E-collar series: Is an e-collar safe for my dog if it doesn't hurt me?

E-collar series

This is our second post in this series. Because a significant number of our clients have tried using e-collar training before coming to us we get many questions about how our training differs and why we don’t use that tool. Our clients have told us many stories about why they tried that method first, why the information they were told seemed reasonable.

We’ve compiled many of the experiences of our clients and frequent questions we hear about e-collar training to help provide you with more transparency about this type of training. The peer-reviewed evidence is clear this tool can have dangerous side effects, including anxiety and aggressive behavior. It is part of our mission to help clients understand the science of animal learning in clear language. Over the coming weeks we will analyze each statement we’ve gathered to get more insight into how e-collars are used.

Is an e-collar safe for my dog if it doesn't hurt me?

In this blog, we're going to look at the question, Is an e-collar safe for my dog if it doesn't hurt me? We learned that some of LOMA's clients were convinced to use an e-collar on their dog by putting it on themselves first to see what their dog would experience.

This question seems to imply that if a dog's owner doesn't experience pain with the e-collar, then the dog will not experience pain and that then makes it "safe." The question also implies that the collar's only harmful effects are painful. We will explore both of these implications.

What is an e-collar?

Let's start with a brief description of e-collars. Manufacturers of e-collars describe them in different ways. Some clearly describe the collars as using shock. For example, one manufacturer notes the "...Collar provides 3 extremely efficient and safe training modes (beep, vibration and shock modes)." Others use different names for the sensations created by the collar, including a tap, stim, nick, page, and static. Another manufacturer describes the collar with the ability to "Choose to train with vibration (buzz), tone (beep), or 21 levels of static simulation in either momentary (nick) or continuous." Others even acknowledge that these collars can hurt dogs, "Do you fear to hurt [sic] your dog in Shock Mode? ...You can adjust the accurate static level for your dog." So, even though e-collar manufacturers have different names for the electrical stimulation the collar emits, the goal of the collar is to "eliminate misbehavior." Even the vibration and beep modes are described as being used to "correct the dog's behavior." In general, e-collars are designed to produce an unpleasant or painful sensation to decrease and ultimately stop behavior we find undesirable. This is true even if the unpleasant sensation is a beep or a vibration.

What is the dog learning?

Before we can discuss what a dog is learning we need to grapple with whether or not we can really understand how another living animal, a different species from ourselves, experiences pain? How someone experiences pain seems to be difficult even when we try to understand how another human experiences physical sensations. Look at how people view therapeutic massage. For some people getting a massage is incredibly satisfying, the touch and pressure applied to tired muscles is pleasant and relaxing. Other people may find it mildly unpleasant but willing to endure because the after effects are worth it. They experience some form of relaxation after the massage is over even if the massage itself was uncomfortable. Still other people find massage painful and uncomfortable. They don't enjoy the process or the aftereffects at all. The point here is that we can't use our judgement of how something feels to determine how another person will experience that same sensation. Something that is not painful for us may still be experienced as painful to another person.

Can we then try to apply our experience to a dog's experience?   We know that dogs experience sights and smells quite different from our own.  They only have 2 types of cone photoreceptors in their eyes when we have 3 types so they probably perceive the world in different shades of blue and yellow, whereas we have a more complex visual experience.  But they can see better at night than we can because they have a higher percentage of light-sensitive photoreceptors (rods) in their eyes than people do.  Of course most people also know that dogs have a far better ability to smell the environment than we do.  They are estimated to have at least 125 million sensory cells in their nasal cavities compared to about 5 to 10 million for humans.  The amount of their brains dedicated to olfactory cells seems consistent with the sensory information they are gaining from their nose.  They have a greater percentage of their brains dedicated to olfactory information than that of the human brain.  A dog's experience of the world is more likely to include a wide variation of smell that we may not even notice.  Given these differences, it does seem suspect for us to try and generalize our experience to a dog's experience.

