Today I want to talk about another controversial topic that has been in the media lately. That being the use of e-collars on dogs for training. Just so you know, in addition to working in human health, I have also studied and worked in animal health in a variety of roles. As many of you know, I am now disabled. In 2006, I purchased my first service dog. While she was not technically a service dog, she was fully trained in Schuetzen and a show dog that adapted well for what I needed her to do. At that time, I was suffering from PTSD and had extreme anxiety when leaving the house. Not only did Mira make me feel safe when I went out, but she was also my “grounder”. Basically, it means that just by her presence offered something I could hold on to and redirect my focus when my anxiety became so great I "zoned out" to what was going on around me. Just by her being there to hang on to brought me back to a “calmer” state of mind and reality.
Mira died in 2011 and since then I have not needed a
psychiatric dog. However, I still have physical limitations. For one, I can’t
run and when I try, I waddle like a penguin. After telling you this, I now want
to explain why banning e-collars is a terrible thing. Unfortunately, if society bans
them, then society is taking away one of the most “adaptive” tools a disabled
person can use to train their dog. We have limitations, and those limitations
make dog training hard without this tool. Think about it, many of us could not
chase after a dog that gets off lead or runs into the street. With an e-collar,
we certainly can train them to recall back out of harm's way. We also
may not have the strength to correct unruly behavior when they are pulling on the
lead.
Personally, I get a little angry when so-called experts say
that the e-collar is a bad thing and bad training. Honestly, how many people
have ever held an e-collar? In a superior quality e-collar, the stimulation levels
go to one hundred. I almost never use anything above the level of fifteen. I have held an e-collar
on that level of stimulation, and I assure you, it does not hurt. I would be
curious to know what all those “experts” would say if they knew humans use TENS
medical devices with the same kind of stimulation for back pain. Not only that,
but most owners would never knowingly submit their animals to pain.
As far as the research about e-collars goes, the results are
inconclusive. So far, there is no quality research that absolutely says it
negatively affects the dog in the long term. A few years back, China et al claimed
they observed negative effects. However, experts in both psychology and dog
training have claimed that the study was flawed, and their claims of inhumane
treatment and negative consequences could not be proven by the evidence
provided from the study. The researchers had a bias against e-collar
use even before the study began.
I think banning the e-collar is going to be a big mistake for many reasons. The main one is, as I have tried to express here, is for the disabled. Many disabled people cannot afford to have their animal professionally trained all the way to a service dog. Being able to use an e-collar gives them the opportunity to learn how to use the collar humanely and effectively and to continue the training themselves.
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