# Dog shock Collars



## Little_LongEared_Lover2931 (Nov 4, 2012)

Dog shock collars seem to have a very negative view from a lot of people. They are compared to tasers and people say they are a form of abuse. I personally think that they can be used as training tools for stubborn dogs. What do you think about them? I dont belive that they should be used as punishment or at a higher setting then needed.


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## agnesthelion (Nov 4, 2012)

It depends on how they are used. If they are used with an adequate setting, and not used to punish the dog, I think they are fine.

Sometimes when used in hunting, the handler can get a little trigger crazy and shock the dog over every little thing. Not only is that cruel, but it's lazy training and the dog can get desensitized to it and it defeats the purpose.

Invisible fencing is a great tool and if you've ever seen a dog properly (key word properly) trained on invisible fencing, they usually don't need to get shocked more than a couple times to learn the boundaries......which again proves my point that over shocking isnt necessary.

I also disagree with shocking when they bark. Barking is a natural vocal response to dogs and I don't agree with punishment for that.

So, I guess I'm in the middle. There is a right and wrong way to use them.


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## JessicaK (Nov 4, 2012)

Yep, _when used correctly_, they can be a great tool.


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## kmaben (Nov 4, 2012)

Same as everyone else. When used correctly and on the proper setting it's an amazing tool. A taser is completely different from a shock collar. Even on the highest setting a shock collar has no where near the dropping power of a taser. I have a husky lab mix. The husky in him is as stubborn as they come. He would always run like hell whenever he got lose. We tried several dog trainers and every method in between to keep him from running. The shock collar was the only thing we could use to get him to come back. You dont ever start it out on the highest setting. I think the highest it took for Sam was a 3 out of 5. I tried it out on myself (and of course the husband :biggrin2 and it didn't hurt. Just scared the jeewhiz out of me. That's all it should be. An attention getter.


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## Watermelons (Nov 4, 2012)

Yup, when used correctly, if OTHER methods have been tried first. However....
Just like chokes and martingales... 99.999999% of the people that have them, DONT USE THEM PROPERLY!


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## littl3red (Nov 4, 2012)

I don't generally agree with them. My mom brought a bark collar home for our Pomeranian and I was FURIOUS. I mean yeah, his barking gets annoying, but is it really enough to warrant physical punishment? When he barks, I put him in time out. He doesn't get let out to play until he stops barking. My mom goes and tries to shock him. Luckily, his fur was so thick that it didn't affect him.

I think that if the dog is aggressive or putting itself in danger with some behavior, and the circumstances are dire, they can be used for behavioral modification purposes. But ONLY when necessary.


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## BunnyLove89 (Nov 4, 2012)

I'm torn. My aunt and uncle had a dog, Jack, and my aunt would get trigger happy and would shock him repeatedly. 
The only time I seriously considered it for one of my dogs (a big pug) was when she started attacking my chihuahua. I talked to her trainer about it and it was decided that being shocked would just cause her to latch on harder as opposed to letting go of my other dog. Since then (over 2 years ago) we put up a baby gate to divide the house in 2 and now we don't have that issue.
I think depnding on the situation and if they are used correctly, shock collars are effective. I just haven't had much personal experience with them when it comes to my dogs.


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## whitelop (Nov 4, 2012)

I was a nanny for a household that used a shock collar for their Australian Shepherd. He was CRAZY! When the door bell rang, he would attack things, he nipped the girls friends, he would take off down the street after kids on bikes. He had an invisible fence too, but they only shock once and he would take the shock to chase a kid. hahaha. 
It was funny, but it was so stressful. The collar they had, had a beeper on it to try to get his attention before you had to shock him. I tried not to shock him, I tried to just beep him to break his focus from whatever it was, but most of the time he didn't care about the beep. He didn't care about the shock either. 

I think when used correctly they are fine, but people don't use anything correctly it seems.


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## 1357bunnylover (Nov 5, 2012)

I hate them! Thankfully they are banned in the UK!


