I have an 8 month old doberman. I've been taking him for obedience training since he was 10 weeks old. I haven't used the electric collor myself, but they do use it successfully in the traning school I take him to. I've been around the dogs that have been trained with these (other dobermans) and they are not wild, crazy, or unhandable; quite the opposite. It does seem that one can use these collors with success, although I'm sure one could also abuse them as well. From talking to the traininer, they use the electric collor in two cases: (1) to correct a bad behavior (jumping, chasing, etc.) (2) as a training aid to help the dog understand that he/she needs to respond to a single command immediately without any hesitation ( gets a correction right away when no response ). The dog is usually trained and undestands all the commands by the time they start using the collor, but is not necessarily listening/obeing all the time.
If training my dobe with such a collor would give me enough confidence to let him off leash at a park to play with him by throwing some tennis balls or frizbee and knowing that he'll obey even when other dogs/cats/children are around or when he's chasing something into a busy street, I think it might be worth some discomfort to the animal in the long run. In addition, by all means use any other traditional methods that will help to achive your behavior goals like a long line and calling him to come when distracted. Personally I don't think getting yanked by a pinch collor is that much better then getting a small electic stimulation however. I'm not convinced yet myself if I'll want to use such a collor but I am considering it. I'm doing my research now and this is my current opinion. It may or may not change
