Author: Kristof Voet

Anyone who follows a bit of media coverage in Belgium has already heard about it: Flemish Animal Welfare Minister Ben Weyts is banning the use of the e-collar, in Flanders, starting in 2027. This ban is also coming in Brussels and Wallonia. Other countries have already fully or partially banned it, and the United Kingdom, for example, is implementing a total ban from February 2024.

But why is a so-called animal-friendly training method actually being banned? What could be wrong with giving your dog small electronic corrections every time it does something wrong or misbehaves?

First, what is an e-collar?

"E-collar" is a modern word that, in terms of marketing, already evokes positive associations with other modern tools and aids preceded by the "e-." Think of e-commerce, e-mail, ... All things that have made our lives easier and more efficient in recent history. However, the e-collar does not belong in that list, because the system is as old as the street!

The word actually replaces the less marketing-sexy term "shock collar," a device that has been in use for decades to punish unwanted behavior when it presents itself. Think of a bark collar, which delivers a light but nonetheless unpleasant surge of electricity when the dog barks. But you also have ones that are remote-controlled, so you can "instruct" your dog from "a distance" (for example, in the case of free range to return), or correct it for unwanted or wrong behavior.

History and evolution

We see the first versions of the shock collar appearing in the 1960s, and this within a hunting detail. Note that this is in the same time period as the development of the - now hopelessly outdated - Dominance Theory (see our blog published earlier on this subject).

Those first crude versions gave a painful electric shock to the dog when it barked, for example. The dog was trained by punishing it for wrong behavior.

Over the years, the shocks became less painful, and the various models more extensive in terms of options, adjustable or not, with remote control, virtual barriers, ... Many devices claim to be very "pet-friendly," anything to convince the unaware owner of their animal friendliness.

However, one thing has never evolved: the training technique remains based on administering a punishment for wrong or unwanted behavior. And that has been an outdated principle for over a quarter century in 2023, since extensive scientific research has shown that rewarding always works better than punishment, and in a dog punishment more often does not work than it does. And if it does seem to work: perhaps for the wrong reasons....

How do we train according to modern principles?

Simply through a positive reward approach. Training is always done within the spectrum of the "four quadrants": there are two for "rewarding," and two for "punishment," always positive and negative.

Positive rewarding, for example, is giving a cookie or a verbal compliment when performing a task correctly, or when spontaneously exhibiting the desired behavior. Opposed to this is positive punishment, where you add an unpleasant stimulus to the process, just as you previously added a cookie to the reward process. So this could be giving an electric shock for wrong behavior, or a tap to the head, a tug on the slip line, ....

Only: positive punishment (which is less cheerful than it sounds) is extremely difficult with dogs, since punishing a dog at exactly the right moment is virtually impossible; a dog lives in the "now," and a moment later is no longer engaged in the behavior he was exhibiting a few seconds before. So you risk creating mainly two things: either a wrong association or learned helplessness.

The wrong association through positive punishment

A dog, as mentioned earlier, lives in the moment, unlike humans, and cannot reason.
Suppose your puppy pees inside the house for a moment. You see that, you take your slipper and throw it at the dog, who has just stopped peeing. The dog is never going to associate this with the behavior he just posed, because he is already in the next moment, where he is, for example, just looking at the cat that is purring on her scratching post. The pup is then startled by the slipper coming down on him, and associates this with the cat. He may possibly think, in this example, that seeing a sleeping cat may result in pain or scaring (he does not realize, by the way, that you threw that slipper at him). As a result, every time your dog sees the cat sleeping, he may start barking ferociously to wake the cat up and chase it away, otherwise he expects a slipper to his head! Not exactly behavior you had in mind when you wanted to punish the peeing....

A similar effect with the e-collar. Suppose barking is punished with a shock. You are walking with the dog, your dog sees a child in the street with a nice ball and barks enthusiastically at the child. Consequence: shock. The risk in this example is that he will associate a child with a shock, and from then on will turn against children because he experiences pain as a result according to him, an unfortunately typical and frequent side effect of positive punishment.

Learned helplessness through positive punishment

It is perfectly possible for a dog to end up not understanding at all why he is being shocked, or punished in any way; it happens frequently, and randomly in his eyes. Thus, many dogs end up in a state of "learned helplessness," a direct result of applying positive punishment too eagerly.

This state can best be described as "constant stress combined with a sense of resignation"; after all, no matter what the animal does, he still cannot, in his eyes, avoid the punishment and thus cannot get out of it. So the dog stops sniffing, barking, playing, asking for food, ... Often a dog in this state is mistaken for a "very good dog," and reinforces people who swear by archaic training methods in their belief that their methods are the best! Only they don't realize that their dog is a pile of misery, and deeply unhappy. We unfortunately see them passing by on the streets every day, these "good" dogs....

What do the proponents of the e-collar say?

Ironically, according to many, this form of mistreatment (which positive punishment always is to a greater or lesser extent), is the only tool that protects dogs from... Mistreatment! Being able to efficiently administer punishment also allows dogs to stay within their families where they were previously in danger of being evicted for unwanted behavior (when you have finally punished your dog directly into a state of learned helplessness, your problem is indeed solved). In addition, it prevents euthanasia, because some dogs are now so far gone that you can't get them "back to normal" without a tight hand.

What do the opponents say?

The camp in which Pet Therapy.be finds itself is clear: this form of training is outdated and downright barbaric. Today in 2023 we train dogs, and by extension all animals, with their mental and physical well-being at the center. Animals are living beings with feelings, and should have the right to be respected within the family framework; their will and wishes should also matter to some extent, without therefore hopelessly giving in to all their whims!

Opponents do not agree that there are things you cannot train differently. Pet Therapy.be proves that even the most difficult cases can regain a bright future with our scientifically validated methods. Read for example our blog "The story of Charlie", an example of a hopeless case that in most shelters would have been put down for being "too far gone" (his condition was a direct consequence of training according to the principle of positive punishment).

Conclusion

Proponents of the e-collar claim that there are many situations that you just don't get solved in a positive reward-oriented way, or simply find this approach "new-age nonsense." Nothing could be further from the truth: you can get anything solved in a positive way, qualitative and quantitative scientific research has been done plenty around that. The lack of knowledge and or education of a trainer or therapist regarding modern techniques should not be an excuse to continue to cling to outdated and obsolete methods such as the e-collar, but rather should be an invitation for them to educate themselves on correct academic sources.

Granted, the modern but thorough way may take a little longer than getting a dog into a state of learned helplessness, but at least you've put animal welfare first and worked to bond with your dog!

Finally, we are not entirely happy about a total ban on e-collars in Flanders from 2027: in our opinion, this comes at least 15 years too late, and thanks to e-commerce, we fear that the ban will be a stillborn child from the start, since you will just go and order your shock collars abroad.

The last dog that had to undergo this cruel training method is far from being born in Flanders....