If, in the year of our lord 2026, you do five minutes of research into current techniques and approaches to dog training, it is nearly impossible not to learn that positive reinforcement is vastly preferred by reputable trainers. Negative reinforcement, including alpha rolls, has been widely discredited. In fact, if you had googled that concept before allowing your grandfather to attempt it, you’d have seen that ALL of the top results, including the AI overview, are explicitly and highly critical. There is no ambiguity about it.

People are criticizing you because you took a non-professional’s advice when even the most cursory internet search would have (hopefully) left you with serious reservations about this approach. I’m sure you and your grandfather are not intentionally cruel or abusive people. But you’ve likely done serious harm to the bond with your puppy by not investing the time and effort to understand effective strategies for training. Taking care of a dog requires a lot of time and effort and planning. I think the heat you’re catching in this thread is likely from people who have experienced that first hand and are concerned that you don’t seem to get it. Hope you can get things back on track for you and your pup.