The Truth About Aversive Training Collars
Thanks to my wife Barbara Buck for helping me researching and editing this blog post.
Aversive dog training tools like e-collars, prong collars, and choke collars have been around for a long time, but in the last few years they’ve become all the rage. People use them for literally everything.
Want your dog to sit? Give him a little zap and he will always sit when you ask him to. Your dog has separation anxiety? No problem! Just press a button and your problems will all be gone. Have an aggressive dog? Not with an e-collar, you don’t.
Works great, right?
Let me preface what I’m about to say by telling you I feel certain that everyone who reads this loves their dogs and means them no harm.
I understand that having a dog who is considered reactive or aggressive can be a scary thing, and that losing a dog because of this behavior is an awful experience.
Plastic prong collars are not different than prong collars
I will also admit that when I first got into the training business, my mentor suggested aversive tools like the e-collar as a viable solution to getting rescues adopted faster. I got one and tried it out because after researching it extensively, I bought into what the manufacturers told me.
12 years ago I came to the conclusion I was wrong, and that e-collar, prong, and choke collar manufacturers are lying just to sell you something. There is an $8 billion pet industry behind it making sure that you believe that they are a safe and harm-free way to train your dog.
In no way am I criticizing or blaming anyone who has used them because that would be hypocritical of me. You don’t know what you don’t know. However, I want you to understand exactly why so many countries and national organizations have banned e-collars and other aversive training tools like choke and prong collars.
The truth is that aversive tools can actually harm your dog both physically and emotionally, and don’t give you any sort of advantage over positive training methods. They can also irrevocably harm your relationship with your dog.
If I sound biased, it’s because I’ve spent many years working with dogs who have become reactive and even aggressive because of aversive methods being used on them. I’ve also spent countless years studying the research about this topic, which supports my experience.
Don’t listen to me, listen to the words of countless countries, vets, national rescues, and professional organizations that have banned the use of them. I’ve also got science on my side.
Let’s take a look at the myths around aversive tools, and what science has to say about them.
Myth: Dogs Trained with E-collars Have No More Stress Than Those Who Don’t
63 pet dogs with recall issues were studied to see if there was a statistically significant difference between those trained with e-collars and those who were trained without. One third were trained with e-collars by professional trainers, another third were trained by the same trainers without them, and a third were trained without them and with different trainers.
The dogs were videotaped before, during, and after training, and tested for cortisol to see how stressed they were. 92% of the dog’s owners said that their recall was much better, but there was no significant difference between the dogs trained with and without e-collars.
What they did find significant is that dogs trained with e-collars had higher cortisol levels before, during, and after training sessions, exhibited more stress behaviors like yawning and tails between the legs, and were less engaged with their surroundings and their owners. (1)
The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior
In August 2021 AVSAB has released their updated statement on dog training that will replace their former statement on the use of punishment.
“Many methods of changing behavior in dogs are effective; however, the evidence-based veterinarian or behavior consultant should be concerned not just with what is effective but what does the least harm and produces the best long-term results.”
Conclusion
"Based on current scientific evidence, AVSAB recommends that only reward-based training methods are used for all dog training, including the treatment of behavior problems. Aversive training methods have a damaging effect on both animal welfare and the human-animal bond. There is no evidence that aversive methods are more effective than reward-based methods in any context.
AVSAB therefore advises that aversive methods should not be used in animal training or for the treatment of behavior disorders."
Researchers also had this to say about their results:
“Owners of dogs trained using e-collars were less confident of applying the training approach demonstrated. These findings suggest that there is no consistent benefit to be gained from e-collar training but greater welfare concerns compared with positive reward-based training.”
There have been a number of studies that confirm these findings.
table from the Schalke et al. (2006) with descriptions on how dogs were separated in this study to measure the effect of predictability and control of electric shock:
Myth: Aversive Tools Save Dog’s Lives Because They Are A Quick Fix
There is a disturbing trend in animal rescue to promote e-collars as a way to save a dog’s life. One shelter employee had this to say about the use of shock collars:
“Here is the moral dilemma faced thousands of times a day across the US. When you don't use this tool the dog dies. Is killing the dog less harmful? I prefer to choose life unless the dog is dangerously aggressive and unsafe in civilized society or irremediably suffering." (2)
While this may sound like a compelling argument, it’s not true.
