Water spray - yay or nay

[drivinmecrazy]

Have a six month old Weimaraner puppy. He's generally really well behaved, for a pup!
Training is going so well, majority of the time.
But we have some issues. He loves to tug on the throws on the sofa and likes terrorising DD2 in the evenings by literally throwing his toys at her the jumping her.
Generally when he's in his zoomie zone.
Discovered recently that a little drop of water on his head distracts him and he stops unwanted behaviour.
Was wondering wether to get a fine mist spray bottle to keep on hand when all else fails.
For example, he got a pouch of the cats food off the kitchen worktop recently and could not get him to drop it for love nor money. He ate the whole pouch not just the food. Luckily he pooped it out so all good.
Couple of days ago he managed to get into the fridge when I was getting something out and grabbed the cats food again. Would not release at all. Completely locked his jaw. But water, again, made him release.
But is it regarded as cruel to use a water mister? I'm a little bit conflicted but not sure if we're being too soft.
DH is comfortable giving him a gentle tap on his nose but I've found that just escalates things

Good god no.

That's not the way to train a puppy. No water spraying and no tapping on the nose. That sort of thing will just result in a dog that's fearful and wary of you.

Training takes patience and rewarding the behaviour you want.

Talk to a qualified trainer who works with positive reinforcement and learn how to train a dog without resorting to causing it distress.

N, I wouldn’t. I’d use a stair gate to keep him out of the kitchen and proper wind down time in the evenings before I smacked his nose or sprayed him with water. 6 month puppy behaviour is v challenging, but what you’re suggesting isn’t the answer imo.

No and definitely no little taps on the nose . I will also point out that my 13 yr old patterdale x still has a mad hour in the evenings where he throws a array of half chewed , furry toys at people in an attempt to get someone to play so it’s not necessarily a puppy thing .

No unless you want an anxious dog. It’s not 1979 anymore. We know better.

You shouldn't be tapping your dog on the nose or spraying water at him. Ever.

The evening zoomies are normal and normally occur because a dog is tired - so you need to work on preventing the behaviour, not punishing him for it. Give him a chew to keep him occupied, do some training, put him on a house-line/tether so he can't jump about etc.

If you don't want him stealing from counters or getting in the fridge, then you have two choices - stop leaving things within his reach or use a baby gate to keep him out of the kitchen.

Huge no. I had a dog that was sprayed with water by previous owner and it took years for her to stop being scared of drink bottles. She never grew out of being extremely defensive when she wet from baths, rain, you name it and would go from her overly affectionate self to not being able to be touched at all.

See a dog trainer. There are simple solutions like swapping something being guarded for something else. A fearful dog is a huge problem and leads to more issues.

Echoing the big fat no.

That's called aversive, or negative, training. The dog doesn't ever see the thing he's doing as "bad", he just does the thing and something horrible happens, so he stops doing the thing because he's now worried, even terrified, by the horrible thing. That's not happy training.

I know my poor little PomChi, who is barky by nature, used to get sprayed with water spray every time she barked by someone who used to dogsit her before I adopted her. Guess what, she still barks, but we're working with positive training to help alleviate that instead.

Your puppy is going through very normal naughty puppy stages. The best thing you can do is remove things that he may get to, put child locks on the fridge or cupboards if he's learnt how to open those. Be absolutely rigid with keeping counters clear of yummy things. If he's getting over excited with multiple toys in the evening, keep toys minimal, even remove tuggy or soft toys and encourage him to settle down with something to chew in the evening instead.

Using punishment (regardless of how gentle you think the punishment is) is just giving in to the weakness of wanting a shortcut that is minimal effort.

It is far, far better (ethically and efficient) to look at managing the environment so the dog cannot do those things. If he cannot get hold of cat food pouches, he will never 'need' punishing for it.

Besides, if you start with a 'gentle' punishment, the chances are high he will simply habituate to it and then you have to up it to have the same effect. It is very unlikely a 'drop of water' will be effective for more than the first few times.

Whilst I'm not against using water and have in the past I wouldn't have used it in any of the examples you've given. These could have all have been dealt with by managing the situation - you've got a young high energy breed so may well find it needs more managing than some other dogs. For example if we're in the kitchen my dog lays on his bed in the corner - this stops any chance of pinching food and also keeps him safe if I were to drop anything and means I can't trip over him. This was taught through reward and consistency (taking him back to the bed if he got up, rewarding him when he stayed on it). Having an on your bed or place cue would also help when he's being overexcitable in the living room as gives him a job to do that you can then reward him for. Make sure the expectations are clear eg it's hard for such a young dog to understand that he can rag on toys but not on clothes/the sofa. I would avoid any tuggy games until he was a little bit older. Like I said I've used water in the past with dogs but only when I believe that positive training/management won't do the job. The water also never comes from me or a person, when I have used it the dog hasn't seen where it's come from and it's been a careful decision. For this reason I wouldn't be comfortable with the tapping on the nose.