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Barking and E-Collars
I'm having probs with my dogs becoming "fence runners", and are barking at all hours of the night.
You have to go by the cause, not the symptom.
Why are your dogs running the fence line?
What are they running after?
What are they barking at during the night? Also, how many dogs do you have, and what breeds?
To work with barking, you must understand the type of barking the dogs are doing, also. A description of the way they bark would also help. (Continuous? High-pitched? Evenly-spaced? Interpersed with growls? Does one dog start it? Do all bark equally? Do they stop and start? Fast or slow? Etc.)
I am wondering if anyone has tried anti barking collars, if they work, or if they are cruel? They are also jumping at the fence. I was wondering if a low voltage electric fence would work or if this would also be cruel?
Sound like your are into electricty!
I would use neither an e-collar nor electric fence--never ever!
First, the chances are with the answers to the questions I posed above, there will be several simple training or management solutions to the problem that will not involve aversion.
Second, e-collars have potential dangers. Depending upon the dog and the circumstances:
| 1. |
Many dogs or breeds will ignore the "tingle" or shock and keep barking if they are strongly motivated to do so. Same with the fence. |
| 2. |
With any aversive or punishment, dogs will often become habituated. This means that even if setting the voltage on setting #1 discourages the dogs from barking for a few days, many dogs may begin again as they get used to that setting, which means you must turn the voltage up another notch. Some dogs will habituate to the highest setting. Then what are you going to do? Attach a second-collar? |
| 3. |
Some collars that are triggered by the sound of barking contain a sound sensor which can be falsly triggered. So you dog may get a jolt when the dog next to it barks, or when a thunderstorm is approaching! This is not just unfair, it destroys the training because the punisher is not linked specifically to a single behavior. |
| 4. |
On the other hand, if you don't vigilently check the battery strength, you can "think" the collar is working when the battery is dead and it is not. This is not just an inconvenience, but the dog's barking behavior, in such a situation, will start to return (recovery). If this happens often, you'll have a confused dog who will learn nothing and be shocked for no reason. |
| 5. |
If you absolutely must... citronella collars have been found to be more effective and preferred by more owners than e-collars. (The Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine has done a study on using a citronella collar to control barking. Rather than getting a shock) BUT... I would never use a citronella device, either--never! Again, the chances are there will be several simple training or management solutions to the problem that will not involve aversion. |
| 6. |
There have been cases of dogs being burned, having their coats damages, etc, by malfunctioning units that jam in the "on" position for hours. |
| 7. |
The fence idea is even more dangerous because the amperage can change depending upon the amount of resistance.
In other words, the same amount of electric current running through the fence can cause a lesser or greater shock depending upon what part of the fence you touch, the humidity, if the dog is standing on wet or dry ground, etc. Also. virtually all power systems have frequence surges and drop-outs, which means the current can rise or drop without warning. |
| 8. |
Punishment is absolutely worthlesss without reinforcement. Punishment can decrease the frequency of a behavior, but only for as long as it is applied, only if it is applied correctly, and only if supplemented with positive reinforcement. So don't think you are going to be sleeping in bed while your dogs romp outside without barking because they are getting tingles of electricty down their spines! If you use a e-collar or any aversive, you MUST get out there and reward them when they stop barking! |
| 9. |
It is the reinforcement that keeps the new behavior going--unless you punish forever, and continue to raise the level of punishment!
Unless you plan for your dogs to wear e-collars and get sparked for the rest of their lives, shortly after they are "trained electrically," when you remove the collars, the barking will return unless you follow the punishment consistently with positive reinforcement for not barking. Since you can decrease or eliminate barking through positive reinforcement only, what's the use of using punishment and wasting money on a device to make your dog uncomfortable? |
| 10. |
Some dogs will react in a negative manner to punishment and may become aggressive, submissively fearful, or, if the collar is not used exactly right, may associate the punishment with you. Punishment can also sometimes increase the behavior you are trying of stop!
So, yes, the whole electricity thing is needlessly cruel. Not because the setting you use is necessarily going to be painful to your dog, but because it is probably entirely unnecessary to even use the collars.
Copyright © 2004 Barry McDonald |
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