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, very nice and helpfull article. I have a 4 and halph year old Labrador. He is still very playfull and good-natured dog, but he is also alfa male, trying to be dominant, specialy to smaller dogs. We did some basic training and I could say that I can control him 100% when he is on the leach. I live in the suberb and he is most of the time off-leash. Most of the time when there I see another dog, I call him, he comes and we pass on the leash. Most of the times, but a few times it happened that he attacked another dog.
Since I would like to have him off leash I am thinking of Shock collar training. What you think? I would be very glad for you advice.
Thank you.
Kind regards,
Jure
Dear Jure,
The risk with shock collar training is that the dog may associate the shocks not to his behavior, but rather to the environment, or to elements in the environment, for example, another dog. If a dog consistently receives a shock every time another dog is in his proximity, he may associate the pain he receives to the other dog, rather than to his own behavior.
Dog to dog aggression may arise for a variety of reasons. What I do with my dogs is this-
1. I first identify the trigger for the aggression, e.g. is it only small dogs, another dog posturing, another dog entering his space, small dogs that move around a lot, etc. – what exactly is it that triggers the aggression. The more observed detail I can recall, the better it will be for management and retraining.
2. Once I identify the trigger, I can more easily manage my dog so that he is not exposed to situations where he will practice the bad behavior until he is trained and ready. The more a dog practices a behavior, the more likely he will repeat it in the future. For the safety of everyone, I always keep my dog on-leash until he is fully trained, I trust him to come when called, and I absolutely trust him not to start anything with other dogs.
3. During the retraining period, I use desensitization and counter-conditioning methods to slowly raise my dog’s tolerance of the trigger stimulus, and teach him alternative behaviors for dealing with stressful conditions.
Given that there has already been a fight, it is likely best to contact a professional trainer to help with this matter.
Dear Shibashake,
My family and I have a 1/2Boxer/1/2American bulldog (Lucy).We’ve had her since she was 7weeks old and she’s now 6/7months old.Lucy is a wonderful puppy she’s already protective of my family and plays great with my 2yr old daughter,crate trained,potty trained. WONDERFUL …but about 2months ago we adopted a kitten that my daughter had caught (we live in the country on a farm) It had a bad leg but we got her back in good health. Our problem is Lucy is rough with her! I realize she’s a puppy but its kind of weird. When both the cat and dog are inside she plays good with the kitten but when we are all outside she chases the kitten away to where she flees up a tree or under the car. My husbands family has always had boxers and my husband and father-in-law say that boxers are funny towards cats and will eventually Lucy will probably just kill her. So I had thought about the collar and using it if she tried to get the cat but after reading this I dont want it to backfire and make the situation worse. I just dont want her to kill the kitten. My husbands boxer when he was a kid killed their cat and all of the kittens. Should I just get rid of the kitten or is there something I can do to keep the kitten from being Lucys chew toy?
Hello Danielle,
Many dogs chase cats because of prey drive. Both my Huskies have high prey drive, and they usually get very excited by cats, especially fast moving cats.
I don’t have a cat at home, so unfortunately, I don’t have much training experience in this area. I have always liked this ASPCA article though, and it may provide some good tips-
http://www.aspca.org/Pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-articles/introducing-your-dog-to-a-new-cat
I also like this discussion on the Shiba Inu forum about helping Shibas get along with cats-
http://www.shibainuforum.org/forum/discussion/7120/problem-with-cats/p1#Comment_125511
Hope this helps and good luck.
