# Question About Shock Collar



## Jadamson (5 mo ago)

Okay so I’m panicking a bit. I bought a vibration collar which also has the shock feature. For the record, I think shock collars are cruel but it was affordable for the moment so I figured I’ll use the vibration feature until I can get a better one. I came home today to my baby boy acting completely shut down and terrified of everything. Turns out my roommate put the collar on him and used the shock feature because he was jumping (on him, on doors, etc.) and told me he did it twice. I’m so beyond infuriated. I was specifically working with him on jumping and was using vibration for attention in conjunction with positive reinforcement on what he should be doing and I’m worried that A) All my work is undone and B) That he just permanently traumatized my rescue dog. He is taking forever to warm back up to anything including me. I disposed of the collar but I guess I’m just in shambles cause idk if he’ll ever warm back up to his normal self. Also, as a disclaimer for those that will say it, yes I understand that this is technically my fault for not waiting to buy a better collar that was just vibration.


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

It's not the oollar's fault but the fact that your roommate had access to the collar, which is your responsibility. Are you trained in how to use an Ecollar? Lots of red flags here, including "I think shock collars are cruel but it was affordable for the moment so I figured I’ll use the vibration feature until I can get a better one." Poor dog. I am worried what else happened in the hands of this stupid roommate. Sounds abusive to me. Ditch the collar and the roommate and find a good trainer.


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## peachygeorgia (Oct 5, 2021)

Agreed, e collars are not cruel, but they need to be used properly with the help of a trainer, and they dont work for all dogs.
As for your roommate, id ditch them if youre able, thats unacceptable and abusuve behavior, id have some words for them if i was you...


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## Gwyllgi (Aug 16, 2017)

Sounds like they bought one of those cheap ones with 3 settings, instead of a trusted brand like Dogtra.

You get what you pay for.


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## dogma13 (Mar 8, 2014)

OP you didn't really ask a question, so I'm assuming you would like to know how to move on from this point. Hopefully you can secure your dog away from the roommate when you're not home from now on. It's not fair to the roommate to be left with an ill mannered dog as well as being unfair to your dog.If you start with some basic puppy training blogs or videos it helps to learn how to communicate effectively to a dog exactly what behavior will be rewarding for them and what is not. Moving on to consequences for disobedience comes later after you understand how a dog thinks and perceives.Thenaughtydogge,Kikko Pup,McCann dog training are good places to start.


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## WNGD (Jan 15, 2005)

_rescue dog_ may not be a "puppy"


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## dogma13 (Mar 8, 2014)

WNGD said:


> _rescue dog_ may not be a "puppy"


True.But my feeling is the OP could benefit by understanding how a dog learns and understands.Puppy training is a good way to learn basics of "do this instead of that".


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## WNGD (Jan 15, 2005)

dogma13 said:


> True.But my feeling is the OP could benefit by understanding how a dog learns and understands.Puppy training is a good way to learn basics of "do this instead of that".


Absolutely, I just want the OP to clarify the situation. Next steps for him/her will somewhat depend on whether the dog is 8 weeks or 8 months, how long they've had it (bonding/trust) and the personality of the dog (weak nerved/confident/bounces back easily)


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## dogma13 (Mar 8, 2014)

Absotively


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## Buckelke (Sep 4, 2019)

let's see - you have a shock collar and a boyfriend who tortures your dog. And you threw out the collar?!?!?!


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## dogma13 (Mar 8, 2014)

This is not helpful ^^^^ What are your thoughts about helping the OP to gain training insights?


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

dogma13 said:


> This is not helpful ^^^^ What are your thoughts about helping the OP to gain training insights?


