Can Dogs Wear Shock Collars All The Time?
Anything around the dog’s neck for too long may cause physical or mental harm. Even a regular collar starts destroying the fur underneath when it’s used for too long, let alone a shock collar.
But e-collars have more functionality than regular collars, and thus, the dog could bear more harm.
So, what happens if your dog wears a shock collar for too long?
5 Things That Happen On Prolonged Shock Collar Usage
Your dog will go through the following if you do not remove the collar after the training session.
1. Injury to the skin
This is the foremost effect and the most dreaded one. The prongs of a collar are in contact with the dog’s skin for effect.
A contact long enough to be deemed unhealthy will cause charring of the skin underneath. In the long run, the shock will gradually hurt the skin, letting the prongs dig deeper into it.
2. Aggression
Your dog will become aggressive when it’s constantly stimulated or shocked. Before that, you may see other signs of distress, such as hiding, jumping around, howling, or barking uncontrollably. It may also try to scratch the collar, indicating a problem.
Aggression is the last resort should you somehow ignore the warning signs before it. That’s when the dog loses all trust in you and fights for its life.
3. Fleeing Away
Your dog may choose to run for its life because nothing it does works to remove that thing from its collar.
Each collar comes with a range, and fleeing it will surely bring comfort to the dog as it won’t receive the stimulation outside it.
4. Possible Infection
Wounds on a dog’s neck unattended and frequently shocked may end up in a deadly infection. Fever, shivering, and a loss of appetite are some of its telltale signs.
You should get it checked soon. Otherwise, the infection could spread to other places. That’s when the wounds may result in the death of your dog.
5. Getting Depressed
An abused dog seldom has good mental health. Constantly zapping the poor thing with an e-collar is a kind of physical abuse that may lead to depression.
This is the other extreme of the results that may arise due to continued use of the collar.
The dog will become drawn away, uninterested in things it liked before. It will lie down in a place for hours, not coming forth to eat, drink, or do any activity.
The overall sadness dances on his face. When you see him doing all this, first rule out if you are using the collar too often and unnecessarily, then see what other things are leading to it.
How Long Should A Dog Wear A Collar?
Typically, we experts recommend that the collar should be on the dog for at least 4 hours of the day. It’s not a rule of thumb but a place to start.
That may be confusing for you, in which case you should only let the dog wear the collar for as long as the training sessions go. Now, the sessions shouldn’t be longer than 15 to 20 minutes.
They also depend on the dog’s temperament. The shorter the attention span of a dog, the shorter its training sessions.
As a third option, consider the time frame when the dog behaves unlikely. For example, when correcting consistent barking, you should do it only with the cue.
Find the trigger that sends the dog into a barking frenzy. Only then use the collar.
As trainers, we always look for cues like those to target. They aren’t easy to find, but things become easier to control once you do.
What Happens If A Dog Wears A Shock Collar For Too Long – Conclusion
The repercussions of a dog’s continued collar usage aren’t difficult to find. Lesions on the contact points, possible infection, and a change in the dog’s behavior toward either extreme, aggression or depression, are some of the indicators to notice.
When you do so, discontinue using the collar for the sake of the dog’s well-being and seek ways to make amends for the lost trust. After all, he wasn’t a bad dog to this extent.
Source: DoggoMag.com
