Puppy Training is as opposed to Dolphin Training, and the two are quality, distinct styles of handling misbehaviors, as taken absolutely and directly from the style of training these actual literal animals, puppies and dolphins. The two styles are dynamically different. FYI, 100% of my information here in reference to training actual animals comes from professional animal trainers and graduates of the Moorpark College Animal Training Program. The parallels to training a submissive are, in fact, staggeringly brilliant.
The Real World Of Training Actual Puppies & Dolphins
Training an actual, canine puppy focuses around the modern understanding that a puppy has a VERY short term memory, and as such the “correction” (punishment) literally needs to occur within about Five (5) Minutes of the transgression. Long gone are the days of hitting a misbehaving puppy with a newspaper, or smacking it on the nose (much worse than people realized), etc. The technique used by puppy trainers now is to simply grab one of their front paws and squeeze it just enough that the puppy pulls back its paw in mild discomfort. Literally that’s it. This protects the puppy from any long-term trauma effects, but still gets the puppy to associate mild discomfort with the transgression. Most importantly, it needs to be applied almost immediately after the transgression (e.g. pooping on the carpet) or else too much time will have passed and the puppy will have no idea – and hence no important association – why you are giving them discomfort.
Actual dolphin training, with all of the following further reinforced by Dolphin trainers at the University of Hawaii Dept of Oceanography and Dolphin Research, involves a VASTLY more intelligent creature, and ANY kind of negative input must be handled with extreme care. When a dolphin in the tank begins to misbehave, the trainer has very limited options. There is zero room for even the tiniest overtly negative physical response from the trainer. As was explained to me personally by several of the Dolphin trainers there, the tiniest slap of aggression on a dolphin can undo as much as THREE YEARS of training progress. Yep, three years of training down the drain because of one slap. Physical responses to a misbehaving dolphin are NOT an option. Instead, the customary response when a dolphin begins to misbehave, e.g. bite the trainer playfully (still painful), bump a trainer aggressively, continuously fail to respond as expected…. is for the Trainer to simply Get Out Of The Water, aka “Playtime Is Over For Today.” That is the ONLY acceptable method of training dolphins as per these experts. Apparently dolphins love social interaction of any kind so much that for the trainer to get out of the tank provides just enough undesirable input so these extremely intelligent creatures can associate their bad behaviors with “the end of play time”…. and it’s highly effective.
Onwards to Humans and Submissives…
Puppy Training Style for humans (submissives) means a transgression has occurred in a very immediate set of circumstances, and the Dominant knows that if they delay the correction that the submissive may well lose sight of the relevance or degree of their transgression. I have personally found these circumstances to be less common, tending to occur midway in a social setting, or more along the lines of a highly inappropriate “knee-jerk” expression from the submissive, e.g. a sub shoves aside their Dom due to excitement regarding something else in the area. Such rudeness being utterly unacceptable and bad decorum requires the Dominant to immediately pull the submissive aside and sternly inquire “what was that all about?” in an effort to bring the submissive’s attention immediately to the present moment, as the sub might not even have registered their own rude behavior, for example due to their own excitement.
Equally, if a Dominant’s style includes any kind of corporal punishment for a transgression in the immediate environment, this too would be a kind of Puppy Training, whether it means “10 swats from the paddle” or “kneeling on a grain of rice for 20 minutes” etc (obviously in private). The point is the application of discomfort comes quickly after the transgression. This necessarily does NOT include “FUNishment,” meaning corporal activity as a fun and mutually enjoyable part of a scene, e.g. “Thank You Mistress! May I Please Have Another!” (swat from a Domina’s paddle, etc). The application of FUNishment for an actual undesired transgression is a very bad idea and only serves to reward bad behavior (reinforcing the negative message that behaving badly gets them masochistic rewards, which only encourages MORE of the undesirable negative behavior).
Dolphin Style Training for a submissive is more complicated, and does not include any kind of physical repercussion. This is where “Healthy Corrections” comes into place, most of which work very well for a misbehaving submissive in a committed D/s Relationship. This includes things like no dessert after dinner, taking away television time, telling a submissive they may not use their phone or iPad for non-urgent matters but are instead to Read A Book (the paper kind), etc. All these activities contain parallel elements of probably doing some good for the submissive while also acting as a correction.
CLICK HERE to learn more about Healthy Corrections in the Arcane Advice lesson specifically about this.
Thus the Dolphin Training Style avoids corporal and its analogues, while Puppy Style requires an immediate response for the sake of making an accurate link in the submissive’s mind between the transgression itself and their error in doing so within a very short time frame.
I have been using both styles for decades, and I have personally found that MOST submissive’s respond better to Dolphin Style. It appeals to their intelligence, it tends to have a positive side effect, it tends to be received with passive acceptance, etc. Nonetheless, I can also say that there are times when it is crystal clear that WAITING to apply a Dolphin Style Correction is so very obviously the wrong choice, and that only a Puppy Style “immediately bringing the transgression into the sub’s awareness” is the only way to proceed.
The truth is also that some submissive’s actually respond better to Puppy Style, and given a more placid Dolphin Style response they will barely even connect that a transgression occurred. For example, a submissive with ADHD could actually forget the transgression or fail to make the association if the Dominant does not make the transgression very apparent immediately… I have seen this happen numerous times.
You might think the Puppy Style would be good for an intensely masochistic submissive, but the opposite is true. There is too readily the possibility of a masochist enjoying any sort of corporal response as per the options of Puppy Style, and the activity then becomes FUNishment and even seen by the submissive as a “reward for bad behavior.” As mentioned you want to avoid that like the plague.
Understanding the appropriate time when and for whom Puppy Training is a better choice or Dolphin Training is a better choice, is of course part of the ART of this all, and a subtlety that becomes more apparent the more you and yours practice healthy and intelligent D/s. It is the Dominant’s job to fine tune which style is best in the moment, which style works best for a specific sub (trust me every sub is different), and when each style may or may not apply to a specific submissive.
And that is why we are here, is it not? To endlessly keep learning and improving this unique set of skills and perfect this Art Form. 🙂
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