I’ve heard people talk about using "corrections" when their animal does something they don’t want it to. Do you do this?

When someone says "correction", what they really mean is "punishment". I prefer to first work to teach animals what I want them to do rather than focusing on what I don't want. There are some difficulties with punishment which make it unreliable as a teaching method:

(For additional information, please read the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior’s Position Statement on the use of punishment.)

1) The punishment must occur at the moment of the inappropriate behavior, or within a few seconds after it, before any other behaviors occur. If not, the animal won't understand what caused the punishment to occur.

2) The punishment must occur every single time the animal gives the inappropriate behavior. If you're not around to catch them in the act, then the inappropriate behavior achieves its goal, which means that the behavior was rewarded. Behaviors which are rewarded will be repeated, so if you can't punish every single time, the behavior is being randomly rewarded, which makes it even more difficult to stop.

3) The punishment must be of sufficient intensity that the animal isn't willing to suffer the punishment more than 2-3 times before completely ceasing the inappropriate behavior. If the punishment isn't strong enough, the animal will tolerate it and continue to offer the behavior, and you'll have to increase the intensity. What often happens in this case is that the intensity of the punishment is increased in small increments, so the animal adapts to and tolerates the increasing levels of punishment.


It's difficult even for experienced trainers and behaviorists to achieve all of these requirements, and even if we do, we have no control over what the animal associates the punishment with. It's very common to superstitiously associate the punishment with other things that were in proximity to the animal at the time it occurred (including the animal's handler).

Personally, I feel that it's easier to focus on what we want the animal to do, and ignore or manage them so that they don't have a chance to perform behaviors we don't want until they've learned what we like. Using positive reinforcement methods means that your relationship with your animal is not based on confrontation and the threat of punishment. The animal will be much happier to work for and with you under those circumstances.

If after working diligently to teach an animal what I want using positive methods, they are still making no progress, I may recommend mild punishments. The nature of the punishment will depend on the individual animal and situation. For instance, if I have a puppy who continually mouths and bites in play, and I've made every effort to teach them not to bite down on skin, and not to play rough, they persist in doing so, I will stand up and walk away from the puppy, withdrawing my attention from them. This is a punishment because the puppy wants to interact. So, I'm taking away something they want, to show them that there are consequences to mouthing - "mouth on hand = attention goes away". If a dog persists in pulling while on-leash, I will simply stop walking forward, or turn and walk away from whatever they were eager to investigate. This form of punishment is typically very successful in getting the point across because it teaches them that what they want is contingent upon their behavior.