The Truth About the Shock Collar
The shock collar is a collar designed to electrocute a dog. The shock is not similar to that of an e-collar. An e-collar uses a stimulation, while the shock collar uses electricity. The shock can burn, generate heat, and cause physical as well as mental harm to a dog.
A Study on Two Groups of German Shepherd Dogs
A study was conducted a group of German Shepherd Dogs. There were 16 dogs that received shocks in recent past (S-dogs), and 15 control dogs that received similar training but have never been shocked. (C-dogs)
The training sessions were used in which no shocks were used and the behavior of the two dog groups were recorded. During free walking on the training grounds, the S-dogs showed a lower ear posture and more stress-related behaviors then C-dogs.
During obedience training and man work, the same differences were recorded. A comparison between the behavior of C-dogs with that of the S-dogs during free walking and obedience exercise in a park showed similar differences.
Differences between the two groups of dogs existed even though the C-dogs were trained in a harsh way.
The S-dogs showed stress during training, such as lowered ear positions. This means that because of the shock being used in training, the S-dogs found shock free training stressful.
The study also touches on how the dogs expect the shocks to come from the presence of the owner or the use of the commands. There are other studies on the same website as well as lots of resources. https://banshockcollars.ca/studies.php (TRAINING DOGS WITH HELP OF THE SHOCK COLLAR: SHORT AND LONG TERM BEHAVIOURAL EFFECTS)
Arguments in Favor of Shock Collar Training
Many in favor of using the shock collar argue that it hurts the dog, so it teaches the dog a lesson. Of course, getting hurt does teach a dog not to do something. If a dog gets too close to fire and got hurt from the fire, the dog would learn that fire isn’t something that should be messed with and so a lesson was learned as a result of pain. But this is teaching by association and experience. The pain is the experience and the association is the fire.
If someone used the shock to teach a dog not to bark, and the dog gets shocked every time it barks, the association wouldn’t be there. There was no clear warning that it was going to happen, and barking is a behavior displayed in many different scenarios, so it would be extremely difficult to build the association. If the dog was barking at a person walking by the dogs territory and got shocked, the dog is likely to make the incorrect association and could end up thinking that it's the person that shocked the dog, causing even more issues than before because now the dog thinks that people are attacking him. If the dog is trained to know that the shock comes from a disappointed owner, just like the study I referenced found out, the dog that is shocked will associate the trainer, the commands, or even training as a stressful experience.
Some try to claim that the shock collar doesn’t hurt dogs. This of course is absolutely incorrect. When shocked, a dog will yike or display signs of pain, discomfort or stress in anticipation or as a result of the shock. In comparison to the use of the e-collar, the displays of pain, discomfort, or stress never happen when the e-collar is used correctly in training. On top of the signs of pain being communicated by the dog, many dogs have had burns or sores from where the contact points have shocked the dogs skin. These burns and sores are directly from the shock being transmitted through the contact points to the skin. Of course, the e-collar is known to cause sores from rubbing the dogs skin too much, but the e-collar never creates burns from shocks and these sores are avoidable, sores from a shock collar are less avoidable. To avoid sores from an e-collar contact points rubbing, one can avoid leaving the collar on for long periods of time and changing the collars position on the dog's neck from time to time.
