Bad dog? Think twice before yelling, experts say.

Pedro_P

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Punishing your dog to discourage bad behavior could make them more stressed and “pessimistic,” a new study finds.ChristopherBernard/ iStock.com
▼ Few things are more adorable—or destructive—than a new puppy. When they pee on rugs, chew furniture, and get aggressive with other pups, their stressed-out owners usually turn to dog training. Now, a novel study suggests programs that use even relatively mild punishments like yelling and leash-jerking can stress dogs out, making them more “pessimistic” than dogs that experience reward-based training.
“[Punishment] training may seem to work in the short run … but these methods can have future negative consequences,” says Marc Bekoff, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Colorado in Boulder who was not involved in the new study. “[These dogs are] living in perpetual stress.”
Previous studies have suggested that although both reward-based and punishment-based training methods are effective, punishment-based training can  have negative effects. But those studies tend to focus on police and laboratory dogs instead of family pets, and most used shock collars, which have been banned in several countries, as punishment.
To find out how companion dogs react to more routine punishments, scientists led by Ana Catarina Vieira de Castro at the University of Porto in Portugal recruited 42 dogs from reward-based training schools, which use food or play to encourage good behaviors. The team also enlisted 50 dogs from aversive-based programs, which use negative reinforcement like yelling and leash jerking to train dogs, or even pressuring their rumps to get them to sit.
The researchers videotaped the dogs during training and tested their saliva before and after for the stress hormone cortisol. Dogs in the negative reinforcement programs showed more stress-related  behaviors during training, such as lip licking and yawning, and they had higher levels of cortisol in their saliva than when at home, the team reports on the preprint server bioRxiv. Dogs in the reward-based training group showed no changes in cortisol levels during training or at home.
To find out whether these effects lingered, the researchers measured how  (▪ ▪ ▪)

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abhidebb

A very useful eye-opener for dog owners.

chanakyakripa

DOG LOVERS WILL DEFINITELY AGREE AND THE PEOPLE WHO DOESNT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT DOGS BUT OWNS THEM AS SOCIAL SYMBOL, WELL THIS WILL ENLIGHTEN THEM TOO.