Remote Dog Training Collars - Are They Worth It?

Remote dog training collars are all the rage right now thanks to some TV adverts and clever magazine placements. But, are they really worth the investment, and are you doing your dog any harm?

We'll address the two questions separately, but first I want to talk about whether or not remote dog training collars are actually good for your dog.

Imagine if you were walking down the street one day with your partner, and you happened to give a beautiful young lady a second glance as she walked past you. Now imagine that suddenly you are jolted with a violent electric shock, as if from nowhere. Or, depending on the variety of training collar that your partner has secretly snuck around your neck, you might get a blast of a seriously unpleasant odour right up your nose.

Does that sound like something you'd want? Worse, what happens if your partner drops the remote somewhere and a small child picks it up and starts zapping you like a maniac? Or if she's feeling vicious one day and wants to take out some aggression on you - remote dog training collars make this very easy indeed.

In all seriousness, although this example is a bit of fun, remote dog training collars present a real problem in dog training systems. This is that the dog cannot associate his bad behavior, you and the punishment together. By telling your dog "NO" when he misbehaves, he knows that you are unhappy about what he's just done.

By randomly shocking him from across the room or even in the other room, he's more likely to go mad trying to work out what's going on. What's more, you could provoke potentially dangerous and aggressive behavior through excessive use of a remote dog training collar, and that's entirely the opposite of what you're trying to do.

So I suppose we've actually answered the second question at the same time as the first - remote dog training collars should generally be avoided if you're serious about training your dog. Mostly because they're potentially harmful and counter-productive, but also because with a properly designed and consistent dog obedience training program, you simply don't need a remote collar.

Get some advice from professional dog trainers, and they'll tell you the same - ditch the electric collars and stick with tried and tested manual techniques for teaching your dog appropriate behavior.

Dog obedience training can seem like an uphill struggle, but if you've got professional advice from the start and a properly designed behavior strategy, it's actually a breeze to get through, without electric collars or any other gadgets.

I've successfully trained my dogs out of their bad habits (barking, chewing and scratching amongst other things) thanks to the advice of the "Sit, Stay, Fetch!" course, which is written by a professional dog trainer and available cheaply online.

By Sarah Barker