Is it normal to punish dogs when they do something bad or bark

You never smack a dog. With stern voice say naughty boy or girl and make it sit and stay on it's rug for a minute. Give it a hug and a kiss after and tell it "ok break" and play a quick game.

Repeat that process every time. After a bit it will figure it out.

Smacking it is unnecessary. All you have to do is raise your voice. Maybe lightly push it aside.

Positive reenforcement works much better with dogs. Hitting and yelling only serves to weaken your bond with him. Dicipline would mean withdrawing attention, removing from the room, placing in a crate for a few mins. Never ever hit, unless the dog has gotten violent.

I say NO in a growly voice and sometimes also spray my dog with a small water pistol: it's stopped her barking at all sorts of random things in the car, which was so distracting it was dangerous.

She's a very excitable rescue dog and sometimes gets so hysterical the only way I can get her attention is to give her a small tap on the bum, whereupon she screams as if she's being belted: very embarrassing if we're out in public!

A small pinch works better. Dogs bite each other as punishment, a pinch simulates this.

this is how the CIA gets prisoners to talk. waterboarding and they say anything to make it stop.

We spank and then rub her nose in it only when she does something super bad.

I also trained them not to beg for food at the table or otherwise. I could sit down with a plate of pizza on my couch and eat while they would just lay on the floor and ignore me. But I could could see their cute noses wiggling around sniffing the air for that pizza.

So on occasion I would chop up a slice and put it on a paper plate, then call em over to enjoy some pizza. I have a rule about feeding them processed people food though, I don't think it's good for them. If I grill meat they always get to enjoy that, but I never season, salt, or put sauces on it. The hair on their necks would stand up when they got to eat steak :)

Here in my country it's normal for people to kick and slap dogs to discipline them which works most of the time but if you really care for the mental and emotional well being of the dog there are other ways to do it without harming them. Plus some dogs turn into aggressive psychos or cowering dormats when abused:(

My dogs were all raised from tiny pups. For barking, I used a lightly rolled newspaper and swated their butts, along with a stern NO! That only lasted about 2 days. Then if it happened again, all I did was slapped my hands together loudly and said NO! That lasted for no more then a week, no more barking, problem solved.

They were all very happy, calm, good people dogs, that needed almost no correction thereafter.

Bark at neighbors

I mean, I wouldn't smack a dog for just barking. The best way to scold a dog is by saying a firm "No". Spanking a dog (Not extremely hard though) Can be a good punishment for some things. If your dog barks a lot, another thing that would work great is getting an E collar. Either one that doesn't have a remote and is just a bark collar. It would either make a beep sound, vibrate or do a small shock..rhey are very affective. Or you could get one with a remote, it does the same things only you have to press the remote in order for it to shock, vibrate or beep.