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.
Hi,
i have a rescued cocker spaniel mix with pretty extreme food aggression (people/stolen food) as well as other resources (has growled and bitten when getting corralled after getting out free, and when being told to leave my kids room or get off the couch) and cats. It’s really bad with food though. I had one trainer recommend he probably could not be rehabilitated and the second one – after trying positive techniques and provoking him to see the magnitude of the issue (gave him much wanted food and tried to take it away with a fake hand) suggested the shock collar. I was willing to try, despite misgivings, because i can’t safely keep him unless i fix this (he bit my daughter last weekend when she reached past him and didn’t realize he had found leftover pizza crust from a sleepover. I’m willing to do it as a last resort, but still have misgivings. He had severe separation anxiety at first and i can tell a difference in his personality since starting yesterday. Yet – he’s finally not growling and lunching and attacking the cat, which is more progress than i’ve made in a year and a half (I haven’t done too much work with food yet). I do not want to lose this dog, but i can’t continue without being sure to eliminate his dangerous behaviors. I also just got laid off and can’t really afford more expensive trainers. Do you have any suggestions?
Your dog needs to learn oww! When this puppy does something painful the reaction from the victim should be a loud high pitched ‘oww’ believe me the pup will immediately stop which is when you reward him for stopping with a reward ‘treat’. Also teach your dog that when he interacts with ppl he should be sitting & get his attention with a treat & reward him while he sits.
I have a 4 month old Siberian Husky and she has a really bad problem with playing agressively with the little kids in the house where it’s almost impossible to have her out around them because she bites them and scratches them a lot. Also when i try to take her for walks she jumps and pulls a lot on the leash and its really hard to get her on the leash so a lot of the time I let her run in the yard to make sure she gets her excersize. I have tried so many different ways to get her to stop biting and stop her bad behaviors but nothing seems to work, she is really stuborn. What can I do? Would a shock collar be a good option?
Hey I know this was written a while back, as someone with a husky mix that was trouble for quite a while, I just want to say, you can get through this without a shock collar!
I didn’t even have access to a backyard to let her run around so yeah lemme tell you it was difficult.
First I want to say, you dog is a puppy and will remain a puppy until 2 years old. After that two year benchmark, you will see a notable difference in behavior provided you treat your puppy positively. I know, they kinda stop looking like a puppy around 5 months old and it is really hard to see them as anything but a dog after one year old. It gets difficult. And you do have the added challenge of little kids.
If you could, I would have the puppy long line long enough not to trip the kids when they are playing outside. That way you can grab the line and get a more guaranteed recall because I am going to assume that that hasn’t developed or has gone away in that teen fluffy pup brain of hers. If your pup has a good recall, then recall every time she is too rough with the kids and give him a treat.
Walking on a leash? Well there are a few great things you could do! Personally what I found helpful was teaching heel first! I know seems totally backwards to how they teach it in class. But teaching heel first actually provides the structure for your puppy to “get it” for later when you want loose lead walking which really is a less structured form of heel and will in time will become rewarding because of all the heeling you will be doing.
So to do heel, you start with teaching your puppy a few things. You can look these up on youtube no problem I am sure. “Touch” where the puppy touches your hand with it’s nose, super helpful later to give her a clue to guide her into the heel position without any physical force. No video will show you this, but it should come naturally to you as it did to me. “Watch me” where you teach your dog to look at you. This is super important for improving your puppy’s focus. Focus is important for teaching a dog to heel and walk nice on a leash. “Sit” I personally like it when my dog sits next to me when we stop moving. So optional though I am sure your pup knows this.
First step to learning heel is to teach the position. Simply reward your dog for finding the position. You could use the touch command at first to get your puppy to find your left side, and reward in the position. Don’t say the position name “heel” until you know your puppy will go to your left side or go to your left side and sit if you are like me. Through food away from the position over and over to get them out of position and then get them to come back into position over and over until you feel you have it down. Should take 1 or 2 days? If it takes you longer don’t worry!
