All in all these responses show that shocks elicit fear and pain responses. For example they state that one dog, shocked immediately after getting a “heel’ command, yelped after getting the next “heel” command without being shocked. does a swift avoidance action. Think of it as the game of hot and cold many of us played as a kid. As the title suggests, this study evaluated bark activated shock and spray collars. A 2004 Study Reveals Some Answers. It’s one of the worst studies ever done on the Ecollar. The dog’s handler uses a remote control to trigger a static electric shock from those prongs to the dog’s skin. If we can train without pain, why shouldn’t we? Depending on the situation and how the yelp is delivered, your dog could be asking you for something. Is that a valid argument to justify knowingly endorsing it? The quotes appear to be inflammatory and exaggerate what the Schilder and van der Borg actually said. In less serious cases, your dog might be sent home with just anti-inflammatory and pain medication so he can get some rest. That is, rather than interpreting the article as a blanket “bad” another interpretation is that electronic collar companies need to band together an make it clear that you know that shock levels can cause pain and that here are very instructions on how to use the collar correctly. He jumps up when I am down and puts one paw on each side of my head. Stephen Lindsay, the author of the “Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training” said this about the study cited, “This was an intentionally deceptive study, designed to reach predetermined conclusions. Get it as soon as Wed, Mar 10. First a free walk on the training grounds in which the dog was walked on leash but no orders were given to the dog. They allow us to create unique educational materials to empower both pet-care professionals and pet owners. While I’m certain their general findings are accurate, I would be curious to see this replicated with a double blind protocol, in which the researchers have no prior knowledge of the type of corrective method used in training. Overall the researchers concluded that even when compared to working dogs trained using choke chain and pinch collar corrections, dogs trained with electronic shock collars showed more fear and anxiety behaviors than those trained by other traditional police dog and watchdog methods. What Is A Dog Shock Collar? But I don’t know if off-hand whether they observed the film in order (e.g. Avoidance behavior and fear postures during the shocks indicated that the shock elicited both pain and fear and, therefore, were not just a distraction or nuisance. Laurie- We recommend that the use of these devices should be restricted with proof of theoretical and “The enormous rewards the dogs experience during training, i.e., chasing down, catching a criminal and winning the sleeve, do not counter the negative effects of getting shocked. Hey comparing electronic collars to training in which the trainers admitted beating/hitting their dogs is not the best comparison. That in itself says something. When I saw the article posted, I did think about taking the “new” out of the title, but by then it had already been read by many people who would have already read the date of the research publication anyway. Do I wish the collar companies would provide more education, yes, I do. “Conflict of interest” will always be cited, if nothing else, because the people most likely to study such a thing are those with an actual interest in the outcome. They also filmed the dogs during a “free-walk” session at a park (a new location) and then an obedience session at the park. 1987; Beerda et al., 1997, 1999, 2000) and harsh training (Schwizgebel, 1982). Petsafe Dog Training Collar is the … It’s impossible for it to do so. Yes. Was: $65.04. FAST 'N FREE. Appl Anim Beh Sci, 85, 319-344. Although using multiple trainers in this study introduced many variables, it raises questions to about the cost to the dog of using this aversive, the lasting effects of its use and in the end if it is counterproductive to producing a well-trained effective working dog. Our understanding and knowledge, and thus our training and teaching techniques, are always evolving. Hm, interesting study. But, have you ever experienced times when your dog, all of a sudden, yelped as if he was in pain even when you barely touched him? Specifically, I was on the dog unit. Your email address will not be published. The facilitator asked if the group assembled could agree on training techniques that everyone could agree were inhumane. Other papers have been published on the subject and it is my hope that you will post them on your blog for more debate. One of our study dogs still behaved as though it received shocks during protection work Some of the dogs are trained by myself or my trainers, most are trained through coaching the average pet owner to do it themselves. Since this paper is not available to the general public without payment, I think these opinions expressed need to be side by side with the actual statements made by Schilder et al. When It comes to training your small dogs, the … Sciencebuddies.org describes simply how one goes about constructing a hypothesis. A hug or a rub on the belly is a sign of affection for a dog. If you have a Labrador it’s much easier in general, but a more sensitive dog…. The study was conducted over a 7 month period and and the dogs had daily 1.5 hour training sessions even before any aversive at all was used. Do you do this already? Let’s say your dog had a bad experience inside your car. Sophia, It was a very cool thing to experience. It provides higher levels of stim than any of today’s collars AND it has its contact points on either side of the dog’s neck (rather than today’s units where the contact points are only about 1 1/4″ apart).