We used 1-2-3 magic method. It works well up to a point.
And it only takes a few “3’s for them to get the message. The difference for me was that upon reaching “3” they got a 3 shot spanking not a 5 minute time out. The “time out” deal expired pretty early on and “corporal” made sure they understood the rules.
My hard and fast rule is: no more than three shots to the backside. There were pants up spankings, and pants down spankings, and they know the difference.
Also, I would count at varying speeds to inject a level of uncertainty to assure immediate compliance with the first directive.
My kids are 8 and 6 and I haven’t had to spank them but a few times in their lives. Once to the understood what it meant to get to “3” and, once pants down as what I called “capital” offenses.
I sometimes babysit my great-nephews. They are 2 and 4, so let’s just say there are some discipline issues.
One day, after the 3rd time-out, the older one looked at me and said “Don’t you just ever spank kids?!?!”. He was exasperated with this whole “you did this, you sit here, you tell me what you did wrong, you get up”. Major waste of his time.
I told him that only moms and dads and Grampa are allowed to spank. His timeouts have decreased. He knows what to expect, in the behaviour department, from me. And yes, I did spank my kids, but not after a certain age (probably about 4).