Dog Training Collars : Helping The Dog To Behave?
The use of dog training collars is fraught with controversy as these collars actually give the dog an electric shock as part of the training process and certainly cheap dog training collars that have no means of reducing the voltage are particularly frowned upon.
A storm rages as to the cruelty inflicted by a dog training collar and you will find arguments on both sides.
There are those people who think that the collar is a necessary part of the training programme and are very effective tools.
However there are also many dog lovers who regard them as a blatant form of animal cruelty, considering training collars nothing but instruments of torture.
It seems we live in a quick fix society, it takes time to train a dog and if you are not prepared to put in this time investment then maybe you should reconsider owning a dog.
Even the best dog training collars still deliver some form of electric shock to the dog.
Take a look at the arguments against dog training collars on the Dogs Trust website and you will see that many people consider quality training to involve some form of positive reward or treat as a much more preferable option.
So How Do Dog Training Collars Work?
Several methods for applying shocks are employed:
The trainer can have a hand held remote control and apply a shock when the undesired behaviour is experienced. Alternatively, dog training collars can be set to go off when the dog barks so that they are discouraged from doing so.
Another way to deploy the best dog training collars is to create an invisible boundary fence.
A wire is buried into the ground to mark out the limit over which the dog is not wanted to stray.
Then typically the collar is set to make a noise when the dog strays too near to the wire and then deliver a shock if the poor animal crosses the buried wire.
But there are alternative ways of restricting dogs that are more humane than dog training collars.
Instead of a shock you could rig up a system that makes a loud sound or sprays a harmless substance like citronella that the dog finds horrible and deters it from crossing the line again.
The point with these alternatives is that there is no damage inflicted upon the dog that could scare it or even make it bolt with fear.
Having said that dog training collars continue to sell well as people find them very effective. At least the best dog training collars have ways of reducing the voltage shock to the dog.
