Do you smack??

[kristy J]

I have never smacked my dogs either. One of my dogs would bark constantly and I would simply use a bottle to spray water in his face. That combined with positive praise when he was quiet and a week later the barking had stopped. I know you can't compare this to a child but it goes to show that I didn't need to use violence or a power trip to get him to do the right thing.

I know what you mean.
I don't like to smack and its very rare that we do. positive reinforcemant is a great tool to get my son to do the right thing most of the time.

[krysalyss]

OK. I havent read every post cos I am supposed to be working

But I do have strong view points on this.
When I was young I smacked my dog for doing something 'naughty'. At that moment I realised that I had smacked her because I was angry at her not because it helped me teach her what I wanted to do. I have never since smacked anything.

Children learn mostly from imitation. They learn how to deal with situations from their parents so if their parents act in a violent way (yelling, hitting etc) that is how they will learn to deal with that situation.

I also don't believe that children need to fear their parents. Respect and fear come from very different places. I think respect comes from having logic behind your decisions and explaining them to your child. Fine, a one year old won't understand a big lecture but by using one word to show your reason eg. 'stop! danger!' when they go to touch the hot stove or stand on their chair will help them to realise the consequences as they learn to talk.

Going a bit OT, I think we have to think about whether we are raising our kids to be good children or good adults. Good adults have learnt logic through related cause and effect (eg. if I stand on my chair I might fall off) rather than unrelated cause and effect (eg. if I stand on my chair I get a smack from mum).

So I don't see the situation totally as to smack or not smack (although I don't smack) but rather how best to (safely) teach your child to understand a situation.

[krysalyss]

I have never smacked my dogs either. One of my dogs would bark constantly and I would simply use a bottle to spray water in his face. That combined with positive praise when he was quiet and a week later the barking had stopped. I know you can't compare this to a child but it goes to show that I didn't need to use violence or a power trip to get him to do the right thing.

Just to clarify, (but getting OT) smacking and spraying with a bottle are both punishment techniques. The difference is that if you use smacking the dog is focused on you, knows the punishment comes from you, and may not make the connection between the behaviour and the punishment. The waterbottle is used while the dog is (presumedly) looking at whatever is stimulating it to bark and not you and is more likely to make the connection (and not think it came from you). If for example, you went up to the dog and then either smacked or sprayed it would have the same effect as the dog is then focused on you and won't make the connection between behaviour and punishment. Both are negative for the dog and really aren't very different. Again it is about making the dog think of the appropriate cause and effect - that the barking causes the spray and not that the owner having a spray bottle causes the spray. IYKWIM?

(but I actually don't agree with punishment used in this context. Just wanted to explain a bit more from an animal behaviour POV)