Punishment works, until it doesn't....
I want to start by saying this very clearly: I would never physically hit a dog. But I know some people do. And many argue that punishment “works.” In one sense, they’re right: punishment can stop a behaviour in the moment. But the real question isn’t does it work, it’s what does it actually teach?
The problem with punishment
For punishment to genuinely teach anything, two things must happen:
Your timing has to be absolutely perfect.
Your dog has to clearly understand which behaviour is being punished.
That’s an incredibly high bar. Most of the time, people don’t meet it. Instead of learning “the rule,” the dog learns fear, confusion, or mistrust. And yet, owners often say things like: “I only had to slap him once and he never did it again.”
On the surface, that may seem true. But unless you can fluently read canine body language, you’ll likely miss the subtle signs of stress your dog is now carrying. Even if your dog looks fine with you, that doesn’t mean the same “lesson” makes sense in every other situation.
Dogs don’t think in right and wrong
This is key: dogs don’t have a moral compass.
They don’t decide what is “right” or “wrong.” They simply:
repeat behaviours that are rewarding, or
avoid behaviours that feel unsafe.
When punishment is used, the dog may not know what behaviour caused it — they just learn that the person can be unpredictable.
Imagine this for yourself:
How are you sitting right now? Are your legs crossed? Are you leaning forward? Maybe you’ve just shifted your hands.
If someone suddenly slapped you, which movement would you assume caused it? Was it the way you looked? The way you shifted your feet?
It would feel confusing, unfair, and unpredictable. And worse, you’d probably become anxious about moving at all. That’s the same experience dogs have. They might be wagging their tail, sniffing the floor, glancing at the window, or adjusting a paw. If they’re slapped at that moment, they don’t know which action triggered it. They don’t learn “don’t jump up.” They learn “hands can hurt me.”
The hidden danger
Let’s take an example:
You slap your dog for jumping up.
Later, a child reaches out to stroke them.
To your dog, that hand feels just like the moment before they were hit.
In that split second, your dog may think: “Not again.” Instead of tolerating it, they defend themselves. And that’s when bites happen. And once a dog bites, there’s no taking it back. The dog can’t explain that they were scared or confused. From the outside, it just looks like aggression. Too often, that’s when dogs lose their homes or their lives. But the real cause wasn’t the dog’s choice. It was the punishment that created fear and defensive reactions in the first place.
Why punishment isn’t just unhelpful — it’s harmful
Punishment might stop a behaviour in the short term, but it:
doesn’t clearly teach the dog what to do,
doesn’t always teach what not to do,
risks creating confusion and anxiety,
and can turn into aggression when the dog tries to protect themselves.
In short: you can’t control what your dog has actually learned, or how they’ll apply it in a different situation.
And when confusion turns into a bite, it’s always the dog who pays the price.