Do people still do this? Spraying dog in face with water

[MsAdoraBelleDearheartVonLipwig]

Was chatting with a neighbour in the lane today when a lady walked past with what looked like a shepherd breed dog. It jumped and pulled and barked and she squirted it in the face with a spray bottle of water. It kept lunging and barking and she kept squirting it as they carried on down the lane. My neighbour and I were like wtf? Is that still a thing? I thought that sort of thing went out with Barbara Woodhouse?

My dog was with me, on his lead as we’d just come back from our walk. He neither moved nor barked because I have trained him. Without spraying stuff at him.

Her method obviously doesn't work

Didn’t seem like it.

At home we used to lift a cup up and ddog behaved! No actual water necessary! She was a bloody food thief-wet her once about 10 years previously!!

I always think that's quite mean. You wouldn't spray a person in the face for not listening.

No one who knows the first thing about dog training does it.

That’s what I thought. I wonder where she got the idea from?

I imagine she was trying to teach the dog not to do something without shouting at the dog. My neighbour sprays something at his dog, it’s not water, it’s some sort of compressed gas.

It's aversive training. Not only does it not work, it can create more problems. But yes, people still do it and think they're being clever.

Stupid woman , she needs to read up on dog training

Very old school.

A colleague of mine has 2 cockerpoo puppies and she said the only way yo get them to behave is with a bottle of air that she sprays at them (she says it's just air). Never tried it and never even knew it was a thing before I heard it from her.

It works (for some) in the sense that it scares the dog silly - in the same way a shock collar or prong collar can "work".

And by "work" I mean it stops the because the dog is so scared of being sprayed in the face or given a shock that they don't do the behaviour anymore. It's certainly not something I would ever do on my dog and personally I think it's incredibly risky.

If, for example, your dog tries to jump at a child and receives a face full of water in response, you risk them becoming fearful of children as opposed to learning that they shouldn't jump.

Very dangerous way of "training" but it's still around. I'm a member of a behavioural group for my specific breed and lots of people still advocate for it, as well as the method of shaking a tin can full of stones near a dog, or using compressed air.

Imagine the hate you'd get if you did that to a misbehaving child! I think sometimes see an aversive as a "quick fix" that will stop a problem behaviour more quickly? I can understand the feeling, if not actually squirting your dog, of feeling exasperated by behaviour that is taking a long time to change with positive reinforcement.

Having said that when I mist my houseplants and my dog hangs around lapping the air so I think he'd probably quite enjoy me squirting him

To clarify, I have never and will never squirt him, for punishment or otherwise!

@Chocolateandamaretto

Imagine the hate you'd get if you did that to a misbehaving child! I think sometimes see an aversive as a "quick fix" that will stop a problem behaviour more quickly? I can understand the feeling, if not actually squirting your dog, of feeling exasperated by behaviour that is taking a long time to change with positive reinforcement.

Having said that when I mist my houseplants and my dog hangs around lapping the air so I think he'd probably quite enjoy me squirting him

When DS was in reception class, a parent actually did do this to their daughter! They told us other parents at a party in all seriousness. They kept fruit shoot bottles around the house to use on their dogs and they used them on their daughter too. They were batshit crazy in many other ways too...

It worked on the cats but I've only ever had to spray them twice I wouldn't think it would work on a dog though

Our gun dog trainer does this... not to our dog but to her own. She only uses it as a pretty drastic measure, I think, and says she rarely has to do it to a dog more than once. She’s pretty old school and it’s not totally my cup of tea - but she has happy, healthy dogs who she is clearly devoted to.

Positive punishment has been shown to increase aggression and frustration in dogs so is a waste of time really (and horrid to do and wrecks your relationship with your dog).

Many gundog trainers are still in the dark ages - there is a movement for positive gund dog training and a quite lively facebook group if you are interested lorelaiVictoriaGilmore

In Sunflowers example the dog will also be learning other things as well, so it may not teach what you want to teach the dog. eg punish dog for jumping up may make dog fearful of the area they are in and they will not walk in that area again, it may make the dog frightened of children and actually make the reaction to seeing children worse and most likely aggressive.

However what is fab about this thread is that people recognise it is not the way to train. A few years ago there would be a very different response

Poor dog, my boy is a bit of a fearful type but training and building bonds is really helping him. If I were to spray water in his face it may correct that behaviour that one time but it would absolutely cause issues elsewhere. I’m glad no one on here is advocating it.

I hope the dog didn’t associate being sprayed in the face with my dog, as that’s what he was looking at and barking at when he got sprayed.

@PollyRoulson Any chance you could direct me to the Facebook group? There is no denying that dpup is responding really well to the training she is getting but I mostly use positive reinforcement outside of class.

Yes people definitely still do this.
Not me but a couple of people I know do.