subject: The Key Reason Why Striking A Puppy Never Works [print this page] Sometimes, breeding puppies can be a very rewarding yet frustrating experience, especially when it misbehaves and starting chewing up your new $2000 couch. You might have smacked your puppy when it misbehaved in some way, and if you have been doing so, you should stop now.
Becoming physical with your puppy will do nothing but have an adverse effect in the relationship as time goes on between you and your pet.
Given that puppies are not any different to human babies, smacking your dog will not help much because it is still in its infancy and does not understand the difference between right and wrong. All you are really doing is scaring the poor animal and causing it to distance itself from you.
The psychology behind this is that dog when young, do not make the distinction between the pain it receives when you hit it, and the reason that you are having it punished. If it was biting on your shoe and you gave it a smack, all you did was to instill fearfulness and distress into the poor puppy, without it knowing what it had done wrong. It might be a different case for adult dogs.
By hitting it can causing your little new friend to be terrified of you, it will start to keep its distance from you and you'll never establish the wonderful bond that some dogs have with their owners. As the pup grows up to become an adult, this gap will further increase as well.
To bring up a puppy into a loving family pet, an important relationship needs to be formed between owner and pet. Screaming your head off at a pup is another way you could damage your relationship with the dog.
Rather than screaming at the top of your voice, a better way of dealing with badly behaved puppies is to be firm with your puppy and tell it to stop in an authoritative tone of voice.
Teaching your puppy should be no different from teaching a child. Control your frustrations and never shout, instead be gentle and give it time to learn the difference between right and wrong. This is the only way to develop a fantastic relationship with your dog
