Using an e-collar

Given that there is a movement in the Scottish government to ban e-collars (dog collars which beep, vibrate and give an electric pulse) I thought I would write something about how I have used them in training Bane and Silver. I am not writing from the perspective of an expert, but as a standard dog owner who wants to have well behaved and safe dogs.

First of all, it's worth saying that these collars are thought of as cruel and are often referred to as shock collars because of the electric pulse delivered to the dog. I think shock collars are exactly the right term for these training tools as they shock the dog out of whatever activity they are too intent on doing to listen to you. Unfortunately, the word shock also conjures images of people being tortured using car batteries or mains electricity. Having actually used the collar on myself I can confirm that it is the former rather than the latter (I would never use anything on my dogs that I'm not prepared to use on myself). The feeling is not in anyway painful, but it's a pulse that jerks the muscles and breaks your concentration.

I think of it this way - you need to use the minimum force necessary to break your dog's intensity so they listen to you. So, if I was fast asleep and you needed my attention it might be necessary to shake me. However, if I am concentrating on coding I wouldn't expect a work colleague to start shaking me to grab my attention when a simple "hello" would do the trick. It's also important to remember this is a training tool, it helps the dog to learn the required behaviour quickly and acts as a safeguard when things go wrong.

Here's an example of it's function as a safeguard from today's walk. I took the dogs out into the field I share with my 9 neighbours. It borders a public park with only a small fence in between. I put the collar on Bane because he's going to have a high intensity play - playing tug and chase with Silver and I don't trust other people not to let their dogs rush into our field. So, my dogs are being training to sit and stay while I throw a ball and they only fetch it on command. I've just let the dogs run for the ball when a lady walking her dog throws the ball right into our field. Her dog (a lab) rushes through the fence and starts charging towards Bane despite his owners command to come back. This is exactly how fights start. I called my dogs back and Silver returned, but Bane ran forward so I delivered a shock, Bane stopped and on command returned to me. I then put my dogs on place (a version of sit and stay that the dogs understand they must not move from regardless of what is happening) while I helped the lady get her disobedient dog back. The lab however had other ideas and his excitement had turned to aggression and he became quite challenging, so the shock delivered to Bane definitely stopped a fight.

It's easy to say "you shouldn't need to cruelly shock your dog to get it to behave", but this is the real world and I can't trust other people to control their dogs and create a safe environment for my dogs to have fun in. The point, however, is just that I used a training tool to help prevent something much worse from happening, which wouldn't have been necessary if the lab had been wearing a collar... Obviously I didn't just go out, buy a collar and start shocking Bane at random. I did it after being trained in it's use by a professional. I also didn't just settle for the first dog trainer I found. I went to a number of trainers (the first being a positive only trainer) and settled on Roddy Kirk (Be pack leader) after finally finding a trainer who had dogs that behaved the way I want my dogs to. It's quite an impressive sight watching a pack of 7 dogs walk down a narrow path way, see another dog approach and just separate to give the approaching dog plenty of space to pass by, then reassemble without a word of command.

Banning things isn't normally a good idea, but banning something that can be used to keep your dog safe is just plain stupid. I know the argument is that there are better ways to train your dog and therefore the collars are unnecessarily cruel. Neither of my dogs has ever shown the slightest disinclination to put their collar on. In fact Bane and Silver both love the collar, because they know that the collar means a high energy walk where they can run free. When I first got Silver, she had been badly treated and wet herself in fear when I took out a roll of tinfoil one day - thinking she was going to be beaten, yet she's never hesitated to put on her collar.

I put a lot of work into training my dogs so that they have the freedom to behave like dogs and have a happy life. I'm not an expert, so the training has been finding my way in the dark a lot of the time, but I guess that is true of the majority of dog owners. My experience is that most dogs simply aren't well trained and living next to a dog walking park I see a lot of bad behaviour. So in the real world it's nice to have a safeguard.