A dog is an excellent partner, from providing companionship to improving your physical wellbeing.
However, the biggest question is whether you understand how to take care of your pet.
Do you shout at it whenever it makes a mistake?
Here are a few insights into why you need to be careful enough not to yell at your dog.
Reasons Not to Shout at Your Dog
While you could get tempted to shout at your dog from time to time, it is not a wise move.
Various experts would recommend a different approach to correcting your dog.
The following are a few reasons why yelling at your pet won’t help.
It instills fear
Yelling at your dog will often instill fear. This aspect implies that your dog will get scared whenever it comes near you, compromising your bonding abilities.
This dog will also be significantly nervous and fearful.
As such, you can expect the dog to withdraw from the rest.
Dogs respond differently in this case.
While some could isolate themselves, others will become significantly aggressive.
An angry dog will react differently to different people.
It would be best to keep away from it in such instances lest it harms you.
Causes distrust and stress
Yelling at your dog provides no negative reinforcement.
Instead, it makes the dog feel unwanted and less appreciated.
That means it will hardly trust its owners and other dogs.
Further, it is likely to withdraw and become less vibrant, stressed, and even depressed.
As such, your dog will suffer other different health issues, including loss of appetite and poor digestion or bowel movements.
Inhibits training
Yelling at your dog translates to poor learning skills.
This move will make it hard for the dog to take instructions, barely learning new tricks or commands.
Usually, shouting will result in the dog not taking instructions and ignoring your conversational commands.
Encourages bad habits
Yelling is likely to make your dog ill-mannered.
That is because shouting is a negative reinforcement.
This dog will become less respectful and responsive to your commands.
It is likely to ignore your calls or instructions.
Unless you embrace various positive reinforcement approaches, this issue is likely to cost you in the long run.
At the same time, you’ll not rely on this dog for emergency responses.
That is because the dog will hardly respect you, whether you use conversational tones or shout.
Your dog becomes sneaky
Dogs are naturally sly.
Yet, it would be best if you were wary of the trend becoming significantly unusual.
That means the dog will keep misbehaving when you are not around.
On the other hand, it will try to hide this behavior to please you each time it is around you.
In brief, yelling will only worsen the problem you want to avoid.
It breeds pessimism
You do not want to live with a pessimistic dog.
Unfortunately, yelling at your pet will result in considerable pessimism in the long run.
Your dog will always live in fear of reproach and rebuke.
Alternative Ways to Correct Your Dog
While most pet parents might want to shout quite often, this is not the best move.
Embracing alternative punishment methods will assure you of incredible results.
The following four options will be worth considering, thanks to their effectiveness.
Avoid Pain
Ensure that you use painless methods to correct your dog.
Pain is considered a negative reinforcement, which is likely to cause more harm than good.
In addition, this pain will result in a more aversive stimulus.
That means an increase in pain will most likely result in a more aversive response.
Some dogs can respond to pain aggressively, causing more harm and pain to you.
At the same time, this dog could become fearful whenever it sees you.
At the same time, do not rub their noses in the accident.
It could make them more aggressive, depressed, or anxious.
Slowly, this dog will break its ties with its owners.
Direct Interactive Punishment
An immediate interactive punishment seeks to reprimand your dog, stopping it from indulging in a specific activity.
This punishment requires that you make a loud noise, including clapping your hands, whenever the dog is committing a mistake.
Ensure that the loud noise is immediate, distracting the dog as soon as possible.
Most experts suggest you use a shaker can, which helps to stop the behavior temporarily.
Avoid Correction After Bad Incidents
It is important to evaluate when to punish your dog.
It would be best not to correct the dog after a nasty incident.
This move could stress them even more, as the dog might not remember its mistake.
However, correcting as soon as your dog commits the mistake is not an issue.
Embrace positive punishment
Positive punishment is a punishment approach that relies on positive reinforcement to correct a mistake.
The idea is to add a little pain or discomfort to whatever they do without necessarily showing or shouting at them.
For example, you could subtly knee them on their chest when they try to jump into your arms.
This move causes slight discomfort, ensuring that the dog does not repeat the same in the future.
Minimize eye contact
Undoubtedly, eye contact works miracles when correcting a human being.
Unfortunately, maintaining eye contact with your dog could make it fearful.
Whether or not you want to correct the dog, it would be best not to stare at it for a long time.
Consider redirection
Redirection is one of the best methods to punish or correct your dog.
In this case, you’ll need to stop the dog from making certain activities or mistakes.
Next, please provide them with an alternative in line with what they previously wanted.
Redirection ensures that the dog understands what to choose between the two.
However, ensure that you guide them to the best treats at all times.
Final Word
In conclusion, yelling at your dog provides no extra benefits for you.
Instead, it breeds health issues, pessimism, aggression, anxiety, and self-isolation.
The insight above will help you understand how best to handle your dog.