I seem to have suddenly found some unexpected cash and would like to get an e-collar for my boy, but have no idea which one or ones would work for my situation.

As much as I hate to use an e-collar on such a young dog, I need to stop his developing fence fighting while I still can. I live next door to the biggest idiots on the planet and they have a barking beagle and chihuahua that they just let bark and fence fight all they want. They even went and put in a doggy door so their worthless dogs can come running out as soon as they see mine are out and they rush straight to the fence and immediately start barking and keep barking the entire time me and/or my dogs are out there. You can only guess how much I hate these people.

Anyway, my boy is an 8 mos old high drive GSD. He is still fairly easily stopped in the fence fighting at this point as I run out there every single time as soon as those moronic dogs start barking. He is more than happy to play with his ball as long as I stay out there and play with him, but as soon as I stop and go in the house or garage he's back at the fence. His determination to fence fight is increasing though and I need to stop this while I still can. Also, it's way too cold out for me to go out and stay out there every time he goes out. I have put him on a long line and he quickly stops while it's on. Again, it's way cold out there and this isn't a good long term option.

I have zero experience with e-collars and would like some guidance here. So far as I can tell, this is the only thing I would be using it for. The greatest distance that I think I would need would be up to 250 ft.

Any ideas? I would like to get one while Ed has a holiday special going.

I prefer Dogtra products personally. I currently have the 200NCP Gold and the 1700NCP. The 200 is a good collar, I was very happy with it - it was my first ecollar. I moved up to the 1700 for the extra stim levels(127 vs 100), fully waterproof, and the LCD screen. Cajun was a hard dog that could and would easily ignore a level 100 cont stim at times, his normal range was 60-65, having that extra 27 on a bit higher grade collar helped tremendously. Between the two I think it would depend on the dog. Both are good collars

 Quote: Elaine Matthys

I have zero experience with e-collars and would like some guidance here. So far as I can tell, this is the only thing I would be using it for. The greatest distance that I think I would need would be up to 250 ft.

Any ideas? I would like to get one while Ed has a holiday special going.

Not only just any holiday specials, but THIS:
http://leerburg.com/318.htm
is 50% off with your e-collar. You will really want the video as a new user.

http://www.leerburg.com/electric.htm

Holy Cow! Elaine, we have the same neighbors! And my dog acts the same way yours does. A couple moved in with a pair of Italian Greyhounds. They have a dogie door and can go in and out while the owners are at work or otherwise away. The dogs come to the fence and bark at my 2 yr. old GSD. He goes running to the fence (which I put in) and hits it, hard. He acts like he is trying to break it down to get to these little guys.

I have a Dogtra 1700NCP. It does the trick. Hans hits the fence, I hit the stim (or the continuous) and Hans comes out of drive and listens to me and backs off. Same as your GSD, if we are playing he will ignore them, but if we let him out alone and they come out and bark at him, he heads for the fence. It is really annoying.

Maybe someone can comment on Hans behavior. The two Italian Greyhounds run to the fence barking and yapping and making a hell of a racket. Hans goes to the fence to try to get at them. He doesn't bark, not at all, but follows them along the fence line and tries to break through the fence. What is he doing, and why doesn't he bark like the neighbors dogs? When anyone walks their dog by the house, he goes to the front door and barks. But with these two guys barking along the fence line, he doesn't, just tries to get at them. Why doesn't he bark? Any ideas?

Rich - sounds like a prey response. The IGs are running and moving very fast and darting and yapping - whereas someone just walking their dog past the house is probably not running, making prey movements, or prey sounds. Prey -vs- Territorial

Yes, I will be getting the DVD too. I would be crazy not to as I have never used one of these collars before.

There are so many collars to chose from that I don't know where to start looking. I don't know what the features mean so it's very hard to pick out the best one for me and they are so expensive I'd rather have help before I buy.

Elaine, if you go to the link that Connie gave you http://www.leerburg.com/electric.htm then click on the Dogtra collars, the first 3 collars should do the trick for what you want. They are the 175, the 200, and the 1500 models. The only drawback I can see with the 175 and the 200 is that the prongs are 1/2 inch long, which may not be long enough to penetrate your dog's fur on his neck. It would of course depend on how thick his neck fur is, under his head. The prongs on the 1500 are longer.

If the prongs don't make contact with the skin, you would have to shave the fur under his neck, not so pretty on a GSD. If I had to make a choice in your shoes, I would just go right to the 1500 at least. You may also decide to use it later in his training, so it would definitely be a good investment. You never know when you'll need some extra help from the e-collar in certain situations.

An addition to my post above - one of the ladies that answer the phone at Leerburg would be able to advise you about the 1/2 inch prongs on the first 2 models, as to whether or not they would be long enough to penetrate a GSD's fur. They know lots of stuff and they are a great help

What's the difference between a pager mode and a two dog collar?

This is very helpful and I know I'm not going to shave my dog's neck for this, so I will check on the prong size.