True but I love the humor in that thread. I got a comment when I took my dog to work after a breakup and my boss said, "I would have chosen the dog as well."
Now, on a more serious and hopefully helpful note, I would proceed as follows. Start all over with training, tools and routines. Get a new flat collar, take the dog to a basic obedience class if he can handle it. Take it easy with the dog for a few weeks, not too much pressure, just gentle obedience and tons of fun and exercise with him. If this room mate is just a room mate, move with the dog or, if you are the main renter, kick him out. If this room mate is your boy friend, think twice about a possible future with him and look at this huge red flag. If your living situation is not changing, crate the dog in your bed room when you are not home and LOCK your bed room door. I would never trust this person ever again with your dog.
Please keep us posted and stick around because we are here to help you.


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## WNGD (Jan 15, 2005)

Buckelke said:


> let's see - you have a shock collar and a boyfriend who tortures your dog. And you threw out the collar?!?!?!


_Roommate_ not (necessarily) boyfriend


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## Sonny1984 (Oct 25, 2021)

Man what a horrible situation. Get rid of that roommate. Why would they think it’s ok to use electricity on a dog like that? Life long trauma is a possibility. Shock collars are not cruel - but what your dog went through was and is the reason people think the collars are bad in the first place. You shouldn’t even be leaving the collar on if you aren’t training the dog.


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## Buckelke (Sep 4, 2019)

To be honest, (and serious) If she does not send the roommate packing, then she should return the dog to the shelter to protect it from further abuse. She can control abuse to her personally, but the dog cannot. It is up to her to protect it. Not protecting the animal from abuse is opening her up to animal cruelty charges. So, girlfriend, get rid of the abusive roommate before you are the one being abused and protect yourself and your dog. We're here to help you with your dog, and - while you may not want to hear it - getting rid of the roommate that is abusive is how we can help you.


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## dogma13 (Mar 8, 2014)

Reread the very first post.As far as anyone knows this was a one time foolish mistake acknowledged by the OP to be both their faults. One time.
Please suggest some helpful things to help the OP take care of the dog.


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## sitstay (Jan 20, 2003)

OP, dogs are very resilient and I am sure that your dog will bounce back. Just give it time. It sounds as if you adopted an adult dog. Even though he is grown, treat him like an 8 week old puppy that doesn't know anything. Teach him that jumping is not allowed. Correct the naughty stuff, praise the good stuff.

Your room mate might have seen you use the e-collar and might not have known you were using vibrate. At at any rate, crate your dog when you are gone and put your training tools away so room mate can't access then.

I am not anti-ecollar. I think that they take a great deal of experience to use. Get to a training class and start getting some professional feedback and save the e-collar for when you have trained the behaviors you want and the dog knows what the expectations are. Then, if you need to, go to a trainer that specializes in e-collar training.

Good luck. Don't beat yourself up!
Sheilah


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## LuvShepherds (May 27, 2012)

I agree, it was a one time thing and not likely the reason your dog is shut down. How long have you had the dog? What is his history? Did you do a 2 week shut down or otherwise get him used to his new home? There is a lot of missing information that we need to give you a complete answer but the posts about training are good. I would not start much training other than short, basic obedience until you and the dog are fully bonded.

No one should ever use an e collar for any reason, vibration or otherwise, until both the handler and the dog are fully trained in its use.


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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

I have re trained lots of dogs after heavy handed e-collar training. It just takes some time and consistency.

And better equipment.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

How the dog recovers from heavy handed, high, electric depends on the dog and the drive the dog is in when it was used. Yes, a few sessions could ruin the tool forever. 

I have that situation with Faren for tracking. She quit tracking one day and I was advised to use force tracking with electric instead of asking "why did this dog track like a pro two days ago and is quitting today like the tracking flag is going to kill her?". So I trusted the person and started the process of forced tracking because "some dogs just get bored". Two days into it, I was having a meltdown because after my first dog (Jax), I swore I would never use heavy compulsion again and I hated every second of this and what it was doing to my dog. 

Did the tool get ruined because of these couple of days? Or did it get ruined because I didn't finish the process so she didn't fully understand how to turn it on and off? I honestly don't even care what the answer is. The tool is ruined for tracking and she can not even recover from it enough for me to use it as I would have on my own, which is very low stim paired with food.

