Animals and

Study Method Measures Results

participants
Sex Only descriptive statistics reported.
Dog owners with a dog Breed Dogs that were trained by hitting or “shaking” tended to have a history of biting other dogs.
Roll and injured by another dog (n = Questionnaires completed by all Age A higher % of victim dogs were owned by dog owners who shouted and gave clear commands
Unshelm, 151) and dog owners with a owners to compare aggressors Training methods and owners who believed that training should be fun and that it was advantageous to have a
1997 dog that injured another dog and victims. Degree of injury trained dog.
(n = 55). Location of fight A higher % of aggressor dogs were owned by owners who believed that a dog would be out of
Owners' demographics control without training.

Descriptive data collected in the

Polsky, 2000 Adult dogs (n = 5).
Hiby et al., Dog owners (n = 326) with
2004 dogs aged more than 1 year.
Dogs that were trained for
official certificate of police
Schilder and
service (n = 15).
van der Borg,
Dogs that trained with (n =
2004
16) and without (n = 15)
electric shocks.
Laboratory-bred Beagles
Schalke et al.,
between the ages of 1.5-
2007
2 years (n = 14).
Steiss et al., Dogs from a private no-kill
2007 shelter (n = 21).
form of legal documents,
animal control officers and
police officers' reports.
Case studies of aggression that
was elicited by electronic pet
containment systems were
examined.
Questionnaires given to dog
owners as they were walking
their dog or through veterinary
clinics.
Questionnaires returned by
mail.
Videotaping 107 shocks
delivered to 31 dogs and
comparing body language to
control dogs that did not receive
shocks.
Comparing behavior of dogs
that received shocks in the past
to dogs that did not.
Training to stop prey behavior.
Three groups: (1) receive shock
precisely at the moment they
touch a prey dummy, (2)
receive shock when failing to
obey a recall during hunting, (3)
receive arbitrary, unpredictable
shocks.
Dogs randomly assigned to 3
groups: control (C), electronic
antibark collar (E), lemon spray
antibark collar (S).
Baseline measurements and
measurements after collar was
activated.
Dog sex, age, reproductive
status, breed, location of
attack relative to border of
containment system, and
victim's familiarity with dog
Demographics
Training methods
Obedience level
Problem behaviors
Direct effect of shocks on
body language.
Body language of dogs that
received shocks in the past
during various conditions in
which no shocks were given
Heart rate
Salivary cortisol
Barking
Activity
Plasma cortisol
ACTH
All 5 attacks carried out by adult intact males between the ages of 2-3 years.
Adult victims were familiar with the dog, child victims were not.
In 4 of 5 cases, the dog received a shock at the time of the attack.
Not 1 of the dogs showed threatening behavior before attack.
All attacks included repeated biting of victim.
No gross warning signals were given before biting.
Using punishment positively correlated with problem behaviors.
No correlation between use of reward-based training and problem behaviors.
Number of behavior problems:
punishment only > combination of punishment and reward > reward only or miscellaneous
methods.
Punishment-based training was never the most effective for achieving obedience goals.
Overall obedience was related to reward-based but not to punishment-based methods.
Direct reaction to shocks (e.g., lowering body, high-pitched yelps, barks, squeals, redirected
aggression, avoidance) lasted a fraction of a second.
Long-term effects: comparison of shocked (S) dogs and control dogs (C).
During free walking, obedience, and police work: lower ear postures and stress-related
behaviors: S > C.
Differences were seen even when walking in a park outside the training grounds.
Stress and lower ear postures: training > free walking.
Absolute and relative cortisol levels:
Group (1)—increase by ∼22 and 31%, respectively.
Group (2)—increase by ∼114 and 160%, respectively.
Group (3)—increase by ∼336 and 328%, respectively.
Increase in maximal heart rate in group (3) on days of training with shock.
Reduced barking in S and E groups compared to C.
No statistically significant changes in plasma cortisol and ACTH. However, large effect sizes of
increased plasma cortisol and ACTH in S and E groups on day 1 of wearing the active collar
compared to baseline.
