Punishment

So what's my problem with punishing an animal when it does something wrong?

I actually DON'T have a problem with it, provided the punishment takes an appropriate form. To explain that, I'll need to tell you about the different types of reinforcement and punishment.

• Positive reinforcement is adding something to the situation that the animal finds good. For example, giving a cat a food reward for coming when called.
• Negative reinforcement is taking away something that the animal finds bad. For example, ceasing to use the cattle prod when the bull moves forward.
• Positive punishment is adding something that the animal finds bad. For example, hitting a horse when it refuses a fence.
• Negative punishment is taking away something that the animal finds good. For example, putting the ball away when the dog starts barking at you to throw it.

In modern animal training, positive reinforcement and negative punishment are the preferred tools of the trainer. This allows the animal to always focus on good things, and how best to earn them.

Using things that the animal finds bad can cause stress, fear and aggression towards the trainer. There is also the issue of escalation - if you smack your dog for jumping up, but he doesn't stop, what do you do to him next? This is a scary situation, best avoided altogether.

In my opinion, the only possible justification for using positive punishment is in an emergency life-or-death situation. As an example, a dog that chases livestock may be cured of this behaviour through the use of a citronella collar, or even a shock collar. But what if it associates the punishment with the livestock, and becomes MORE aggressive to them as a result?

There is no substitute for good socialisation and reward-based training.