Shock collar yes or no?

A lot has been said and written about shock collars and their importance in training a dog, but just how important are they? Now honestly I cannot speak objectively on this issue I don't like em, felt bad after I did use it, and think they ruin more dogs than help. Take my retriever Tom Brown, as hard  headed dog as I ever did meet on wanting to do things his way. Take retrieving, Tom will return directly to hand his training duck every time (?) then decides that he has to pee on everything first before he brings it back and drops it at my feet without being told.. I know that this is his way of doing it his way. So I take the training dummy away and we do the standard training routine on the leash for 10 min or so, and then I will return him to his kennel for a bit. Or the command to stay, now at first he would stay sometimes and wander others. I would stake him where I wanted him to stay and that helped for a bit. Then one day after about a week and he still was hit or miss, I got ticked and grabbed his ear. The yelp was enough to raise Biggie Smalls from the dead I tell ya! Twice more of grabbing that ear and he stayed like a rock. Right now I can tell him to stay while I go inside of a building and he will be there when I return sitting or laying down 1 min or 20 min. If your dog jumps up on you grab both of it's paws in your hand and squeeze them together he might yelp but he will get down, guaranteed three times at the most, before he breaks the habit! I was telling my friend today who just got a new yellow lap pup, that the dog looks at him now as his mother/father. In the wild the pack would teach the pup how to hunt and how to be quiet during the hunt with no shock collar. It would learn how to stay when need to and how to bring back its prey, it would learn not to make a mess where it lives, all without a shock collar. You must be firm, use a firm voice, and not be afraid to cause some discomfort when your dog steps out of line. Your dog will become the Alpha dog if you let it, but it is your responsibility to keep them in line and occasionally you might just have to have a drag out throw down. fight to really get a point across. Tom likes to play a foot game where I step on his paws and he gets all down on the floor and growls and tries to put his paws on my feet, and one day he bit me, now not hard but a bite. I gave him the devil, and we kept playing same thing bites my ankles, I am good for abut twice on most things three if I am really felling the love you know. Third time I was ready and we had it out in the hall way, me saying no biting, grabbing his jaws and squeezing them together HARD, and putting my New Balance in his butt. he has never bitten me since. So you don't need a shock collar, just be firm and remember you are his teacher and he will do what you say is okay in the pack, to him your family is his pack.