This is likely true about how dogs experience pain.  They often show their pain in subtle ways.  In her book, Manual of Clinical Behavioral Medicine for Dogs and Cats, Dr. Overall, renowned board certified veterinary behaviorist and certified applied animal behaviorist, notes dogs may turn a head away, lift a paw, lick their lips, lower a head, become restless or show signs of aggressive behavior when in pain.  These are the subtle signs veterinarians must learn to evaluate.  The trainers who then advocate the use of e-collars may not learn how to assess pain in dogs as veterinarians do because the dog training field is not regulated in the same way veterinary medicine is.  There are no minimum standards of knowledge a dog trainer needs to know, including how a dog may show pain, for that trainer to be able to use an e-collar.  For example, in a recent conversation with a client, the client had been concerned that her dog yelped when using the e-collar.  The client asked the trainer if her dog was in pain and the trainer replied "No it doesn't hurt her, German Shepherds are just vocal and will yelp."  This is clearly a trainer who is not properly educated in evaluating a dog's pain as yelping is one of the sounds clearly considered to be an indicator of pain or great stress in dogs (Yeon, 2007).  It seems we cannot say with certainty that if a dog's owner doesn't experience pain with the e-collar then the dog will not experience pain with the e-collar.  So we cannot say that the e-collar is "safe" in this sense.  

Back to what a dog is learning: According to psychological definitions of operant conditioning, the goal of punishment is to reduce the frequency of an animal's behavior. One way to do this is having the animal experience something unpleasant as a consequence of their behavior.  For this to be effective, whatever happens to the animal must be sufficiently unpleasant that the animal no longer wants to do that behavior.  This definition of punishment does not require that the punishment be painful.  It only needs to be sufficiently unpleasant to the dog so the behavior decreases.  

In the real world of training, if the shock collar does not produce an unpleasant enough response to stop a behavior, then the trainer increases the level of the shock collar until the dog finds it unpleasant or even painful.  Then we would come up against the side effects of using punishment noted by the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior in their Position Statement on The Use of Punishment for Behavior Modification in Animals (2007).  This fall out from using punishment would apply to the use of the e-collar, whether or not the dog finds the punishment painful.  The unpleasant sensation the dog experiences when shocked can become associated with its handler, with the trainer, or with the training environment.  And this unpleasant emotional association will impact the dog's training.  A dog may show fearful, avoidant and even aggressive behavior during training.  Even if the e-collar is not experienced as painful to the dog, it can still have harmful emotional consequences.  Fortunately there are other ways to change behavior that are much safer. 

What is the alternative?

It's not necessary to cause any hurt to a dog to diminish a dog's behavior. Most dogs who jump up on people really want the attention of humans. They can quickly learn that sitting gets them loads of attention (and sometimes treats too). Especially if this is combined with removing that wonderful attention when their feet leave the floor. Turning away from the dog or becoming a stone are methods of removing the attention the dog wants. So changing behavior does not require the use of pain or physical discomfort.

Summary

In general, e-collars are designed to produce an unpleasant or painful sensation to stop a dog's undesirable behavior.  The question we are examining: Is an e-collar safe for my dog if it doesn't hurt me? is not a question that is useful for evaluating how your dog may experience the e-collar.  There is good reason to believe that dogs may experience pain different from ourselves because we already know they have other senses that are different from our own (sight and smell).  The question also seems to imply that if the e-collar is not painful for the dog, then it will be safe to use with our dogs.  But the scientific definition of punishment does not require that the e-collar be painful to do damage.  If the sensation of the collar is unpleasant to the dog, the dog may develop unintended negative associations to other parts of the training process.  

References: 
American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior. (2007). Position Statement on the Use of Punishment for Behavior Modification in Animals. avsab.org.

Overall, K. L. (2013). Manual of Clinical Behavioral Medicine for Dogs and Cats. Elsevier.

Yeon, S. C. (2007). The vocal communication of canines. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 2(4), 141-144