Dog training methods: their use, effectiveness and interaction with behaviour and welfare

By E. Hiby, N. Rooney, J. Bradshaw. Animal Welfare, 2004

335 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Historically, pet dogs were trained using mainly negative reinforcement or punishment, but positive reinforcement using rewards has recently become more popular. The methods used may have different impacts on the dogs’ welfare. We distributed a questionnaire to 364 dog owners in order to examine the relative effectiveness of different training methods and their effects upon a pet dog's behaviour. When asked how they trained their dog on seven basic tasks, 66% reported using vocal punishment, 12% used physical punishment, 60% praise (social reward), 51% food rewards and II% play. The owner's ratings for their dog's obedience during eight tasks correlated positively with the number of tasks which they trained using rewards (P< 0.01), but not using punishment (P = 0.5). When asked whether their dog exhibited any of 16 common problematic behaviours, the number of problems reported by the owners correlated with the number of tasks for which their dog was trained using punishment (P< 0.001), but not using rewards (P = 0.17). Exhibition of problematic behaviours may be indicative of compromised welfare, because such behaviours can be caused by— or result in — a state of anxiety and may lead to a dog being relinquished or abandoned. Because punishment was associated with an increased incidence of problematic behaviours, we conclude that it may represent a welfare concern without concurrent benefits in obedience. We suggest that positive training methods may be more useful to the pet-owning community.

Subfields: Genetics, Small Animals, Virology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b038e45e3508e30e3df66301647414ef6cccd4c7

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Genetics

In Small Animals

In Virology

Citations in the corpus

The relationship between training methods and the occurrence of behavior problems, as reported by owners, in a population of domestic dogs (2008, background): “Research into possible risk factors for undesirable behaviors (Voith et al., 1992; Jagoe and Serpell, 1996; O’Farrell, 1997; Hiby et al., 2004; Bennett and Rohlf, 2007) provides evidence as to which factors influence the development and persistence of undesirable behaviors and is therefore…”
A comparison of behaviour in test and in everyday life: evidence of three consistent boldness-related personality traits in dogs (2005, background): “…and Borchelt, 1998; Serpell and Hsu, 2001), describe dog-owner relationship (Topal et al., 1997; Rooney et al., 2000), evaluate training methods (Hiby et al., 2004), investigate behavioural problems in dogs (Overall et al., 2001; Guy et al., 2001; Kobelt et al., 2003) and to study breed-typical…”
The effects of using aversive training methods in dogs—A review (2017, background): “As Hiby et al. (2004) indicated, the results of this survey suggest that reward-based training methods are associated with both higher levels of obedience and fewer behavior problems in dogs owned by a population of average dog owners.”
Minimizing fear and anxiety in working dogs: A review (2016, background): “Punishment-based training of pet dogs is linked to an increased incidence of behavior problems (Hiby et al., 2004), including fear, anxiety and aggression (Blackwell et al., 2008), wariness towards strangers, reduced playfulness (Rooney and Cowan, 2011), and increased anxiety-related aggression and…”
Training methods of military dog handlers and their effects on the team's performances (2008, background): “Bibliographic review (e.g. Hiby et al., 2004; Adams and Johnson, 1994; Johnston, 1995) and field observations suggest that positive training might be more efficient than aversive training.”
Effects of 2 training methods on stress-related behaviors of the dog (Canis familiaris) and on the dog–owner relationship (2014, methodology): “…pet dogs, owners reported via questionnaires that aversive stimuli was related to behavioral problems such as aggressiveness or stereotypies (Hiby et al., 2004; Eskeland, 2007; Eskeland et al., 2007; Blackwell et al., 2008; Herron et al., 2009) and could lead to a decrease in obedience…”
Perception of dogs' stress by their owners (2012, methodology): “In fact, this method has been used in many other studies on dog behavior (Hiby et al., 2004; Rooney and Bradshaw, 2004; Marinelli et al., 2007; Gazzano et al., 2008a, 2008b), also when related to emotional state (Kerswell et al., 2009).”