What is acceptable? I am in a couple of training clubs. One club is divided on methods. The curriculum for puppy obedience through avavaced obedience is old school, no treats, somewhat hard corrections. The trial and show dog trainers are a quite a bit more positve. I think they all correct their dogs but its not really something you see and postive methods are obviously used a lot.
The other club I train at is very positive and maybe more sport and show oriented. No harsh correction is ever seen on the field. Lots of treats are used and so are toys as lures. Dogs are “corrected” but not really forcefully. They are placed back where they need to be, and generally encouraged to do what you want them to do instead of scolded for not doing what you want them to do. An exception seems to be for sniffing and scratching habits. They are corrected quickly verbally or with a tap on the nose. I think it is because it is a very costly habit to have on the field during show or trials.
I wanted to get perspectives here regarding corrections. I believe in positive training but I also believe we should be able to discuss techniques and the realities of training dogs alongside others who have different philosophies on training.
I think the problem with corrections (positive punishment is the behavioral psych term, applying a punishing stimulus) is you have to ensure the dog pairs the punishment with the thing you want them to stop doing. That is actually really difficult to do.
For instance imagine this chain of events:
Success! Right? Your dog paired the bark with the shock! Maybe, maybe not. Maybe it paired seeing the other dog with the shock. You repeat this dozens of times, now your dog thinks whenever it sees other dogs it gets shocked. Congrats, now your dog is either scared of other dogs, aggressive toward other dogs, or both. It’s basically luck of the draw if your dog will respond well to positive punishment AND it is hard to time positive punishment in a way that improves your dog’s chances of responding well - even if the timing is instant like in the case of a bark collar.
Imo, it is best to go positive reward only because the risk of you messing up your dog’s training is MUCH lower. And then if it doesn’t respond to positive reward, you can try positive punishment. But always go with the minimally aggressive/aversive training method first. Then escalate if you have to.
Edit: another problem with punishment is it can teach your dog to hide healthy communication behaviors. Say you correct your dog when it snarls/growls at a child or dog that is getting up in its face. It learns not to snarl/growl, but it doesn’t learn to not be bothered by things up in its face. Now instead of communicating that it is pissed off, it goes from seeming fine (i.e. not snarling or growling) to escalating to snapping or biting. Whenever I see people with shock collars, they often correct healthy behaviors like this and it freaks me out because they could be teaching their dog not to telegraph its aggression.