Probably not - but I wonder if those episodes of scruff shaking or `coming down hard' triggered those two or three incidents in the first place. Don't get me wrong - I'm not having a go at you at all, but I don't consider having episodes `serious enough to warrant' physical correction to be an entirely stable dog.
You never answer violence with violence, is one of my cardinal rules in training and under no circumstances should it ever be broken. You can be lucky if there are no repercussions, but really that's all it is - luck.
You asked what should be done at that precise moment, well, this is what I would do. I would remove the dog from the situation firmly, no eye contact, no speaking, no noise of any kind, just definitely and firmly remove him to a place where is alone, ignored and unstimulated. Time-out is an opportunity for dogs to settle down when they are feeling agitated, and it also serves a more important purpose and that is to show the dog that any kind of behaviour such as whatever it was he was displaying is unacceptable and results in total isolation - complete removal from the source. That way there is NO pay-off and NO reinforcement of the behaviour. Misbehave - you're on your own. It gets the message through as thoroughly and in a much more meaningful way than a scruff shake or an alpha roll or anything like this.
Of course - if there was a dog with serious aggression problem you would handle the situation differently but STILL with no physical punishment or violence. It simply does not fix the problem. It might work in the short-term, but you have not got to the bottom of the reasons behind the aggression, so physical correction is a poor and dangerous band-aid approach.
But in situations like the one you mention with your cat - well, your dog was being a dog. There were a number of pay-offs in that situation for your dog, and by treating it with aggression you may have taught it to associate aggressive behaviour with the cat. Your dog may behave beautifully towards that cat for ten years and then something may trigger the memory and the cat will suffer for it. Hopefully (probably) this will not happen, but it's not the best approach.
Of course, when you are confronted with a situation like this you often react on gut instinct, much as you would with a child, and with a child you could growl and scold and pull the child away, but it would understand you and understand your reasoning. I'm not saying to do that with children, my point is at some level they know where you're coming from. With a dog it's different - it's all about cause and effect. One of the most effective methods of correction is isolation. They hate it, and they will try to avoid it.
So your dog is still being `punished' I suppose, for want of a better word, but there is no aggression or violence involved.
You need to think like a dog, not like a human, before methods like this start to make sense, but once they do, most people wonder how they ever thought any other way.
You never answer violence with violence, is one of my cardinal rules in training and under no circumstances should it ever be broken. You can be lucky if there are no repercussions, but really that's all it is - luck.
You asked what should be done at that precise moment, well, this is what I would do. I would remove the dog from the situation firmly, no eye contact, no speaking, no noise of any kind, just definitely and firmly remove him to a place where is alone, ignored and unstimulated. Time-out is an opportunity for dogs to settle down when they are feeling agitated, and it also serves a more important purpose and that is to show the dog that any kind of behaviour such as whatever it was he was displaying is unacceptable and results in total isolation - complete removal from the source. That way there is NO pay-off and NO reinforcement of the behaviour. Misbehave - you're on your own. It gets the message through as thoroughly and in a much more meaningful way than a scruff shake or an alpha roll or anything like this.
Of course - if there was a dog with serious aggression problem you would handle the situation differently but STILL with no physical punishment or violence. It simply does not fix the problem. It might work in the short-term, but you have not got to the bottom of the reasons behind the aggression, so physical correction is a poor and dangerous band-aid approach.
But in situations like the one you mention with your cat - well, your dog was being a dog. There were a number of pay-offs in that situation for your dog, and by treating it with aggression you may have taught it to associate aggressive behaviour with the cat. Your dog may behave beautifully towards that cat for ten years and then something may trigger the memory and the cat will suffer for it. Hopefully (probably) this will not happen, but it's not the best approach.
Of course, when you are confronted with a situation like this you often react on gut instinct, much as you would with a child, and with a child you could growl and scold and pull the child away, but it would understand you and understand your reasoning. I'm not saying to do that with children, my point is at some level they know where you're coming from. With a dog it's different - it's all about cause and effect. One of the most effective methods of correction is isolation. They hate it, and they will try to avoid it.
So your dog is still being `punished' I suppose, for want of a better word, but there is no aggression or violence involved.
You need to think like a dog, not like a human, before methods like this start to make sense, but once they do, most people wonder how they ever thought any other way.
