Shock Collar Dog Training: Uses, Risks & Expert Insights

Pawsitive Life with Dogs

27 Sep, 2025

What Is a Shock Collar in Dog Training?

If a trainer utilises shock collar dog training with their animals it will typically take the form of either an aid to ‘fine tuning’ an already highly trained animal, or it will be an aid to communication with a dog at some distance from the owner, or else it will take the form of a correctional device or inhibitor. The term ‘shock collar’ is not, generally, used by the manufacturers of such products but instead they term them rather less dramatically as ‘e-collars’ or ‘remote training collars’. In any case, they are all the same basic thing but with different features.

Fine-Tuning a Dog’s Behavior with E-Collars

‘Fine tuning’ a dog’s responses and behaviour means improving how a dog does a particular task. It may well already do the task to a good level of proficiency but the trainer requires it done faster or with a quicker response or some other aspect of the action needs to be improved. Using an electric collar for this sort of training usually means that a low level signal is delivered to the animal for the duration of its activity and ceases when the dog has completed the task.

In this way the dog realises that the discomfort finishes with the end of the task and so he enacts the task faster. Another use of it would be to create a faster reaction time by sending a signal either simultaneously with the issuing of an instruction, or else immediately after; thus prompting the dog to move quickly.

Using Shock Collars for Distance Communication

The type and degree of signal varies with device. In most cases the signal should be a low level pulse and in some cases it will be a sound. It is worth insisting that this is meant as a ‘correctional’ device, to assist in training and communication, and not a means of punishment. Punishing an animal is rarely an effective training method.

The other main use for these collars is to communicate with an animal over distance where the more usual methods are not sufficient. This might mean working shepherd dogs or search and tracker animals. Again, there would be a low level signal or sound which the dog has been trained to understand and react to.

Correction vs. Punishment in Dog Training

As with all training aids from the collar and leash to the lion tamer’s whip, how the individual utilises the device is fundamental as to whether it is appropriate or not. Considering the uses it is put to, a device for shock collar dog training should really only be used by the experienced dog trainer, if at all.