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 dont 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: 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:
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.
Researchers also had this to say about their results:
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: