The electronic collar has been called unfair and that reward methods are the kinder way to train
THE Kennel Club calls them ?cruel and outdated? and argues they inflict ?pain and fear?.
The RSPCA and the charity Dogs Trust says they are utterly ?unacceptable? while Beverley Cuddy, the editor of the magazine Dogs Today, has labelled them ?barbaric?.
They are referring to electric shock collars, which are used mainly on dogs for training purposes and which are, unbelievably, hugely popular across Europe and the US while an estimated 500,000 are in use in the UK.
Today the spotlight has fallen on these devices, which are widely available on the internet, after a dog owner in Wales became the first person to be prosecuted in Britain for using one. Since March they have been banned in Wales and this week Phillip Pook, a 48-year-old from the Vale of Glamorgan, was fined ?2,000 and ordered to pay ?1,000 costs for using a battery-operated collar to train his border collie Dougie.
Pook had used the collar to try to stop his pet jumping over a wall surrounding his property. Each time Dougie, who had repeatedly tried to escape, went near a specific fence the collar would emit an electric shock. The border collie was found wandering alone on a nearby beach wearing the illegal device and had been dubbed by local kennels as ?the dog with the shock collar?.
Chris Laurence, veterinary director of Dogs Trust
The RSPCA has welcomed Pook?s conviction and is now calling for the rest of the UK to follow Wales?s ban ? a move echoed by Beverley Cuddy. ?These collars are barbaric,? she says. ?It?s astonishing that these devices are available. If anyone was advocating their use on humans there would be a mass uproar but we?re using them on our best friend. It?s madness.?
A typical electric shock collar costs between ?50 and ?200, is made of heavy-duty plastic and contains a battery pack with two metal prongs which rest against the animal?s neck, ready to inflict a shock. Quite how painful this shock is could be open to debate. The Electronic Collars Manufacturers Association says the ?mild static stimulation that your dog feels is designed to be undesirable so your dog will avoid it, yet is totally harmless and humane.?
Rubbish, says Chris Laurence, veterinary director of Dogs Trust. ?That?s the standard manufacturer?s line but by definition these collars are painful. If they didn?t hurt they wouldn?t work ? you?re using something which is pretty strongly aversive to stop the dog doing something you don?t want it to do. I?ve actually tested out a collar on myself and I can assure you it?s painful.?
Cuddy agrees. ?You can set the level of shock on the collar but there are very high levels,? she says. ?The manufacturers say it?s nothing ? it?s like a static shock you get off a shopping trolley ? but it?s much more than that and the added problem is that dogs don?t understand where it?s coming from. All of a sudden they?ve got this awful pain and they don?t know why it?s happening.?
Broadly speaking there are three types of electric shock collar ? those used for boundary control (where the collar emits a warning beep if the pet gets too close to its boundary and if the dog ignores the sound and goes further it will be shocked), those which claim to stop the animal barking and remote control devices used at the owner?s discretion.
?With the second type a dog is shocked when it barks. The electric shock is set off by the noise but it also means that if a dog next to them barks they?ll still be shocked which is incredibly confusing for the animal,? says Cuddy. ?In the case of the remote devices, the owner presses a button when the dog does something the owner deems unacceptable and it?s given a shock but if you don?t want your dog to jump on the sofa, say, then train it not to using more humane methods.
?You don?t have to electrocute it. These collars can terrorise dogs. There are all sorts of horror stories of these things malfunctioning and the dog getting constantly shocked and burned on their neck. If these collars have to be used at all it should only be by a qualified dog handler and only if the alternative could result in the animal?s death ? where a dog is likely to be shot chasing sheep for instance.?
B OTH the RSPCA and the Dogs Trust advocate reward-based methods of dog training rather than such aversive methods as these collars. ?The use of electric shock devices is irresponsible and ineffective,? says the Dogs Trust.
?Under no circumstances do we condone the use of equipment or techniques that use punishment, pain or fear to train a dog. They are likely to compromise the welfare of dogs and may worsen behaviour. Every dog should be trained using kind, fair and reward-based methods.
?These are proven to be highly successful in modifying behaviour including aggression without subjecting dogs to cruelty. If a dog is barking excessively the first port of call should always be the vet so any medical issues can be ruled out. A dog could also be barking because he is frustrated, guarding, bored or scared, so to tackle the issue successfully it is important to understand why the barking is happening in the first place. We would recommend an owner visit a canine training and behaviour adviser to discuss the problem.?
One man who advocates the use of electric shock collars is Adrian Ward, the director of British Dog which supplies e-collars. ?People who are against these collars try to make out that owners use them as a way of cutting corners in training yet they are a last resort when an owner has used positive training methods, been to a trainer, behaviourist, breeder and vet to get advice on what to do when nothing has worked,? he says. ?We get referrals from vets because of the problem. I?ve used the collars on my own dogs as a last resort, believe me, not wanting to admit defeat in my own training. It?s an emotive issue because the word ?shock? paints a picture of the dog being in severe pain which is wrong.
?Some early shock collars were very uncomfortable ? but technology has moved on and the modern ?e-collar? is a lot more subtle but the stigma stuck. Most of my customers use the collar because their dog runs in the road, chases squirrels, foxes, rabbits, joggers, cyclists or small children. In my experience as a dog owner rather than as a supplier of training collars, the response from the dog is very quick and you hardly have to use the collar at all.
?There can be improvement in one or two days because they understand a bleep or vibration is followed by the tingling, prickly sensation that the dog doesn?t like and it soon stops whatever it is that you don?t want it to do rather than putting themselves in danger. Surely that is the best outcome??
Additional reporting: BONNIE ESTRIDGE
It?s not pleasant but it really does work
JAMES PUNTO lives in South London and owns a farm in Ireland. He trained his three-yearold boxer Sky to stop worrying sheep and running after horses by using an electronic collar on Sky in his local park. He says:
This was the only way to control the dog. The type of collar that I used had a vibrating action as the fi rst stage and if Sky didn?t stop chasing then the ?shock?certainly would have an effect. She was nearly trampled by two horses on our farm when she managed to get under a fence and into the fi eld ? she was obsessed with the horses.
It only took about a week of training for around 10 minutes a day, by the end of the week she responded totally to the pre-shock vibration and now she doesn?t need the collar at all. Is it barbaric? I?ve tried it on the back of my hand and it is not particularly pleasant but I could not describe it as barbaric in the least. I wouldn?t use it if it was.
All I can say is that Sky is no longer a danger to other animals, motorists ? if she should run in the road ? or herself. I?m sure there are other ways to train dogs involving treats, behaviourists or professional trainers but I can?t say that I found anything effective apart from the collar.
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The agreement will see the dogs training at the school 
