Remote or electric training collars - Page 5

When my dog and I are out I almost always have his e-collar on simply because it's much easier than carrying a leash. Even though he is obedient and stays with me it's insurance that he won't do anything wrong. Total piece of mind. I was even approached by an officer one evening concerning a possible leash law violation. He realized the e-collar and let me go without a ticket.

I do the same thing with my adult dogs harddawg. It saves me time out in the country if they flush a rabbit and disappear. I let them go for a few minutes but if they don't get back to me...insurance. I don't wanna be standing out in the dark waiting for my dogs all night. If I didn't have an e-collar they wouldn't get as many chances to run free.

Great thread and great responses. It would be great to see this type of dialogue more often.
 
Just one thought on abuse. I see abuse as more of an attitude issue I have then the harshness of a correction. When my attitude sucks or I get angry because of my own inability to deal level headed with a dog  then just about anything I do can be abusive. The dog will eventually pickup on this attitude and respond to it rather then the correction.  On the other hand a dog will respect a correction, even a hard one if it is #1 fairly dealt out, #2 is within  the dogs hardness to deal with it. Any one that can read their dog will know what works and what doesn't.

Our breeds demise was set in motion long ago. If you can't see this mentality at work every where then you are too young.

Collar Conditioning

One thing I learned that is very crucial is to take a couple of weeks and put the collar on and take it off several times a day. You need to rotate the prong collar and the electric collar and the leather collar during this period of time. By doing this the collar going on and off means nothing to the dog. Dogs become "collar-wise" easily sometimes. So letting them get used to having it on and off their neck without any corrections with it for weeks works wonders. Don't skip this step.

Use the minimum amount of power that you can use to get your dogs attention.

I don't like "escape training" at all. I preferer to use it the same way I'd use a leash correction.

E-collars do no damage to your dogs neck like chokes.

Again though, e-collar is not the complete answer to everything, just a tool in your arsenal.

I agree with Cledford and the others supporting the e collar. I have trained dogs for a variety of sports, from herding, bird hunting, retrievers, and Schutzhund...there is simply no way to get the best from the dog without an e collar. You can spoil a dog without one, or by using other forms of correction, ruin one permanently. I have also trained and shown horses on a national level...this cannot be done without the use of spurs and other compulsion devices. Motivation is great...the foundation of training...but there also has to be a consequence for those times when the dog does not feel like being good, no matter what the motivation is. There simply must be a back up there that says he must do as told, regardless of what he wants to do at the time. I strongly believe in the quote "be as soft as possible, but as hard as necessary." To have a winner in any event, this rule must be followed, plain and simple. It is foolish to risk a loss at an important event, just because your dog "doesn't feel motivated" that day. Of course we all want them to enjoy their work! If they don't they won't make it to the top anyway, but even the best dogs need some strong corrections to perfect their performances. Those of you who say otherwise have not the experience to be speaking on this sort of thing. It's common sense....tell a dog he must stay, or he won't get his reward....well hell, he might decide the distraction is worth not getting his reward. On the other hand, tell the dog he must stay or he will get a shock...bet he will think a little harder before deciding that distraction is worth it. Common sense goes a long way in this game. This is a working sport....it's not the puppy class at Petsmart.