The Kennel Club attended the recent Conservative Party conference in Blackpool to ask more MPs support a total ban on the use of electric dog collars.

It's fair to say that these collars are not widely welcomed by many dog owners in the UK, and Shooting Gazette has featured many comments from columnists and letters from our readers over the years expressing great concern over their use, not least because of the potentially damaging effects they could have on the wearer.

Some Tory MPs were willing to try the collars out personally to experience the shock a dog receives when being disciplined. Hopefully, most of those were previously unaware of the issue in the past and will soon be joining those scores of MPs and members of the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Executive already backing a ban.

After all, our dogs need to learn right and wrong from us, the owner, not by hitting a button, where is the love in that?