Good and Bad of Dog Management Devices
November 17th, 2009
Occasionally the difference between training management and restraint/control is too quickly confused. Using commands and hand signals, with leads or food rewards, to entice desired action is training management and often uses positive reinforcement techniques. Using choke or ‘no-barking’ collars, electronic enclosures and comparable devices is for effective restraint/control and often uses negative reinforcement.
Constraint and the use of control devices isn’t unavoidably a negative factor. Dogs naturally have and look for a community hierarchy in which someone is the boss and in any human-dog pair the person has to take that position. Sometimes control tools are called for to establish that hierarchy. If not established, the result will be property destruction, potentially unhealthy state of affairs for other animals and humans, human disappointment and an erratic dog.
Correction collars were developed to give a hand in gaining the ability to manage. Dogs, like humans, are individuals. Some are by nature more assertive or slower to be trained. For ones that don’t react positively to a typical leather or nylon collar, a metal choke collar can provide for extra discouragement from tugging and jumping up.
The immediate negative is that when correcting collars are used inappropriately – as is all too possible – they can give you results you didn’t want and also be potentially unhealthy. Choke collars fit only one way and when correctly fitted should make allowance for a one to three fingers distance between the neck and the collar; three fingers for bigger dogs, one finger for smaller. By and large a collar two inches longer than the circumference of the neck will be ok.
Used inappropriately, by-the-way, choke collars can chafe the skin – resulting in wounds that scratching will make worse. They can also inadvertently compress the trachea. A quick jerk and then loose lead isn’t harmful, however in accordance with its purpose it does create unpleasant pressure. But for dogs that persist in trying to resist the leash this device may not be enough to do the job. Generally, it is not approved of, especially for smaller dogs.
Prong collars are less menacing than they look, but – in this trainer’s view – have almost no positive properties. The only positive aspect of the construction is their restricted diameter – they can only choke down so far. Nevertheless, an animal with such a determined predisposition to pull that prongs don’t give him a second thought requires more than a quick fix consisting of choking and poking. That type of critter needs dedicated attention and behavior modification management.
Halter collars encircle the neck and the face but don’t prohibit panting or prohibit drinking and eating and can give extra effectiveness in controlling behavior. The downside is they don’t assuage nipping if you are working on that problem. A conventional collar and lead or even a chest halter might be more desirable if nipping is not complication.
‘Stop-barking’ collars on occasion work when training those dogs that continue in a barking mode way past the reason to do so is gone. Barking is natural and an ordinary response to potential danger and is also used to draw attention when one becomes removed or separated from the group. But, for reasons not all that well comprehended, some individuals continue barking day in and day out or are set off by the most minor events.
Electronic collars that deter barking come in two main varieties: Shock producing collars and noise producing collars. Noise collars create a brief, uncomfortable noise that acts as a diversion and helps to prevent unrelenting barking.
Shock collars generate a quick but discomforting electronic shock that can be sustained during lengthy or recurring barking. Evenhanded and objective experimentation to discover their effectiveness divulge mixed conclusions – they work with some dogs and not others. On the other hand, as with prong collars, any dog in need of one would profit if, in addition, he had precise, professional training using behavior modification methods.
At times the perceived quickest route to solving a problem seems attractive and doable… until they become an overused alternative to more appropriate (both to trainer and dog) long-term training. Putting in the time to comprehend how to gain your dog’s undivided attention and compliance without inordinate amounts of reliance on control equipment is definitely the better way to go. The results are happier dog handlers and more stable dogs.
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