personally i think its not on,
i was out in my local shops the other day and a couple in there early 40s had a german shepard on a chocker chain,(lovely dog)the woman was pulling it close to her whilst using the speedbank machine,the man was shouting at the dog to shut up barking.
it was barking but not loud,wasnt bothering me,i stared at the man so then the couple walked off,when i came back the man was lifting the dogs ear out and shouting into it,"stop bloody barking,you stupid dog,im sick of it"
made my blood boil that poor dog.:rant::rant:

I don't like to see that either, it makes me sad especially when the ears go down and the dog starts moving away like they thing they're going to be smacked :(

personally i think its not on,
i was out in my local shops the other day and a couple in there early 40s had a german shepard on a chocker chain,(lovely dog)the woman was pulling it close to her whilst using the speedbank machine,the man was shouting at the dog to shut up barking.
it was barking but not loud,wasnt bothering me,i stared at the man so then the couple walked off,when i came back the man was lifting the dogs ear out and shouting into it,"stop bloody barking,you stupid dog,im sick of it"
made my blood boil that poor dog.:rant::rant:People like that are just totally stupid :rant: do they actually think that the dog can understand whet they are shouting?? :loopy: It's like when people go on holiday and shout loudly at 'foreigners' thinking that they will somehow understand English if it's loud enough :rolleyes:

We never, ever shout at Gadget... he is very sensitive to loud voices and people who are annoyed (he was a rescue and I think he's been shouted at a lot in the past)
Once OH was playing a football game on his PSP and was shouting at it (as all blokes seem to need to do when football is involved!) and Gadget got upset and went upstairs with his tail between his legs and hid under the bed :( it was heartbreaking :cry: OH gave him lots of fuss & cuddles to convince him everything was OK. Now we are REALLY careful about ever raising our voices near him.

i dont have to shout at them but if they have done something wrong i just say oooohhhhh what have you done and i can tell who has done it as the culprit goes and lays down out of the way i have never hit them or shouted at them but they get no fuss or attention for about 10 mins if they have done something wrong but they do get loads after.

Im going to sound like a bad owner now but i do shout at mine, not excessively but i do if it is warrented. I know people say they cannot understand but i swear mine can more than they let on.
One reason though is my 13 year old Staff Dodge has selective deafness unless it involves food or walkies.
The second is and i know people may shoot me down in flames here but they are bull breeds and extremley pig headed and a little raised voice does the trick.
I think it is all about doing things within reason and not to extremes it is ok but you will always get people like in the begining post who take it to the extreme.
The only time i shout at them away from the home is to call them back though.

personally i think its not on,
i was out in my local shops the other day and a couple in there early 40s had a german shepard on a chocker chain,(lovely dog)the woman was pulling it close to her whilst using the speedbank machine,the man was shouting at the dog to shut up barking.
it was barking but not loud,wasnt bothering me,i stared at the man so then the couple walked off,when i came back the man was lifting the dogs ear out and shouting into it,"stop bloody barking,you stupid dog,im sick of it"
made my blood boil that poor dog.:rant::rant:

That's disgusting!!

I do my best not to shout at my dogs - I used to have quite a short temper but have learned how to keep it now :lol:

To be honest, I've not met many dogs who actually take note of shouting - they usually respond better to a very disappointed, quiet tone!

People think I shout at Ed because I'll bend down and shout to him to 'come on' if he's messing about on his lead... thing is though - he's a bit deaf :lol: I do explain that actually, he just can't hear me if I talk to him in the same tone as I talk to my other dog!

When I have shouted at my dogs I've been really ashamed and it's been more through temper (not that that's right) because I've been in the non-ideal situation where I couldn't leave the room or shut them away to stop them getting to me but never would I ever make it so damned obvious that I wanted to shout at them!

To lift their ear and yell down it you have to be thinking about it :(

I did shout at Takara the other day for humping (and thus damaging) her bed for the 6th time in about 15 minutes - I'd been calm and dealt with it properly the first 5 times - I yelled at her and sent her outside and then took a few minutes to smack myself around the head with a rolled up newspaper for yelling at the dog before letting her back in.

She refused to do any training or talk to me for 2 whole days :lol:

Im going to sound like a bad owner now but i do shout at mine, not excessively but i do if it is warrented.

