3 soesterberg returned attack on registry as N62191 litters walking problems who could be considered beyond the reach of the most successful canine behaviour experts still do not deserve to be persecuted and tortured into submission. There are humane methods to change and influence the behaviour of any living breathing creature capable of thinking, a dog especially Remote control electrocution simply can not be considered a humane or acceptable solution, whatever the necessity to alter behaviour. Even convicted criminals, sentenced to death the Electric Chair are spared the term agony of punishing electrical charges being pumped into their bodies. Death comes relatively quickly for these people and as barbaric as the act itself be, even murderers would never be subjected to a daily electrocution until such a time as they had ‘learned their lesson.' Why, therefore, should a dog? Is it any way conceivable that a dog, animal born of no inherent malevolence, a creature whose psychological makeup is influenced entirely by environmental conditioning and its interaction with members of the human race, could ever commit act worthy of this most vile and excruciatingly painful example of human cruelty as a means of justifiable reprisal? Furthermore, that companies who profit from the sale and manufacture of a device renowned for its capability to inflict a deplorable level of brutality on its animal victims, should do at the physical and mental expense of those dogs who have to endure the consequences of its potency all the name of ‘more desirable behaviour'? Is this a product that we, a supposed Nation of animal lovers should be tolerant of as it is made freely available for sale the United Kingdom to anyone who desires to one? Does not the sheer concept of a device, created to inflict punishment by means of remote electrocution on animal we refer to as ‘'s best friend', strike you as being barbaric, hypocritical and contradictory to everything that modern society stands for? I put it to you, members of the K9 Magazine jury that you use your jurisdiction to sentence the electric shock collar to death by way of your consciences compelling you to speak out against anyone reckless enough to use one or any business mercenary enough to sell or manufacture one for profit. I say stop this shocking tool from being made available for sale and spare the anguish of thousands of dogs. Call for a ban on the electric shock collar. Case For The Defence: Members of the K9 Magazine reader's jury. Before I say anything, I credit you all with the intellectual capacity to have already spotted the fundamentally flawed motives of the anti-electric collar bandwagon. The charge levelled against this most innovative and successful product is without foundation and is confounded when you view the successes that have been achieved with electric collars. Whilst it maybe true that a dog trainer would have you believe they would never stoop low as to use ecollar, the facts are that trainers who do sample the device when pressed with apparently insurmountable behavioural problem capable of ultimately leading to the destruction of a healthy animal, discover a life-saving tool that is effective ONLY because it fits with the dog's own understanding of negative or positive behavioural re-enforcement. Jury, you must understand what the anti-collar browbeaters fail to acknowledge. Dogs are not humans. It sounds obvious, fact it is obvious but the reality is lost on the anti-ecollar protesters. Dogs, not being human, have learning and thinking systems that are very different to our own. Dogs understand the blackness or whiteness of a situation but not grey. That is to say a dog has the capability to understand if a behaviour it participates is acceptable or not. It does not have a comprehension of a behaviour being anti-social or ‘not keeping with the expectancy level of its human counterparts'. Let's take a hypothetical case: A family dog, let's say he's a 12 month old Labrador. His owners let him sit on the sofa the living room every day. Every day that is apart from Fridays when his owners hold a very important dinner party which case he gets scolded for being ill-mannered enough to even attempt to get up on the sofa and out behaviour which he understands to be acceptable on other occasions. He doesn't know he can't get on the sofa on a Friday. He understands a pattern that says he either can get on the sofa or he can't. He'll pretty much accept either rule but what he really struggles with is this horrible, human inflicted grey area. I re-iterate, dogs understand black or white, hot or cold, acceptable or not acceptable. They do not have a great ability to add scenario evaluation or circumstance-relevant decision making to their thought process. The dog's black or white learning pattern is the main reason why the electric shock training collar is very successful and fair. It has the capability to instantly and effectively communicate a highly comprehensible message to the dog. ‘Your behaviour is acceptable or your behaviour is not'. Dogs do not enjoy the shock. Some ecollar advocates try and play down the fact