Hespeler Animal Hospital

A letter from a concerned client about a dog being shocked by an Invisible Fence

Q. Dear Dr. Langlais,

I am writing to you about a recent, disturbing sight that has been occurring to a neighbourhood dog, regarding the use of electric fence/electric collar training.

A friendly neighbourhood dog occasionally sits out at the top of his driveway. As soon as he sees my dog (or any other dog for that matter) and I walking down the street, he starts howling and comes running down towards the bottom of his driveway. After crossing the street the first time, I was impressed that it responded to my hand-command, “stay” and remained there. Not noticing this dog sitting out there at another time, we walked right in front of the house, and again the dog ran down to the bottom end of the driveway. Then as it squawked and yelped, it’s front paws began to jerk and shake with its body in spasm. Realizing that the dog had been held back because of an “electrical training tool”, I was shocked and ended up crying on my way back home with my own dog. Now whenever we go for a walk, I check to see if the dog is out on his driveway and try to avoid passing directly in front of its house; however, when unavoidable, we cross over to the other side of the street. By doing so, the dog doesn’t reach and “touch” the invisible electric fence and shock itself unnecessarily into spasms.

I had looked on internet to read about invisible electric fence and electric collar “training” tools and was dismayed with of some of the testimonials: the “tickling buzz” does not harm the dog and the “dial” is never set at the “optimum” level. However in this case, within the last few weeks of seeing this habit, the extremely excitable dog has never learned anything by such “training” method, and still occasionally yelps when in spasm, during its “shock” training. When the dog yelps and howls too much, the young parent comes out to call the dog back.

I feel that the owner must not really realize that every time their family pet receives “shock” training, these several, electric shocks look as if might possibly be damaging the dog’s heart and shortening its lifespan.

My question is: Is it really possible to damage the dog’s heart and shortening its life upon receiving too many electrical shocks?

I do not want to confront this young, (seemingly responsible in all other respects) neighbourhood owner. Although the cost of a dog-run fenced area or even a reasonably small fenced area might be a slightly costlier alternative, it might be kinder to the family pet rather than having it suffer spasms.
Also, other animals and humans are able to cross into and through this invisible electric fence and enter the property without harm; the family pet may end up in danger. If out of excitement, the family dog does run past the electronic fencing in order to chase a squirrel (for example), it can do so. However, because the dog would receive another “shock” when trying to re-enter, it may be unable to return to its own property. Also, after seeing various comments on ”U-tube” about some controversial dog-training methods, we as owners should be more discriminate and become more knowledgeable about our choices of whether or not to use various controversial tools, and about choosing reasonable trainers with humane, non-aggressive training methods.

As you are sometimes a guest columnist for our local Cambridge Times, I wondered if you would write something about this kind of situation for all to read. I think some of us are not aware of the possible damage we are doing to our family pets. In the near future, I hope that a positive outcome might result in informing pet owners about this “training tool” method.
Thank you for letting me “air” my concerns.

A. I couldn’t have said it any better!  You have described a very sad yet not uncommon situation. I am NOT a fan of invisible fencing. Although I don’t think invisible fences or shock collars can damage an animal’s heart, I do agree that they are not an ideal way to confine a dog, and should only be used as a last resort.

I have personally seen two cases where a dog has “taken” a shock to get out of the yard but been too afraid to get it on the way back in. As a result, both dogs were running on the road in a state of panic and were almost hit by several cars.

I know I would not want to wear a collar that would give me a shock if I misbehaved, even if it was a mild shock. And I’m a reasoning human being who would understand an explanation as to what was happening and the reasoning behind it. So, if I wouldn’t choose that form of learning for myself, why would I want to do that to an animal who does not comprehend what is going on?