My seven-year-old Labrador is the light of my life, but, for several years, he has had the undesirable issue of eating dog poop (his own and others’). It may have started from boredom (I would let him out in the yard while working in my home office) and then transitioned to a guilty pleasure to disobey his master. Once I discovered that he was doing it (I trained him to have a potty zone behind the garage so he wouldn’t go in the yard), I tried chili powder but he proceeded to just eat fresh poop and leave the chili-doctored poop alone. I try to clean up poop right away so he can’t be tempted, but he’s sneaky and sly: I’ll walk away for a short while and he’ll have pooped and snacked on it in that quick period. If I’m there to spy on him, then I can prevent the behavior (he knows, from repeated instances of catching him in the act and scolding him immediately, that that is undesirable behavior in his master’s eyes), but I can’t always be there and he’s too smart for his own good. The dog park has exacerbated the issue since so many owners just stand around texting instead of taking direct responsibility for their dogs. I can’t go anymore because he would be fine in the beginning (played fetch, etc.) but then, it inevitably turned into a “snack” search on his part. He would run off, sometimes in the middle of playing fetch, and go to an area he had sniffed/made a mental note about prior. I started picking up poop right away that he sniffed in the beginning because he would just go back to it later. That’s a losing battle, though, not to mention thoroughly disgusting and not something I want to have to do every time. Obviously, avoiding the dog park will help, but, if he doesn’t get vigorous daily exercise, he gets mopey (dog walks happen if nothing else but it’s not the same). The final piece of this issue is that I cut back his food a half-cup/day last year at the recommendation of my vet, but, considering that this has been an issue for years prior to that reduction in daily calories, I don’t think that was the “cause.” He has been to the vet once for a case of giardia, which I have no doubt came from eating infected poop at the dog park, so I feel like using a shock collar is my only remaining option. He knows in no uncertain terms that the behavior is not acceptable to his master but he looks for ways to do it, regardless. My intent would be to use the shock setting only once and then use the vibration setting afterwards, as needed, to curb the disgusting issue from a distance (so he thinks it’s somehow connected to the poop and not me). The thing is that, as you point out with association, he’ll associate the shock with the special collar that he only wears from time to time, the same collar his master put on him (so the shock was from me, by association). I’m really frustrated because, other than this issue, he obeys the sit, stay, down, off commands just fine. He had an issue with separation anxiety earlier on and would dart out open doors, but we worked on it a lot and he doesn’t do that at all anymore. Despite communicating to him repeatedly that eating poop is not acceptable, I’ve been unable to create a change with his behavior. What is your advice?
Hello Mark,
As you say, the dog park environment is too unstructured and often times, a dog picks up bad habits from other dogs. One thing that worked well with my Shiba Inu is to have smaller, supervised play sessions with friendly neighborhood dogs. During our walks, I try to keep an eye out for friendly dogs who like to play. We were lucky in our last place because our neighbor from across the street, has a wonderful Shepherd-mix, called Kai. We would invite her over to have fun play sessions with Sephy almost every day. In this way, he gets to play with other dogs, but it is done in a structured and well supervised environment.
Sephy really loves his play sessions, and he understands that if he does not follow the rules, the play session ends. He is very motivated to follow play-rules.
In terms of poop eating, I think you point out, rightly so, that supervision is key. Many dogs eat poop because it feels natural for them to do so. It is not so much to disobey us, but rather because it is rewarding to them. The same is true of eating trash, rolling around in dead stuff, and all the other wonderful things that dogs love to do. 😀
Here are some things that help in terms of stopping my dogs from eating poop-
1. During the training period, I make sure I am there to catch Lara (Husky) every time she tries to eat poop. Consistency is very important at this stage because if I am not consistent, she will figure out (very quickly) that it is not ok to eat poop when I am there, but ok when I am not there, or when I am distracted. Dogs are very good at observing us, and since eating poop is very rewarding for some dogs, they will figure out all the special exemption clauses.
2. I motivate Lara not to eat poop by making the behavior be totally unrewarding to her. Lara only tried to eat outside poop. She really likes cat poop and may sometimes sample poop from other dogs. Since I am there to supervise, I give her the Leave-It command (pre-trained). If she listens, I reward her very well for following the command and not eating the poop.
If she ignores the command and tries to go for it, I make sure she doesn’t get to the stuff; then she is not allowed to stop and smell for the rest of the walk. Sometimes though, she will sneak in a little bit when I think she is just smelling. If she does that, I no-mark right away (Ack-ack) so that she knows which behavior is undesirable, then I end the walk right away; i.e. I march her directly home. She know that I am absolutely strict with that – if she ever tastes the stuff, we go home – Do not pass Go! Do not collect 200 dollars!
In this way, “trying to eat poop” becomes very unrewarding because I showed her right from the start that every time she tries, the fun walk ends. Since the behavior always results in a very undesirable outcome, she stopped doing it.
