Ugh a coworker of mine is trying to convince me that I need to beat my dog in order to train him.

Our 8 month year old pup has just recently started barking at clients (like literally it started yesterday) when they come through the door. We want to continue bringing him to work with us, so I have started training him not to do this. I've started by clicking him and giving him treats when he doesn't bark at myself/my coworkers when I/they come through the door (which he already doesn't do, so I'm setting him up for success) and I'm going to work my way up to him getting used to other people coming through the door.

Well my coworker (who technically works for me, by the way) laughed in my face when he saw me practicing this with my pup. He seems to think that this method is never going to work. If I want to train my pup not to bark at clients I'd need smack him (my 8 pound puppy) as hard as I can every time he barks. Uh. what?

I've owned dogs my whole life, thank you very much. My last pup NEVER barked at the door, how do you suppose I trained him? This exact way.