So yeah....it can vastly affect a dog in terrible ways in a very short period of time. I can use it in protection and obedience, very carefully, because she's in a higher state of drive but never again in tracking. 

Be an advocate for your dog and follow your instincts. If you don't like a tool then you will not be proficient with it. So don't use it. It doesn't mean the tool is bad. It doesn't even mean it's not the right tool for your dog. But you have other options.


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## DHau (Feb 24, 2007)

Too bad the e-collar was thrown out. I would have put it in the hands of the roommate so he/she could see what the dog felt every time it was used. It would teach him/her that this is not an acceptable way to discipline a dog.


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## dojoson41 (Oct 14, 2018)

Nothing wrong with a shock collars as long as you know how and when to use them and most to day cant hold a shock long at all that said what you really need to do is disposed of the roommate/s. You have to get rid of roommate or dog seeing how the roommate cant be trusted with animals and that roommate has proven there is something evil/torture about them.


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## erne.castro (4 mo ago)

I'm not sure how different each brand quality of ecollars are, we have the mini educator. 

What I can say with the mini as reference is that two shocks (as your roommate said) cannot create such behavior changes. 

We use it (after being trained on how to use it) and we do have times where we cranked it up to hi (on extreme situations when our dog is charging toward other dog) and although hi is extreme, we haven't noticed any behavioral (in the sense of fear) change. 

For me it sounds like you roommate was shocking your dog more than just two times. Get rid of your roommate.


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## IowaGSD (Jan 3, 2021)

I rarely post but wanted to give my 2 cents. The roommate obviously was in error so that isn't worth discussing. I myself was "too proud and too smart" to take my GSD to a trainer because "I'm not paying someone to shock my dog".. I went thru training books, equipment and $$$$ and thought I could control my dog. I went down this road for almost 18 months. I was very against E collars. After an incident where law enforcement got involved, I knew I was in over my head. I sought out a trainer who had GSD experience and a good track record from previous customers. Now that I and the rest of my family have been trained, things are much better. The dogs aren't the ones who need the training most of the time. Its us. We use a Dogtra E collar and were trained specifically how to use it with our GSD. Our dog is excited to put it on because he knows it represents walks, training, treats and social outings. I do not recommend anyone who hasn't been trained with an E-collar to use one. Swallowing my pride and admitting that I was not a good pet owner was the hardest thing to do. Its going to take a lot of time commitment and yes, money, to have a GSD that you can be proud of. You need to find a good trainer in your area or your situation will get worse. This site has great resources for qualified trainers. If you are in Iowa, Alpha House K9 is the place to go. Years of experience with law enforcement GSD training as well as domestic GSDs. Good luck to you!


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## Bentwings1 (May 29, 2017)

Jadamson said:


> Okay so I’m panicking a bit. I bought a vibration collar which also has the shock feature. For the record, I think shock collars are cruel but it was affordable for the moment so I figured I’ll use the vibration feature until I can get a better one. I came home today to my baby boy acting completely shut down and terrified of everything. Turns out my roommate put the collar on him and used the shock feature because he was jumping (on him, on doors, etc.) and told me he did it twice. I’m so beyond infuriated. I was specifically working with him on jumping and was using vibration for attention in conjunction with positive reinforcement on what he should be doing and I’m worried that A) All my work is undone and B) That he just permanently traumatized my rescue dog. He is taking forever to warm back up to anything including me. I disposed of the collar but I guess I’m just in shambles cause idk if he’ll ever warm back up to his normal self. Also, as a disclaimer for those that will say it, yes I understand that this is technically my fault for not waiting to buy a better collar that was just vibration.


