Shock collars have been banned in England

[IngGenius]

Shock collars will be banned from February 2024 in England.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/dog-electric-collar-ban-b2329041.html

About time, now ban those prong collars too

Yes!! Can't believe they are still sold in this country! I came off a few FB groups because of the number of prong collar advocates.

If you use one I don't want to know you, those awful pronged ones too.

So they should, cruel beyond words.

Good, about time.

Good, I can’t believe it’s taken this long, hope prong collars are banned soon too.

Good. People who use them should wear a matching one in the meantime.

Fantastic news. The comments on the Kennel Club FB post about it are an absolute bin fire of excuses for inflicting pain on dogs.

Well done England, Scotland needs to do this too - and prong collars.

Anyone that think shock collars are cruel, in my opinion, have no experience of using one. Yes, they can be used for cruelty in the wrong hands, but they are generally used to condition the dog to respond to extremely low stimulus, as in lowest perceived level. They would only be used to 'shock' the dog in a life or death situation, and in proportion to the dogs energy levels for the shortest time possible. Would you rather a dead ewe than a dog getting a nip in the neck? A lot of good dogs will lose their lives in the wake of this. It's sad.

A bat, a foot, a rock, a rope can all be used for cruelty, we wouldn't ban all these.

For the record, I'm not a fan of prong collars

So you are of shock collar????

Assume I am completely stupid and have no idea how to train a dog (I have successfully trained a scent hound with positive reinforcement btw).

Why are people complaining about shock collars being banned? If you have a high prey drive dog why is it off lead around livestock? Why have you not used positive reinforcement for recall? Why do you rely on causing your dog pain? If you know it's a risk off lead and can only rely on pain, why is it off lead?

Are shock collars the same as vibration collars?

I call it a remote collar as it's primary function isn't to shock my dog, he's conditioned to a low level stimulus to bullet proof his recall. He's a highly reactive and prey driven terrier and without it, he'd have been pts. With levels of drive like he has there is no amount of positive only training that would rectify it, believe me I tried it all

PETA say :
Shock collars can cause dogs physical pain, injury (ranging from burns to cardiac fibrillation), and psychological stress, including severe anxiety and displaced aggression. Individual animals vary in their temperaments and pain thresholds; a shock that seems mild to one dog might be severe to another
Anyone who uses this type of thing should not be an animal owner .
@thecaramelwafer if you don’t want your dog to chase livestock keep it on a lead .

I'm confused...why would dog owners want to shock their dogs remotely? I always thought electric shock collars were for discouraging dogs from barking, or to use in conjunction with an "invisible fence", popular in the US. But if an owner is two miles away, how can he see what the dog is doing that might warrant an electric shock? Does the owner spend the day watching Fido on a doggycam, ready to administer a shock when it jumps on the sofa? It seems so inefficient (as well as cruel).

X post I also own a highly reactive , high prey drive Patterdale terrier - he’s very well trained without resorting to injuring and giving him electric shocks , I’ve just got enough brain cells to keep him on a lead around livestock .

@lightinthebox my dog is never off the lead around livestock but is often approached by off lead dogs. Also, what if the lead failed, or I tripped and fell and dropped it, or he ran without me realising and I let go....and anyone who thinks you could break the distraction of a highly prey driven dog with a gravy bone is delusional. Even with 1000% recall in other situations, there's not a chance he'd come back once locked on

So you should keep your dog on a lead.

Where’s his incentive to come back? Why does the ‘low level’ shock work better than a command or a whistle?

@thecaramelwafer I have a scent hound so understand difficult to train dogs. I don't let mine off lead around livestock and have used different (positive) training methods. Mine still has recall which most people would say is impossible for her breed, we worked hard on it but I still recognise her limits (never off lead near squirrels).

I find it hard to sympathise with anyone who can only rely on shock collars for training.

Keeping a dog on lead is sad, but if it can only do recall through pain that's not training.

@vodkaredbullgirl I do, but actually if I wanted to let him off, I'd be confident to do so. Why would I keep an energetic dog on a lead when he can live his best life running free?

That's more cruel to me

I don't only do recall through pain, hes conditioned to his lowest perceived level of stimulus. I can't even feel it on the back of my hand, it's so low. I'd only ever use it to give him a nip if he really was in a life or death predicament, which is hardly ever