As you point out, we can’t always be there to supervise. When Lara was a puppy, I would put her in an enclosure when I can’t supervise. For poop eating issues there are several other possibilities –
a) Keep the dog in a poop-free area.
b) Make the poop taste bad. There are additives that can be put in a dog’s food to make their poop taste bad or bitter. It is probably best to consult a vet on this. Since it is added to the food itself, it makes all of the poop taste bad. This can help discourage a dog from eating his own poop. It will not help to stop a dog from eating cat poop or poop from other dogs.
No matter what method we choose to use, consistency is key. We need to ensure that the behavior is *always* not rewarding. At the same time we want to motivate our dog to do something else (e.g. Point, Sit) and make that be very rewarding.
Here is a bit more on dogs and poop eating.
We are looking at getting a shock collar for our rescue Saluki cross. He is 2 years old and will run up to people and start barking at them. If they ignore him he leaves them alone, if they react he keeps barking and our rescue Labrador cross joins in and this terrifies people. They do not bite but we are afraid that someone is going to hurt them by throwing rocks and hitting them with sticks.
A shock collar sounds like it would be very effective. He runs up to someone, starts barking, gets a shock. It would probably stop the barking at people problem very quickly but not solve the anxiety problem he has which makes him start barking at people in the first place. We have to let him off leash as he needs to run and we are running out of places to take him. He is also being a bad influence on our other dog.
We are worried about him associating the shock he gets with the people he barks at and then getting more aggressive. When I see him running up to random people I wish I had a button to press to shock him. The collars we have seen just shock when the dog barks which would work fine in the situation.
Any advice you could give us ?
Hello Robin,
With Sephy, I did a lot of desensitization and counter conditioning exercises to get him comfortable with people and other dogs.
I like desensitization because it helps to increase a dog’s threshold level, helps the dog gain confidence, and also teaches the dog alternative behaviors for dealing with stress and anxiety. Desensitization is not a quick fix, and will take time, patience, and effort. However, I like it because it targets the source of the problem behavior, has long-term results, is safe, and helps to enhance quality of life.
During Sephy’s early days, it was also helpful for me to visit with some professional trainers. We visited with both aversive and reward based trainers. It helped to give us a better idea of what was available, and the various pros and cons of the techniques. The dog training field is not well regulated though, so I always ask a lot of questions over the phone, and make sure they have good experience, good credentials, and a good understanding of behavioral science.
Great article. I was going to use the shock collar on my 11month old golden retriever. He has an obsessive personality. I can’t let him run in the yard because he will grab the dirt and grass( football size) and eat it. He won’t drop it or let it go if I tell him to. He gets an obsessed look in his eyes and nothing will make him stop.He is like this with soft toys and tennis balls. I’ve tried to distract him but nothing seems to work and thats why I was going to try the shock collar but after reading this article, I don’t think I want to. Any suggestions?
Hmmm, when did this behavior start? A big part of it will depend on the cause of the behavior – whether it is from stress and anxiety or something else.
There is a type of disorder called Pica –
This article has some pretty good information on OCD-
http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/13_9/features/Dogs-With-OCD_20062-1.html
If we suspect it is OCD, it is best to consult with a qualified behaviorist.
Sephy does not have OCD but he does get very focused on certain things. A Shiba owner once described his dog as having “a very singular state of mind”. I think that is also a very apt description for Sephy.
Some things that help with Sephy-
1. I provide him with a fixed routine and a lot of structure. This certainty helps him to manage stress.
2. He works for all of his food through training exercises, grooming, and interactive food toys.
3. I provide him with a range of structured activities which help to keep him from getting too focused on any one thing.
4. I walk him daily and also change where we walk, sometimes we go to the park, hills, etc.
Thank you for your article. It was thoughtful, kind, and well researched.
I have trained several dogs and have never considered using a shock collar till now. I’m at the end of my rope. I can’t leave the house or get a decent night’s sleep. I rescued a 1yo Weimaraner, a beautiful boy who was injured, abused, and mistreated by a former owner. He is a wonderful animal who deserves a great home.
He has one problem, severe separation anxiety. He is in good health. I have tried the squirt bottle, prescription meds, Thundershirt(he ate it), DAP collar, desensitization training, and reward training. With little in the way of positive results.
