Many people today are still under the impression that electronic dog collars are an inhumane way of training a dog. This can be due to myths about electronic collars that are usually false as well as the association of electronic collars to the old shock collars that used to be used on dogs.

Today's electronic collars are designed to not only effectively train a dog, but also have features that make them humane to use. Some of the features that make electronic dog collars humane for dog training include the following:

The old shock collars had one level of intensity. They sent an electronic jolt through the dog whenever he got out of line. He soon learned, from this stimulation, that this was inappropriate behavior. But, as any good dog trainer knows, there are many different levels of inappropriate behavior for a dog. Is it fair to mete out the same response for all levels?

For this reason, today's electronic dog collars have different levels of intensity when it come to the stimulation. Therefore, your dog can learn what is a "no" and what is a really, really big "NO" based upon the stimulation. You can also use the stimulation for different training. You may use different levels of stimulation when it comes to household training as you do with field training. The varied levels of intensity on electronic dog collars make it a more humane way to train a dog.

You can choose electronic collars that provide intermittent stimulation as well as those that provide a constant stimulation. For the most part, you will want to use intermittent stimulation. Send your dog a "yip" that is very quick and will correct his behavior. But if your dog starts racing off after prey and you want him to stop, you are going to have to go for the constant stimulation. However, most electronic dog collars will time out after about 7 seconds of constant stimulation, making it impossible for you to harm your dog.

Allowing your dog to go on a mad run during a hunting trek, however, can be inhumane. Especially around other hunters with guns, dogs and even traps. A five second stimulation can stop this from happening. And because the device is made to time out after this period, you do not have to worry about harming your dog.

Many of the new electronic collars have a waterproof design that make it easy to use when your dog is hunting near or in the water. This makes the collar more humane for use as well as effective for training a gun dog.

Most electronic collars have a large field of range - some up to a mile. When you want to correct your dog, you want to do it right away, otherwise, the lesson is lost. The dog does not understand what he or she did wrong if you yell at them 10 minutes later. The electronic dog collars with a significant field of range help hunters who are hunting in the wide open range (such as those with pointers) train their dogs with ease.