astrid

i1 is actually quite right. if you force a dog to do something through fear you will have a far less reliable response than is you encourage him to do it through positive means. this is pretty well universally accepted in dog training circles. use of shock collars is cruel in any circumstances. just because somebody says it has worked does not make it any less cruel. however, use in unattended situations is even more likely to cause the behavioural side effects. when the dog receives this dual shock (like two teeth) in the neck it tries to put it down to something (a cause e.g. a walker with a stick who happens to be passing because there was nothing else around at the time). actually such things are not unlikley as a sleeping dog may easily be disturbed by somebody passing and rush towards them and wham - teeth in the neck. it is a strong negative stimulus and can very quickly cause a dog to become aggressive to e.g walkers (given what the last one did to him !!!). you can take a peaceful affectionate dog and turn it into something with a real behavioural problem very quickly. this is not saying that this WILL happen to your dog, just that it may. it has happened to other dogs. dealing with an aggressive dog is much harder than dealing with a dog who wants to chase chickens (which most dogs will want to do). what would the world and press say if US soldiers strapped such devices to iraqi prisoners necks and played with them. does your pet deserve to be treated in such a way ? i've only just been pointed here and find some attitudes expressed in this thread a bit disturbing. the fact that people cannot distinguish between dogs, cattle, horses, etc and treat them all the same way when it comes to training. i only have experience of dog training. when I did work on a farm we used barbed wire fences to keep the cattle in and not electric shock collars. also we never had difficulties with sheep chasing neighbours chickens. in the past, training methods were used on pets that are no longer acceptable. i'm sure that in the future that things we do today will be improved on and todays practices will also become superdeeded by superior ones. people who continue to use outdated (and sometimes cruel) training methods do their pets a disservice. sorry mr boghound but you are rather out of date in your animal training and care techniques (i will not discuss my credentials is this post is in a personal capacity)