Electric collars with a remote control and electric collars that punish dogs for barking will be banned in Flanders from 1 January 2027. Flemish Minister for Animal Welfare Ben Weyts (N-VA) has laid down a phase-out scenario for this. “We are once again saying goodbye to an outdated practice,” says Weyts. “A pet is part of your family and you don’t give an electric shock to a family member by a natural reflex or just because you press a button.”
In the transition period until 2027, bodies that use electric collars when training animals can switch to animal-friendly alternatives. There are plenty of those alternatives. “Specialists have long since stopped thinking that you can only train or correct animals with aggressive aversion techniques,” it sounds in a press release on Tuesday. “The scientific literature warns much more about the possible negative consequences of training methods that are based on punishment.”
