Training collars—the use and misuse

This post is sponsored by Dog Training collars.

One of the posts I wrote sometime back concerned a veterinary hospital in Southern California that offered a course for dog owners who wanted to protect their dogs from the many poisonous snakes in the area.

The one-day course, conducted by a person trained in the use of electronic-collars, has been effective in keeping dogs away from deadly snakebites in a short time.

I got some indignant comments from readers who thought this was a savage way to treat a dog. Others thought this was the best way to save their dog’s life. (I also got a long email from an A/R group telling me how this training harms the snake psyche.)

I did a lot of research on positive ways to teach a dog to stay away from snakes and none of them seemed very effective. It would seem that any dog with a nose and a brain could tell the difference between a dead snake skin and a living, slithering snake making a noise.

One of the more critical commenters assured us that if her dogs ever found a snake, they would "run happily back to me for a treat." I'm afraid that in her world pigs fly through green skies.

I thought about returning to the topic, but I don’t have any personal experience. I don’t live in an area where poisonous snakes are a big problem. My little guys seem to get my logic to stay out of dangerous situations when they're off leash.

 

Recently I reviewed Ted Kerasote’s excellent book, Pukka's Promise.  He brings out a lot of controversial topics, one of which is the use of the electronic collar.

Pukka had been trained from puppyhood to obey recall and “Leave it” commands, but large dogs with high prey drive are hard wired to chase. When they get into a zone, there is little a trainer can do to keep them out of danger.

One time he had Pukka on a lunge line to work on recall. He fastened the line to the trailer hitch on his car while he searched his pockets for his silent whistle. Suddenly Pukka scented a covey of birds and he was off.

The line caught Kerasote across his ankles, flipping him to the ground and stopping Pukka in mid stride.

When I struck the ground, I broke two ribs. Lying there, my chest stabbing with pain at every breath and seeing him sprawled on the ground sixty feet from me, I wondered, “How is this positive reinforcement?”

It was then that he considered the use of an electronic collar.

What he found was that today's collars are much more technologically advanced than the shock collars of old. Trying it on his own neck, he experiences the “shock” as the “sting of a determined mosquito.” It has also been described as being like static electricity, not really painful, but it gets your attention and you want to avoid it.

He didn’t have to use it until two weeks later. They are practicing recall when Pukka suddenly gets the scent of deer and he's off, ignoring commands to leave it and return. Kerasote gives him the lowest level of shock.

It was as if the hand of God came down from the heaven. Pukka skidded to a stop and stared at the deer with a surprised look that said “How did you do that?”

He sprinted back to Kerasote.

“The weirdest thing just happened, Ted. I was chasing these deer and I got this annoying sting on my neck.”

 

Of course we can keep our dogs from danger by always keeping them on a leash or a line. That is something every dog owner should decide. But an intelligent use of a training collar might allow the high-spirited dog to have more freedom with less danger.

Using e-collars is a decision each dog owner should make. They should never be used for punishment, but they can be an effective training tool if used intelligently. More information at Dog Training Collars.

Comments

[Jerry]

I have used them sparingly on my hunting dogs and they have been most effective. Sometimes you have to just get the dogs attention.

[jet]

Snake bites are a huge problem for dogs in regional areas and even the outer suburban fringe here. I know of a jack russell who survived two bites, and killed many snakes. If there was a good way to stop him hunting snakes it would have saved many snakes, a lot of money, and probably prolonged his life.

[mb.]

so I read that first part as an accounts receivable group was worried about snake psyches. I guess my business days are not so far behind me as I would like to believe.

Here in central FLA, we have quite the poisonous snake problem. Recently, we are not sure why, there has been an uptick in coral snakes (they are usually rare, during my runs last fall I recorded seeing corals four times on or near the trail; not the mimic, I can tell the difference, but an actual coral.

Anyhow, you probably don't know that corals do not have much of a bite, their teeth cannot usually bite through leather (or a thick dog pelt), but their venom is particularly nasty & a dog that picks a dead one up can take that toxin in orally. Our vet has seen 2 known cases in the past year, of older, sedate, well behaved, routinely off leash dogs that died of coral venom symptoms & in one case the dog carried an obviously hit-by-a-car coral back to the owner & died en route to the vet. He suspects there have been others but he didn't put 2&2 together until the one whose owner brought the dead snake in a bag arrived. Since then he has been tracking them & thinks he has seen one more; the symptoms match & the story matched but they did not bring the snake.

A long way of saying that stay away training is NEVER a bad idea. Unlike many dangers to a dog (cars, other dogs, etc.) snakes can & do come right into the yard or other off-leash area.

[Sherry in MT]

I love your comment about the a/r group! Made me laugh. I think ANY tool can be misused, not that I'm for or against ecollars. I do think the harsher the training tool however, the more educated and specific the training must be! I know around here snake aversion training is also done with ecollars.

[Purrfectly Pets]

I'm glad you choose to write about this, I've been trying to stress the importance of the correct use of training collars!

[Jodi]

I'm not a big fan of the e-collar myself, but I did allow Hubby to use one on Sampson. he was only zapped a couple of times, but still I don't care for the idea at all, but I do see the benefit of having something that could stop my dog in its tracks if need be.

[Jen @MyBrownNewfies]

I don't have any experience with e-collars but I do use a choke collar when walking my dogs and sometimes get ridiculed for that. I use that type of collar because it offers more control over them if needed. I think the key here is like you said, when used intelligently.

[Becky]

I think the e-collars are a good tool if needed. I thought I was going to have to get one for Molly but she is doing much better. She gets a lot of free roaming time in the woods and pastures though.

[Kirsten]

This is so fascinating that you posted this now because I was just thinking about this tonight. I don't like the idea of e-collars myself but I am reminded of a passage, I think from Patricia McConnell's The Power of Positive Dog Training, in which she discussed a dog who was chasing cattle putting himself and the cattle at great risk. Owner and trainer were at a loss to figure out a positive way to resolve this behavior, so finally resorted to firing a gun into the air when the dog started chasing. This was so aversive to the dog that she never chased cattle again.

I was struck by the example, but also by McConnell's statement that she always felt that there should be some way to resolve this with positive methods, and that if she thought about it enough or had enough time to find it, she would. But I do see that sometimes a situation is so dangerous, aversive methods can seem like the only solution.

[Donna]

I personally would never use one, because of a bad experience with a vulgar trainer...but I can see in how the right hands...and for very limited reasons (like the snake training) they could be useful.

I'm lucky if I see a garter snake here, and no, I don't think my dogs would just "leave-it" if they found one.

[yellowdoggranny]

I took Nate the 110 pound gentle as a lamb pitty bull dog to obedience school..we flunked..she said he was the alpha and was dominate..I said he weighs 110 pounds I have a bad back and can't keep jerking on him to teach him not to jump on people and put his paws on the mans junk and make him cry..she said he was arrogant because he was so big and ruled everything ...I said well maybe we can teach him to keep me on the leash instead. we got kicked out.

[2 brown dawgs]

We use an ecollar to train our dogs all of the time. You may have seen pictures of them with the collars on as they are never not on the dogs while they train. Ecollars are an effective training tool to reinforce a concept that the dog already knows. However, people should not just go out and get a collar and strap it on their dogs and start pushing the button. There is a correct way to use them and if a person doesn't know the correct way, then best not use one at all.

[Pamela]

Your post title was very telling. Most people who buy e-collars don't use them to keep their dogs from getting killed by snakes or mountain lions.

[Cockapoo Grooming]

Great post. I just located your blog and wished to let you know that I have certainly loved reading your blogs. At any rate I’m going to be subscribing to your feed and I really hope you are writing again soon.