I will be joining you in purgatory :hihi: Yes I do shout at mine on the odd occasion, how can anyone never get annoyed with 2 puppies? but really shouting is pointless and just confuses them, so I don't usually and like you never excessively, I hate to see dogs cower and I would be gutted if I made mine.

A sharp word is sometimes called for though I would rather shock them and stop them dead before they do something that could hurt them.

Although the sort of "shouting" described by the OP is the most pointless kind, and can only be to make the owner feel better somehow, or because they want to be seen to be doing something about it's behaviour and don't really have a clue what they should do :D

Although the sort of "shouting" described by the OP is the most pointless kind, and can only be to make the owner feel better somehow, or because they want to be seen to be doing something about it's behaviour and don't really have a clue what they should do :D

I think this is a major issue amongst dog owners.
I used to be very worried about what others thought and felt I should be seen to be doing something and when for instance, a dog came upto Eddy and Eddy growled, people expected me to tell him off. No way! He's been attacked, I'm trying to build his confidence not wreck it!

Funnily enough, this morning Takara did something very naughty and completely disgraced herself, plummeting head first into my bad books and a family were walking by and although I did tell her off, I withheld any reinforcement more than telling her off because she had just returned to me after doing the naughty thing... what can you do?? You tell them off and next time they won't come back!

Nowadays though - I only care what others think if they see me shouting at them - I never worry that they think I'm not disciplining because when I'm in that situation I know I'm doing the right thing!

Sorry, i have shouted at my dog in the past as well. He lives with my parents now so i don't have responsibility over him anymore, but when i lived there and used to walk him, he sometimes would run off from me. My mum did all his obedience classes and she is still the only one who he listens to. I had a couple of instances where i couldn't find him and was beside myself, so when he did turn up (once waiting for me back at home!) he got a telling off. Mainly because relief at finding him turned to temper. I wouldn't say i yelled at him, but my voice was raised and he knew he was in the bad books. He has such a thick skin he couldn't care less though.

A previous dog of our was a rescue who had been mistreated and was terrified of raised voices and newspapers so we would never shout at him (never had to either). If we were having an argument then he would cower and shake so we would have to stop and settle him down!

So i think it depends on the dog you are dealing with. I don't think there is any excuse for just screaming at a dog like that though, he was probably making more racket than the barking! Poor thing was probably agitated by it all and made him bark more.

Buttercup - it's so easy to tell a dog off when they come back after disappearing but in reality it only makes it worse. Dogs repeat behaviours that are rewarding (I should make that my slogan - I say it so often!) and if coming back isn't rewarding, he won't do it.

As in my other post: I am not going to say I'm perfect... I have a terrible temperament :lol: the result of breeding from a short tempered dad! I have my dad's temper and used to be terrible - Takara would disappear off and keep me waiting for ages. My voice was never going to encourage her to come back because I sounded soooo miffed!

I'm able to detach myself from my emotions (most of the time) now and deal with a situation as a dog handler rather than a dog mummy :lol:

I've only shouted on occassions normally, to try and get another dog away from us or to tell the owner what I think of them when the've been letting there dog run around us for ages when they are unable to catch/ recall thier dog :lol: and thats because I really don't want any harm to come to either dog.

I'm not a shouty person to start off with. I think I'm too self aware to shout, people always look really stupid when they do. I'm more of a stroppy sulker and this tends to work quite well with the dog! He also has a quiet sound that stops whatever he is doing (apart from the dog thing)

He's not bothered with shouting/ loud noise anyway I think he's used to it in a past life, he hates smacking actions though and cringes, found this out when I was hitting my sofa cushions to plump them up! and is more wary of men and deeper voices, so all my 'no' type commands are done in a low tone, I get some funny looks!

I dont find the need to shout at my dog. She is so submissive and does anything immediately which is quite funny because she has never had any training or been shown what to do. The one thing I do think is that she is treated like one of the family and she has full access to the house. I would also like to point out that when I use the term submissive im not saying I exact any domince techniques like some I have heard of she just sort of falls in her place between me and the wife lol:D:D

We don't shout at our dogs, i saw one young man with a little black lab x type thing and he was shouting at it and calling it stupid, it had its tail between its legs and he started to walk towards it and it just dropped to the floor. It looked terrified. He then started to yank it around on the lead and cos it was too scared to move he picked it up by the scruff of the neck and its tail and threw it in front of him. So it laid on the floor again and still wouldn't get up so he hit it and walked off and left it. I was appalled by this the poor dog didn't even know what it had done!! You wouldn't be allowed to treat a person like that so why should he be allowed to do that to a poor dog! He walked back to it after a while and it ran up to him wagging its tail!! Its not really needed.

I shout at mine not madly but in a low voice I say 'tino what have you done you naughty boy' and the same with Layla.They put their heads down with tail wagging slowly but I can't be annoyed for long.Those doggie eyes get me everytime.

My dogs get shouted at in a scolded mainly but never smacked!
They get a scold warning like. dont you dare bring that dirty bone in this house!!
Then id say a little louder..what did i say about that bone??
Then id say.. right thats it you naughty girl give that bone to me youre not to bring it in here!!
And yes she does understand...every word!!!

My dogs get shouted at in a scolded mainly but never smacked!
They get a scold warning like. dont you dare bring that dirty bone in this house!!
Then id say a little louder..what did i say about that bone??
Then id say.. right thats it you naughty girl give that bone to me youre not to bring it in here!!
And yes she does understand...every word!!!


Glad its just not me who has those kind of conversations with my dogs :hihi::hihi::hihi:

generally the only time i shout at my dogs is when they are off lead playing int he woods and a horse or onlead dogs come towards us and i shout them back but that doesnt count. Arthur though does get in to trouble on a pretty regular basis as hes a big clumbsy plank whos always on his high horse thanks to been undersocialised whilst racing. He though gets more talked down than shouted as if i shout he just gets worse. Its usually a "Arthur go and lie down" in a deep slow tone which he does know and usually calms with. anna.x.

Glad its just not me who has those kind of conversations with my dogs :hihi::hihi::hihi:

absolutely! i actually talk to my dogs like theyre human, and they sense my mood too and know when to hide!! lol

Amber gets told firmly but not shouted at, she`d have the right face on if I shouted at her:hihi:

I shout at mine, some times I have to, having 2 very head strong terriers they very easily switch off if distracted, sometimes a good yell is the only way to snap them out of it.

I do jokingly shout at them aswell, esp when they are barking like nutters in the morning, they see it as me joining in!!

Heard a man today shouting at his spaniel in the Richmond area. At first when I heard all the noise I wondered if it was a child he was shouting at but then saw the dog appear from behind a parked car and not on a lead. Not only was he shouting but I saw him smack the dog's nose and he was also swearing. I think that the whole road heard him.......

I felt awful as I didn't know what to do yet felt that I ought to do something but then I saw someone appear from a nearby shop and say something to the man. He replied with some more colourful language. The whole way he spoke to the dog was way over the top, very exaggerated and totally unnecessary and has left me thinking all afternoon about the incident.

Although I still feel very guilty about not doing anything I thought that probably the dog was used to it......How do you deal with something like this when you don't know how the owner will react. He was certainly very volatile and aggressive but by not doing anything I have become one of those people who just turn away.......

Wow this is an old thread, I've just cringed reading some of my old posts :lol:

It's terrible when you are in that situation 2ndhandrose :( I have to admit that being a young, disabled female who tends to go out alone, I won't often intervene unless I feel that the dog in question is really under threat.

I've had people react badly to their dog's behaviour while they've stopped to talk to me and I say 'oh don't worry about it - he's just being a dog' and then called the dog over to me to basically get it back so the owner doesn't go off alarming but when it's someone who clearly has a temper towards anyone - you don't want to go in there all guns blazing.

My mum did stop a couple of guys walking a puppy once. They had this little staffy puppy and when it got too excited and didn't come back they were yelling at it - when it finally returned to them, they kicked it!

My mum really let rip at them (she was walking my dogs at the time so had back up!!) and told them that if she ever saw them do it again she'd remove the dog from them herself. Not something I could do I'm afraid... I've only ever had a real go at someone when they physically attacked my dog and that wasn't thought through at all, it was an emotional reaction to seeing someone smash my dog over the head with a ball launcher as hard as he could!

The dog will be used to it I expect, but it will inevitably cause the dog huge problems - just living with that amount of stress will put a strain on the dog's immune system and it's behaviour will only get worse because it's too frightened to return to the owner. Some people are ignorant, and some people just can't be educated. As they say (or, apparently don't say and I've dreamed it) you can't educate pork.

Let's hope he was just having a very bad day and he calms down a bit :(

My OH shouted at Stella once, not bad though really, when she chewed his shoe.

