Study brief: China, Mills and Cooper (2020)
China, L., Mills, D. S., and Cooper, J. J. (2020).
Efficacy of dog training with and without remote electronic collars vs. a focus on positive reinforcement.
Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 7, 508.
In one sentence:
In a controlled comparison of training for off-lead problems such as poor recall, positive-reinforcement-focused training was at least as effective as e-collar training, and in several measures more effective, with fewer welfare risks.
What was done
Sixty-three dogs with known off-lead behavioural problems (such as poor recall) were allocated to three training groups (21 each). Each group received up to 150 minutes of training over five days aimed at improving recall and general obedience.
- One group trained with remote electronic collars
- One group trained by the same style of trainers without e-collars
- One group trained with a clear focus on positive reinforcement
Efficacy measures included number of commands needed to get a response and response latency.
What was found
- The positive-reinforcement group achieved significantly better responses to both “Sit” and “Come” after a single instruction in the allocated time.
- Those dogs also had shorter response latencies than the e-collar group.
- There was no significant difference between groups in the proportion of commands disobeyed, but significantly fewer commands were given to dogs in the positive-reinforcement group.
- The authors concluded that the findings refute the suggestion that e-collar training is more efficient or produces less disobedience, even in experienced hands, and that there is no evidence e-collar training is necessary for its most widely cited indication.
What this study does not claim
- It does not claim that every individual dog, in every setting, responds identically.
- It does not claim that short-term suppression of a behaviour after an aversive stimulus never occurs.
- It does claim, on the measures used, that e-collar training was not shown to be more effective than a positive-reinforcement focus for the target behaviours.
Why it matters for policy
A common argument for keeping e-collars available is that they are needed for difficult recall and related off-lead problems. This study tested that claim under controlled training conditions and did not find an efficacy advantage for e-collars. Combined with welfare concerns from other work, it supports prioritising reward-based methods for ordinary companion-dog goals.
Primary source
Full open-access paper (Frontiers in Veterinary Science)
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