Yes, even if it is “only” a spray of water, if you have to use it a more than twice to try and suppress the same behaviour, clearly something is off. And even a squirt bottle can easily become abusive. We cannot choose what a dog finds punishing or reinforcing; maybe the water isn’t what works for that particular dog, or something else in the environment is reinforcing the behaviour and negating the effect of the (possibly) unpleasant water spray. This will easily happen with some very self-reinforcing behaviors like barking or jumping on people. Fair enough, the water is a little annoying, but oh boy isn’t jumping on visitors fun! Definitely worth a few squirts in the face! The challenge with us humans is that we still keep trying to use the intended punishment because pressing that lever on the bottle and seeing ANY kind of a reaction in the dog is so rewarding for us.
Is it something the dog doesn’t expect? This is so important, and that’s why I got so lucky with the squirt bottle the first few times I used it. I was stalking my puppy and managed to surprise her just at the moment when she was grabbing our curtains with her teeth. But to obtain the element of surprise I had to stalk her behind a couch or a kitchen counter and have the squirt bottle somewhere handy so that I could grab it without her noticing it. Pretty exhausting and challenging work! Plus the prerequisite for this to work was that she had no previous associations with the bottle. The first few times it worked fine, but when she started to experiment with other items with her teeth, she quickly caught onto me and only backed off if she sensed the squirt bottle despite my detective-like manoeuvres.
As tempting as it may be to us humans, the use of punishment is very challenging in training. I figured out a long time ago that I’m not a good enough dog trainer to be able to use it, even if it’s something relatively mild, like squirt bottle. Until I run into a training dilemma that I cannot solve with the combination of management and reinforcement of acceptable behaviors, I’m not going to feel the need to think about spray bottles again. But I don’t think that day will ever come.
Today, I see that the reason for my success with my puppy a decade ago was simply that I got real lucky. But I believe more in science-based methods of behavior modification than I do in luck. What I know now is that squirt bottle training isn’t as precise or useful as other methods of training. In fact, it can be harmful. But that’s true of most kinds of punishment.
This rule comes back to the element of surprise. If you didn’t do your pink panther-like detective stalking well enough and your dog sees you and your arm approaching with the horrid bottle that produces the horrid spray, what will happen? The punishment will become equal with you and the dog will become fearful of you. Fearfulness often manifests itself as aggressive behaviors, so this may end up being a vicious circle. Even if your dog doesn’t become fearful, what most likely will happen is that your dog will still indulge in the unwanted behavior when you are not around.
Spray Bottles Have No Place in Animal Training
Spraying a dog with water to curb unwanted behavior has been used for decades. Cats are lumped into this punishment-based technique too; they’re often sprayed for scratching furniture or climbing on countertops. Dog spraying is employed by owners for any behavior they find inappropriate. But does spraying your dog with water work?
Does dog spraying work? Maybe temporarily, but it’s a new day. We now know that training your dog with negative techniques such as dog spraying can do a lot of harm. Fortunately, we have newer and very effective ways to discourage undesirable animal behavior, so throw away that spray bottle!
6 Behaviors To Correct with Water Spray
Using water spray is a training method meant to stop and correct bad behavior in its tracks. It should only be used in the middle of bad behavior you are present for.
It should not be used as punishment after bad behavior has already occurred. Dogs will not understand this. It’s only effective to disrupt bad behavior, so you can redirect them and teach them what you do not want them doing.
Why Is Your Dog Drinking So Much Water?
Using a water bottle to spray a dog to correct bad behavior is a training method that has been used for decades. I’ve used it off and on with the dogs I’ve owned and trained.
I’ve recently come across several blogs that teach that this technique is not effective and is outdated. I have to say, I completely disagree.
There are times when using a spray bottle, or water gun can be an effective training technique and times when it’s not.
There are many instances in which a spray bottle or water gun would come in handy with training. I do admit, though, that they won’t work with every dog.