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## fuzz16 (Nov 5, 2012)

I have tested them on myself and their not really that bad, honestly like a shock you get from touching something lol. I have used them on my sisters dog and its been good for her. my dog i would never put one on him though, hes so flincy itd make him worse. he is very food driven so i train him that way. 
but it comes down to the dogs problems, personality, and the type of training needed. i think they can be great if used the right way  
but in the wrong hands, anything from a shock collar to a leash, can be used abusively


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## MiniLopHop (Nov 5, 2012)

The only person I know that used it I agree with. They have 2 Huskies that they had to use the collars on briefly because they wanted to eat the cat. Once they got the idea that if they got too close to the cat they would get a shock, then they left the cat alone and didn't need the collars again. So in this case it was a life or death sort of situation and used less than a month.

I agree that how they are used is the most important thing and most people don't know how to use them carefully. Sometimes making them unavailable to the masses is a wiser choice than risking the misuse.


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## Ape337 (Nov 5, 2012)

I think it's important to know your dog very well before using a shock collar. Some breeds are very pain insensitive and would not react at all. Also a dog with a very high prey drive may not respond either. My rottweiler fit into both of those categories.

I knew one person that used one on his American bulldog and it made him extremely aggressive so he stopped using it.

I never used one on my Rottweiler when he was alive and I never would. That's just my opinion, I like a more hands on approach to dog training with focusing the dog's attention on the owner with bribery, positive reinforcement, and my great big mouth that can be heard for miles, lol.

I must admit chewy was a very trainable dog. He was extremely intelligent, eager to please, and food driven. If food was near nothing else existed in the world. I once had him on a very busy sidewalk in summer at the beach, with hundreds of people walking right behind him with kids, dogs, noisy people. His eyes stayed right on my tub of thrashers french fries! More than one person cracked up laughing :biggrin:


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## degrassi (Nov 5, 2012)

I agree that it depends on the dog and situation. Other options need to be tried first though. 

My dog barks a lot.I guess he's living up to his name, Barkley. We tried training, even got BarkBusters to come to the house to train my family. He's a well behaved dog but would freak out at the mailman and bark while we weren't home(so we weren't there to correct him). My parents wanted to get a shock bark collar but I wouldn't let them. I knew it would freak Barkley out. Instead I found vibration bark collar and it worked perfectly. It only took 2 times of having the vibration go off. Now we put it on him and its not even turned on. We call it his "Good boy collar" as he is much calmer when its on and doesn't patrol the window. He likes it as he gets excited when its time to put it on.

Also my friend uses a shock collar invisible fence on her cat. Her cat and her husbands cat have never gotten along and fight. So her cat wears a collar that doesn't let her go upstairs. So one cat gets the main floor and one upstairs. She was worried about the shock too but there isn't non shocking invisible fences. Her kitty quickly figured it out and doesn't get shocked very often. But the smart cat figured out that if she goes close it gives a warning beep and sits there beeping until she wears the battery down, lol. 

I don't really agree with shocking dogs as a constant form of training, but in certain situations it can be used properly.


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## audrinasmommy88 (Nov 5, 2012)

I have a rottweiler/beagle mix...very stubborn, determined dog. She started jumping the fence at 10 weeks old. So I would go out with her and correct her to keep her from jumping the fence. Well, she started tearing up the house if I let her in while we were gone. So i had to put her out. So she started digging under the fence. So we got the invisible fencing with a regular shock collar. It worked for about a week and she started jumping again. She figured out that it would only shock her for a second and she could get through. So I got the stubborn dog collar. 5 different shock settings. I put it on the lowest. The way this one worked was if she jumped the fence, it would go to the next setting automatically. Needless to say, it got to the highest shock and she would still jump. So we got a cable chain and harness. Put her on that and she figured out how to get out of the harness. So I got a different style harness. Same thing...so now we have to put up a privacy fence. I am not against the shock collar as long as it isnt used as a punishment. But I hope that it works better for other peoples dogs than it did mine. She just didnt care about the shock AT ALL...brat!


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