I’ve been looking for classes for my dog to help with general anxiety. Looks like this is an older article, but I’m happy I found it.
Victoria Blasts Shock Collars in the Chicago Tribune.Traditional Leashes for Exercising Dogs on Town Streets The Use of Shock Collars and Their Impact on the Welfare of Dogs (Blackwell, Casey) Department of Clinical Veterinary Science University of Bristol 2006.Can aggression in dogs be elicited through the use of electronic pet containment systems? (Polsky) Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 2000 Vol.Training Dogs With the Help of the Shock Collar: short and long term behavioural effects(Schilder, van der Borg) Applied Animal Behaviour Science 85 (2004) 319–334.
Shock forces a dog to ‘behave’ with little concern for the root cause of the negative behavior.Shock controls a dog without allowing that dog to make choices and solve problems, which often results in 'learned helplessness' – the dog effectively learns to give up.Rather than resort to using equipment that causes your dog fear and pain, why not try humane, force-free alternatives that are more effective long-term and that will help change the way your dog thinks and learns? Several countries have already instated bans on shock collars, and it is only a matter of time before other countries will follow.Shock collars may cease a behavior in the moment, but the severe stress and anxiety they cause can lead to more aggression in the future and can create entirely new behavioral problems.The shock suppresses the behavior in that moment but does not address the behavior’s root cause.Įven though supporters of electronic training might praise the effectiveness of the method, dogs trained using these tools only comply or cooperate with the training out of a fear of what will happen if they do not comply – the dog is not truly being obedient. Using shock in dog training teaches a dog to avoid a certain stimulus and to stop any behavior that ‘caused’ the shock, but just because the behavior has stopped in that moment does not necessarily mean the behavior has improved or will improve long-term. Having already been deemed illegal as abusive tools by many countries such as Finland, parts of Canada and parts of the United Kingdom, shock collars theoretically are designed to provide an aversive stimulus to a dog as a punishment or 'correction' from its trainer or owner. Shock or electric collars are devices placed around a dog's neck which connect to a handheld transmitter which remotely delivers varying levels of electric shocks to the dog's neck.