Question: Shock Collars

[Saint Butterfly]

Hey There,

I am hoping someone here may be Familuar with Shock Collars.
The Pit Bull I have mentioned in a Few other Post is Wearing one now.. Her owner has Finally started to try and Train her or atleast that is what he thinks.

I personally think this is a Bad idea, and it is making me even more Worried about the Dog Now.

Last night he was walking Down the Road with his Dog unleashed holding the remote to her dog Collar.. The Dog looks very Mad, and Scared.. She walks with her tail between her Legs not knowing when she is going to get Shocked.

When they passsed by our Driveway Butterfly freaked out... She dashed Down the Driveway going Crazy.. She Stood at the End of it barking very loud and angry. She never approached the Dog, But it seemed as if she was Mad at the Dog, Because she had Told that Dog to stay away from her Territory since the last Fight they had, But in the Pit Bulls defence she did look like she knew she was not supposed to be there.... Part of the Dog Law!... They know and understand their instinct.

Well, Now the Owner is trying to make My dog Seem like the Vicious one, And he feels like he is doing the right thing with the Collar.. He is even letting the Dog run Loose in his Yard with it on, Every now and again the Dog will go to far. Her owner will push the button, and you can hear her Yelp from getting Shocked..

I have no experience with these collars, But i would think after a while this is going to make The Dog even More Mad, and eventually she will snap.

What do you think?

Shell

[IheartBIGDogs25]

 I have a friend who puts a shock collar on her dog because he barks ALOT but the dog was well trained with it and he if fine with wearing the collar and he's an excellent dog she's never had an issue with him.
   I personally think that this guy should have taken the dog to a behaviorist and possibly a trainer instead of getting a shock collar or at least let someone who knows what they were doing train the dog on the shock collar. I did read your post about this dog chasing your son and it sounds like the dog is a little off to begin with and adding the shock for everytime the dog gets too far she just might snap.
  The last thing I want to add( I promise) is I own an American Pit Bull Terrier and he's great I don't believe these dogs "just snap" if the dog is treated badly the dog will react badly. I hope this kind of helps sorry it's so long!

[seaherons]

One of our local kennels has a few links to articles regarding the dangers of using shock collars on their website

http://www.ust.is/media/ljosmyndir/dyralif/Trainingdogswithshockcollar.pdf


http://www.cliniciansbrief.com/cms/portals/_default/pdfs/capsules/Aug_04_Cap02.pdf

 http://www.leaonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S15327604JAWS0304_6;jsessionid=niGPVPAUFSvaSL1H7T?cookieSet=1&journalCode=jaws

[Saint Butterfly]

IheartBigDogs2 5- Just for the record I want you to know that i am not against all Pit Bulls.. Some of my Post about them may have seemed like I was... I am only against Irresponsible Dog Owners..

Thanks for your Reply,
Thanks also for reading My Story about My Saint.. It is always nice to know that they get read. ( Big Smile )

Seaherons- Thankyou for the Links, I appreciate it!

Cheers,
shell

[IheartBIGDogs25]

I just wanted to add I'm sorry if I made it sound like you were accusing the pitbull of being mean I didn't mean for it to   and you are very welcome I love reading all of the posts!!! 

[Icerotti]

We had to do shock training with Puck our rotti. He had issues with other dogs when walking. We got him when he was 1 year old,so we are assuming he had a bad experience while on leash with another dog or dogs. We had tried all other methods with him. For general training a pinch collar worked well for him but he would nor respond to it when on lead.Our very experienced trainer suggest HE do a LITTLE bit of shock training with him. At that time the trainer was upset that shock collars were being sold to the general public because owners did not know how to use it correctly. I think the owner in your story falls into this category. Our trainer said it can really damage a dog if not used correctly. I belive that any dog subjected to that kind of "abuse" with a shock collar regardless of the breed is asking for trouble somewhere down the line. I feel so bad for the poor pitty.

[Duramax]

i also agree that the shock collar is being missused in this situation. i agree that it should be used as a last resort. and only very carefully even then. ive had to use one durring training in the past, as a last resort. i was in a high risk pregnancy and the dog was out of controll. it got to the point where it was either try the collar as a last resort or find him a new home. rule of thumb for a shock collar: when you are using it right you shouldnt have to use it hardly at all. it did fix the problem and since has been retired i do not think that a collar should be used as a regular day to day habbit either. and just for the record ( it may sound kinda crazy)...the dog im talking about was max by the way....before ever using the collar on the dog i tried it on my self (i told you crazy) to ensure my self he'd be ok. since i do not like the idea of pushing a button to stop behavior and have no idea what the dog is accualy experiencing. any hoo happy ending, max is a good boy, the pregnancy went well and every body's great. but that's my 2 cents

[Newly Newfed]

I used a shock collar on Sierra.  I was very apprehensive about it at first, but hubby said it would help because Sierra was SO BAD!!!  I tried everything i could think of and notheing worked.  Her behavior was just getting worse and worse.  So finally I relented, but insisted I feel it before putting it on the dog.  I figured if it didn't hurt me it wouldn't hurt her.  It didn't hurt it was just an uncomfortable feeling.  Kind of like touching your tongue to a 9 volt battery.  And it's a momentary feeling, not a continuous shock.  Well, it has worked wonders with her behavior.  She now understands that when we say no,it means no and she's just all around much more well-behaved.  Even commands we didn't use it for, she listens to now, for the most part.  It only took a couple of weeks and we rarely use it anymore.

Now although it can be a useful teaching aide, it unfortunately does have the potential to be misused.  If that dog was consistantly yelping whenever the button was pressed, then in my opinion, the dog was being abused.  We never had it turned up so high that Sierra yelped.  Just because the dog is behaving because it is afraid of being shocked, is not "training" your dog.  Sierra was given ample chances to obey our commands before we rsorted to pressing that button and it was only used to stop bad behavior such as her eating animal poop she would find outside.

So my opinion is, I'm not entirely against it, but it should be used with care and after everything else had been tried.

[seaherons]

I was aware that the owners of one of our local kennels are strongly against shock collars and found the links on their website.  I posted them in response to another post to provide some information that others may have not seen and to generate some discusion.