Hello,

Ive been reading the board and have went through just about all of the training articles on this board. Let me tell you this site is invaluable and the members in this forum are some of the nicest people. This is my first GSD and let me be the first to say, a person has not known the true intelligence of a dog until they've owned a Shepherd. At least thats my opinion. Anyway... My male gsd is 5 and half months and I've had him since he was about 6 weeks old. I understand that this may be to young to leave the mother but I think he learned good puppy behavior in the that time. I immediately took responsibility for him and have been teaching him right from wrong. I have followed Leerburgs philosophy to a tee and I must say he has helped me really bond with my dog. I have been using a prong the past couple weeks and this it the first time I have started to add corrections to my training. It has been all positive motivation and lots of praise to this point. My pup is feeling pretty confident at this point. I have noticed when using the prong and he feels the pain he is associating that with the flink of my wrist. I picked up on this almost immediatley and went to correction level 1 and i barely moved my wrist but he looks at my hand out of the corner of his eye. Im afraid this is breaking our bond a bit. He is associating the pain he feels with my hand, sometimes when i go to pet him or move towards his head he kinda looks at my hand in a concerned mannor.. I hate the way he looks at me in those circumstances. He still comes into my arms with no problem and i can calm him from prey drive very quickly. Anyway. So what I did is i bought eds ecollar video and will review it this week. I will be getting the dogtra 12oo ncp on wednesday. Does he address this issue or has anyone noticed it also? One more thing. I have been rotating Ramseys collar from flat leather to prong for weeks now he has no problem with it.. I understand Ed likes to have you just let the pup wear it for two weeks. Can I adjust that time depending on how dog handles it. I will contiue to rotate the collars and also rotate and remove the e collar throughout the day. and Off at night.. What do you guys think of this?

Hi,

Been monitoring the board and this post has had 42 views. I was hoping to hear what you guys have experienced with your introduction of the ecollar. Hope to share some advice or experiences you guys have already went through... Thanks again.

Hi David,
Have you purchased the E-collar video from Leerburg? That will be very beneficial. In addition to your question, the length of time for your dog to be conditioned to the collar should be at a minimum of two weeks. It's better to be safe than sorry in regards to your dog becoming collar wise. I feel this is one of the most important phases in the beginning of e-collar training. I know the anticipation when it comes to training your dog new things, but this is something that is critical and shouldn't be rushed. Take your time, don't rush it, and have fun doing it. Best of luck,

Mundy <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

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Hi David,
Have you purchased the E-collar video from Leerburg?

Ignore that question, wups <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the input.. I did order the video. It should be here tomorrow.. I plan to study it before I attempt to use the collar.. All the videos I have watched in the past so I'll go with what seems to work. I will hold off to make sure I do it right. Do you use an ecollar? Was there a big change in your dog when you started using it? Did he start to stick closer to you? I just dont want to make my pup paranoid about getting a stim all the time..

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I just dont want to make my pup paranoid about getting a stim all the time..

if you use it right, you don't have to worry about that. it's no different than your dog being paranoid about getting a leash correction all the time. just think of the e-collar as a leashless prong correction...