Is it a good training idea to ignore a dog for several weeks with the goal of forcing them pay attention to you?
No.
In other words, should you risk breaking your bond with your dog?
The Alpha (male and female) wolf pair maintain the family bonds (play, working together, resolving disputes, traveling together, defending territory and the pack, etc.) and therefore suppress the maturation of the others in the pack, which keeps all of them dependent upon the pack and working together. If a pack member gets to acting too “adult” with the pack, they are ejected to go and find or form their own family group, or “pack”. A similar effect happens with elephants. The dominant males and females keep the younger ones in line. If the older males, especially, are killed, the adolescent males become dangerously out of control, and will go on a rampage.
There is a theory why young girls are entering puberty much earlier than they did decades ago. The concern is that we are exposing them to adult situations too early, setting them up too early to leave the “pack”, and that is causing early physical development. That happens with wild animals, and I tend to believe this theory is true for humans.
Broken Bonds. How often do people get re-married after divorce? Once that bond is broken, it is often impossible to form again. Why do you hate it if your spouse gives you the silent treatment? It is a threat of breaking the relationship bond. It is a mean spirited thing to do to someone, and risks the marriage. It is a game and a gamble that won’t pay off. Keep stiff-arming your spouse, but don’t be surprised when the divorce papers arrive… “But, I love you…” No. You don’t. That is hate.
With full adulthood, the bond is broken, and ejection from the pack requires independence, not dependence. By ignoring your dog, you are ejecting them from the family group, or “pack”, and you will change them. Instead of being more attentive to you, they will become less attentive. You are breaking the bond. Normally with wild animals, it is hard to bring an ejected member back into the group after the bond was broken.
What happens sometimes if you break the bond between dogs in the home, removing one dog for a month or more? Oftentimes fights that won’t stop when they meet again. Sometimes you can’t reintroduce that dog back into the home.
So, is it a good idea to break the bond with your dog? No. That bond is necessary to be cooperative in the group. Some dogs won’t be the same afterwards if you break the bond. But, will the silent treatment translate into a better dog? We put our dogs through a lot, why stress them in this abnormal way? It is amazing what dogs can recover from, but that shouldn’t be the goal of a good dog training program.
The silent treatment is not a nice thing to do, to a person or a dog. I wouldn’t do it, and it isn’t necessary.
Plan accordingly.