Its really stuck with her though, and she does seem scared of him, and if he raises his voice a bit, even to shout to me in another room, she sometimes wees herself :(

Hes trying reallly hard to get her out of it, but it seems to have really stuck. Since she was 7 months old, and had 2 previous owners before we got her, I wonder if she had been a bit abused before.

I only shout at mine when she's at the top of the garden eating "the unmetionable" and I'm getting ready for work so cannot charge up the garden half dressed! The rest of the time I dont shout. Even when she pulls on her lead. I really do praise and reward her. I have found that by pointing and saying one word commands like sit, both my dogs do as they are told. At the end of the day they are only dogs. She has been hit before and when I first got her she would cower when I took a wooden spoon out of the draw! Its the same as shouting at your kids. Its just a loss of control!

I only shout at mine when she's at the top of the garden eating "the unmetionable" and I'm getting ready for work so cannot charge up the garden half dressed! The rest of the time I dont shout. Even when she pulls on her lead. I really do praise and reward her. I have found that by pointing and saying one word commands like sit, both my dogs do as they are told. At the end of the day they are only dogs. She has been hit before and when I first got her she would cower when I took a wooden spoon out of the draw! Its the same as shouting at your kids. Its just a loss of control!

My house got burgled years ago, when I was dogsitting for Mum's dog. They locked her in the wardrobe, and god knows what else.

Since then, shes scared of gloves, scarves, umbrellas, and anything that makes a noise, even the ironing board. She doesn't cower though, she tries to attack, quite violently.

I will do a sharp/loud OI or AHAH if I have to make her stop doing something, she's not scared by it it just gets her attention away from the horse poop or whatever other lovely thing she's got going on.

Only time she gets shouted at it's just her name in a loud growly way as that is what will make her stop if she's gone after a rabbit/squirrel etc. Much better to get her stopped than have her into a barbed fire fence that she's not seen, then she gets a reward for coming back.

I don't get people who have shouting rants at dogs, not as if they understand is it, total waste of time...

Why sout at dogs they have excellant hearing, We have all heard it with children ,parents shouting at kids & the kids saying "yer whatever" & not taking a blind bit of notice. If like the experts say, a dogs hearing is ten times better than ours imagine what shouting must be like for them?,then think would i go back to something that is scaring me so much,Just a thought

i think its wrong to shout at a dog plus i hate choker chains they can cause so much damage if not used properly

lol i use a stern voice with my dog when she has been naughty i dont like to shout as i feel im doing wrong to the dog

My house got burgled years ago, when I was dogsitting for Mum's dog. They locked her in the wardrobe, and god knows what else.

Since then, shes scared of gloves, scarves, umbrellas, and anything that makes a noise, even the ironing board. She doesn't cower though, she tries to attack, quite violently.

have u tried holding one of the items she is scared of and giving her a treat to help her feel more comfortable with said items it hurts to know someone could do that to the dog i hope she is ok and wish u all the best with her i hope karma gets the people who did this to her

Out of interest how else do you control a dog? I have a much loved family dog Alfie. Hes an amazing, playful creature. He has never been kicked or choke chained and is lucky enough to have an extremely large home, a field to walk in and his own armchair. Not one shared with a human, his own. However I shout at him now and then. Not rages but without shouting 'Alfie, no' when hes doing something wrong or 'Alfie that was naughty' then he doesnt know. And I disagree that dogs dont know. He isnt shouted at and bullied but scolded and he does know - he has learnt to behave and he crawls on his belly when he knows he has done something he will be scolded for. I dont expect him to understand that its socially unnacceptable to hump a table only that master doesnt want him to do it! Clearly raging in a dogs ear is mental but not shouting at them at all is a load of 'animals are better than humans' hippy bull ****. You cant just leave a dog to do exactly what it wants when it wants surely to god.....

