The shock collar, remote training collar, or electronic dog collar is most commonly used in four areas –
- Keep dogs inside our property. Our dog is corrected every time he nears the fence-line. This is also known as an invisible fence or underground fence.
- Stop dogs from barking. The collar automatically delivers a correction whenever our dog starts to bark. If he continues to bark, the force, duration, and frequency of the shocks may be automatically increased.
- Train dogs and stop problem dog behaviors. Shock collars are most commonly used for off-leash training. However, some dog trainers and pet owners also use it for behavioral issues such as food aggression, and dog aggression.
- Teach dogs to stay away from dangerous animals and objects. A common use is in rattlesnake aversion training. A dog is shocked hard, but a very small number of times, when he nears a caged rattlesnake. This teaches him not to approach rattlesnakes in the future.
The use of shock collars on dogs is a very emotional topic. Discussions will often degrade into personal attacks, accusations of dog cruelty, and other types of name calling.
In this article, I will try to stick to the facts, and consider whether it is something I would use on my dogs. Note however, that facts are not always convenient, and facts are not always balanced between the two sides.
If you have already made up your mind about using electronic collars and are looking for validation, this article is not for you.
Electronic Collars vs. Shock Collars
Not all electronic collars are used as shock collars. There are three main modes – 1. Beep mode, 2. Vibrate mode, and 3. Shock mode.
All electronic collars have the shock functionality, but the beep or vibrate functions are optional.
1. Beep mode
In this mode, a beep is emitted whenever the collar controller is pressed. This beep can be used as a marker, in the same way that clickers are used in clicker training.
For the beep to be an effective marker, a dog needs prior training for associating the sound with a positive or negative consequence. For example, if the beep always precedes a sought after reward, then our dog may stop and wait, because he knows that something good is coming. Similarly, a dog may freeze or submit when he hears a beep, because he knows that failure to comply, will be followed by a painful shock.
The beep can also cause a startle response, similarly to blowing a whistle. This can be used to get our dog’s attention or to interrupt his current action. However, for this to work, we must only use the interrupt signal on very rare occasions. If applied too frequently, our dog will become accustomed to it, and just ignore it.
2. Vibrate mode
In this mode, the collar vibrates, similar to how our pager or phone vibrates to get our attention. Like the beep mode, this vibration can be used as a marker or as an interrupt.
Both the beep and vibrate modes do not deliver an electric shock to the dog.
3. Shock mode.
In shock mode, the electronic collar will deliver an electric current to the dog through two contact points at the dog’s neck.
This electric current will cause pain and physical discomfort to the dog, otherwise it would not be effective in conditioning him.
The amount of pain delivered to the dog will depend on three key factors –
- The power/voltage of the electric current,
- The duration of the current, and
- The frequency of the current.
The amount of pain that the dog actually feels, will also depend on the physical characteristics of the dog (e.g. size, skin, and fur), as well as the temperament of the dog. Some dogs are more sensitive to pain than others.
Sometimes, words like stimulation are used to describe shock collars. I even saw them described as gentle training collars.
Beware of these sales gimmicks. Accept an electronic collar for what it is. If you choose to use it, make an informed decision that is based on the actual pros and cons of the system, which I will discuss below. Note that the subsequent discussion is solely based on the shock functionality of remote training collars (not on the beep and vibrate modes).
The Good
1. Allows us to control the amount of pain delivered to our dog, and administer that pain from a distance.
One of the great challenges of implementing pain based aversive techniques such as leash jerks, muzzle slaps, and finger pokes, is in controlling the amount of force delivered to the dog.
- Too much force and our dog may break down, and become extremely stressed or fearful.
- Too little force and our dog will get habituated to the corrections, and just ignore them.
Master aversive trainers are able to deliver just the right amount of force, so that the dog will not repeat a bad behavior, but at the same time, he will also not become unbalanced and fearful.
Unlike other aversive methods, remote training collars allows us to easily adjust the amount of pain delivered to a dog, and to keep that level of pain consistent in subsequent corrections. We can also administer the pain from a distance.
However, it should also be mentioned that the amount of pain actually ‘felt’ by the dog as well as the resulting response, depends on many different factors, not just the level of shock applied.
Although these devices are presented as a highly controllable method of modifying behaviour, via the controlled administering of pain/discomfort (the collars are designed to allow operator to set the duration and intensity of shock), an individual animal’s experience when a shock is applied will be influenced by numerous factors. In addition to individual temperament, the experience will be affected by the dog’s previous experiences, frequency of application, location of shock, thickness of hair and level of moisture on skin (Lindsay, 2005). Given that many of these factors are not easily determinable by the operator, this makes the device far less precise than suggested.
~~[RSPCA]
2. Can automatically deliver a shock correction to the dog, even when we are not there.
Another challenge of implementing proper aversive corrections, is using the right timing. We want to correct our dog as soon as he performs an unacceptable behavior, and stop correcting him as soon as he stops that behavior.
Electronic collars can be tied to a particular trigger event, such as barking or proximity to our fence-line. In this way, a shock is automatically and consistently delivered to the dog, as soon as he starts to bark or tries to escape. In fact, the invisible fence or shock anti-bark systems are convenient, because we do not even have to be there to deliver the corrections.
Shock collars such as these may sound tempting and easy to use, but unfortunately, consistent and automatic timing does not necessarily mean correct timing.
Studies show that automatic collars are risky, because tying a shock correction to a single trigger event, such as barking or proximity, is too simplistic and will frequently result in bad timing. This can subsequently lead to aggression and other dog behavioral issues.
There are some anti-bark collars that use sound aversion to stop dog barking, for example the Ultrasonic Anti-bark Collar. However, customer reviews have been poor because the sound stimulus is often insufficient to prevent the barking behavior.
3. The source of the aversive stimulus is less clear.
When we use other pain-based aversive techniques, it is usually obvious that the pain comes from us. This may teach our dogs to associate people with physical distress, which can also lead to fear. If this happens, we may lose some of our dog’s trust, and jeopardize our bond with him.
For example, when we apply a leash correction, it is apparent that the pain originates from the leash, and sometimes (if not redirected), from us. Therefore, the dog may decide to fight with the leash, or worse, with us.
This is less of a problem with electronic collars because the source of the pain is obscured, and there is no leash to fight with. However, because the pain comes from seemingly nowhere, our dog may mistakenly associate it with something he sees in the environment (e.g. another dog), the environment itself, or to multiple unrelated objects and events. This may cause misplaced stress, fear, and aggression, toward those objects.
Automatic shock collars also have a high risk of over-correcting a dog.
The Bad
1. May increase aggression in dogs.
According to Polsky’s study, dogs kept in shock containment systems (i.e. invisible fence or underground fence), can show extreme aggression towards humans, over and beyond their normal behavior.
Polsky’s results show that a big danger with electronic collars, especially automatic e-collars, is that they may cause dogs to make the wrong associations, and learn the wrong things.
Dogs may associate the pain from the shock with the environment or with objects in the environment (including humans , dogs, or cats), rather than with their escaping or barking behaviors. This may lead to anxiety or negative associations with those objects, which can ultimately result in aggression.
Some dogs that have been conditioned in this manner, may not want to set foot in the yard, for worry of pain. They may also start to attack humans and other animals, that wander too close to the fence perimeter.
Some dogs may get habituated to the shocks, and learn that if they can tolerate the pain close to the fence-line, they can escape. Once they escape, they are rewarded with no more shocks. In this way, the dog learns that escaping is a good thing, whereas staying in the backyard is not.
2. May increase stress in dogs and reduce their quality of life.
Schalke et al. conducted an electronic collar training study on fourteen laboratory-bred Beagles. Shock collar training was conducted over 7 days, for 1.5 hours per day. Then the dogs were released to freely hunt for 5 days, and to hunt on leash for another 5 days. Schalke’s study showed that the dogs who
… were able to clearly associate the electric stimulus with their action, i.e. touching the prey, and consequently were able to predict and control the stressor, did not show considerable or persistent stress indicators.
~~[ Excerpt from ScienceDirect.com ]
However, the two other groups of dogs that were not able to so clearly predict and control the delivery of the shocks, showed elevated stress levels, with the highest levels present in the dogs that were arbitrarily shocked.
Most importantly, the group of dogs that received a shock for not abiding by a recall (Here) command, were also significantly elevated.
Even more distressing, is that the results remained the same when the dogs were reintroduced to the testing area after four weeks. Their stress levels remained high, even though they did not receive any shocks during this reintroduction period.
The results from Schalke’s study indicate that electronic collars are extremely risky to use even for the short term. Stress levels of the dogs were high after just 7 days, and were elevated as soon as they returned to the shock treatment environment. This is consistent with Polsky’s study, which show that dogs may associate the shock and stress they receive, with the environment itself.
This study provides strong evidence that shock collars are inappropriate for most kinds of dog training, as even common recall training will result in elevated stress levels, and a lower quality of life.
3. May weaken our bond with our dog.
Polsky and Schalke’s studies show that dogs often associate the pain from electronic collars with their environment, as well as with people, animals, and other objects in that environment. Even after shocks are no longer administered, the dogs still attach the environment to something stressful and negative.
Therefore, using a remote training collar on our dog may cause him to associate our home or backyard, with stress and pain. Or worse yet, it may cause him to associate the stress with other dogs, other people, or with us.
Remember that Schalke’s results show this negative attachment forming in a matter of 7 days.
Alternative to Shock Corrections
When I first got my Shiba Inu, I had a lot of problems with him. At the time, I was under the false impression that reward methods would not work on my dominant, stubborn, and aggressive Shiba Inu. Therefore, I was using aversive training and briefly considered the use of electronic collars, because the other aversive-based methods were not working well.
However, after doing a lot of reading, I decided to give reward dog training a chance.
Reward training is not a miracle cure, and it will still take a lot of work, consistency, and patience, to train our dog. However, reward techniques can work on dominant, stubborn, and aggressive dogs. It has worked well for training my Shiba. In fact, he stopped showing aggression toward me and others, after I stopped using pain-based methods.
Common Justifications for Shock Collars
1. Save a dog’s life.
Proponents of electronic collars sometimes argue that they are used to save a dog’s life, by preventing him from running into traffic.
It is important to note that off-leash recall is never 100% reliable, whatever equipment or training methods we may choose to use.
This is why there are leash laws in most neighborhoods. This is also why off-leash parks require dogs to be on-leash when they are in the parking lot area, or in areas that are close to roads and traffic.
I use a no-slip collar and secure leash to walk my dogs in the neighborhood. I also regularly check the collar and leash to ensure that they in good working order. Off-leash exercise can be had in fully enclosed spaces or large parks, where we are far enough away from traffic that a failed recall, will not result in an accident. Do not play Russian Roulette with our dog’s life.
2. Do not cause much pain, just a tingle.
Some people try remote training collars on themselves, and report that it only causes a tingle, so it really does not apply much pain to our dog.
However, to closely experience shock collar conditioning from my dog’s perspective, I would have to put the collar on my neck and surrender the controller to a handler. I will not know why, when, or where the shocks will be administered.
As I carry on with my day, I may feel the need for a smoke. I reach for it, and feel a tingle on my neck. It is just a tingle, so I continue.
At this point, the tingle not only persists, but increases in intensity. I am strong willed though, so I keep going. After all, that is exactly why I needed the shock collar in the first place.
The intensity keeps increasing until finally, I drop the bad object. My hand shakes. The experience was unpleasant, and now I want relief more than ever. Unfortunately, I do not even have a patch, all I have is this locked-on collar that I cannot remove. My eyes stray and my hands start to reach again …
Electronic collars are NOT harmless, nor are they just a little tingly. If they were so, they would not work. Their use is illegal for children and non-consenting adults. Here is another case in Utah. Trying the collar on ourselves, and doing a single, short, expected shock, at low intensity, is *not* how the collar will be used on our dogs. It is merely a gimmick to convince us that the collars are innocuous. If they were truly so harmless –
- Why is their use banned for children and non-consenting adults.
- Why is there so much scientific data showing how risky they can be.
- Why are they on the “do not use” list of so many well-respected dog advocate organizations.
- Why would they “work” on our stubborn dog, when other pain based aversive collars such as prong collars or choke collars have stopped working.
Logic tells us that this is a false claim.
3. Everybody else is biased and dishonest.
Another common argument, is that those who point out the risks of remote training collars are biased and dishonest. Personal attacks or ad hominem arguments such as these are not only pointless, but they also discourage rational discourse and the exchange of ideas. More on bias.
In this article, I describe what attracted me to look into electronic collars as a possible training tool for my Shiba Inu, as well as some of the risks that were of concern. Based on the studies and articles that I found, I also include counter-arguments (if present) for each of those points. In general, I found very little scientific evidence to recommend its use, while at the same time, there are many studies that show the risks involved.
After reading the results of Polsky and Schalke, it is difficult for me to come up with cases where the shock collar would be appropriate in dog training. Perhaps the only case would be in animal aversion training, such as teaching our dogs to fear and stay-away from rattlesnakes.
If you know of supporting scientific studies or substantiated data which highlight the good of remote training collars, it would certainly contribute much to the discussion, so please share them with us.
However, based on current reliable data, shock collars are not something I would use on my own dogs or generally recommend to others. It is also worth noting that the ASPCA, AVSAB, RSPCA, Kennel Club, and Blue Cross, are all against the use of shock collars for companion dogs.
Hello, I appreciate your article. I have a almost 2-yr-old Westie/Yorkie mix, whose main problem is barking. I tried many methods of training her to stop barking, and finally gave in a while ago and bought a remote controlled bark collar. I wanted to have some control over when the shock was applied, since I don’t want her to necessarily stop barking COMPLETELY (i.e. if someone is at the door.) I found it to be largely ineffective though for several reasons. First of all, it was difficult to keep track of the small remote and always have it with me. Secondly, it is hard to always be in range of the dog, and respond promptly. I also found that she seemed to get a bad attitude whenever it was applied. She would skulk around me, and sometimes even bark defiantly at me, even though I’d be right there in front of her holding the remote. We gave up on the bark collar for several months, until just the other day when we bought another bark collar. This one is automatic, not remote controlled. I have yet to see the results of this endeavor, but so far she has sulked around all day, and not been her usual cheerful self. Sure, she hasn’t barked much (except at our neighbor in the hall), but she hasn’t brought me the ball either, or shown an interest in licking my cereal bowl, or any of her usual little habits. She’s just slept all day.
So my question is this: how do you train a dog to NOT bark, using POSITIVE reinforcement? For example, one of her big problems is when she sees people she doesn’t know (our neighbors in the hall for example) she explodes away from me and barks like a maniac. I can curb the running away by leashing her, but nothing I do or say will stop her barking at them while they are still in sight. I understand the positive behavior results in positive reinforcement idea, but when she never exhibits positive behavior in these circumstances, what are you to do?
I appreciate your non-threatening responses to all of these comments, by the way. You answer each question carefully, and I appreciate your taking the time to answer mine! I love my doggie dearly, and don’t want to spoil her cheerful little spirit in my endeavors to make curb her barking habits!
Hello Abigail,
Thanks for sharing your shock collar experiences with us.
In terms of barking, it would depend some on what the dog is barking at, why the dog is barking, and what we want the dog to do instead. For example, barking at people on walks is different from alerting us that there are people around our house. The first is usually the result of excitement or fear, while the second is to alert the pack.
My Shiba Inu barks when there are unusual things happening around the house, but he does not bark at people during walks. One of my Sibes bark when she gets overly excited, as a way of releasing some of her excited energy.
It sounds like she may be fearful of strangers. Smaller dogs may feel more threatened because people are relatively much larger, especially when they are standing up, looming over them, and staring at them (giving eye contact). That is why when meeting new dogs it is best to practice “no talk, no touch, and no eye-contact”.
Dogs may sometimes also bark out of excitement. To tell the difference we want to look at the dog’s body language. Is her tail up? Is she trying to approach or is she trying to get the person to stay away?
Some things that may help-
1. People desensitization exercises. We only expose the dog to small amounts of the problem stimulus, and train her to focus on us and stay calm. Once she can tolerate low levels of the stimulus, we slowly increase its intensity.
2. Achieve better control over the barking behavior with the Quiet command, and by teaching the dog to use alternate behaviors.
http://shibashake.com/dog/woof-woof-stop-dog-barking
3. Slowly socialize the dog to new people, new experiences, and new things so that she gains confidence and becomes less fearful.
http://shibashake.com/dog/dog-socialization-what-why-how
Shiba Shake,
I need help with my 2 yr old Siberian Huskey, every chance he gets he runs away. I have recently had to incidents where police were involved because my dog got off his chain or escaped when one of my kids left the door open. He has an attitude problem as well when you chase after him or try and stop him, so I’m seriously thinking of the Shock collar for training him to stay either indoors while the door is open and in his yard. I would use the collar tempararly until he knows what’s good and bad. The Huskies that are across the street from us were both trained on shock collars and they now dont have a collar nor leash on and are obedient. Advice please!
Here are some of my experiences on why and how to stop dog escapes.
As for shock collars, I decided not to use them on my own dogs because of the risks listed in the article above, including increases in stress levels, and a greater tendency for aggression.
My end goal is to give my dogs a good quality of life, and I am able to achieve this with alternative methods that are less risky.
I’m very excited to use our E collar. I have lost all trust in our pit mix who recently bit our new puppy and likes to run and attack other dogs. I feel that I can’t even take him for runs even on his lead anymore. The E collar will help me gain confidence and control again.
Referring to your post on Dog Shock Collar – The Good and The Bad, could help but write to say I totally agree with your conclusion. There are many other alternatives to train your dog and it is difficult to justify the use of shock collars. Love your post and glad your postive rewards based methods are working for you. Cheers
I have a friend that’s so persistent to fight with me over this subject. I’ve tried convincing her to use positive reinforcement on her pup(chocolate lab that is under a year old) but she thinks I’m just talking out of my rear. Because I never “raised a hunting dog”. Honestly it gets under my skin because she thinks its alright to shock him whenever he decides to chew because well like any other puppy he chews and she fails at puppy proofing the house. What can I do to convince her that what she is doing is wrong and any advice on curbing the “chewing stage”
Hello fennec-fox,
When people ask me about shock collars, I just tell them about my own decision making process, the scientific studies I came across, and how I made my decision.
With dogs, as with children, there are many strong feelings and also a lot of ego involved. It is often more difficult to receive advice from a friend, than from a third party, e.g. a trainer, author. I am currently reading the book Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know
by Alexandra Horowitz. In it, Horowitz talks a lot about understanding the world from our dog’s point of view (or umvelt). Another book that I like is Bones Would Rain from the Sky: Deepening Our Relationships with Dogs
by Suzanne Clothier. Clothier’s book really changed my point of view on dogs. Perhaps these books may help.
In terms of chewing, puppies do not know what things are acceptable to us to chew, and which are not. Therefore, it is up to us to teach them our very human rules. Usually I no-mark my puppy (ack-ack) and redirect him into biting on something acceptable. If he redirects, I reward him with attention and a favorite game. Other techniques include teaching him the Leave-It and Drop commands, and playing the object exchange game.
used it twice in a very very long time BUT
the dogs learned first with reward training what to do instead of their selfrewarding and dangerous misbehaviour:
Malinois, strong in coping with aversive stimuli during high level agitation,chasing and nipping people on bicycles, joggers, running after horses.. learned at the same time a very strong recall with a whistle / play with the ball connection. Alas it was 20 years ago and reward training was really frowned upon by many. I used the shock collar for one afternoon on everything she chased after voluntarily after her having it on for 4 weeks without anything happening. I hit the button when she got to her target to be absolutely sure her focus was right on it.
Afterwards I intensified rewarding her for staying with me or just plain ignore the formerly chased objects.
What I didn’t know then – I could have clicker trained her to willingly look away when seeing something to chase after. It might have worked then. It sure did years later because, of course the shock treatment didn’t last forever as she was a strong bitch and overcame her fear.
Secondly I used it with my Spitz who was chasing after cows and sheep, she saw at great distances or when she stopped running after crows she found herself close to milk cows or worse, mother cows. She is also very strong on getting over aversives which was obvious as she had some accidents which hurt. To make the shock collar useful and not only painful, she learned first what to do instead of running after cows and other livestock. I shocked her only very very close to her “prey”. She never ever has run after any of them since then which is over 6 years ago this spring. BUT BUT BUT: I help her since then to ignore them by rewarding her in difficult situations with livestock esp. in spring when the cows are quite frisky to be out again.
So, I think shok collars can become a very effective tool if combined with sound and tireless reward training when the dog already knows the alternative, and therefore can choose not to run the risk to get shoked againg.
Because there are other scientifique realities that say: If you think you get a reward and you don’t get it, you get frustrated or even angry.
On the other hand: If you know how to avert punishment(shocked) you are relieved.
Anti-Bark-Collars: They are really bad, because a dog barking is NOT concentrating on the barking but on the object/situation causing the bark. Wrong associations and fear or aggression are most often the result. Or less obvious a stressed fearful animal which goes into freeze.
That is a discrmination many people do not seem to be aware of: Dogs do not concentrate on their behaviour but on the environment. So must often punishment does not really decrease the behavour but intensifies it.
And sometimes I think people rationalize this occurance by thinking: Thank god did I punish him, if the behaviour got that bad although I am punishing him, how bad would it have gotten if I had done nothing?
You might think now I am keen on e-collar-training. I am not. My dogs get rewarded on a daily bases for doing NOTHING on walks – because they could be doing loads of stuff I don’t like instead. Ever thought about it?
My Spitz thinks everything I say outside means “food” even if I am swearing very loud and angry because she ran off to gobble up some half-rotten-food again! She runs back as fast as she can to get even more food from me :-).
Cheers
Roswitha
i have a beagle and he does good walking around the neighborhood but he likes to run away and we have a fenced backyard just for him but i think someone is letting him out because he cand work the lock on the gate we just got him back from the dog pound he hasnt ran scence
Yeah, beagles often get so involved in following scent, that they will let their nose lead them anywhere.
More on how I stop my dogs from escaping.
Hmmm. I don’t know. This piece strikes me as an anti-shock collar person reaching a foregone conclusion, namely that shock collars are bad. It seems a lot like a debate about whether you ought to spank your child.
Lots of things are bad if used incorrectly. I have a border collie/golden retriever cross who is almost unbelievably willful. I’ve been using the collar for three years with him, and it’s the only way he’ll obey. I think in that time I’ve only shocked him with the momentary “nick” twice, both times when he was about to run out into heavy traffic.
Instead, what I do is to walk him on a leash attached to his collar. The instant he pulls (or lifts my resting arm), I give him a vibrate. He hates the vibration (which is NOT a shock), and instantly ceases to pull.
For my wife, who has an ongoing carpal tunnel issue, it has been a godsend.
Dear Wodeshed,
The reason why I looked into shock collars in the first place, was because I had a difficult dog (a Shiba Inu) and I wanted to explore if shock collars would help solve some of our problems. As I described above, there are certain aspects about shock collars that are very tempting.
However, based on all the scientific data and provable facts that I found, I decided that shock collars are not appropriate for the type of relationship and lifestyle I want to establish for my dogs. After reading Polsky’s and Schalke’s studies, I decided that the risks involved far outweighed any potential benefits, except perhaps for very simple aversion training. If you have data that proves otherwise, or if you have any information that I missed, please let me know. I always want to make the best informed decision for my dogs.
