Dog shock collars safety and ethical considerations

While researching the electrical features of dog shock collars as part of our "market research" we found some pretty scary tangential information about these devices. Though unrelated to male training, we thought it would be of interest to post it here.

From wikipedia:

"A significant concern is that no regulations exist specifying the performance characteristics or reliability of these devices, so that there is considerable variation in shock level and waveform between manufacturers, and perhaps even between batches of collars from a single manufacturer."

What this is probably referring to is the fact that production control might be less than optimal, due to the fact the end user is made so non-consensually and cannot report complaints - and that saving on component prices by buying parts with high tolerances may effectively make one collar's intensity different from that of another collar.

"Some opponents and animal rights groups say that shock collars result in a dog suffer from physical pain and injury, as well as psychological stress and anxiety. Some owners who self test collars on themselves have purported that some collars with no available settings but only on and off give shocks that are equal to that of sticking a finger in a light socket, while others with collars that have setting dials, show that depending on the setting, that even the mildest setting gives an unwanted pain, while hitting a threshold on the dial which they refuse to go any higher because of how much it hurts."

This report is probably exaggerated unless the testers have tried the light socket for comparison - but regardless of whether manufacturers of electric dog shock collars (particularly cheaper ones sourced from the developing world) pay attention to electronic part tolerances, fail-safe circuit design and other considerations, we think that these devices are unethical for many reasons. First, because of the non-consensual nature of the stimulation. Second, because an animal is not always conscious of the cause-effect relationship between its actions and the stimulation:

"As suggested by other research, dogs may make inappropriate associations between shock and other experiences"

Third, because unethical usage is bound to occur. Some companies like Innotek employ an anti-cruelty feature imposing 10 seconds of pause every 10 uninterrupted seconds of stimulation. However, that is a 50% activation cycle which doesn't prevent cruelty by much especially at high settings, and it simply recognizes that misuse is to be expected.

If you do own one of these devices, please be careful and responsible and keep it out of the reach of children.

Our philosophy: it is unethical to use on a puppy a shock collar that you would use on an obstreperous human male!