That's a much less harmful idea (or, zero harm to be specific) than the fools who think that hitting a dog is a great idea.
This is a great place to note that dogs have zero possibility of connecting what you do as 'punishment' with something the dog did unless your own reaction is nigh-instant. But dogs are very good at learning that certain situations result in a pissed off human.
Note this common cognitive malfunction with dog owners:
- Owner leaves home
- Dog joyfully destroys trash, possibly immediately after the owner leaves
- Owner gets home and sees trash strewn on the floor
- Dog recognizes that human has, in the past, become angry in the presence of trash on the floor, and acts fearful and placative
- Human misinterprets placative behavior as guilt felt
Dogs cannot feel guilt in a situation like this and cannot connect the dots between its own action, the trash on the floor, and human actions in response to the trash. If humans fully understood how limited canine cognition is in regard to cause and effect, they would have better results with their dogs, and would for example make a point to crate-train them to avoid certain inconveniences (such as strewn trash).
All of this, unless you catch the pet in the act, they've no idea why you're angry or punishing them.
If they start to piddle, you pick them up and say "No, no, go pee-pee *outside*.", and then take them to a regular spot where they usually go to get the scent. You never "rub their noses in it", this makes them think they're supposed to eat their waste, and is very hard to break once the behavior begins.
Likewise with coming home and finding a mess/trash, it's too late to admonish or punish - they key here is not to let the pet see you clean the mess/trash, and just clean it and ignore that it happened.
Crating can be good; many people prefer giving a dog their own room, with a dog proof cage door, and that's where they'll go (or to their cage "room"), when they're ready for bed, or they know it's time for you to leave for work.
I go to our family friends daily to let their 6mo out of his room to go out and do his necessary business everyday - he waits, knowing that between 12:00-12:30pm, I'll be there with hugs and kisses, he quickly does his bidness, and comes back for some lap time (he's getting big for that, but it's been our custom since he was 5 weeks old), and we sit on the couch, as I hold and hug him, tell him I love him, give and get sloppy puppy kisses.
When I'm ready to go, I tell him, "Bedroom time, Duke.", and he goes to his room, we have a last hug and hold paws on his bed, then I leave and tell him, "Daddy and mommy be home soon, I love you, see you tomorrow.".
They had some early issues with him getting into the kitchen trash, and that was easily solved by buying a kitchen garbage can that has a locking lid.
Training a pet isn't hard whatsoever, it just requires patience, gentleness and consistency.
It does become a bit different with children, for once they start to speak and assert their individuality, the whole process changes, but if you're aware of this, again, gentleness, big patience and consistency will get you through those "terrible two's/three's/and even four's. The point is that you're training them, and not letting them train you.
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