Is It Ethical To Correct A Dog?

When using the 4 quadrants of learning psychology, reinforcement is used to teach skills: I explain that to all my students. Punishment is to eliminate those remaining responses that are not functional. Technically a correction is not a punishment. If I have come to like hot coffee, but the cup I’m sipping turns out to be too hot on that first sip, I stop, let it cool. That sip didn’t burn my tongue, didn’t cause suffering, but it was a correction and caused me to wait. There was no lasting damage. No fear. No suffering. If I use a punishment or correction that is the maximum level I use and the maximum I teach students. It is not unethical or harmful. It is better for a dog to get such a punishment or correction than to get bitten by a snake, hit by a car, encounter a dangerous dog or certain wildlife. Thus, it IS ethical.

Ethically, you may wish to examine the philosophy of prevention of the greater harm. Under that principle, which is reflected in many philosophies and religions, is that it is morally correct to prevent the greater harm. That is what I teach and practice. Otherwise, what you are proposing is that either we allow the dog to never be exposed to the greater harm (the rattlesnake, the dangers of being in public, strangers into the home, ever being off leash, the possibility of equipment or barrier or judgment failure, essentially putting the dog in a padded cell or into intolerable captivity), or allow the dog to learn the hard way by letting them experience the greater harm. 

My students live in the real world with their dogs and there are dangers that can be anticipated, and some that can't, if a dog gets off leash. Thus, I would rather have a dog get a leash correction than a car bumper correction. We all know equipment and barriers and judgment fail, we have all seen it, and then we either have tools to prevent a disaster such as proper training, or we allow the tragedy in order to preserve this foolish belief that it is never appropriate to punish or correct a dog for anything (which of course is impossible unless the dog is meant to live in a cage, which is just a form of extreme neglect such as being a hoarder).

Plan accordingly.