Is a hurting a dog for the sake of discipline a sin?

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PaoloCruz

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Hello friends, I have 4 dogs 2 male and 2 female.
So my female dog has a period right now, my male dog keeps on going to the female dog so I smack hiss butt just to discipline him. Its been 1 week since I’ve been doing that so I may be consciously hurting him for the sake of discipline but maybe I’m being unconscious that hurting him might be or may not be a sin. So, I’m gonna ask you guys for help.
Thank you 🙂
 
I doubt it is a sin. It may not be a wise, though. Unless I’m mistaken, negative reinforcement isn’t the best way to train pets. You want to encourage the good behavior, not make them afraid to do the bad behavior in front of you.

Then again, I’m more familiar with cats, who take negative attention as a good thing. I’m not entirely sure about dogs.

Edit: Quickly found an article on this. It turns out that things are more nuanced. The tl;dr is, punishment done when they’re in the act does seem to work. Any delay, though, and it can both fail to have the intended effect and may even do psychological damage.
 
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I don’t know about dogs, but mother cat’s discipline by whacking the kitten on top of the head, from where she can be seen.Doing this with your cat is effective and not wrong.

I presume there is a parallel action for dogs/wolves (and for most other animals, for that matter), but I doubt that it is whacking the backside. Find the inbred method, and use it without concern.

hawk
 
dochawk said:
Doing this with your cat is effective and not wrong.
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My cat developed a habit of putting herself in “time out” whenever she did something she knew she wasn’t supposed to. It was basically running under the coffee table, but only so far for her upper body to be under. I thought it was funny because I could still get at her legs (never did anyways, though), but I think she was trying to avoid the head whack. I had to get a bit more creative after that. I still never had to go for a spray bottle, which only seems to cause anxiety given what I’ve seen and heard.

In other words, head whacking doesn’t always work. Some cats figure out clever ways to avoid it.
 
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dochawk said:
I don’t know about dogs, but mother cat’s discipline by whacking the kitten on top of the head, from where she can be seen.Doing this with your cat is effective and not wrong.
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If it’s done with the force equal to a cat batting with its paw then it’s not wrong and could be effective, but a “human” whack over the head would probably border on the side of abuse.

OP, I think a light smack and a stern NO is fine and not a sin. If the dog is crying out in pain or anything like that, then it’s too harsh and could be a sin, especially since he is just following instinctual behavior.
 
Gingersnaps4 said:
If it’s done with the force equal to a cat batting with its paw then it’s not wrong and could be effective, but a “human” whack over the head would probably border on the side of abuse.
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I can’t speak for @dochawk, but I think “whack” in this case is probably more properly called “tap”.
 
Four dogs. Two each of male an female. One female is on heat. Normal and natural behaviour by both the male an female to mate.

Rather than physically punishing a dog for a natural behaviour (which breeders encourage to produce litters for the showring or money), why not keep the female in heat separated until she is off heat?

I don’t know whether your intention is to ever breed them, but if it is, when it comes time for this male dog to mate with the female he may not be willing to or able due to the negativity and reinforcement of punishment to not to copulate with the female. (which is basically what smacking him each time he tries to go to the female or mount her is what you are doing. He is not able to reason why now is not right compared to when you do want him to mate is then the right time.)

The urge to mate with a female in heat will drive a male to travel up to quite a distance in search of the female. So can you imagine how this must be for the male dog with a female in heat under his nose? It is also known that some female dogs will reverse up to a chainlink fence to be mated with by a male dog. This drive within each to mate is very strong and I think it is unfair to punish a dog for something that is natural and instinctive.
 
Any sort of discipline on the male dog is completely unjust and unfair while there are female dogs on heat. The male dog is going to become increasingly frustrated and attempt to be with the female.
Dogs will jump through windows, eat doors, jump fences , you name it, to get to the female on heat.
If you are not breeding, get him desexed , or the females desexed. If you are breeding, please join a breeding group and learn what to do and what not to do.
It really is unfair and unjust to the dogs to punish them for attempting to do what they do to reproduce. You cannot train a male dog to leave a female on heat alone. They have to be completely separated.

For now the female is on heat for three weeks. You will need to keep him completely separated from her for that time at least.

If you are not breeding the female it is best to get her desexed as pyrometria is a huge risk and becomes an instant emergency where an operation is required to prevent the fatal outcome of this medical issue

If you are going to breed, you want a mentor and firstly all the relevant health checks for your dog breed. This includes hip and elbows, genetic testing, eyes , etc. And in some breeds ensuring the wrong colour genes are not going to be bred to each other, resulting in deaf and blind puppies.
 
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That makes sense.

If you don’t want your dogs mating, get them fixed.

I can’t see how you can monitor this. I can’t imagine being with your dogs always. You might end up with a litter of puppies regardless on how much you hit the male.

Some instincts are very strong. I’m surprised you haven’t been bit, truthfully.
 
Have your dogs spade and neutered. It is for the good of the health of the dog. There are also millions of unwanted puppies and it is poor stewardship of God’s creation to allow more unwanted puppies to be born.

Until you can get to the vet, keep the dog in heat isolated from any males. You are not going to smack a sex drive out of a dog.
 
ZMystiCat said:
In other words, head whacking doesn’t always work. Some cats figure out clever ways to avoid it.
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🤣:roll_eyes:

At the other end, I had one that responded to my reaching for the spray bottle . …
Gingersnaps4 said:
If it’s done with the force equal to a cat batting with its paw then it’s not wrong and could be effective, but a “human” whack over the head would probably border on the side of abuse.
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Err, yeah.

The point is to use its inbred behavior and instincts. Not only would a. human grade whack not be that, it could also break the animal’s neck!
ZMystiCat said:
I can’t speak for @dochawk, but I think “whack” in this case is probably more properly called “tap”.
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uhm, yeah, a cat whack, not a people whack.

hawk
 
CRV said:
This drive within each to mate is very strong and I think it is unfair to punish a dog for something that is natural and instinctive.
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Well, it’s a mortal sin for humans if they’re not married, so put a picture of St. Francis over the male dog’s food bowl along with the quote from 1 Corinthians about how to avoid fornication, so that the next time he gets the urge he will feel guilty for letting St. Francis down…
 
You could ground him from watching Lassie for a whole week.
It will hurt, but it won’t be a mortal sin.
 
Don’t you think that might be just a little harsh? I mean, c’mon a whole week?!
 
What’s with so many people owning multiple dogs these days? Used to be, a family had a dog. Now I see couple’s out walking 3 or 4 dogs all the time. 20 years ago that would have been rare.

As to the OP: you own 6 dogs and do not understand basic animal behavior. Don’t worry about smacking one being a sin, but do consider if irresponsible ownership is moral.
 
dochawk said:
Lassie has always been played by a male dog
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Yikes! People then were so sexist then that they had male dogs play the female dogs!
tafan2 said:
What’s with so many people owning multiple dogs these days?
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There’s a lot of potential factors:
  • Some shelters want to adopt certain dogs out in pairs, since the dogs have bonded and would be seen as cruel to separate them.
  • Some people want a companion for the dog when they’re away.
  • Dogs might in general be happier when there is at least one other dog in the house.
  • If you want a puppy, it might be easier to train if you already have an adult dog.
  • Some people just really love dogs so much that they want a second one.
Actually, my grandparents had two dogs for as long as I can remember. For them, it might have been the extra companionship.
 
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