The advice section

See below for relevant dog and pet advice from your friendly, qualified behaviourist!

Why don't qualified behaviourists use aversive methods?

Aversive methods can be defined as the use of an unpleasant stimulus to prevent a behaviour from being performed. For example, using a spray bottle on a barking dog.
Aversive methods fail to tackle the dogs underlying emotion. For example, the barking dog may be barking out of fear, and adding an extra unpleasant sensation isn't going to help them feel better.
The risk of regression. As the unpleasant stimulus doesn't tackle how the dog feels, it can often make the dog feel worse, in turn increasing the problem behaviour.
It can damage the human-dog relationship.
It can cause suppression of behaviour, where the behaviour does reduce but may reappear when the aversive stimuli is removed or the dog becomes used to it. It can also cause avoidance strategies and increase risk as the dog aims to avoid the unpleasant sensation, but still feels strong unpleasant emotions to a stimuli (a dog in this context may be more likely to use aggression out of necessity).
It doesn't show the dog what to do instead! This can be confusing for the dog and can damage their confidence, making training slower.
It can have a negative effect on a dogs mental health and in more severe cases, can also cause physical damage (such as a handler enforcing "corrections" with a slip lead on small breeds who may be more likely to suffer from tracheal collapse).
Other negative associations can be formed. For example, a dog wearing a prong collar to help improve their loose lead walking, may start to associate the discomfort of this to approaching dogs (as the handler may tighten the lead, increasing pressure). Therefore approaching dogs cause discomfort in the prong collar- wearing dogs mind. This can lead to an increase in other problem behaviours.
It's difficult to uphold. With a continued use of aversive methods, the dog can become desensitised to their effect, meaning the level of discomfort has to be increased.
The evidence tells us it's not necessary! Scientific studies on training methods tell us that aversive methods often have detrimental effects and aren't needed to carry out successful behaviour modification.

Dealing with behaviour problems

Got a pet presenting behaviour that you're finding difficult to deal with?
A top tip from a behaviourist to help encourage change, is to first understand why the animal is displaying the behaviour. This is often where a behaviourist steps in and works like a detective to understand what is driving your pets behaviour.
All behaviour has a function and in the world of dogs there can be lots of internal and external drivers to consider, such as health, emotions, breed characteristics and previous learning history.

Punishing a pet with problem behaviour is unlikely to make it better and instead, caregivers can focus on understanding their pet, building their confidence and rewarding the behaviours they do want to see.

Your behaviourist will also often look at factors such as your pets diet, activity level and routines to help them see where there are areas for improvement and potential contributing factors (such as poor quality foods like "Bakers" which is the doggie equivalent of a McDonalds every day- not ideal for healthy brain function!).

Canine body language

To be able to improve your dogs behaviour, you first have to be able to understand them.
Dog body language can be subtle and is so often missed by owners. Have you ever heard the saying "they bit out of nowhere!?", once you have an understanding of body language, you can start to appreciate that most cases of dogs "biting out of nowhere" have been dogs who have been using more subtle body language to advocate for space, which has been missed by owners. So the belief is that the behaviour occurred suddenly, whereas the dog has been trying to communicate it's feelings for quite some time, and has resorted to using aggression as a last attempt to be heard.

There are so many great resources to teach yourself the fascinating world of canine body language.
My top book recommendation would be "Canine "Body Language" by Brenda Aloff.
Find it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Canine-Body-Language-Photographic-Interpreting-ebook/dp/B07CYFYYSR

There are some great free, online resources too, such as Dogs Trust's "dog advice" section.
Found here: https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/dog-advice/understanding-your-dog/body-language