For the record e collars ARE NOT banned here in the UK. Everyone who thinks e collars aren't necessary at all (the general public and trainers) are the exact people who put dogs to sleep constantly due to them being 'dangerous' or they keep them alive but don't let them leave the house or spend time off the lead. Both are cruel. To add in a mild momentary stimulation from a high quality e collar to stop a dog from killing livestock, attacking a child or another dog is much better than putting that dog to sleep or letting that behaviour happen again. Time and time again I see people including trainers say the tools aren't necessary however they are not dealing with the same dogs we are. We are dealing with dogs that have dragged their owners across the street to attack someone, have pulled the lead right out of their owners hand and proceeded to kill sheep. This doesn't make them a 'bad dog' or 'past the point of help' just because a bag of dog treats don't solve the issue. If you believe in murdering a dog over a behaviour that has time and time again been stopped by using an e collar then that is cruel. Every dog we have ever trained (including our own) with an e collar are not shut down, miserable or worse because of it. They finally have off lead freedom and live happy lives. The tap of an e collar is no different to an adult dog than mum giving her puppy a firm nip because they have been naughty. Stop treating dogs like humans, that's incredibly disrespectful to the incredible breed that they are. Dogs are physical, just watch them communicate with us and other dogs, it's what they understand. Correct e collar use with a high quality collar creates happy balanced dogs and confident owners. We have achieved this time and time again. We are not putting e collars on every single dog we see irrelevant to their behaviour issue, that's ludicrous for anyone to think that's the case. We use lots of positive reinforcement and encourage the behaviours we want and correct those we don't in whatever way works for the dog, a firm no, a tap, the shake of a bottle or a spray collar. However we most definitely do use them when the dog is exhibiting a dangerous, self rewarding behaviour that needs interrupting for a split second so we can teach them what we DONT want them to do and what we DO. To ban this tool would just mean more and more dog attacks and more dogs being put to sleep that could've had a wonderful life and that's truly heartbreaking. If your dog trainer is positive only and you have a dog that has a serious and dangerous behaviour issue please be very careful. Leads restrain but they don't fix the issue, if your dog is still unpredictable on their lead it could slip and still cause issues. Using food with dangerous behaviours can be incredibly bad news because you can accidently reward your dog for being naughty which is most definitely not what you want. Always try to seek out a balanced trainer who has an open minded approach and will assess your dog as an individual and do whatever works best for you and them.