As for vibrate vs. shock, I highlighted the differences between the two modes in the article above. I also stated –
Note that the subsequent discussion is solely based on the shock functionality of electronic collars (not on the beep and vibrate modes).
As I stated above, based on careful consideration of the data and studies I have read, I do not think that shock collars are appropriate for my dogs. That does not seem like a foregone conclusion to me, but perhaps I am missing something. If so, please let me know.
My goal, as always, is to give my dogs the best quality of life that I can, which I imagine is the goal of most dog owners as well as parents.
E-collars are so hard to use right. Like you say, clear association with the problem is needed. My small mixed breed went after chicken. Two shocks timed perfectly fixed that problem for good. So for everyone who need to put a stop to dog chasing/killing chicken, this is the way to go. I know it’s a severe issue and a problem for many in rural areas where dog who kills chiken(or any other farm animal) is highly likely to be put down if not corrected completely.
Well said and succinctly put.
Interesting about the chicken aversion training.
We have had a dog fence around our property for 3 years for a little Sheba, Echo. He adapted to it very easily as there is an existing barb wire fence there so the boundary is visable. So, this winter he sees a coyote and runs thru it and now goes thru…..but we have thinned his fur and tightened the collar and seems ok again. He will spend most of the day outside and can open the door of our house when he wants in 🙂 his 5 acres are his..he will share with the neighbors horses when they are put then in our paddock in summer to eat down the growth and is quite unhappy when they leave,he will lay with them and quite enjoy thier company. We have always been positive with him as he gets so upset when we are unhappy with him,, scolding is just a terrible thing for him! When out he has never come back but today I purchased a Petsafe ultra sonic pet trainer with a negative and positive button and when he got past the fence I pushed the positive button a few times and miraculously he came back and was one the move 100 feet away when I did it,,,,wow. I think it is uncomfortable but for whatever reason he comes back. I used one other time today when on his little track and usually ignores everyone and he came back again! Not sure what to say other than very cool! Will use it very sparingly only as last ditch thing, but wanted to let other shiba owners know about it.
Dear Alexia
As you have not told us so, I hope you help your dog to avoid chickens and the lure to go after them again. Because one of the facts of live is, almost every dog desensitizes itself if the lure is great or often presented without anything bad happening and no alternative behaviour is learned. And shocked too often your dog will get used to the pain or get stressed out because one day the connection won’t be so clear cut.
Greetings
Roswitha
I have a Shiba and she has slipped out the door twice and obviously doesn’t listen when we call her. She just takes off. Thankfully we’ve found her both times. We are very careful when opening doors, but she has gotten past us. I’m at my wits end and can’t keep going through this. Any advice?
Hello Sam,
Some things that I do with my Shiba that may help –
1. Use a drag-lead
When Sephy was young, I put a drag-lead on him. When I go to open the door, I make sure I have his drag lead in hand. I also make sure he does not crowd the door before I open it. If he tries to bolt out the door, he goes to time-out.
Escaping out the door is a self reinforcing behavior. As a dog makes more successful escapes, the more likely he is to repeat that behavior. Therefore, to stop the behavior, we want to consistently prevent escapes, as well as teach our dog that if he tries to bolt, he loses his freedom in the house. However, if he stays away from the door and does not try to run out, then we want to reward him with play and very good treats. In this way, he learns that not-escaping is very rewarding, but trying to escape is not.
2. Practice door manners every time before going out for walks.
Another thing that helped with Sephy is to practice door manners with him before we go out. Before the walk, he has to sit by the door and stay. I put on his collar and leash. Then I hold the leash and he has to stay while I open the door and put on my shoes. If he does not, I no-mark (Ack-ack) and close the door. Then we wait a bit by the door before I try again. If he keeps trying to bolt then I leave, and he doesn’t get to go on his fun walk until later.
This gets Sephy into the habit of waiting nicely by the door and not bolting out.