E-collar recommendations - Page 3

Because it's what I want to see happen. If it's unrealistic, well, so be it. I have 2 other dogs, and I don't always want to have to keep rotating dogs from kennel to house. There is always the chance of a door or gate being left open, too, or her encountering an off leash dog while we are walking, too.

She'll never be a dog I can turn loose to play with dogs she doesn't know, but if I can get her to accept the other members of my pack, I'll be happy.

We are dealing with prey aggression, rather than true dog aggression, so it may be a bit easier to fix. I know someone who has done so successfully with their dog. I also know farm dogs learn not to harm other animals on the farm, but they will readily attack and kill animals that don't belong. Even a stray cat that's not part of the resident cat population will be at risk, as well as 'varmints' such as raccoons and woodchucks.

And in other news...

Gracie, the dog I'm having the problems with, got her CGN last night! This was in spite of the small, black dog we did the meet-and-greet with growling at her!    She gave him the hairy eyeball, and did not want to sit at first, but eventually obeyed me, and things went okay!

Very, very pleased with my girl! 

I liked the sport dog ecollars until a button got stuck on the remote. I 've had several - that's how much I liked them. I like that you can replace the battery and I like the tone. I like that you can set it to single pulse or constant. I like the size of the remote.

But, the connection on the charger has a tendancy to break. I've had to replace several chargers for that reason.

But the reason I stopped using it was because the remote button got stuck in the on position. It was set to constant. I pressed the button but when I let go of the button, it wouldn't turn off. The button was stuck.

The Einsteins are the way to go. They are expensive, but you get what you pay for.

Another thing I like about the Einsteins over the sport dog - the remote on the einstein has it's own off/on switch. I sat on the sport dog remote on more than one occassion, accidentally zapping my dog. In fact, I've accidentally zapped my dog with a sport dog collar several times.

Also, even if your dog has short hair, I would go with the longer contacts. They provide better connection to the dog's skin, allowing for a more effective correction at a lower level. Someone told me this but I didn't believe them. But then I finally switched the contacts and the person was right.

You can choose whatever you like, it will not close the gap in your knowledge ;-)
All the best
Ulf

Ulf, would you like to try to cure this problem for me, since you seem to know more than I do?

I've owned GSDs since the 1980s. I know how to train.

Since this dog spent a good part of her life tied up, the pressure from a leash is likely to increase her aggression and anxiety when introduced to another dog. However, without a leash, I have no means of correcting her if she shows aggression, other than verbally, which may not be enough. Yes, we have worked very hard on the 'leave it!" command, and she responds to it quite well most of the time. However, prey drive is a very instinctual, deeply ingrained behaviour, and if the verbal command fails, she could still hurt another dog, even when wearing a muzzle. 

Due to her very high prey drive, she also has a very strong instinct to chase after anything that's moving quickly. E-collars are one of the best tools for preventing dogs from chasing cars, cats or livestock.

Congratulations, SS!  I know how much work has gone into that CGN!!

 

I checked out the Einstein Mini at the WUSVs, and it appears to be high quality for a very reasonable price. I don't use my Dogtra that much, but I have found that it can be of variable reliability. :/

How did I miss you @ the WUSV?!?!?

I don't know--I'm VERY disappointed! I had heard you were there and looked for you. I was with my friend Wanda, who was in a wheelchair (she can walk with her SD, but he's young and has drive, so she didn't want to risk disturbing the competitors), so I was with her in the ADA section behind blind 6 for Friday afternoon and most of Saturday.

Christine

Thank you, Hexe! It was pretty stressful, as there were a large number of dogs that were rambunctious and not under very good control. I was REALLY surprised some of them passed, as the owners were yanking the leashes constantly during the test! 

Gracie was definitely one of the best-behaved dogs there, though she definitely didn't perform perfectly. She did a loop-de-loop on the off leash recall, and my heart was in my mouth, as the small black dog doing the test with us had triggered her prey drive when it did its lightning-fast recall!  Then, when the little s**t growled at us during the meet-and-greet, I was again surprised she didn't lunge at him. (Okay, that was the one time I DID yank a bit on the collar!) After eyeballing him for a few tense moments, she finally responded to my command to 'sit', and we completed the exercise with no further problems.

Although I had to tell her to 'slow down' a couple of times, we managed to keep a slack leash throughout the test.