Electronic collars

F

fast900t

New member
Any opinions on electronic collars? I have a buddy that swears by it for field work, but my wife was opposed - until our dog "attacked" a UPS truck that is. See we just rescued a lab - Great dog - but labs... you know, get distracted easily and need a little reminder sometimes. He's not trained for field work yet, but is mostly obedient and I hate keeping him on a lead all the time just in case a truck, rabbit, etc. trips his trigger - only had him for 4 weeks so we're still learning all the triggers. After all, playing fetch is kinda inhumane on a lead don't ya think.
So, assuming this is the way to go, a quick look around Cabellas, etc. there are a ton of them out there - any opinions on which unit is the best? problems/design flaws to look out for? Features to look for?
Thanks
 
They work well, but you can't abuse them. You'll probably get better results if this was posted under the main dog forum.
 
They work great, but only in the right hands. Consider also with a rescue dog that you don't know what the dog's background is, so pretty unpredictable. I held off for 4 years with my lab. We learned a lot about each other through the training process using other methods, but eventually I decided that we'd reached a plateau that was frustrating for both of us. I got an e-collar and took my time conditioning her to it in the off-season. She wears it only while hunting and her response to it is great. We have more fun, are safer, less stressful, quieter and we get more birds. For hte most part, her behaviour in "pet mode" around the house and with the wife etc... has not suffered, although sometimes I wonder if she is a bit slower to respond to "heel" or "here", although her reward-based response to the golden command "COME" is still instanteous. Just make sure that you get the information that you need to condition pup to the collar before you start to use it. I had the help of a professional trainer (breeder I got my dog from).
The Tritronics G3 is a great unit - I recommend it.
-Croc
 
E Collars

I gotta agree with Crockett on this one. There is no substitute for proper training of a dog to the basic commands. Sit, heel, come, whoa, give or release etc are all commands that should be taught early by using rewards to enforce them and not with an E Collar. If you're trying to teach a pup to heel using a collar and he doesn't heel then you "zap" him, he's going to think that everytime you say heel he's getting shocked.
Save the collar for hunting only and try not to zap him if at all possible. I also use the Tritronics collar and I swear by it. It has a buzzer feature that allows me to call my dog back without having to zap him. It works great. One other thing, if you need to get your dogs attention when he has a collar on, always use the lowest setting possible. The object is just to tickle him and not knock his booties off.
 
E colar

You bet. A e- collar used correctly is a amazing training tool. Check out the Tri- Tronics that are sent back to the company when the individuals want to upgrade. Might save you a buck.....:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top