Second. Take a step in any direction and have your puppy find the heel. Do this in different rooms of the house. This shouldn’t take as long as the first step. If the dog follows you into the heel position, you want that. that is step 3.
Third. Take a step and have the dog just follow you into the heel position. If your dog already did this in step two without convincing GREAT if not just find some way of convincing your dog to follow you. So far, I have been doing this without a leash, if it takes a leash at first for your dog to get that it should follow you at this step, I get it, but make sure you practice without a leash too. very important that they learn the leash is inconsequential.
Fourth. One step, two step three step 4 step. Make sure you are rewarding you’re one step in position. two step in position. three step in position. You are building up to those 4 steps. If you are stuck on 2 steps and then rewards, or three steps and then rewards, that is fine for now. But the important part to take notice in- your dog is heeling. So cool!
Fifth! Walk around the house in the heel position and then reward your dog. Add the leash walk around the house in the heel position and it should be the same, reward. If it is not, start from the earliest successful step with the leash.
Sixth! Do all the steps in the yard! Now that you are outside, outside is completely different and it is time to teach your dog that it doesn’t matter if they are outside or inside, outside is important!
Seventh! Start with your home street with step 4 only with a leash. Do not move on from step 4 until you are moving smoothly from step 4 to 5.
And your final 8th step! Move on to other streets and conquer the neighborhood with your amazing heeling husky! Now relax your rules from a heel to a loose lead walk (just ask they not pull, don’t move if they do pull and ask she come back and sit next to you if she does, and move forward at that point) My dog hardly pulls me at all. When she does, we are usually someplace new and exciting like a new trail we just need to establish new rules on.
Our outside dog has recently started killing ducks. He knows its bad behavior and only does it when we aren’t home to stop him. Does anybody sell an aversion training product that we can affix to the animals he is killing that will activate a shock collar if he gets too close? Ideally something that could be affixed to a leg band. We have exhausted other training techniques, when we aren’t home he “forgets”.
Put the ducks behind electro net mesh … The dog will get one zap from the fence and never go back! Keeps coyotes away too and is easy to move.
The fence will ruin your relationship with your dog. He will fear you.
Maria
My dog has been acting aggressively lately for no reason, what were some books or websites you read to help with your situation? I’d really like to try every other thing before even really considering a shock collar.
Where I get my dog training information.
More on how I deal with my dog’s bad behavior.
ASPCA article on some common types of dog aggression.
https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-behavior/aggression-dogs
Is there evidence that a proximity system that uses a warning vibration or sound before shocking the dog is less stressful? Or that the size of the area enclosed by the perimeter is correlated with the anxiety responses? I would think that the more a dog can see the places he got shocked, the more fearful of moving he would be, and that adding predictability would greatly reduce the stress response during normal play, but that’s purely conjecture.
As I understand it, the source of stress is from not knowing why the pain is occurring, and more importantly, not knowing how to stop the shocks. For example, in Schalke’s study, the group of dogs that …
The risk from shock collars, also comes from the dog mis-associating the pain with the environment, or other surrounding stimuli. For example, dogs usually breach the fence line when they take off chasing after something. As a result, the dog may start to associate the shocks to other animals or even people, as was shown by Polsky’s study.
An invisible fence is especially high risk because there is no human supervision in administering the shocks, which makes mis-association and unintended responses even more likely. If there are problems, they may not be detected until later on, when a dog has already developed other behavioral issues. In addition, such fences may not always work and do not keep the dog safe from other animals.
Here is a comment from Tom who uses a shock collar for his lab, but not for his Husky.
Here is another comment from jacki warren.
If a dog is getting shocked without the warning beep, I imagine that may further increase stress. However, having a warning beep does not negate the stress caused by unpredictability of the shocks (from the dog’s point of view) or from the great risks of mis-association.
In this comment from Glenn, his dog has developed a strong fear response to all sounds resembling the collar beep.
Automatic shock collars such as the invisible or proximity fence, is very high risk, much more so than the supervised use of shock collars. In addition, its effectiveness at keeping a dog within its boundaries is uncertain. Given all this, it is not something that I would use or recommend to others.
Hi,
We have a 2 year old Hungarian Vizsla who is very well socialised with dogs and people. He about a year ago (and now more and more) started to run and bark full speed at random people walking through the park or on a walking trail. We thought he’d grow out of it but he’s been doing it more now. He doesn’t do it to everyone. Sometimes loads of people can pass and he’ll pay no attention and then suddenly he will bolt towards them sometimes old people and children. He gets a bout 3 feet from them and stops to either bark some more or have a sniff before he either lets them pet him or return to us as we’re of course calling him. Though he normally calms down when he reaches them I fear that as he gets older and/or if provoked he could do something. We want to teach him to come to us if something makes him anxious or just to come to us no matter what distraction there may be. We have borrowed an E-collar from a friend and are doing research on how to go about using it for our issue.
Do you have any advice? How should we go about training him as normally he is great at recall and we really have no other problems with his training?
I help my dog be more calm around people and other dogs by doing desensitization exercises. Successful and calm experiences will help my dog to build confidence, trust, and positive associations. Similarly, negative experiences and punishment will undermine that confidence, introduce more anxiety, and worsen his behavior.
This article from the ASPCA has a good list of recall training techniques, including using a long-line. If I issue a recall command and my dog does not come, I need an effective way to get him to come along, e.g. a long line. Otherwise, he will learn that recall means come when I am ready, come whenever, or come if I feel like it.
I first need to do recall training in a low stimulus environment, and then I slowly increase the environmental challenge. When there are a lot more distractions, getting my dog to come when called will naturally be a lot more difficult. Therefore, I set my dog up for success by starting small, and then slowly increasing the level of distractions, at a pace that he can handle.
If my dog is anxious of certain types of people or dogs, then I do desensitization training in a structured environment to help him build confidence and be more calm. However, I also need to manage his environment, set him up for success, and not expose him to situations where he will fail. The more reactive events there are, the more likely he will repeat that behavior in the future and in a wider variety of contexts.
Studies show that shock collars increase stress in dogs, and have a high risk of causing the dog to make the wrong associations. Both of these can lead to more behavioral issues down the road, including aggression. The article above has links to some of these scientific studies and related articles on the risks of shock collars.
Suppose my dog is slightly anxious of certain types of people – maybe senior people who move differently, children who are more hyper, fearful people, etc. When he sees such people, he may start to vocalize because of uncertainty. If he gets shocked every time this occurs, he may associate the pain from the shocks with those people. This may worsen his uncertainty, cause greater stress, and lead to even more reactive behaviors. Even in the best case scenario, the shock collar will only suppress symptoms in the short term, and will not address the underlying cause of the dog’s behavior.
With my dog, I always start by identifying the cause/source of his behavior (e.g. is it fear driven, excitement driven, etc.). Once I identify the source, then I would get a good trainer who can help me with desensitization training and recall training in higher distraction environments, or something else, depending on what is most appropriate. I would *not* use a shock collar, especially not for anxiety driven behaviors.
https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/finding-professional-help
https://apdt.com/pet-owners/choosing-a-trainer/
Our dog 11 years Shihtzu-yorkie mix will constantly sniff and whine at our bedroom door after we go to bed. Which makes it impossible to sleep. He’s there all night. We’ve tried a pet gate in front of the bedroom door so he can’t reach his nose to the bottom of the door but he chews on the gate and pulls in down!
Any ideas?
Has he always shown this behavior? Is he alone at all during the day? What is his behavior like when alone during the day?
What you describe sounds like anxiety.
