Not just that, but it trains dogs not to bark or growl when they are antagonized or upset by certain behaviour. Normally a bark or growl would function as a warning, but now he has no other way to go than bite without warning.
Now this animal, who was shocked into never using its vocal cords and antagonized until he bit a human or other animal out of desperation, gets put down because he is a danger to society. Job well done lads!
I've seen these used on rescue dogs that frankly have such complex psychological problems that they cannot be untrained to bark. The only other choice is euthanasia. They aren't so strong that the dog can't growl.
The dog also learns that aggressive responses are not so fantastic.
My own dog doesn't have one of these, mainly because we try to be very careful to manage how we respond to his barking. But if we couldn't keep up the late-night bark management, or if we lose control of the barking, I won't think twice about buying one of these. I've seen them used on other dogs and frankly they work just fine and are humane.
No. Shock collars are exactly how dogs get such complex psychological problems that they're abandoned in the first place.
They're not humane, if you force a shock collar on another human it's legally considered a torture device. If the legal system used them it would be cruel and unusual punishment.
Causing unnecessary pain and suffering is not compatible with being humane. It's as simple as that. There are better solutions with fewer side effects for every use case of a shock collar. If not every single use case, the overwhelming majority of them. (edit: I didn't realize you were the one advocating using shock collars on a rescue dog that barks too much. A shock collar isn't even in the right ballpark in that case.)
Dominance and pain based training methods are outdated and based on debunked theories, in the past three decades almost the entire field of animal behavior has moved on.
Ughmmmm no. Try to be getting up 6 times a night to find your dog barking at a hedgehog because one wondered into your garden(and a dog won't stop, if needed it will stand in front of a hedgehog for 12 hours and bark at it). The only other option was to tie the dog down each night,but in my opinion that's more barbaric. After a few nights of getting shocked each time he got even close to the hedgehog, barking at them stopped and the collar has not been used again. It's just a tool,and I have nothing against them.
I don't know why I got downvoted for stating that I would use that product... anyway...
I agree with you and the thing about "now they will bite without warning" is total bs. They somehow fail to see that if an owner cares enough to prevent his dog from barking they will, to a much greater degree, care that its dog will not harm to other people; quite the contrary, the type of guy that says "they're dogs, it's natural for them to bark" is the type of guy that later turns into a "they're dogs, it's natural for them to bite".
After being zapped by one of these myself, I had to tone down my disapproval of them. It was uncomfortable but not particularly painful, similar to a 'handbuzzer' gag gift.
My bigger problem was that it was not very effective at stopping barking.
It's absolutely fucking barbaric, and should be outlawed.