Canine Behavior

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Dogs need discipline (impulse control), but they do not need punishment. Many parents and dog owners euphemize punishment and abuse by calling it "discipline", giving the word negative connotations in the dog training world, but discipline is a useful term relevant to dog training when it is used correctly (and trained correctly).

Importance of Discipline

Discipline is extremely important in a dog's everyday life. Ideally, your dog is willing and able to listen to you in the event of an emergency. If a rabid raccoon comes into your yard, you want to be able to call your dog inside. If a pregnant guest walks into your house, you do not want your large or giant breed jumping on them. If you are in the middle of cooking dinner but have to run into the other room to answer an important phone call, you want your dog to have enough discipline to refrain from climbing on the counter and burning itself on your hot food. Discipline training means setting boundaries and expectations for your dog but without using aversive training methods or making the dog think that its only purpose is to serve you. You do NOT want to turn your dog into a mindless robot who never has any drives or desires beyond what you tell it to do, but you do want your dog to listen to you when you need it to.

Is it bad to tell my dog 'no'?

It depends on whether you are using the word as a neutral cue or an aversive form of positive punishment. If your dog pees on the carpet and you rub the dog's nose in it and say "No!" or "Bad!", you are teaching your dog that you are mean and cannot be trusted (while also conditioning the verbal cue to be a secondary punisher). If you have done this in the past but decided to cross over to force-free or LIMA-based training, you should still avoid using the word "no" so you don't bring back negative memories of the era when your dog could not trust you. However, if you are calmly saying "no" as a neutral verbal cue, the only downside is that people might assume you are using it as punishment and judge you for it. Regardless, in any scenario in which "no" might be a useful command for your dog, there is always a more descriptive alternative.

Alternatives To 'No'

In many cases, it is most effective to use a verbal cue that asks the dog to perform some kind of incompatible behavior, usually 'sit' or 'go lie down' ('go away' also works). This makes it easy for the dog, because they know exactly what you want them to do and they don't have to guess. This works for jumping on guests, climbing on the counter, jumping at the door or window when they see pedestrians or wildlife, and many other situations.

In most cases, whether there is an appropriate alternative behavior cue or not, you can teach the dog a cue that simply gets them to stop the behavior. 'Off' works for jumping on people, counters, and furniture; 'quiet' works for barking or whining; 'leave it' works when your dog is investigating something you do not want them to eat (food on the counter, feces or a dead animal outside, etc.); and you can even come up with more creative commands ('dismount' when your dog is overaroused and humping another dog, 'heck off' when your dog is begging, etc.).

In many other cases, simply having excellent recall is exactly what you need.

Place and Settle Commands

It is also useful to teach your dog that there are times when it is important to relax. Discipline means being able to remain calm and prevent oneself from becoming overexcited in a variety of situations. In general, you should let your dog do whatever they want to do (within the boundaries and expectations established from the beginning), but you should also train them to relax when it is important. Some people train their dogs to do a down-stay for increasing periods of time to improve their impulse control, and this can work well as long as it isn't for so long that you are depriving the dog of its needs (including water, bathroom breaks, mental stimulation, etc.) because that could jeopardize your dog's trust in you. Alternatively (or in combination with reasonable down-stay training), teaching your dog a 'place' command works well for discipline training and functions as a behavior that is incompatible with many potentially undesired behaviors. Some people also teach their dogs a 'settle' command, which usually means "go to your place and take a nap" as opposed to 'down' which typically means you do not expect the dog to stay there.