Proper corrections can be an essential part of raising and training a dog. Years ago, I asked my instructor how to properly correct a puppy. His answer surprised me, but made total sense, “Could your puppy's mother roll up a newspaper and give it a whack?”, “Put the puppy's nose in an accident put it outside?”, “What about hitting?”, “Slapping?”, “no,no, no!!!”, “So how would mom correct the kids?”. 

Corrections can be made depending on severity of the deed. Say you are sitting on the floor with the dog, and the dog starts getting a bit rough and possibly biting. Don't stay seated, get up. You are now much more imposing to the dog size wise. You can grab the dogs cheeks making eye contact, and use a very firm “no!” 

The most severe correction you could use, and only in extreme cases, is called an alpha roll. This would be only for something pretty bad. This duplicates the dogs mom grabbing the dog by the neck and shaking and pinning it on the ground. I'm not biting the dog, I'm grabbing by the jowls and putting it on its back until it goes limp. Then a time out in the crate might be in order. The crate is never a punishment! These duplicate natural corrections that the dog will instinctively understand. Also very important to this is body posture, tone of voice, and never carry a grudge. It will cloud the whole issue. Also never hit any animal. 

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