How to Modify Behavior without Punishment
It’s common for people to think in order to eliminate or decrease unwanted dog behavior they must punish the behavior. But as we’ve seen (from science) punishing dogs relies on causing dogs discomfort, fear, or pain and veterinary behaviorists recommend avoiding these aversive (scary and painful) experiences to teach dogs. There are too many negative effects of punishment/aversives and they can even lead to worse behavior including aggression. Technically there is another type of punishment that we’re not referring to here that involves removing rewards and opportunities for rewards (this doesn’t scare or hurt dogs) - however, there are usually even better ways of addressing dog behavior problems.
1. Management
Some types of behavior problems can simply be bypassed by managing your dog or the environment. For example, if your dog is barking at a window, it’s possible you can simply shut the blinds (or at busy times when things outside bother your dog), or put up window film or move furniture in front of the window to remove the dog’s access to it, etc.
2. Provide for your dog’s needs
For example, if your dog is barking out of boredom, an easy solution is to provide opportunities for your dog to have more fun experiences (enrichment) and then the barking will dissipate naturally.
In general, the idea that a tired dog is a good dog is true to an extent. Most dogs would benefit from some extra exercise, and opportunities to sniff outside, run off-leash, play with other dogs, chase a toy, etc. Excessive exercise to try to eliminate aggressive behavior is not a realistic solution - so this strategy depends on the dog’s behavior.
3. Teach your dog to do desired behaviors instead of problem ones, and use those to interrupt and redirect your dog to new behavior
If you take the time to teach your dog with rewards to perform basic foundation behaviors - such as sit, down, come when called, stay, leave it, etc. - then you will be able to use these behaviors to interrupt and redirect your dog to those instead. For example, if your dog is watchdog barking constantly at the door, you can pre-teach a coming when called/recall behavior, then ask your dog to come to you, reward the behavior and then extend it out to other calm behaviors - such as lie down on a dog bed and stay for more rewards. This interrupts the barking at the door, and then extends out the calm behavior for longer periods of silence while the dog is lying down on the bed.
4. Teach an incompatible behavior to the problem one
This is similar to the previous solution, but it takes it a step further. In these cases you can teach a behavior that prevents your dog from doing the problem one. For example, teach your dog to walk by your side for rewards, which is incompatible to reacting/pulling/lunging/barking at other things in the environment.
5. Veterinary Care
Medical problems that are causing behavior problems need veterinary care - not necessarily training. For example, if a dog is aggressing due to a brain tumor, the dog needs to receive vet care to treat the tumor (which should result in the aggressive behavior disappearing). If a dog has pain and is very reactive to other dogs on-leash, the solution is to remove equipment causing pain and get vet care as needed - for example, take off the prong collar, use a soft harness, and get vet care to treat back pain (or tooth pain or whatever may be the case).
6. For upset dog behaviors, resolve the underlying emotion for why the dog is upset
Underlying emotions for upset behaviors include frustration, fear, and aggression. To resolve these, use behavior modification techniques that help dogs feel safe and form positive associations/connections with the things/triggers bothering them, so that they have a new positive emotional response to those things after training is complete. This helps the outward symptom problems such as reactivity, barking, anxiety, etc. disappear as the dog changes his/her feelings about the things/triggers that were previously leading to those behaviors.
If punishment is used to decrease undesirable behaviors, it risks causing dogs to form negative associations with things/triggers, and can make behaviors worse, including leading to fear and aggression, which then becomes more difficult to modify.
Reward-training helps you form a strong bond with your dog built on trust, safety, and love. It doesn’t teach dogs to fear things, but rather to build confidence and extend or extrapolate that out to anything in the dog’s environment. It doesn’t add pain, which can cause health issues.
Working with a competent and qualified professional trainer (using humane methods) can help guide you in which specific technique will help your dog decrease unwanted behaviors, increase desirable behaviors, and provide for your dogs’ health, wellness, and other needs.