This page is part of the Auxiliary Section of the Beginner's Course of the
D.S. Dog Training Workshop - an element of the Dog Science Network
More on the Unsettling Voice
There is a certain tone of voice that both canines and humans find so completely unbearable that they absolutely cannot stand to hear it. It is as though the sound instantly inflames the fabric of some primordial nerve that in turn, triggers a state of instant agitation and intense distress. There is just something about being spoken to in that intensely provocative manner that triggers emotional upset in those who are exposed to it, be they dog or something more two-legged. I'm very sure you have heard some version of that intolerably irritating tone. There's a tone that people resort to just before it comes to blows, and a similar tone that precedes a termination of employment, and a tone that presages a bitter separation. There is a tone that will get you killed if you use it on the wrong person at the wrong time. The human voice is an astoundingly expressive instrument, and the fact that everyone has an immediate, visceral reaction to having an unsettling voice let loose on them tells us something important about it. When directed at a person or a dog in an aversive fashion, the human voice has the capacity to function as a primary punisher, by which I mean that it triggers a distressing physiological response, as well as an upsetting emotional response, in anyone who is unlucky enough to be on the receiving end of such a verbal onslaught. You can see that for yourself. If someone followed you around speaking to you in that voice, and you were powerless to make them stop, your heart would begin to pound, your breathing would grow shallow and rapid and your bloodstream would flood with stress hormones that would lock you into in a state of constant agitation as your autonomic and endocrine systems kicked into gear. It would totally disrupt whatever you might be trying to do at the time, But then again, that's what effective punishers are supposed to do. They interrupt the problem behavior and make its immediate continuance untenable. That is an important point, because to raise up an extremely well-trained dog, you are going to have to get good at applying the formula for changing behavior. By responding to your dog's problem behavior with a punishing vocal aversive, you nail down both the second and the third parts of the formula. After all, the second component of the formula states that you need to remove the pay-offs for engaging in the problem behavior. Well, the pay-off for chewing your shoe is that the leather taste and texture are enjoyable to a teething dog. But when you blast your shoe-chewing dog with a punishing vocal irritant, it becomes extremely hard for him to enjoy his chew fest. If, on top of that, you also immediately take the shoe from him, then, in terms of his shoe-chewing response, you will have totally nailed the second component of the formula. What's more, by speaking to your dog in an unsettling tone, you transform the event into an unpleasant experience, so with that one act of verbal punishment you will have accomplished both the second and third objectives of the formula. All you have to do then is to make sure that your dog has a rewarding, incompatible alternative available to him, like rubber or rawhide toys that he can chew instead, and you will find that he will soon conclude that he has better things to do than to attempt to digest your favorite foot ware.