My poor Blue screams and whines like he is being tortured whenever we leave the house and at least once a night. He sleeps in our bedroom in his level III crate. Level III because he escaped from everything else when we left the house. He can see us and the other dogs. It’s not the crate. He doesn’t mind the crate at all. He runs to his crate whenever he sees his food bowl and gets lots of treats in his kennel.
No, he doesn’t need to go potty at night. He wants to get in bed. He will sleep all night in bed but there’s not enough room for one Weim(about 100lbs) and 2 people. And sooner or later the other dogs will get jealous. They DO keep track!
We need to be able to sleep for 6 hours and leave the house. If a shock collar will distract him and discourage his bad behavior, I’m ready to give it a try. It certainly isn’t my training method of choice but I have pretty much exhausted my other options. I just need to make sure I get a collar that will be triggered by the screaming. I’m hoping that a couple weeks will do the trick and we won’t have to use it anymore.
Hello Patty,
That sounds like a difficult situation.
When I was doing my research into shock collars, I came across a study by Steiss (2007). This study shows that there was no significant difference between spray collars and shock collars in preventing dog barking.
The issue is that the collars may only suppress the behavior temporarily. The anxiety will still be present, and a dog will likely look for other outlets of stress relief.
With Sephy, I found that it was most effective to target the anxiety itself. His chewing and vocalizations were symptoms of stress. Once I was able to set up a very fixed schedule, reduce his stress, and teach him other coping mechanisms, the symptoms went away.
Hi, i have a whippet and usually she is quite well behaved but when there are others dogs in site (even in another field) she just bolts to get to them, nothing i do or say can stop her. She also sometimes just ignores me completely and refuses to come. I have considered the collar (mainly the vibrate) to try and distract her attention, do you think this will work? do you have any other advice to help with this?
Hello,
As I understand it, the vibrate option acts like a marker. To affect behavior, we will need to associate the marker with something else.
For example, when a doorbell rings, a dog will usually run to the door. This is because the dog has learned to associate the doorbell (marker) with “someone at the door”. He runs to the door in anticipation of a happy greeting. Depending on training, some dogs may run to the door to chase the ‘intruder’ away.
If we consistently ring the doorbell and then feed our dog his dinner, he will learn to re-associate the bell with dinner instead of with someone at the door. Once this new association is made, the dog may run to the kitchen instead of the front-door when the bell rings.
In terms of coming when called, this article from the ASPCA has a very good list of techniques for recall training-
http://www.aspca.org/Pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-articles/teaching-your-dog-to-come-when-called
For most dogs, moving people, other dogs, running squirrels, etc. are going to be very interesting and very strong stimuli. It will take consistent training and perhaps a good counter-stimulus to balance their effect. Here are some of my experiences with my dogs and bolting after squirrels.
Great article! My miniature Schnauzer barks A LOT and recently has gotten worse. He it 10 years old so Im not sure about the “you can’t teach an ikd dog new tricks” but I wanted to know if there is anything you would suggest I could try out. Thanks 🙂
Hello Melissa,
Here are some things I looked at for dealing with dog barking.
http://shibashake.com/dog/woof-woof-stop-dog-barking
I have 3 rescue dogs that consist of 2 labs & a collie/ husky mix (all males). I was considering the shock collar to help wit the collie husky’s aggression towards the oldest lab. It seems to be a jealousy issue whenever I want threw the door he attacks and chases/ bites him. The lab doesn’t participate, he tries to run away. He is otherwise a great dog but this problem is quickly becoming unbearable to witness. I feel terrible even considering to cause pain to him but I also feel terrible for my lab that’s getting attacked :/ Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Here are some things that I do with my dogs to keep the peace at home –
http://shibashake.com/dog/second-dog-introducing-a-second-dog
Another useful technique is desensitization and counter-conditioning.
http://www.peninsulahumanesociety.org/resource/pdf/dog/DesensitizationCounterconditioning.pdf
http://shibashake.com/dog/dog-to-dog-aggression#desensitize
My 2yr old border collie mix is a fence climber. Funny thing is this just sarted. I want to try a shock collar but don’t know if it would work. Any suggestions?
Here are some of my experiences with dog escapes-
http://shibashake.com/dog/dog-escape-why-dogs-run-away