Not only do dogs trained with aversive methods exhibit more signs of clinical stress, but there are no studies that conclude that dog owners and trainers have better results with aversive training methods like shock collars, prong, and choke collars.
Categorisation of the 12 training techniques into the three training method types.
Let me repeat that:
There are NO studies that verify that aversive training tools are more effective, get better results, or cause less stress than correctly executed positive reinforcement. (3)
Studies also conclusively show that owners who are not dog trainers have a difficult time using the collars correctly, while owners shown positive reinforcement methods don’t have that problem. (4)
Breed type, trauma, and personality traits all factor into how a dog is going to react to aversive methods. Most herding and guarding breeds are too emotionally sensitive for them. Different breeds also have different levels of skin sensitivity, which can change depending on how excited the dog is. (5)
In all honesty, I’ve grown tired of having to help dog owners who had a trainer use an e-collar for behaviors that could be quickly corrected like leash pulling or counter surfing, and their dog became aggressive or fear reactive as a result.
Myth: E-Collars/Prong/Choke Collars are Safe and Pain-Free
Organizations like the American Animal Hospital Association, the British Small Animal Veterinary Association, the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, and many more, view aversive tools as physically unsafe. They strongly discourage people from their use due to so many cases they’ve had to treat. (6) (7) (8) (9)
Here are a few examples of the most common injuries dogs can receive from these tools:
Pressure necrosis (blisters, rub spots, holes)
Strangulation
Cuts
Cardiac arrest
Death
See entire photo gallery with pictures from dogs with damages from collars on their skin (viewers discretion advised) Click Here to view photos
Many of the more inexpensive remote training-collars are poorly made and can short out in weather, causing a dog to be constantly shocked or even burned. Another common issue with quality is that since remote collars work on radio signals, anything with a signal, including doorbells, can turn it on.
I had an experience with quality issues with a client. Many years ago a client briefly used an electric containment fence to make sure their dog stayed in the yard. I was called to find out why the dog would not leave his bed. I noticed that every time the dog passed the radiator, he was trembling, his collar would beep like he’d been at the fence parameters. Turns out the invisible-fence-collar had an issue with grounding in their 100-year-old house that was causing the problem.
Prong and choke collars can also cause physical pain to a dog, and can cause damage to the neck. Dr. Soraya V. Juarbe-Diaz has this to say about the use of these collars:
“...they can do incredible damage to the dog’s neck since they can become embedded in the skin if the dog learns to override them.
Most dogs learn to override these collars and people who use them often voluntarily comment that they need to use some degree of pain to control their animals under some circumstances.
These collars, if sharpened – as is often the case – are intended to employ pain to encourage the dog to attend to the person. If left unsharpened, these collars are intended to provide more uniform pressure than a choke collar.
We use force, pain, and fear to train animals because we can get away with it, in spite of sufficient scientific data in both humans and dogs that such methods are damaging and produce short-term cessation of behaviors at the expense of durable learning and the desire to learn more in the future.
Oddly, prong collars were intended to be a safer improvement over choke collars. That’s not how it has worked.”(10)
Myth: Dogs Love Their E/Choke/Prong Collars
I’ve heard this more times than I can count. “My dog gets really excited when I pull the collar out, so he must love it. He even wags his tail when I put it on him!” I hate to burst your bubble, but it’s not true. Dogs love what they identify the collar with, not the collar itself.
They don't love it, they tolerate it, at best. Here’s why. Dogs are emotional beings. They define themselves by their environment. Their motivations and choices depend on how they feel about what goes on in their world, and their needs and wants serve a purpose, to either survive or thrive.
Dogs have primary and secondary motivations (11). An example of a primary motivation is the dog wanting to go outside because he needs to go to the bathroom. A secondary motivation is that since he needs his owner to go outside, he accepts wearing the collar that his owner gives him.
He wags his tail and gets excited because he associates the collar with having his needs met, not because he likes it.
Myth: Test the collar on your skin to feel what the dog feels
The epidermis of a dog is 3-5 cells thick however in humans it is at least 10-15 cells thick. Testing the e/collar on your skin is not a valid comparison, this can cause the shock to feel much more intense to a dog.
Around the neck dogs have very dense sensory network of five different sensors
The dogs skin especially around the neck detects forces that bombard the body's surface. In metazoans, an assortment of morphologically and functionally distinct mechanosensory cell types are tuned to selectively respond to diverse mechanical stimuli, such as vibration, stretch, and pressure. A comparative evolutionary approach across mechanosensory cell types and genetically tractable species is beginning to uncover the cellular logic of touch reception.
In Journal of biology scientist describe how the sensitive mammalian skin is.
Touch-sensitive afferents that innervate mammalian skin display morphological, functional, and developmental diversity. As shown, lanceolate endings, Merkel cell–neurite complexes, Ruffini endings, and free nerve endings innervate hairy skin. These receptors have unique neuronal outputs, making classification feasible by electrophysiological recording from intact tissue. Lanceolate endings serve as rapidly adapting or down hair afferents. The latter are exceptionally sensitive light-touch receptors that depend on Neurotrophin-4 for proper development (Stucky et al., 1998). Merkel cell–neurite complexes mediate slowly adapting type I (SAI) responses, which are characterized by an irregular firing pattern during sustained pressure (Wellnitz et al., 2010), Ruffini endings have been proposed to mediate stretch-sensitive slowly adapting type II (SAII) responses (Chambers et al., 1972). Developmental pathways have not yet been defined for these receptors. Free nerve endings, which abundantly innervate the epidermis, include nociceptors and low-threshold C-fibers (Seal et al., 2009). Pacinian corpuscles are lamellar vibration receptors that produce rapidly adapting responses. In glabrous skin of the palms and fingertips, Pacinian corpuscles, rapidly adapting Meissner’s corpuscles (not depicted), Merkel cell–neurite complexes, and free nerve endings make up the majority of touch receptors.
Conclusion: Aversive Training Tools Aren't Worth It
A remote-collar may stop your dog from showing aggression or other behavior issues, but it doesn't mean his problem has been solved. Choke and prong collars may keep your dog from pulling you over, but they don’t address the reason the dog is pulling in the first place.
By using aversive tools, you've silenced your dog for expressing his emotions.
Remote training-collars are shown to be emotionally stressful to your dog because the problem he or she has ( fear, concern, frustration) is never addressed.
Your dog may show, in a best-case scenario, signs of helplessness, and in worst case, signs of emotional abuse, avoidance, and even aggression. I've worked with literally thousands of dogs who were trained with aversive or “balanced” methods, and started showing these behaviors soon after the training.
The science resoundingly agrees on aversive training methods; they aren’t more effective or quicker than positive, relationship-based training, and can even cause physical harm or even death to your beloved friend. There is no reason they should be used.
Resources:
1. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4153538/
3.www.whole-dog-journal.com/behavior/leash-barrier-reactivity/do-electric-shock-collars-harm-dogs/
4. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4153538/
5.https://dogtime.com/dog-breeds/characteristics/sensitivity-level
6.www.emotions-r-us.com/behaviour/shock-collars-what-manufacturers-dont-want-you-to-know/
7. https://www.aaha.org/aaha-guidelines/behavior-management/behavior-management-home/
8. https://www.canadianveterinarians.net/documents/humane-training-methods-for-dogs
9.www.bva.co.uk/uploadedFiles/Content/News,_campaigns_and_policies/Policies/Ethics_and_welfare/BVA%20position%20on%20Aversive%20training%20devices%20for%20dogs_PS20JUL2016.pdf10.https://wagsandwiggles.com/prong-collar-professionals-say/