Dog biscuits vs electric collars

[iiyamadude 6]

Thinking of getting a dog and read this a friend sent me which I found interesting. I didn't know about these electric shock collars, how common are/were they?

 

 

Quote:

Next time I go to Wales I am going to wear an extra thick pair of trousers. In fact, I might just stay over this side of the Severn Bridge and listen out for the howls of delinquent dogs. Confirming its reputation as a body committed to the really big issues in national life, the Welsh Assembly yesterday banned the use of electric collars for the training of pooches. Anyone caught using one will be liable for a fine of £20,000 or six months in jail.

 

Let’s just get this right: administer a little electric shock to your doggy to remind him not to chase sheep and you now face a longer sentence than is received by many muggers and even some rapists. There is definitely some punishment freakery going on here, but it isn’t on the part of the dog owners.

 

Not having been born with four legs and a tail, I can’t say for sure what it is like to be a dog with a few volts put through my neck. But I am pretty sure it can’t be much different from being a sheep and nudging your nose against an electric fence — a device that I suspect the Welsh Assembly will be loath to ban for fear of destroying one of the country’s main industries. I am also pretty certain that, were I a dog, I would sooner get the message that it is wrong to bite people if I were given an electric shock than I would by the alternative method of dog training suggested yesterday by the RSPCA: a system based entirely on “reward-based methodsâ€.

 

In other words, the ban on electric collars has been inspired by the same progressive-minded claptrap that has already ruined discipline in many schools: a philosophy that precludes any punishment of bad behaviour and relies entirely on rewarding good behaviour.

 

The problem with this approach is what do you do when your child/puppy just doesn’t want to play ball? You can’t teach your child not to run into the road purely by patting him on the head every time he refrains from doing this: you will soon have a dead child on your hands. Neither can you teach Fido not to bite the postman solely by giving him a biscuit every time he leaves the poor fellow alone: if the dog picks up the message at all, your postman will long since have retired with a lacerated backside.

 

I am not advocating electric collars for children, by the way: there are plenty of other methods for letting your displeasure be known to them. But in the less emotionally complex world of canine behaviour a moderate electric shock is surely just the equivalent of the naughty step. There is an alternative method of discipline that involves no pain at all, but it isn’t one that will do the dog much good: it is a bullet through the head when it is found worrying sheep.

[Mantas 3]

Very effective training tool. Dogs don't like them thats for sure. The voltage is adjustable BTW.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

and I guess with the adjustable strap, they'd fit round a kids neck too!!

[Go Native 70]

The reward based method is extremely effective and certainly working dogs like guide dogs for the blind, some of the best trained dogs on the planet, are trained with this method. The thing is it takes a lot of work and using the stick rather than the carrot is generally a lot easier, at least for the owner. Many trainers though would argue it is not as effective. The guy above says he's not advocating the use of electric collars for children so I guess many would argue if you wouldn't do it to your children why would you consider doing it to an animal?