With forums and articles and blogs scattered about, it’s not a stretch to claim that some dog owners get the impression that using electronic dog collar only constitutes a program of using pain to make dogs fear engaging in a particular behavior. Actually, if the point was to use pain, then the shocks delivered would be way above the voltage of the level actually used - which is lower than the static electricity one feels on carpets. If a dog keeps on barking, then the more that behavior gets interrupted the more the dog may want to avoid that behavior - naturally, the interruption should cause some amount of discomfort for the dog to pay attention to it.

So there’s nothing here about debilitating pain used - just a low volt shock. Remember that the low volt shock is so low it’s only annoying at the most, so the dog doesn’t get hurt. Any training routine making use of static correction only aims to consistently interrupt bad behavior, that way the unpleasant experience is linked by the dog to the shocks and avoided.

Shocks activated in the collar can be done in two ways - via a sensing mechanism on the collar itself or via a remote control in your hands. One type is activated by both the dog’s bark (the sound) and the throatal vibrations from that bark. This facilitates secure activation, meaning the collar will trigger only when your dog actually barks, and not through some loud sudden sound in the environment. The remote controlled collar activates when it receives signals from a transmitter roughly the size of a small cellular phone. The first type - the bark-activated type - works indoors and outdoors, but works only to interrupt and suppress one particular behavior, which is barking.

Your dog may even engage in digging up the soil in your garden (or someone else’s), or clawing up and peeing on your prized furniture. The exact moment you’re dog is about to or just performed an unwanted behavior, you can activate the collar to send the static shock message - you don’t approve of that behavior. That’s how useful remote dog collars can be - it can be used in any obedience training program. From pet containment and anti-barking to hunting routines and agility training, there are a lot of possibilities.

This idea of using an annoying stimulus, like a static shock, to interrupt a dog’s behavior is also present in other dog collars. The dog collars that do not make use of shocks as the behavior-disruptive stimuli use scented sprays or high pitched sounds.

You will notice a learned response from your dog the longer it spends time with the collar on, and as it gets used to the shocks following every bad behavior. Even after just a few hours with an electronic dog collar, your dog will act a bit bewildered, since it’s trying to find out the source of the shock.

Bookmark to: