Efficacy of Dog Training With and Without Remote Electronic Collars vs. a Focus on Positive Reinforcement

We assessed the efficacy of dog training with and without remote electronic collars compared to training with positive reinforcement. A total of 63 dogs with known off-lead behavioral problems such as poor recall were allocated to one of three training groups (each n = 21), receiving up to 150 min o...

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Autores principales: China, Lucy, Mills, Daniel S., Cooper, Jonathan J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7387681/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32793652
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.00508
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author China, Lucy
Mills, Daniel S.
Cooper, Jonathan J.
author_facet China, Lucy
Mills, Daniel S.
Cooper, Jonathan J.
author_sort China, Lucy
collection PubMed
description We assessed the efficacy of dog training with and without remote electronic collars compared to training with positive reinforcement. A total of 63 dogs with known off-lead behavioral problems such as poor recall were allocated to one of three training groups (each n = 21), receiving up to 150 min of training over 5 days to improve recall and general obedience. The 3 groups were: E-collar—manufacturer-nominated trainers who used electronic stimuli as part of their training program; Control 1—the same trainers following practices they would apply when not using electronic stimuli; and Control 2—independent, professional trainers who focused primarily on positive reinforcement for their training. Data collection focused on dogs' response to two commands: “Come” (recall to trainer) and “Sit” (place hindquarters on ground). These were the two most common commands used during training, with improving recall being the target behavior for the subject dogs. Measures of training efficacy included number of commands given to elicit the response and response latency. Control 2 achieved significantly better responses to both “Sit” and “Come” commands after a single instruction in the allocated time. These dogs also had shorter response latencies than the E-collar group. There was no significant difference in the proportion of command disobeyed between the three groups, although significantly fewer commands were given to the dogs in Control 2. There was no difference in the number of verbal cues used in each group, but Control 2 used fewer hand and lead signals, and Control 1 made more use of these signals than E-collar group. These findings refute the suggestion that training with an E-collar is either more efficient or results in less disobedience, even in the hands of experienced trainers. In many ways, training with positive reinforcement was found to be more effective at addressing the target behavior as well as general obedience training. This method of training also poses fewer risks to dog welfare and quality of the human-dog relationship. Given these results we suggest that there is no evidence to indicate that E-collar training is necessary, even for its most widely cited indication.
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spelling pubmed-73876812020-08-12 Efficacy of Dog Training With and Without Remote Electronic Collars vs. a Focus on Positive Reinforcement China, Lucy Mills, Daniel S. Cooper, Jonathan J. Front Vet Sci Veterinary Science We assessed the efficacy of dog training with and without remote electronic collars compared to training with positive reinforcement. A total of 63 dogs with known off-lead behavioral problems such as poor recall were allocated to one of three training groups (each n = 21), receiving up to 150 min of training over 5 days to improve recall and general obedience. The 3 groups were: E-collar—manufacturer-nominated trainers who used electronic stimuli as part of their training program; Control 1—the same trainers following practices they would apply when not using electronic stimuli; and Control 2—independent, professional trainers who focused primarily on positive reinforcement for their training. Data collection focused on dogs' response to two commands: “Come” (recall to trainer) and “Sit” (place hindquarters on ground). These were the two most common commands used during training, with improving recall being the target behavior for the subject dogs. Measures of training efficacy included number of commands given to elicit the response and response latency. Control 2 achieved significantly better responses to both “Sit” and “Come” commands after a single instruction in the allocated time. These dogs also had shorter response latencies than the E-collar group. There was no significant difference in the proportion of command disobeyed between the three groups, although significantly fewer commands were given to the dogs in Control 2. There was no difference in the number of verbal cues used in each group, but Control 2 used fewer hand and lead signals, and Control 1 made more use of these signals than E-collar group. These findings refute the suggestion that training with an E-collar is either more efficient or results in less disobedience, even in the hands of experienced trainers. In many ways, training with positive reinforcement was found to be more effective at addressing the target behavior as well as general obedience training. This method of training also poses fewer risks to dog welfare and quality of the human-dog relationship. Given these results we suggest that there is no evidence to indicate that E-collar training is necessary, even for its most widely cited indication. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-07-22 /pmc/articles/PMC7387681/ /pubmed/32793652 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.00508 Text en Copyright © 2020 China, Mills and Cooper. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Veterinary Science
China, Lucy
Mills, Daniel S.
Cooper, Jonathan J.
Efficacy of Dog Training With and Without Remote Electronic Collars vs. a Focus on Positive Reinforcement
title Efficacy of Dog Training With and Without Remote Electronic Collars vs. a Focus on Positive Reinforcement
title_full Efficacy of Dog Training With and Without Remote Electronic Collars vs. a Focus on Positive Reinforcement
title_fullStr Efficacy of Dog Training With and Without Remote Electronic Collars vs. a Focus on Positive Reinforcement
title_full_unstemmed Efficacy of Dog Training With and Without Remote Electronic Collars vs. a Focus on Positive Reinforcement
title_short Efficacy of Dog Training With and Without Remote Electronic Collars vs. a Focus on Positive Reinforcement
title_sort efficacy of dog training with and without remote electronic collars vs. a focus on positive reinforcement
topic Veterinary Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7387681/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32793652
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.00508
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