 Animals and
Study
participants
Dog owners (n = 192) with
Blackwell
dogs between the ages of 1-
et al., 2008
15 years.
33 dog and handler teams of
the Belgian Defense.
Haverbeke Dogs between the ages of 1-
et al., 2008 5 years and have been
working between 3 months
and 3 years.
Dog owners who scheduled
Herron et al., an appointment for behavior
2009 consultation in a veterinary
hospital (n = 140).
Questionnaire with 237 short
questions regarding
Survey randomly sent to 5000 demographics, and dog and
Arhant et al.,
dog owners. 1,405 surveys owner behavior.
2010
returned, 1,276 analyzed. Comparison between small
(<20 kg) and large (>20 kg)
dogs.
Rooney and Dog owners and their dogs
Cowan, 2011 (n = 53).
14,566 questionnaires
Blackwell
distributed to dog owners,
et al., 2012
27% returned (n = 3,897).
Method
Questionnaires given to dog
owners walking their dogs or in
veterinary hospitals in the
United Kingdom.
Standardized evaluation of 8
obedience exercises and 5
protection work exercises to
assess teams' performance.
Two evaluations with 20 days
in between were performed.
Dogs divided into high-
performance and low-
performance groups.
Survey regarding previous
behavior interventions and
outcomes sent by email, fax, or
postal mail to owners.
Survey included a list of 30
possible interventions.
Interventions categorized by
researchers to: aversive, indirect
confrontation, reward training,
and neutral.
Researcher visited and filmed
the behavior of each owner and
dog at their home while
following specific instructions
including ignoring the dog and
performing obedience
exercises.
Owners also completed a
questionnaire.
Questionnaires regarding
demographics, choice of
training method, and prevalence
of undesired behaviors.
Measures
Demographics
Training methods
Obedience level
Problem behaviors
Team performance
Handler's behavior
Dog behavior
Frequency of intervention use
Aggressive response due to
intervention.
Effect of intervention on
behavior problem
Dog behavior
Training techniques used
Owner-reported training
methods
Dog behavior
Owner behavior
Training method
Problem behavior
Demographics
Training success
Results
Training methods: 16% R+, 12% R+ and R−, 32% R+ and P+, 40% combination of all
categories.
72% used some P+.
R+ only: lowest score on attention seeking behaviors, fear, and aggression.
R+ and R−: highest score on attention seeking behavior.
R+ and P+: highest score on aggression.
Reactivity to other dog and people: lowest in R+ only.
Fear and aggression problems higher in dogs that received any type of punishment.
Team performance: 66% success in obedience and 39% success in protection work.
Use of R+ (57.12%) > use of aversive stimuli (R− and P+) (21.88%).
Use of aversive stimuli:
protection work > obedience
high-performance < low-performance dogs
distracted dogs > slightly distracted, not distracted
2nd evaluation > 1st evaluation.
Dogs showed lower posture after aversive stimuli in the 2nd compared to the 1st evaluation
% of dogs responding aggressively to confrontational training methods:
“Alpha roll” (31%), forced release of item in dog's mouth (38%), hit or kick dog (43%), grab
jowls/scruff (26%), “dominance down” (29%).
% of dogs responding aggressively to indirect confrontational training methods:
“stare down” (30%), water pistol/spray bottle (20%), growl at dog (41%), yelling “no” (15%).
Only between 0%-6% of dogs responded aggressively to neutral and reward-based methods.
Using P+: small = large dogs.
Higher frequency of punishments related to higher aggression and excitability scores in small
and large dogs.
Relationship between punishment and aggression stronger in small dogs.
Relationship between punishment and fearfulness and anxiety found only in small dogs.
Use of reward-based responses to unwanted behavior related to higher frequency of aggressive
behavior.
All correlations < 0.3
None of the 54 owners reported using reward-based or punishment-based methods exclusively.
Proportion of punishment-based methods negatively correlated with dog interaction with
experimenter.
Proportion of reward-based training methods positively correlated with dog performance at a
novel task.
