What It Means To Discipline Your Puppy

Discipline means applying whatever level of punishment is needed in order to establish total control over your Puppy. It is the application of a negative stimulus of sufficient level that it is greater than the reinforcement that works to maintain a given pattern of behavior.

By now we have discussed that your puppy adopts you and your family as a pack. It is important that in order for the puppy to be happily, and safely, integrated in the pack, its position in the social hierarchy is at the bottom. Your puppy does not think that being at the bottom of the pack is in any way demeaning. Life is not so complex for it. Its sole object in life is to survive with the least amount of problems and in the most comfortable manner it can. Within this framework it will endeavor to get as much of its own way as it can. Your sole objective as a pack leader is to limit its power in such a way that it is contented with its role within society.

If you do not have total control over your dog, you are being totally irresponsible and dangerous to society. When you obtain your puppy, you assume the commitment of a leader, so you have a moral obligation to stick to your end of that commitment. What is Discipline? A sufficient level of a stimulus, the key to effective discipline and training, can range merely from the tone of your voice to a hard spanking, depending on the behavior pattern and the circumstances. Physical punishment should always be the very last resort that you use but, and this is important, it is better to use this than to allow your dog to become uncontrollable and thus dangerous.

The saying "spare the rod and spoil the child" still has application, even in this day and age, to children that simply do not react to verbal warnings. Your puppy is no different, indeed, as it will never reach the age of reason it must be allowed to learn from its own mistakes. Deny it this and you deny it the opportunity to be as natural as it can be within a domestic framework. You must be the pack leader, and your puppy must grow up to recognize this reality.

If you train your puppy correctly, the need for physical punishment, other than in the most mild form, will never be needed. If your puppy is taught at an early age how to respond to basic commands, it will rarely transgress the rules. .