Thanks for sharing that ImaniOU. Definitely hope everyone gives this place a miss. I can sort of relate to what you were witnessing and feeling, but the fact that these were vets is really disturbing.
Over ten years ago my roomates were a couple who just bought a Maltese puppy. It was precious to them except when it did its business in the house. I cringed when they would pick him up and fiercely whack his tiny butt HARD until he would start wailing and bawling with no idea what he did wrong. Then they would shove the shit in his face. I tried to explain that this was all wrong but they just wouldn’t believe me. On top of that the dog would regularly be yanked like a rag doll by little ones who wanted to “play” with it. Eventually this cute “toy” started to snap and became completely f@cked up. About a year or so later the Mrs. became pregnant and they were preparing for the move to their new house. We mutually agreed to let the dog stay with me. To this day, he is still nervous around strangers, other dogs and gets jumpy if you want to pet him.
This comes from a really good book I have:
Never, ever punish your puppy if you find a mess on the floor that was done earlier. He will not learn from this, not because he cannot remember what he has done, but because he cannot relate the punishment he is recieving with the earlier act of going to the toilet on the floor. As soon as you begin to look angry, your puppy will display a submissive response in order to appease you and turn off your anger. This submissive response looks like guilt, so we are inclined to punish more, thinking to ourselves “he knows he has done wrong because he is looking guilty”. Not only is punishing after the event ineffective, it may also be counter-productive. If your puppy lives in fear of you suddenly becoming aggressive for no apparent reason, he will be insecure and unhappy which may inhibit his learning ability. Worse still, if you punish him when returning to the room, he may begin to become anxious about being left alone, which may cause him to show all sorts of unwanted behaviours when he is older.
There are proper ways of toilet training, including if you live cramped apartments, but I guess that should go in a different thread.