Let me tell you how I was trained as human to use e collar first never refer tonitvsscscshockncollsr

Now for hman training the original e collars had only3 levels 2,2,3 . We were told to wear shorts to class I hate shorts but ok. Do firstvting trainer says put the collar on your bare leg point in they were sharp as it was so ok strap it on next he says the controller is set on 3 max make a mistake and you get the correction full power yikes I can tell you from experience if you made a mistake correcting or tickling your dog , you would be on the ground . It only took one time to learn proper usage We used only tickle on the dog but it was enough tif o get attention My comment was that if the calculus professor had had the tool I would I would have learned the entire cass in one semester rather than a whole year . The prong collar was about the same chains were only because the event required it. As a rule I dislike collar I have to admit proper use is very effective As long as you just use the vibration feature only and you use it correctly I trained my Aussie over 100 commands in about one year with just prong or flat collar no clicker or any fancy stuff I did look for e collar mostly for location of the dog when herding but none had good enough location or video . Other handler training was incredibly hard on humans. LOL I wish I had this early on as it would have saved a lot of retraining maybe it was good in that fixing incorrect things was easier but it would have been better to train correct to start with . The others thing is when it comes to protection you need to leave the ego at home I’ve e probably seen more mistakes here than anywhere else the trainer would have you work each dog then ask what you saw in the dog and why you did what you did best bet here was to pay attention as you would get a whack with padded stick or bamboo stick which ever the trainer had. It was call “ reading the dog “ I never liked the term but I didn’t have another how the dog stood, what were his feet doing why was he flicking his ears why was he looking around or away tail position body position all sorts of things if you were really dumb you would be black snd blue all over . To hhis day I look at dogs even my kitty noting things There are very few trainers that can teach this stuff as I went to clubs across the country I saw this I did get to Europe for two extended trips and went to every dog club I could. In looking back it’s almost like a forgotten thing. Most clubs I went to trained this naturally .


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## Bentwings1 (May 29, 2017)

IowaGSD said:


> I rarely post but wanted to give my 2 cents. The roommate obviously was in error so that isn't worth discussing. I myself was "too proud and too smart" to take my GSD to a trainer because "I'm not paying someone to shock my dog".. I went thru training books, equipment and $$$$ and thought I could control my dog. I went down this road for almost 18 months. I was very against E collars. After an incident where law enforcement got involved, I knew I was in over my head. I sought out a trainer who had GSD experience and a good track record from previous customers. Now that I and the rest of my family have been trained, things are much better. The dogs aren't the ones who need the training most of the time. Its us. We use a Dogtra E collar and were trained specifically how to use it with our GSD. Our dog is excited to put it on because he knows it represents walks, training, treats and social outings. I do not recommend anyone who hasn't been trained with an E-collar to use one. Swallowing my pride and admitting that I was not a good pet owner was the hardest thing to do. Its going to take a lot of time commitment and yes, money, to have a GSD that you can be proud of. You need to find a good trainer in your area or your situation will get worse. This site has great resources for qualified trainers. If you are in Iowa, Alpha House K9 is the place to go. Years of experience with law enforcement GSD training as well as domestic GSDs. Good luck to you!


I agree with you great that you are able to see mistakes others make and see there are better ways


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## Bentwings1 (May 29, 2017)

Bentwings1 said:


> I agree with you great that you are able to see mistakes others make and see there are better ways


 “ a shock collar is only called that if you are wearing it and I have the controller set on high . If you make a mistake and cause confusion or pain to the dog you will quickly learn “ the meaning of shock collar. “ I learned in the first few minutes on the field. After that they became e collar. They are for reminder or assistance while training not punishment I train a place command that is used to cool off or come down if over excited the thing to learn and teach is the obedience command So the dog has a safe place to cool off . It’s important when wiring in high level protection the dog has to learn he can get excited snd cool off Ideally you can do alternating exciting and coo off times just as human sports you learn to get up and to rest or come down. At stimulus. Many dogs take a long time to learn this But the sooner the better . You can play fetch then call the dog to place to ramp down . My Aussie was a very active high drive dog once she learned there was a safe cool down pad she becam really easy to continue training . Especially events that required running or herding sheep. She was very physical I allowed this with the cows but she still had to cool off Sheep usually were peacefull but cows could get rough so she got rough too but yet I could call her back and sit for a few minutes to cool off . It seemed the more we did this the better other training went. She liked to jump and do flips so we did them an undirected which side to do them. Switching sides to heel on she cold flip the righ direction and give a little bark We then could cool down and try again This was fun action in classes


