11 reasons why a spray bottle is NOT good to train dogs
Dogs do what they do for a reason, whether it’s barking, nipping at your hand, or putting the brakes on when you go for a walk. It’s only by addressing the underlying cause that you can change your dog’s emotional state and, as a consequence, her behavior.
Using a water spray bottle to stop your pup from doing something may seem like an effective dog training method, but ask yourself this: what is she actually learning?
That she can’t trust you? That she can only bark at the UPS truck when you’re not around? That a spray of water is the scariest thing ever?
It could be any or all of the above. But what she most definitely isn’t learning is what to do instead of the thing you don’t want her to do.
And if you don’t address the root cause of your pup’s unwanted behavior, she will still have the need to do it. Spray bottle or no spray bottle.
Dogs bark or bite for a reason
Dog barking at other dogs as they go past on the sidewalk? Puppy nipping or biting at your hand?
These are both examples of how dogs communicate how they’re feeling.
Your barking dog may be fearful of other dogs or get excited when she sees them. She may want to run up to them and greet them and bark out of frustration if she can’t get to them.
Your nipping/biting puppy meanwhile, is just doing what comes naturally.
Dogs use their mouths and tongues to communicate with other dogs (and humans), express how they’re feeling, get information about their surroundings, and explore the world.
When puppy littermates play together they learn bite inhibition from their siblings. If they bite too hard, they’ll soon get to hear about it and will know better for next time.
Puppies also teethe from about the age of 2 weeks to 8 months and need to chew on objects that can help ease their discomfort. Ideally, that wouldn’t be your hand, of course.
These are just two examples of undesirable behaviors that are perfectly normal for dogs, but that dog owners are not always so enamored of.
So it’s our job to teach our dogs how to live in our world so they can be happy and well-adjusted, instead of simply punishing them with a water spray bottle or some other aversive method.
Is it okay to spray a dog with water for barking?
- Or for digging up the yard?
- Or for jumping up at visitors?
- Or for nipping at my hand?
- Or for chewing the table leg?
- Or for [insert undesired behavior here]?
I’m not going to lie. We love our dogs but sometimes they can be a source of frustration when they display undesired behaviors, such as barking, nipping, chewing, digging, or jumping up at a specific visitor.
Punishing your dog may temporarily stop the behavior, but it will not change her underlying motivation.
The key to changing your dog’s behavior is to address her emotional state and teach her an incompatible behavior.
11 reasons why a spray bottle is NOT good to train dogs
#1. The dog doesn’t learn anything
You may think spraying your pup with water works – and indeed, it might stop her from barking, biting, jumping up, or whatever else it is you don’t want her to do at that particular moment.
But that’s it.
Unless you plan on spraying her with water for the rest of her life, you’d be better off finding out why she’s doing the undesirable thing and addressing that, as well as training an incompatible behavior.
#2. It doesn’t train an alternative behavior
If your dog barks excessively, reward her when she’s lying around at home being quiet and then add a verbal cue you can start to use if she starts barking.
For example, my current dogs can be a bit barky if they see deer outside, but they’ve already learned the cue “nice and quiet” because I go around saying it when they’re chilled and relaxed in the house. So when they’re barking and I give that cue, they revert to being nice and quiet.
In the same way, if your pup is digging up the front yard, teach her to dig in a designated place where you don’t mind so much. You can bury tasty treats and fun toys there for her to find, so she’s rewarded for digging in that area.
If she jumps up at visitors, train her to sit to be greeted, petted, and get a treat instead.
By teaching your dog what to do in place of her undesirable behavior and creating a positive association with it, you’ll be able to change her behavior for the better and keep it that way.
The training process probably won’t even take too long because it’s a known fact that behaviors that get rewarded get repeated.
It’s known as Thorndike’s Law of Effect if you want to get scientific about it.
#3. It doesn’t address the underlying cause of the behavior
Many dogs bark at other dogs, people, or noises simply because they are scared, anxious, stressed, frustrated, or excited – amongst other things.
Using a water spray bottle to stop your dog from barking is not going to help her overcome these feelings and could actually make them worse – by teaching her that there is something scary in the environment (i.e. you, the spray bottle, the dog going past the window, the noise of the garbage truck…).
You might even leave her with a fear of water.
Instead, why not work with a canine behavior/training professional or veterinary behaviorist to help identify the underlying emotions that may be causing your dog’s barking? You can then help build her confidence and develop appropriate coping strategies.
Providing ample mental stimulation and environmental enrichment will be a key part of this.
