My vet suggested an ecollar for gaining control of my dogs while walking/jogging, but sometimes neither will heed a "nick" warning and the low level correction goes completely unheeded. Do you have any advice for me?

Question

Hello,

I purchased an electric collar on my vet's advice. I have a three year old American Bulldog (112 lbs)and a 10 month mastiff mix (90 lbs). Both are rescue dogs, and both have serious behavioral issues. I have made a lot of progress with most of their issues, but one definitely remains. I was having difficulty walking/jogging with these dogs (each is walked individually, never together due to their size) and their over stimulation regarding other dogs/stimuli. Choke and prong collars did not help, and seemed to exacerbate the issue. I tried head harnesses-Gentle Leader/Halt-Eez-with little effect. Since I believe exercise to be key to a happy, relaxed mindset for my dogs, I had to find some way to gain control of these dogs and turned to my vets for advice. They suggested the electric training collar.

My question is regarding level of correction/electrical correction. Both dogs have responded well, and maintain on a low level most of the time. However, there are times that neither will heed a "nick" warning, and the low level correction goes completely unheeded. These are both very muscular, large dogs-each is spayed/neutered-but I have no idea what type of training/experiences they dealt with before coming into my home. Many times on our outings I have had to turn up the correction to mid-level to regain their attention. Generally, this is due to cats/other dogs being walked nearby. If after several taps at mid-level not being heeded, I have gone up another notch and each dog has yelped or slung their head. I feel terrible when this happens, but these are big, powerful dogs. Am I being over-sensitive or is this too much correction. I carry the remote in my hand, so am "on it" regarding timely correction. Please provide me any advice or correction that you can.

Thank you,
Joanna

Accepted Answer

Since I don’t know how you did the initial collar conditioning my best recommendation would be to view our video Electric Collar Training for the Pet Owner.

I also don’t know how long you’ve been using the collar but if you are having to go up to really high levels on a regular basis, I would say that your dogs probably are being put in situations that they haven’t been trained adequately to handle. Adding severe distractions too soon in the training process is very common. With that said, you do need to do this occasionally to see where the “line in the sand” is (so to speak) From your description I do feel there are times you are overcorrecting. If they are distracted they CAN’T respond to you, so it’s unfair to overcorrect. Move farther away from the distractions and regain focus. Distance is your friend.

I’d recommend the ecollar video and I’d back up your training a little, and stay farther from distractions until the dogs have a clearer understanding of your expectations.

We also have a great question & answer section. There is an extensive section on ecollar training.

I hope this helps.

Cindy Rhodes