Here’s the situation: Your dog barks, growls or jumps on someone (or the counter in the kitchen). You respond with a sudden, unpleasant noise like “eh-eh!”
Innocent right? Nope!
Unfortunately, when people are frustrated or don’t know how to change behavior correctly, many owners fall into the trap of using punishment. Punishment based methods can involve lots of things including the use of prong or shock collars but it also includes the use of sounds or noises to try to reduce or “interrupt” behavior, like when a dog is barking. But good dog training is about setting up your dog to not fail and building a positive, trusting relationship with your companion.
Noise aversives such as yelling, saying “NO!” or “eh-eh” in a firm or loud voice, clapping, or using more harsh, startling sounds, like an air horn, shake can with coins or clicker (which is normally intended to be used in positive way to mark good behavior), to “correct” unwanted behaviors are unnecessary and a potentially dangerous method of training. While these methods may seem like they work, often because they’ve startled or scared the dog to stop the behavior temporarily, this quick fix can lead to more harm than good. Noise aversives are not only ineffective long-term but can also have detrimental effects on your dog’s behavior and psychological and physical well-being.
Dogs are highly sensitive to sound – their ears are way more sensitive than ours. Loud noises can startle them, triggering a stress response. Intentionally leveraging this is cruel. And, if your dog associates you with scary things, like yelling or anything else that scares them, they may become fearful of you or the location where the scary thing happened, potentially leading to heightened anxiety in other areas of life.
If a dog is frequently yelled at for jumping or barking, that dog might start to feel nervous or fearful around people, because we know dogs can learn through associations. So in this case, the dog might learn, people predict being yelled at. This could have a fallout effect increased reactivity – barking more, lunging, growling or otherwise trying to make the person go away. Or, it could cause the dog to have a flight response and be so fearful they retreat from people or hide. I’ve seen perfectly pro-social friendly dogs turn into fearful or aggressive dogs as a result of an owner or less qualified trainer using aversives to try to “quick-fix” an unwanted behavior.
It’s critically important to understand that behavior suppression is NOT the same as behavior modification. Just stopping or interrupting a behavior like barking, is not the same as actually changing the dog’s behavior and addressing the underlying reason that is causing the behavior. If your dog is barking or growling, just yelling at them to get them to stop growling doesn’t help them feeling better about the reason why they were growling in the first place. We have to address that underlying reason to have long-term behavior change. What should you do if your dog growls? I have a post on that here.
Sound sensitivity is a difficult issue to live with – just ask anyone whose dog is afraid of thunderstorms or fireworks. The dog may hide, shake, drool, pant, try to escape or even self-injure themselves. And it can require long periods of training and often medication to try to help them be comfortable around noises. Sound sensitivity can come from genetics but it can also comes from bad experiences with noises. If a dog is really sound sensitive or behaviorally “soft,” meaning they’re really sensitive emotionally, it may take only one time to really traumatize that dog. This fear of that particular noise can generalize to other noises, like microwave beeping, busses driving by, babies crying or any other noise they encounter during like that they deem unpredictable or unpleasant.
Yelling or noise aversives don’t help teach your dog what to do to be successful. And if it works, even temporarily, it’s only because you’ve successfully scared or startled your dog. At best, this is temporary. At worst, you’ve punished a dog for communicating the only way they know how and suppressing a dog’s warning signs and communication is precisely how you create a dangerous dog. Punishing a dog for communicating removes their ability to tell us when they need something or when they’re uncomfortable so instead of barking or growling, they are more likely to just “bite out of nowhere.” Dogs very rarely “bite out of nowhere” but when I see this, it’s often because early warning signs have been ignored or intentionally punished.
Punishing your dog also doesn’t do anything to set them up for success in the future. You haven’t given them any information on what you would like them to do instead, which means moving forward, they’re still guessing and will probably not make the right choice in the future.
And while scolding your dog or raising your voice might seem innocuous, punishment based methods of training damage your relationship. A study in 2021 from Dr. Rachel Casey (et al) showed that dogs trained with punishment were “more pessimistic” inferred to indicate a relatively negative affective state. Punishment can also lead to learned helplessness where the dog just shuts down in different situations.
Beyond all of that, the organization of vets who specialize in behavior, American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) has a position statement on humane dog training that says,
“Based on current scientific evidence, AVSAB recommends that only reward-based training methods are used for all dog training, including the treatment of behavior problems.”
That means, positive reinforcement isn’t just for “easy” things. It’s for all behavior issues.
Additionally, noise aversives can cause physical stress, increasing a dog’s cortisol level (stress hormone). In a 2017 Journal of Veterinary Behavior article by Gal Ziv, The Effects of Using Aversive Dog Training Methods in Dogs, they noted “The psychological unintended outcomes of aversive training methods have been described, but the effect of aversive training methods on the physical health of dogs should also be examined. It appears that stress can be associated with aversive training methods. Beerda et al. (1998) reported that “unanticipated stimuli such as short electric shocks and sound blasts led to increased salivary cortisol in dogs.”
And it’s simply not necessary. We know there are more effective, more humane ways of modifying behavior that doesn’t involved hurting, scaring or startling your dog. Training should be a positive experience for both you and your dog. By avoiding noise aversives like yelling, you’re creating an environment where your dog can learn without fear and anxiety. Instead, focus on reinforcing what you want your dog to do instead and in the process, you’re building a relationship based on trust and communication rather than fear or intimidation.
And, just a reminder, professional licensure is not required to call yourself a dog trainer in the US, so all of these inhumane methods of training are still completely legal. And, as someone who specializes in fear and aggression cases, I get a lot of people who end up with me as their 2nd, 3rd or 4th or 5th trainer, after being led astray and often, their dog being made worse, by all these inhumane methods being executed by “professionals.” There is no regulation, licensing or consumer protection in dog training in the US. So there’s very little you can do if your dog gets worse from these antiquated methods. “Balanced” trainers that use punishment and food, muddle things even further and confuse the dog.
Credentials matter. Read my post on how to choose a dog trainer here.
If your dog is doing behavior you’re not happy with, please reach out for help and let’s make a plan. Don’t just focus on “correcting” the outward symptoms – you could very well be making the problem worse. Schedule your session here!
Happy training!
