The Shocking Truth About E Collar Training

Although e collar training was popular a while back, they are now outdated and should not be used to train your dog (I’ll be telling you why in a little bit). A dog is a behavioral animal and it relies mostly on conditioned reflex action to develop some behaviors.

However, some behaviors like barking are not conditioned, they’re natural, and if you want to train your dog to bark less then you should consider using a more friendly method. Why?

Let’s consider yourself for a minute. If someone makes a comment about your chewing, breathing or talking being too loud, how do you feel? Would you like it if every time you chewed too loud someone took a taser and zapped you even if it was just a light shock?

No, you wouldn’t. You will probably be confused as to what the person is talking about in the first place and it might even make you more resistant to change the habit because you are offended. It is the same way with training your dog to bark less.

Be considerate of them and you will have much more success. But first, let’s get a clear understanding of how e collars work.

How Do E Collars Work?

E collars have a couple of different names. Some of the most common are:

• shock collars
• electric collars
• dog training collars (not synonymous with shock collar type devices)
• anti-barking collars(not synonymous with shock collar type devices)

Whatever name they are referred to as, the electric shocking versions all work the same.

The collar is attached to your dog’s neck and sends an electric shock through it’s neck which travels through it’s body. The e collar is activated by using a handheld device.

The collars can give a varying duration and strength of stimulation depending on the type of collar you’ve bought. These electric shock collars usually work by causing pain to the dog.

If the dog is barking and you don’t want it to, you trigger a shock using the handheld device for the dog to remain silent. After a period of time, the dog relates the pain with barking and will not bark when it feels the electric stimulus. E collars are unfortunately not illegal in the United States but are banned in some countries because they have numerous negative effects on your dog.

What Are The Side Effects of E Collar Training?

Using pain as a motivator when training your dog has a number of side effects. Some of these side effects include:

• Negative associations – when you expose your dog to a lot of pain during training, it can have negative associations with the environment, nearby objects or even people. This may cause anxiety and eventually poor relationship between the dog, the environment and the owner.
• Aggressive behavior – your dog can also start being aggressive towards people as a way of saving itself. It is important to know that each dog is different a hence the aggressive behavior may vary.
• Irritation and inflammation – although the manufacturers state that the collar gives a mild shock, the electric shock inflicted on the dog causes irritation and inflammation. This is another reason why the dog can become aggressive and have negative associations towards people and their environment. If the collar is used for a long period of time, the dog may have some physical damage e.g. rashes, burns, etc. especially if high electric shocks are used.
• Elevated stress – when your dog is exposed to frequent electric shocks, pain and anxiety for a period of time, it gets very stressed up. One way to know if your dog is stressed out is if it becomes aggressive even without an apparent reason.
• Vocal Damage – the constant shock can lead to mild or severe damage to your dog’s vocal cords. It can start with hoarseness and worsen to the point of complete voice loss.

Why Using A Shock Collar Is Not An Effective Method To Train Your Dog

In addition to severe side effects, there are some more reasons why you do not want to use a shock collar when training your dog such as:

• Accidental shocks – most people prefer having the collar on their dogs at all time. This helps them easily use the handheld device (remote control) to silence the dog whenever it barks. However, doing this has drawbacks as sometimes the shock button might be triggered accidentally. When this happens, your dog may get shocked without even barking. It is even worse if you have kids that are playing or trying to train the dog themselves. It may turn out to be very unbearable for your dog and your training will become null and void.
• Poor customization – most shock collars have poor customization options besides adjusting the shock intensity. Having on an uncomfortable collar will make your dog uncomfortable and irritable which can lead to agression. In addition, you have to spend some time finding the right intensity for your dog. This process of adjusting can be quite cruel as well.
• There are better alternatives – there are better alternative methods of training your dog instead of using a shock collar. One preferred method is use of supersonic devices which rely on the use of sound and not electric shocks.

As technology continues to improve, there are better dog barking control devices coming out every day that you can use to train your dog without causing any pain, stress or discomfort. An example of this is supersonic dog training devices.

Not only are they safer but they are also more effective than shock collars when training your dog to stop barking. These devices emit a high-frequency tone that interrupts your dog’s barking.

When these devices are used to train your dog, they do not inflict any pain but rather act as an interruption to your dog while barking. With time the dog will learn not to bark.

The most important thing to remember is that you need to be patient because it is a process that you need to work closely with your dog. Be sure to read the manual, ask questions from the experts and get help from professionals in case you need any.

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