Before looking at how to tell off a dog,
it is important to understand when NOT to tell off a dog

Is punishment appropriate?

In most cases it is better to praise and reward good behaviour, and ignore bad behaviour.
This reinforces the good behaviour and makes the dog more likely to repeat it. 
It is very easy to ignore a dog that is being quiet and behaving itself, but it is important to remember to reward your dog by giving it regular attention and praise, simply for being good.

If your dog is bored and seeking attention, even a telling off can be more rewarding than being ignored and could actually motivate the dog to repeat the unwanted behaviour to get more attention. On the other hand the absence of any reaction to unwanted behaviour means the dog is less likely to want to repeat it.

Sometimes, like children, even the best trained dog will choose to misbehave and will need to be corrected, but this should be the exception. Punishment should never be used as a training method.

Don’t punish a dog unless you catch it in the act

Dogs don’t think like humans. They relate both punishment and praise to what they are doing at the exact moment that it is given - not to what they did a few seconds, minutes or hours before.
If you do not catch your dog actually in the act of being naughty, you must not punish it, because it will not understand why it is being punished. It will become confused and will not learn anything, except to be afraid of its owner who punishes it apparently without any reason.

How not to do it

How often do you see this? At the end of a walk an owner calls their untrained dog, wanting to put it on the lead and go home. The dog decides it doesn’t want to go home yet and runs off. The owner chases it. The dog keeps running round, just out of reach of the owner. Every time the owner grabs at the dog it runs away again. The owner starts to lose his temper. After ten minutes, and much shouting, the owner eventually gets within reach of the dog, grabs it roughly, puts it on the lead and gives it a severe telling off for not coming back before.

What did the dog learn?  Was the punishment effective?  

• If I run off, I get to play a game of chase. Its fun. I enjoy it. I get lots of attention and I get a longer walk.

• If I come back to my owner, I get told off, put on a lead and taken home.

What should the owner have done?

• Train the dog by calling it at intervals during the walk, praise it for coming, put it on the lead, give it a treat, Walk a short distance, command     it to sit, praise, take off the lead and let it run free again.

• If the dog will not come, turn and walk away, hide behind a tree. Ignore the dog - don’t keep calling it, make it find you.

• When dog comes back, however long it takes, praise the dog for coming and give it a food reward.

What should the dog have learned?

• If I come back when called, I get praised and rewarded with a tasty treat. I like it, so I’ll come back to get a treat again next time.

• Being put on the lead does not always mean the end of the walk and going home.

• If I don’t come back, I get no reward and my owner deserts me. I don’t like being alone. I want to be with my owner, who will protect me.

My dog knows when it’s done wrong - it always looks so guilty

How often have your heard this from owners who don’t understand their dog?

Dogs communicate using body language and learn quickly from experience.

Say, for example, that your dog chews your best shoes when you are out. You come home, see the shoes and your first reaction is to become disappointed and annoyed with the dog. The dog immediately senses the change in your body language, facial expression and tone of voice. It remembers that, last time you reacted that way, you shouted at it and threw it out of the room.

In the dog world, if one dog is aggressive to another dog which immediately submits, the aggression stops. Your dog senses your aggression and attempts to pacify you in the only way it knows - by laying down in front of you, wagging its tail submissively, avoiding eye contact and perhaps even rolling over to expose its unprotected belly and in extreme cases urinating. 
It is saying in dog language “I pose no threat to you, please don’t attack me.”

Your dog has no idea what it has done wrong. It just senses your aggression and responds with the appropriate dog body language. If you incorrectly read this as an admission of guilt, tell the dog off and throw it out of the room, you have achieved nothing. The only lesson the dog has learned is that it can expect to be shouted at when you come home, with the result that the dog will cower even more next time.

And it was your fault that the shoes were left where the dog could reach them!

Never, ever, hit a dog

Never hit a dog with your hand, a rolled newspaper, a stick or anything else. It achieves nothing. It will simply make your dog afraid of approaching hands. newspapers, sticks etc. Sooner or later the dog will defend itself in the only way it can, by biting an approaching hand. That hand might belong to a small child that wants to stroke your dog. The result - a prosecution under the Dangerous Dogs Act and a death sentence for your dog.

Match the level of correction to the crime

Remember:  Only punish a dog when it is in the act of being naughty. 
You want to punish the dog for misbehaving, to teach it that its current behaviour is unacceptable. 
If you punish it when it has already stopped the unwanted behaviour, you will be punishing it for stopping. 
Please don’t punish the dog for doing what you wanted it to do!

Level 0 - Distraction
Instead of punishing the dog, stop the unwanted activity by offering the dog a toy and playing with it to distract it away from the unwanted activity. The dog learns that it gets no reaction from the unwanted activity but stopping to do something else is rewarded by play.

Level 1 - Ignore the dog
Your absence of reaction means that the dog gets no reward or attention to encourage it to repeat the act.

Level 2 - Exclude the dog by shutting it in another room
Two minutes are usually sufficient for a puppy. Dogs are social pack animals. Packs punish members by excluding them from the pack activities. The equivalent of what humans call ‘sending to Coventry’.

Level 3 - Voice
Say “Bad Dog!” in a growly voice and make growling noises. Then exclude the dog for a few minutes.

Level 4 - Shake
Copy the way a bitch corrects its puppies. Take the dog by the scruff of the neck, shake it gently whilst growling ‘Bad Dog! at it. Take care to match the level of correction to the age, size and weight of the dog; the object is to correct the dog not to hurt it. Larger dogs may need two hands, holding the loose skin each side of the neck. Then exclude the dog as in level 2.

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