#4. It may be frightening for the dog
Spraying a dog with water because she’s doing something you don’t like or don’t want her to do aims to elicit what’s known as a “startle response.”
The startle response is a reaction to something sudden or scary, like a loud noise or quick movement. It’s usually an unconscious reaction, and it’s often associated with feeling negative emotions (Ramirez-Moreno & Sejnowski, 2012).
Using the startle response to stop, interrupt, or prevent behavior risks making your dog feel scared and threatened. It may take her some time to overcome her negative emotional stateand she may just get more and more anxious and stressed over time.
According to Lang et al. (1990), the startle response (or aversive reflex) is stronger when the dog is afraid and weaker when the dog feels happy.
In this case, weaker is definitely preferable. We all want happy dogs, don’t we?
#5. It risks a negative response
Adding something aversive to a situation increases the risk of aggressive behaviors or a fearful response. Some people even add lemon juice to the water to make the water spray even more aversive.
“The thing is, punishment works – unwanted behavior is eliminated. At least sometimes,” says Dr. Karolina Westlund.
“So people keep using punishment. But, here’s another thing. There is a price to be paid for using punishment. It may be a very small price, almost imperceptible. Or it may be very large.
“Using punishment in animal training is the equivalent to taking medication that only works sometimes and has humongous, not to mention common, side effects. Frankly, I wouldn’t risk it unless there were no other option.”
#6. It risks making the dog distrust you
If your dog is scared of being sprayed, her behavior may become aggressive toward the person who is using the equipment (that would be you), or toward anything or anyone else that is nearby – including another dog.
Her goal is to make the scary thing stop or go away – and aggression usually works.
This can become a big problem for everyone involved. Imagine now if your canine best friend tries to bite you every time she sees the water spray bottle. Or cowers in fear. That’s not good for anyone.
“Spray bottles are not a good idea and I recommend against them. They are likely to cause other problems, most frequently a fear of the person using the bottle or even of spray bottles in general,” confirms Angelica Steinker, accredited dog trainer and behavior consultant and founder/owner of the Courteous Canine Inc., in Lutz, Florida.
#7. It may be confusing for the dog
Here’s the thing about punishment. You need to get your timing, intensity, and duration spot on every time.
Which is impossible.
It’s virtually impossible even for experienced, skilled dog trainers (although any trainer worth their salt won’t be using punishment in the first place).
Timing
If you don’t get your timing exactly right every single time, you might be randomly punishing your dog for something completely different when you reach for the water bottle.
For example, maybe she just finished whatever annoying thing you didn’t like and it’s a few seconds later and she’s now just standing quietly, looking out the window, or sniffing the ground.
Just imagine her confusion when she gets sprayed for doing random behaviors like that. How is she going to make the association with the one thing she was doing (that you didn’t like) out of all the other things?
How stressful never knowing when the next squirt of water is going to come, or why!
Intensity
Let’s now look at the intensity of the punishment. If you spray your pup too much she may become fearful (of you, the water bottle, or anything else that is there at the same time).
Too little and she may not notice or care.
When I say “too much,” I mean to the point where it becomes aversive for her. This may be instant or it may take a few seconds or even longer.
But here’s the thing…
Every dog is different. What’s scary for a sensitive dog or a fearful dog can be inconsequential for a more confident or laid-back dog.
Can you be sure you’re getting your intensity just right for this particular context for your particular dog?
Duration
Last of all, duration. Same thing. Spray your pup for too long, then she may become fearful. Too little and she may not notice or care.
This is punishment,” says clicker training pioneer Karen Pryor. “I don’t care for it. It is certainly not positive and it is not up-to-date. I don’t think the puppy associates being sprayed with its own behavior.”
#8. What about when you’re not around?
I have a question for you. Are you always there when your dog engages in the problem behavior?
“If you are not delivering the consequence, the spray bottle, every time the behavior occurs – for example, when [you] are not at home or are in a different room – the dog learns that he can still occasionally get to do the reinforcing behavior,” says professional dog trainer, Mirkka Koivusalo. “Since it is punished only randomly, it is always worth trying it.”
Again, this is a problem you really don’t want.
#9. It may not be aversive
Some dogs love bath times or enjoy a quick squirt of water from a squirt gun or water pistol. It’s a fun game for them.
They may even try to “catch” the water by snapping at it as it squirts in their face.
Congratulations – you just reinforced your dog’s behavior, making it much more likely that it’ll happen again!
