder how many of you would consider using multiple slices of fillet steak to reward a dog on a regular basis for good behaviour?)

If I was to give my perspective on this debate I would say discipline becomes abuse when the handlers intentions become purely based on our own self empowerment rather than intending to educate our dog. Discipline is carried out with the intention of being constructive and educational, guiding our dogs to follow the behaviour we want and preventing them from finding alternative routes or behaviours we see as undesirable. Intending to teach our dogs that negative actions are quickly followed with a negative reaction, again, the severity of the reaction given is purely based on the severity of the action exhibited. Also by how quickly the handler wants to extinguish the behaviour and avoid escalation. It can also be argued that discipline also becomes abuse when it is issued out when one begins teaching a new behaviour. Meaning that the dog is being punished for something he does not yet understand rather than teaching him what rewards he will definitely get when the exercise is carried out correctly first then slowly incorporating discipline once the dog understands the behaviour but rather than comply attempts to experiment because he has generalised the idea of an action with getting a reward. It is then that we can apply a suitable amount of discipline to educate them.

When discipline is issued it should just enough to make the dog exhibit a somewhat submissive attitude which, in turn, makes him easier to teach as he has directed his focus onto you and wanting to try hard to get it right in a greater attempt to follow the route you are guiding him onto to exhibit the correct behaviour.

Any alternative views on this discussion are, as always, encouraged.

Happy reading!