Using physical punishment: dogs less interactive during play and less likely to interact with
experimenter (compared to not using physical punishment at all).
Dog performance in novel task positively correlated with total rewards delivered and owner
patience.
Only 3.3% reported using E-collars, 1.4% bark E-collars, and 0.9% electronic containment
system.
Higher % of owners using reward-based methods reported success for recall/chasing problems
 Animals and
Study
participants
Salgirli et al.,
Adult police dogs (n = 42).
2012
Grohmann 1-year-old intact male
et al., 2013 German Shepherd.
Same questionnaire as
Blackwell et al., 2012.
Casey et al.,
14,566 questionnaires
2014
distributed to dog owners,
27% returned (n = 3,897).
63 dogs (no differences
between groups in age, sex,
Cooper et al., and breed) divided to 3
2014 groups based on dog
characteristics and past
training history.
Dogs in advanced training
Deldalle and class from 2 schools: R+
Gaunet, 2014 school (n = 24), R− school
(n = 26).
Method Measures Results
(∼97%) compared to E-collar use (∼83%) or other aversive methods (∼94%).
Occurrence of undesired behaviors did not differ between training methods.
Setup of training exercise with
human decoys meant to distract Use of E-collar and pinch collar led to learning to disregard the distraction while heeling.
the dog into breaking a heel. % of dogs with behavior reactions to punishment: no statistically significant differences between
Repeated-measures design. pinch (64.3%) and electronic (38.1%) for extreme backward ears.
Salivary cortisol
Counterbalanced order of 3 Extreme low body posture: 4.8% of dogs for pinch, 0% E-collar.
Behavioral observations Vocalization: ∼60% E-collar > ∼23% pinch.
aversive stimuli: (1) quitting
signal, (2) pinch collar, (3) E- # of dogs with maximal salivary cortisol values: 17 quitting signal, 15 E-collar, 10 pinch.
collar. One week between Highest cortisol concentration after quitting signal.
conditions for each dog.
Dog suspended a few feet in the air by a choke collar for approximately 60 seconds. Dog
A case study of severe brain panicked and lost consciousness. After a few hours, dog became ataxic on all 4 limbs and was
Description of punishment
damage after punitive technique circling to left. Several neurological symptoms.
Description of symptoms MRI revealed legions which led to a diagnosis of severe cerebral edema due to ischemia.
with a choke collar.
Owner chose to euthanize the dog.
Questionnaires regarding
Compared to R+ and P−, using P+ and/or R− were related to increased risk of aggression toward
demographics, choice of Risk factors for aggressive
members of the family and toward unfamiliar people outside the house (odds ratio 2.8 and 2.2,
training method, and prevalence behavior respectively).
of undesired behaviors.
Examining effects of E-collar Training success: no differences between groups in owners' satisfaction and perception of dogs'
use on dogs' welfare. improvement.
Three groups trained for 5 days Behavioral measures:
(2 sessions per day) for recall in time spent in tense state: 1 > 2, 3
Behavioral and physiological Low tail carriage: 1, 2 > 3
the presence of distractions:
measures before, during, and Yawning: 1 > 3
(1) E-collar use, (2) same Vocalization increase with E-collar intensity increase.
after training
trainers with no use of E-collar, # of commands given: 1, 2 > 3 (twice as many)
(3) trainers who don't advocate Interaction with environment: 1, 2 < 3
E-collar use and no use of E- Salivary cortisol: 3 >1, 2 throughout study.
collar. Post-training minus pretraining cortisol: 1 = 2 = 3
While walking on leash: % of dogs gazing at owner: R+ (63%) > R− (4%).
Observation of owner and dog During the “sit” command: # of dogs showing mouth licking and yawning and showing at least 1
Performance
performance of a walk on leash of 6 stress-related behaviors:
Dog behavior
and a sit command in advanced R− > R+.
Owner behavior % of dogs gazing at owner: R+ (88%) > R− (38%).
group classes.
% of dogs with low body posture: R− (46%) > R+ (8%).