Correcting behavior

When do you need to correct your dog's behavior?  The simple answer is that you do not need to use correction or punishment as a strategy in teaching your dog how you would like them to behave.  

Punishment of behavior can work – the problem is that the intensity required to make the punisher effective works because it causes the dog to feel uncomfortable, and may cause frustration, pain or fear. When punishment is delayed or inconsistent it makes you scary and unpredictable.  At best, this breaks down the positive social relationship between you and your dog.  At worst it can cause or exacerbate negative emotional states - displayed as fear, shutting down, avoidance or aggression. Punishment can result in physical and psychological injury to the dog, and trigger bites to people and dogs. 

The evidence supporting the use of positive reinforcement and rewards based training methods is overwhelming.  The certifying bodies for dog behavior professionals are now requiring their members to adhere to the principles of the Least Intrusive Minimally Aversive (LIMA) framework as the minimum standard for the field.