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## Trevor2311 (1 mo ago)

I tried a top of the line collar on my GSD at roughly 1 year and it was completely a waste of money it did nothing but annoy or hurt him after about a week of trying to train with I took it off and started training with a incentive based training plan rewarded him for good behavior at time and ignored him when he wasn’t good I can’t speak for everyone but my GSD values attention and affection so taking it away for bad behavior was the most effective it wasn’t overnight took a few weeks to start noticing consistent improvement but now he is 2 years old unaltered and we have 2 other dogs 1 male 1 female none GSD and he hasn’t attempted to establish dominance and the only time he has accident inside is either because me or my wife think the other person let them out or our younger female goes inside and he gets confused but I would strongly recommend not using a collar


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## Quorthun (25 d ago)

Trevor2311 said:


> I tried a top of the line collar on my GSD at roughly 1 year and it was completely a waste of money it did nothing but annoy or hurt him after about a week of trying to train with I took it off and started training with a incentive based training plan rewarded him for good behavior at time and ignored him when he wasn’t good I can’t speak for everyone but my GSD values attention and affection so taking it away for bad behavior was the most effective it wasn’t overnight took a few weeks to start noticing consistent improvement but now he is 2 years old unaltered and we have 2 other dogs 1 male 1 female none GSD and he hasn’t attempted to establish dominance and the only time he has accident inside is either because me or my wife think the other person let them out or our younger female goes inside and he gets confused but I would strongly recommend not using a collar


This is what happens when inexperienced handlers attempt using powerful tools themselves without getting their dogs properly conditioned to the collar by a professional BEFORE using it on the dog. It's like asking a 4 year old to drive a shift stick car. I'd wager your dog won't obey you under high distractions, different environments, or under any circumstances. You're not going to have the insurance and reliability to always have your dog under control especially when needed to keep them safe. Because when you REALLY need them to recall, it's most likely going to be in a time and place where you're not going to have control over your dog using praise, affection, cookies, hotdogs, or squeaky toys.


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## Quorthun (25 d ago)

Jadamson said:


> Okay so I’m panicking a bit. I bought a vibration collar which also has the shock feature. For the record, I think shock collars are cruel but it was affordable for the moment so I figured I’ll use the vibration feature until I can get a better one. I came home today to my baby boy acting completely shut down and terrified of everything. Turns out my roommate put the collar on him and used the shock feature because he was jumping (on him, on doors, etc.) and told me he did it twice. I’m so beyond infuriated. I was specifically working with him on jumping and was using vibration for attention in conjunction with positive reinforcement on what he should be doing and I’m worried that A) All my work is undone and B) That he just permanently traumatized my rescue dog. He is taking forever to warm back up to anything including me. I disposed of the collar but I guess I’m just in shambles cause idk if he’ll ever warm back up to his normal self. Also, as a disclaimer for those that will say it, yes I understand that this is technically my fault for not waiting to buy a better collar that was just vibration.


Your roommate disobeying your instructions is disgusting. I wouldn't trust them to be left alone with my dog.
I wouldn't have thrown out the collar if it was working for you. You could've still put it on daily and simply not used it for a week, then continue training after your dog's behavior went back to normal.
Regardless, this isn't a problem with you or the dog, it's your roommate. Establish better boundaries with your roommate is your best course of action. In my opinion, if I had a roommate that did that after asking them not to, I would never trust them again. But, that's me.


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