E Collar Research

[Cosmolo]

I will try to find the link to the complete study but this is a summary that was sent to me-

ELECTRIC COLLAR SHOCK

A research project from the Institute of Animal

Welfare and Behaviour in Hannover, Germany

compared the stress and learning effects of 3

different training methods in dogs: electronic

training collar, pinch collar and quitting signal. The

research by Schalke, et al is reported in the Journal

of Veterinary Behavior, Vol 4, No 6, November/

December 2009. Of the 3 methods, the e-collar

turned out to be the most effective and the least

stressful

Forty two police dogs, all Belgian Malinois,

received a different training method on each of 3

test days. The dog’s behavioural and salivary

cortisol levels were measured. Of the learning

effect of each method, the electronic collar resulted

in 39 of the 42 dogs stopping the unwanted

behaviour, the pinch collar stopped 32 of 42 dogs

and the quitting signal stopped 4 of the 42 dogs.

Concerning the salivary cortisol levels, the quitting

signal was found to be the most stressful. For the

observation of behavioural reactions, the pinch

collars were the most stressful.

For this type of training it would appear that

training with e-collars is the least stressful on the

dog and certainly the most effective method.

[Staranais]

What is a quitting signal?

Hard to know what the study means without seeing the whole thing, although it does sound interesting.

[Aidan3]

See: http://deposit.ddb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?idn=...e=992370272.pdf

(it's very long)

Readers may also wish to see this study by Schalke et al, don't just read the abstract though (although it is informative on it's own):

http://the-digital-library.com/purdue.pdf#page=158 (particular relevance for people teaching recalls I thought)

[Malinworx]

I will try to find the link to the complete study but this is a summary that was sent to me-

ELECTRIC COLLAR SHOCK

A research project from the Institute of Animal

Welfare and Behaviour in Hannover, Germany

compared the stress and learning effects of 3

different training methods in dogs: electronic

training collar, pinch collar and quitting signal. The

research by Schalke, et al is reported in the Journal

of Veterinary Behavior, Vol 4, No 6, November/

December 2009. Of the 3 methods, the e-collar

turned out to be the most effective and the least

stressful

Forty two police dogs, all Belgian Malinois,

received a different training method on each of 3

test days. The dog’s behavioural and salivary

cortisol levels were measured. Of the learning

effect of each method, the electronic collar resulted

in 39 of the 42 dogs stopping the unwanted

behaviour, the pinch collar stopped 32 of 42 dogs

and the quitting signal stopped 4 of the 42 dogs.

Concerning the salivary cortisol levels, the quitting

signal was found to be the most stressful. For the

observation of behavioural reactions, the pinch

collars were the most stressful.

For this type of training it would appear that

training with e-collars is the least stressful on the

dog and certainly the most effective method.

Interesting conclusions. Those results are worth remembering.

Never heard of a quitting signal before.

[corvus]

Readers may also wish to see this study by Schalke et al, don't just read the abstract though (although it is informative on it's own):

http://the-digital-library.com/purdue.pdf#page=158 (particular relevance for people teaching recalls I thought)

Readers really should see that study as well. I think it gives a nice, rounded view of e-collars in training. I have to admit I'm not very trusting of people that think they have good timing. If they can clicker train proficiently I'll believe they have good timing.

[Aidan3]

The "quitting signal" used in the study is a really, really inappropriate use of an SD (Discriminative Stimulus). The dogs are conditioned using two different scenarios similar to what clicker trainers call "doggy zen"; DOLers might be more familiar with the "Triangle of Temptation". They are then expected to generalise the SD to completely different stimulus conditions with no attempt to bridge the gap between the conditioning phase and the completely different testing phase. In other words - they have no idea what they are supposed to do. The most surprising finding is that four of the dogs actually figured it out! Malinois, hey? I'm not surprised that it was ineffective, nor am I surprised that the dogs displayed temporary stress.

I did like the parts of the lit review at the beginning though.

[corvus]

The most surprising finding is that four of the dogs actually figured it out! Malinois, hey? I'm not surprised that it was ineffective, nor am I surprised that the dogs displayed temporary stress.

I had a "Dogs are incredible!" moment.