Had allsorts of dogs over many years and never had to shout at any. Tone of voice matters but if you rant and rave God forbid lash out? It is you who's lost it not the poor dog. X

Had allsorts of dogs over many years and never had to shout at any. Tone of voice matters but if you rant and rave God forbid lash out? It is you who's lost it not the poor dog. X

Ive never ranted and raved but I have shouted. I guess we could call it tone of voice if thats what you want to call it. The tone being louder and more stern (shouting?). I am saying I dont rant at the dog but it is shouted at - examples are 'No, Alfie' and 'Naughty'. They are command phrases basically I guess. Still it is shouted at when its bad

I dont find the need to shout at my dog. She is so submissive and does anything immediately which is quite funny because she has never had any training or been shown what to do. The one thing I do think is that she is treated like one of the family and she has full access to the house. I would also like to point out that when I use the term submissive im not saying I exact any domince techniques like some I have heard of she just sort of falls in her place between me and the wife lol:D:D

sounds like you have a wonderful dog and are a good dog owner the world needs more peeps like you

Ive never ranted and raved but I have shouted. I guess we could call it tone of voice if thats what you want to call it. The tone being louder and more stern (shouting?). I am saying I dont rant at the dog but it is shouted at - examples are 'No, Alfie' and 'Naughty'. They are command phrases basically I guess. Still it is shouted at when its bad

I agree with you. You would shout at a child to get their attention quickly if they were about to step out infront of a car, there is no use having a polite conversation with them, they would be dead.

I think shouting is perfectly acceptable as long as it is not done in anger. I rarely shout however I do use my voice in a way that demands attention to prevent my dog doing something he should not that puts him or others at danger.

Being angry and shouting and using shouting in a controlled way is completely different.

Exactly I would never shout at Alfie in a real rage I love him muchly but hes a dog, an animal. Not a child or a person he has to be disciplined here and there and shouting seems to be the way to do it

i have to shout at my staff on a regular basis at least once a day lol he is the most pig headed little git i have ever met.

he gets shouted at for
1 getting too agressive with one of the other dogs while playing
2 eating the bloody fence
3 eating my sons playhouse
4 menacing dogs as they walk past our garden

I've only had my staffy girl for 3 weeks but i can honestly say hand on heart i've not had to shout at her once...considering she's a rescue dog and was literally minutes from being put to sleep when she was rescued she is absolutely AMAZING! I cant find fault with her AT ALL so far and she's well n truly got her feet under the table! She doesn't bark (unless we're playing) she hasn't chewed anything,she hasn't messed in the house...NOTHING! She's fantastic....i wouldnt actually shout at her if she had done anything wrong coz i see no point...all i did with the lab i used to have was lower the tone of my voice n tell her she was a "bad girl" if she was naughty n then ignored her for a few minutes...i too talk to my animals as if they were humans (right down to my pet rats lol) coz to me my animals are my "furry children" so why wouldn't i?!

Benjii's pretty good, if he needs telling off we just growl back at him - we went through a bad patch where he would jump up and sleep on my dad's bed, and you always knew if he had done it because he would refuse to follow my dad upstairs :hihi: and then would come and cowerin between my legs! My dad got him out of it by literally just going "grrrr" at him a bit.

I must say though my old dog Barney we had since a pup and he wasn't quite as good natured with other animals as Benji is (Benji's terrified of lambs for gods sake). Anyway Barney went after a lamb once, and I remember my dad went mental shouting at him and he hit him quite hard as well. I remember it being the most horrifying thing to see but at the same time had he got the lamb we would have had to have him put down and he never did it again so I suppose in a weird way it was for the best - and after that there didn't seem to be any love lost. That was the only time in my dads 50 years of having dogs he ever had to use any violence towards one though.

Out of interest how else do you control a dog? I have a much loved family dog Alfie. Hes an amazing, playful creature. He has never been kicked or choke chained and is lucky enough to have an extremely large home, a field to walk in and his own armchair. Not one shared with a human, his own. However I shout at him now and then. Not rages but without shouting 'Alfie, no' when hes doing something wrong or 'Alfie that was naughty' then he doesnt know. And I disagree that dogs dont know. He isnt shouted at and bullied but scolded and he does know - he has learnt to behave and he crawls on his belly when he knows he has done something he will be scolded for. I dont expect him to understand that its socially unnacceptable to hump a table only that master doesnt want him to do it! Clearly raging in a dogs ear is mental but not shouting at them at all is a load of 'animals are better than humans' hippy bull ****. You cant just leave a dog to do exactly what it wants when it wants surely to god.....

I assumed this thread was more about shouting as in having a big screaming out of control rant at a dog rather than just telling them no sort of thing :)

I think pretty much everyone will have shouted or at least sternly/loudly told their pet 'NO!' at some point!

How many ladies shout at their husbands/partners - why should dogs get off so lightly.?