Mary Allen
Maybe you’ve already heard of Cesar Millan? The American is an author and dog trainer, he also appears regularly as a “dog whisperer” or “pack leader” on television. It often uses so-called aversive training methods, which is why he is repeatedly criticized. The professional association of dog educators and behavioral consultants even called for the TV show to be stopped in German-speaking countries since the methods can easily be misunderstood and used incorrectly by laypeople.
What are Aversive Training Methods in Dogs?
The “Duden” describes the term “aversive” with “causing disgust”, synonyms for “aversion” are, for example, “disgust”, “disgust”, “displeasure”, “hostility” and even “hate”. Aversive training methods are therefore educational measures that exert at least an unpleasant stimulus on the dog, causing a strong dislike, shock, pain, or fear in it. Basically, these are more or less severe penalties. The aim of this is to quickly and effectively break the habit of undesirable behavior in the dog. As soon as the four-legged friend does something that the dog owner does not want, he feels an aversive stimulus in the hope that
Examples of aversive training methods include:
● Spray bottle or water gun
● Loud clapping or other sudden, loud noise
● A jar filled with nails, rocks, peas, and other thrown objects
● Training collar: Spray, vibrating, electric, choke, or spiked collar
● Pain stimuli via the leash, for example, leash jerk
● Other pain stimuli, e.g. flank pinch, “sniping”, slap with the fingertips, ear pulling, light kicking in the groin
● Forced submission by muzzle grab, “alpha throw” (throw to the side), pulling paws away, stepping on paws, holding a dog, or laying on him
Short-Term Effect of Aversive Training Methods
Aversive training methods may directly result in the dog abandoning the unwanted behavior. To do this, they must be used “correctly”, which means:
● Your four-legged friend must understand the aversive stimulus as an unpleasant consequence of his misconduct.
● Your dog must not notice that the aversive stimulus is coming from you.
● The punishment must follow the misconduct immediately. Just a few seconds prevent your pet from associating its actions with unpleasant consequences.
● The aversive stimulus must be strong enough to make it worthwhile for the dog to stop misbehaving. However, it must not be so strong that it causes pain or fear to the four-legged friend, possibly even injuring it.
For experienced dog trainers who have practiced this for years, it may be possible to meet these conditions exactly so that the four-legged friend actually does what the human wants. Drills work in a similar way in the military or an authoritarian parenting style in children. The individual will of the “pupil” is broken and subjected to the will of the educator. The dog will sprint and obey when aversive training methods have the desired effect, but it is difficult to predict whether this will remain so in the long term.
After all, the corresponding dog trainers only have to do with the four-legged friend for a short time, but his family has had him with them all his life. Especially on television with Cesar Millan and Co., only excerpts and partial aspects of dog training can be shown, these are also trimmed for entertainment value and show effect. Inexperienced dog owners can quickly get the wrong impression.
Anxiety & Behavioral Problems Caused by Aversive Training Methods
If you use aversive training methods incorrectly – and this danger is great – you will harm your dog in the long run. For example, if your four-legged friend notices that you are the source of the aversive stimulus, he will develop an aversion to you. It then does not understand that the unpleasant consequences are the result of his actions. If you’re lucky, your dog will only do the misbehavior in your absence. If you’re unlucky, he’ll get scared of you. If too much time elapses between misbehavior and punishment, your pet can’t make the right connection either – it may become frightened of something else that just happened to be in its vicinity when the shock or pain stimulus occurred.
If the stimulus is not unpleasant enough, aversive training methods will not work; if it is too strong, you will injure your dog. Either way, with the punishments, you damage your dog’s trust and the bond between the two of you. The four-legged friend may bend to your will, but he is not happy and balanced but is under stress because he constantly expects aversive stimuli. In the worst case, your dog will develop an anxiety disorder, become aggressive, or show other problematic behavioral problems.
Dog-Friendly Alternatives to Aversive Training Methods
Instead of superficially correcting undesired behavior with aversive training methods and with unforeseeable consequences, you should reward desired behavior with a reward. It is best to ignore unwanted behavior. For emergency situations in which your dog needs to quickly stop acting – for example because it is approaching a potentially poisonous bait or running away from you – it must be able to use the commands ” Off! ” and ” No ” as well as the recall. These require patient and consistent training.