Shock Collars

Shock collars are a big subject in the world of dog training. People who are opposed to them are vehemently (and usually angrily) against them. Those that promote them are very defensive of their stance.

I'm writing this post because I recently saw a Halifax training site, that is very heavily promoted, making use of what they refer to as "E-collars". E-Collars stand for electronic collar, which is a nicer way of saying 'shock' collar.

On this site they had 2-3 videos showing how great E-collars work - and I was really curious to see this. I was curious to see how a site was going to get customers when they are going to post videos of dogs being shocked. Upon watching them though I discovered the real ugly truth about this training method - they actually DON'T want you to see it up front!

One video showed a trainer and dog (a Shepard mix) doing an obedience routine with many sits, downs, lots of eye contact, and various obedience work being done on an agility style pause table. This dog was already trained and thus wasn't shocked once during the video. The premise of the video was to see how great E-collar training can make your dog - but without actually showing the method itself.

The second video showed how great E-collars are for curing aggression. This video showed an out of control dog, lunging and snarling in one clip - then faded to the same dog behaving perfectly and walking calming. Again - no shocks, no method shown, just final product.

The third video showed an 8 year old girl or so 'training' a rottie. Once again it was deceiving because the girl never actually 'trained' the dog - he was clearly trained very well. The little girl proceeded to walk around with the dog at perfect heel position, and give a number of commands. The shock collar was on the dog, and the trainer was filming. I'll mention the importance of this later.

Some people might ask, well I only want a trained dog, I am only interested in the final product, why should I care how a professional gets to the finished product? I don't need to watch my mechanic work on my car, I just want it to work when I pick it up.

Well dog training is very different - cars aren't alive, dogs are. The method used to train your dog is going to have a total effect on his personality, relationship with you and others, and may or may not cause other problems. This same training company says their training methods are 'based in science' however science is quite clear that punishment should be a last resort for training - and must be used extremely carefully to avoid lasting behavioral damage.

Stephen Lindsay in his excellent book "Handbook of applied dog behavior and training vol 1" lists 20 different concerns that you must be aware of when using punishment training. A whole chapter in this very long (420pg) book is devoted to the science of punishment in training and various experiments done on animals throughout the ages on punishment training. He lists well over 40 scientific papers in his review.

His conclusion in this matter: "Punishment should be used only after other positive training options have been carefully considered or exhausted."

Furthermore - the Veterinary Behavior Society of America states: "The AVSAB's position is that punishment is not appropriate as a first-line or early-use treatment for behavior problems. Modification should focus on reinforcing desirable behaviors, removing reinforcement for inappropriate behaviors, and addressing the emotional state and environmental conditions driving undesirable behavior."

The Canadian Veterinary Society states: "Recent years have seen a shift towards reward-based methods, such as clicker training and the use of food, toys and praise as motivators. Animal behaviourists conclude that training techniques that employ punishment rather than rewards-based methods do not improve dog obedience and actually increase problematic dog behaviours.Confrontational methods of training such as the use of physical force, rolling dogs, growling, or staring dogs down may increase the likelihood of aggressive responses in dogs. The use of shock collars is associated with short-term and long-term negative consequences including fear and anxiety.

I go into more detail on why punishment isn't effective on my site - but the biggest problem I see with punishment is a very general one. Dog training is generally done BY the owner - with guidance and direction from the trainer. This means that most training being done on the dog isn't by a professional, but rather the owner.

When I run obedience classes I give homework to my classes - without practice there is no way a group of dogs can learn any behavior reliably in an hour. We discuss success and failure through the 6 week class and work on improvement. I want pet owners who feel like they can communicate and train their dog without always needing a professional trainer.

As with any new skill, people make mistakes. Some people are more skilled and catch on - others take more time and make more errors. When I do clicker training I see people clicking at the wrong time, forgetting to click, giving food at the wrong time, not phasing out food in time - you name it. I have older people that may take extra explanation, and children that are overly eager and excited. We coach and work through the errors and issues to improve everyone's skill.

With clicker and food training - this isn't a big deal. Worse case scenario is the dog takes longer to train and maybe gets a lot of extra food that maybe he didn't really need. A wrong click or a wrong food delivery won't hurt anyone. People also get frustrated and sometimes want to give up but we talk through it.

With punishment however - errors can cause serious psychological damage and aggression. This is specially true if the owner is getting frustrated. This is also not a method that every dog will respond to. I normally see shock collar demonstrations on Shepards and other large, tough breeds - I have yet to see an E-collar on a pug or king charles spaniel. Every dog however likes reinforcement - and it doesn't have to be food - it can be play, toys, freedom, whatever.

So the bottom line here is if you make mistakes using positive reinforcement methods - you might not have a well trained dog until you sharpen your skills - if you make mistakes using punishment, you might have a highly aggressive dog, or one that shuts down and lives a miserable life of fear and frustration. Or worse case, you don't notice anything is wrong with the dog until he bites your neighbours kid.

Remember the little girl from the video? Well one issue with punishment is the behavior falls apart if the conditions during punishment are no longer present. For example if the trainer is the only person shocking the dog, he may not listen to the little girl unless the trainer is present. In the video the trainer is there filming - so the dog obeys the girl because conditions for punishment in place.

There is no reason to need to resort to punishment unless positive methods have failed, and this will very rarely happen. I would also argue that no matter how well behaved a punishment trained dog is - I would never trust one around my children or loved ones. Punishment can build a ticking time bomb of aggression. People and animals alike who are consistently subjected to punishment will only take so much before they explode. Why even take that risk?