#10. The dog may think it’s worth it
Even if your dog finds being sprayed with water aversive, she may think it’s worth it if she can still get to do the behavior. As I said earlier, dogs do what they do to get what they want or need.
So if being sprayed with water means your pup can still do what she needs to do, then maybe it’s beneficial for her and she’ll carry on regardless.
#11. It’s unnecessary
This is really the crux of the matter. You just don’t need to punish your dog.
“Punishment is often unnecessary,” confirms Dr. Karolina Westlund.
“Reinforce something else and the unwanted behavior might diminish, especially if what you reinforce is incompatible with the unwanted behavior.”
So why not do that instead and aim for a long-term solution? Otherwise, you’ll be spraying your dog for life, with both of you getting increasingly frustrated and irritated.
Can I spray my puppy with water to stop biting?
No, I really wouldn’t go down this route. For all the reasons outlined above.
But I just show him the water bottle and he behaves…
People will often say their dog stops her “bad behavior” when she gets sight of the spray bottle (or anti-bark collar, or shock collar, or newspaper, or [insert aversive of choice]).
See, now you have the problem that the dog associates the aversive with you, which means you have become part of the punishment.
This is a really bad place to be. You want your dog to be able to trust you, not fear you.
And it has nothing to do with “dominance” or being the “alpha dog” or “pack leader” either. None of those have been a thing in terms of the dog-human relationship for decades, regardless of what you might read on the internet.
So when your dog cowers, runs away, or tries to hide when she sees you pick up the squirt bottle, she stops doing what she’s doing because she’s scared, based on her past unpleasant associations from being sprayed with water by her irritated, angry human.
While her undesirable behavior may become suppressed because she’s scared, she hasn’t been taught a replacement behavior.
As a result, she’s being punished while not being trained to do anything else.
What you’ll end up with is “a range of adaptive or defensive behaviors, which are aimed at escaping from the source of danger or motivational conflict,” says animal behavior researcher, Thierry Steimer.
Is spraying a dog with water abuse?
Here’s the problem. If a dog doesn’t respond to a punishment right away, the owner may decide to make the punishment harsher because it’s “not working.”
This means making the punishment harsher, last longer, or occur more often (see #8). The dog, going into fight or flight mode, will try increasingly harder to avoid the punishment and/or the person administering it.
If she can’t get away, she may feel she has no other option but to bite to make it stop.
Now you’ve got a much worse problem than your dog’s alleged annoying habits.
Conversely, sometimes pets become shut down and don’t show any fear response at all, even when they’re getting more and more scared, anxious, or frustrated.
Again, this is a problem you really don’t want. You need to be able to read your dog and understand what she is communicating through her body language.
Can I spray my dog with water to stop her fighting?
If you have the misfortune to find yourself witnessing dogs fighting for some reason, this is the only time I’d make an exception to everything I’ve said above.
Spraying dogs at a distance with water from a high-pressure hosepipe can be a handy deterrent if they’re fighting.
It doesn’t always work, but it’s a useful strategy to have in your back pocket in an emergency (which dog fights usually are).
Final thoughts
I hope by now you have a much clearer idea of why spraying your dog with a water bottle when she does something you don’t want her to do is a bad idea.
There are better ways to train your pup and make life happier without resorting to punishment and running the risk of negative behavior. If in doubt, please reach out to a modern, science-based trainer to help you with positive reinforcement training techniques.
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Resources
- 8 Rules That Explain Why You Shouldn’t Train Your Dog Using a Spray Bottle – Mirkka Koivusalo
- 20 problems with punishment in animal training – Dr. Karolina Westlund
- A computational model for the modulation of the prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex – D.F. Ramirez-Moreno, & T.J. Sejnowski
- Emotion, attention, and the startle reflex – P.J. Lang, M.M. Bradley, & B.N. Cuthbert
- Spritzing Your Dog – Karen Pryor
- Stop Spraying Your Dog With Water – Animal Behavior College
- The biology of fear- and anxiety-related behaviors – Thierry Steimer
NEED A DOG TRAINER OR BEHAVIOR EXPERT? If you need more help dealing with a training or behavior issue, please find professional help from a force-free dog trainer who can consult with you either in person or remotely. GOOD PLACES TO START ARE: - COAPE Association of Pet Behaviourists and Trainers - Pet Dog Trainers of Europe - International Companion Animal Network - Institute of Modern Dog Trainers - Pet Professional Guild All dog owners deserve to have successful relationships with their canine companions!