I let me dog sleep in the bedroom since puppyhood. It helps to make her feel safe, and it helps with bonding. As she matured and gained confidence, she chose to sleep downstairs where she has more freedom. However, I leave the bedroom door open so she can hear us and I can hear her. If she gets anxious because of unusual night noises, then I let her up if she wants. She feels safer, more assured, and calm, when she is with us.
For separation anxiety, I start training my dog with very short periods of alone time (seconds), and slowly build up from there.
ASPCA article on separation anxiety and desensitization training.
More on dog anxiety.
I would *not* use shock collars or any kind of aversive punishment for anxiety behaviors. Punishment will only introduce more stress into the situation, which may worsen the dog’s anxiety and his related symptoms.
you should try keeping him in a roomy cage in the dining room or living room
We afe currently looking into this for our deaf 2 year old pitt bull. She loves to bark at nothing, including the side of our neighbors house at 2am (she goes nuts over any kind of shadow) and attacks my other pitt (in a non agressive playful way) in an effort to gain our full attention when we get home. Nothing else has been successful. She’s a sweet girl, but such a handful. Any ideas?
Dogs bark for a variety of reasons. A dog with disability may feel more vulnerable, and may alert or get startled by more things, including unusual shadows. Barking can be a symptom of stress or uncertainty over possible dangers.
I first try to ascertain the cause of my dog’s barking. If the barking is from stress, then I work on helping my dog cope with the stress. That will have much better long-term results because we are addressing the source of the behavior rather than just suppressing the bark symptoms.
More on how I deal with dog barking.
When I get home, my dogs are excited to see me. Sometimes, they may get over-excited, and block each other while rushing to meet. This can lead to frustration and then aggression. I help my dogs by being calm, and telling them what to do right away (before they become reactive). I set up clear dog-to-dog interaction rules, and they are not allowed to bully each other. I keep my dogs separated when I am not around to supervise. I do not leave them alone together until I am very sure that there will be no issues.
How I help my dogs get along.
Based on what I have read, some people do use electronic collars for training a deaf dog, but *only* in vibrate mode. Shock mode is not something that I would recommend, especially not for a dog with disability. That has a high risk of introducing more stress into a situation where the dog may already be feeling anxious and vulnerable. I talk about the many risks of shock collars in the article above.
This article has more on risks from shock collars.
This article has more on using the vibration feature as a form of communication.
http://www.deafdogs.org/training/vibratrain.php
There is a section in this article on remote communication, i.e. using an electronic collar in vibrate mode only.
http://www.aussierescue.org/Portals/1/Forms/OldForms/BREAKING_THE_SOUND_BARRIERarticle.pdf
Here are some articles on training a deaf dog-
http://www.deafdogs.org/training/
http://moderndogmagazine.com/articles/training-deaf-dogs/10727
When in doubt, I get help from a good professional trainer. I would find one who has good experience with training deaf dogs.
https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/finding-professional-help
https://apdt.com/pet-owners/choosing-a-trainer/
Training with non-aversive methods will work for your problem dogs. If they have been allowed performing undesirable behavior for a while it may take longer but it can work. You can teach dogs not to bolt out of doors and to have rocket re-call. Wanting dogs to roam your property, respect boundary lines and not act like dogs by chasing a killing prey is ludicrous. A shock collar will only work if you are there to push the button and how does that work if they are roaming out of site or when you are not home. Electric fences may or may not restrict their boundaries and certainly will not keep them safe from others. These collars have been known to short circuit when they get wet causing severe injury and sometimes death. Dogs can become aggressive with electric fences and shock collars leading to a potential serious attack. Manage your dogs, build safe fences, exercise them and train, train, train using positive methods. If you cannot do it yourself contact a professional to help. If you cannot provide safe exercise and training for your dog then consider rehoming your dogs.
I’d really like to post this to a manufacturer’s web site, but maybe someone will pass this on. There needs to be a change to the beep that the collars make when they give the correction. We’ve found that a wide variety of electronic products also make the same beep. Our dog is now terrified of our coffee maker, our iron and our digital watches. Just be warned and please pass this on if you can.