I can only reply with what I know,my dogs are not SCARED of a plastic bottle with stones,because they never have been part of aversion training,other dogs all breeds who are on the beach see the bottle bobbing about and thinks its a TOY and will go in after it.I have a very nervous puppy,who stills runaway from a ball if thrown towards her,but she does now likes to go in the sea after a bobbing bottle.I am sick and tired of being undermined by all these so called know alls on the forum.Yes if a dog is taught from an early age that certain things are scary they will react not because its in their nature,they are not born to be scared of a plastic bottle,it is WHAT WE TEACH THEM . Maybe on this forum we need some sort of qualification,to be able to answer a thread,all I can do is respond by what I know, with my own dogs and what I see around me.I am not preparing a thesis on dog behaviour,I am giving a genuine answer to what I find with my dogs,Distraction is part of traning, if you can distract a dog with something it likes what is wrong with that,its the same with small children you know when that child could kick off,so you distract it and show it something else its common sense, Gemini54

A bottle with some stones in is good fun to many dogs, my Staffie loves them, they are only an aversion because us humans have decided to frighten dogs with them because they can't get their attention any other way. To me if you need to use a rattle bottle or any other aversion you don't have a clue how dogs learn or think. We have been given brains to sort problems out, we should use them instead of frightening animals into submission.

If you never throw a bottle with stones down in front of your dog he won't learn it is an aversion, some dogs will be frightened of the noise but that is the dog and has nothing to do with the bottle. Some dogs are very nervous and it is very easy to frighten them, I have one and I have to be careful when I let Cyril play with a bottle with stones in.

Surely it is the intention and the way the rattle is used that's at issue. If the rattle bottle is a toy that the dog likes, that's one thing. If you chuck it so the dog hears it and thinks 'Oh! Rattle Bottle Game!' that is completely different from smashing it down right at their feet with the express purpose of startling them with a huge noise in their face. The first is great and perfectly acceptable and might be a really great distraction for dogs who like rattle bottles (mine aren't really fussed, but I have known dogs that would go bonkers over a bottle of pebbles). The latter use IS aversive and isn't a very nice thing to do.

Distraction does work-- hence my earlier anecdote about the Dalmatian and 'SIT!'. Scaring the living daylights out of a dog will, indeed, distract them, but, as above noted, answers one problem with something likely to cause another.