Shock Collars

Hello everyone, I hope you are all in good moods and  have had a lovely week. I was lucky enough to spend two days this week in Amsterdam a city I've never been to before and it was so lovely. I spent way too much money but it was so enjoyable and a nice chilled two days with my best friend. So I hope that all of you have had a lovely week too. So having read the news this week there was one rather controversial story which I want to talk about today.

Shock Collars, these have been used for many year to train our dogs or to make them behave in certain ways and keep them within confines. I have known one or two people who have used the shock collars mostly to shock their dogs when they left the perimeters of the owners land so that the dogs wouldn't wonder off onto the road. Now I understand that this will give the owners a peace of mind knowing that their dog is less likely to walk out onto the road. However these shocks can confuse the dogs because they may not realise what they are doing to be shocked. Another way people use shock collars is when training their dogs, for example if the dog does something wrong the owner would express their disappointment and punish the dog with a shock, the aim of this is to teach the dog quickly what they are doing wrong and to have as little confusion as possible between punishment and reward actions. Now I personally think that these collars are wrong there is always a better way than inflicting pain onto your animal. I have watched multiple different dog training classes and most trainers say that you shouldn't get angry at your puppy/dog, they will always try to please you, you just have to think the way they are and try to get them to concentrate on you. Also training takes time it is not something that can be done in a week, so normal training classes for puppies will be spread out over months even years, this is because each class will be mentally taxing for the dogs so you cant cram too much into one session without tiring the dog out.

So the article I read was about the BVA welcoming Defra's consultations on banning shock collars in England. I think that this is a great idea because if people can be educated on better ways to train their dogs the animal human bond will become even stronger. However if this ban does come into place it will be a hard thing to keep a close eye on, we don't know how many people use these collars now so the ban will initially prove difficult however I think it will be very worth it. I believe that it is a vets job to educated owners about this as well, one of a vets main roles is to educate the owners about their pets and how to read their pets body language and making sure the dog is first well trained is so vital.

So that's all I have for you guys today I hope you enjoyed it. Remember to keep smiling and be thankful for everything you have. I'll see you back here next week.

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