What is everyone's thoughts on using a shock collar for obedience? My GSD "Wolf" is now just a tad over 7 mos. old and has been professionally on leash trained. However, off leash he can be a holy terror. He tries to go where he's not allowed, he gets too close to moving vehicles in our driveway and he loves to gently bite (playfully) on our 7 year-old grandson. We realize at 7 mos. he is still very much a puppy and will act as such but was wondering if a collar with warning tone followed by stimulation would be advisable?

You have a lot going on there, including no control with a child around.

I'd start with "never off leash," indoors, in the yard, anywhere. Not yet.

I'm wondering about your own training. You mentioned professional training. What training are you doing on a daily basis? If none, you can get a ton of help here and on LB with fixing that.

 Quote: guy ballard

What is everyone's thoughts on using a shock collar for obedience? My GSD "Wolf" is now just a tad over 7 mos. old and has been professionally on leash trained. However, off leash he can be a holy terror. He tries to go where he's not allowed, he gets too close to moving vehicles in our driveway and he loves to gently bite (playfully) on our 7 year-old grandson. We realize at 7 mos. he is still very much a puppy and will act as such but was wondering if a collar with warning tone followed by stimulation would be advisable?

I'd submit; the dog isn't all that well trained on leash, if he can't be trusted at all off leash. E-collar wouldn't be my first choice on a 7th month old puppy. I'd just keep reinforcing the things that he is doing right, on leash, and progress slowly to off leash.

DFrost

My 9 month old wears a long line or a flexi lead (lots of people on here hate them, but I love it because it doesn't get tangled and I can stop my pup taking off at a dead run and jerking me off my feet).

A 7-month old can't be expected to know the rules yet, how can he when you have no means of showing him by controllig him with the leash. Bad behaviour would not happen as often because you could stop it. And he would never have a chance to NOT come when called, so he will be MUCh safer.

I can't comment on the shock collar becuse I don't use them, but 7 months seems awful young to me when you could just use a long line.

I would recommand an e-collar. They work great and LB has some great videos and they sell e-collars as well. I use them with my dogs and have trained puppies on them as well. You don't have to be affraid of the e-collars. Just watch the videos from Leerburg and ask a lot of questions. Good luck

 Quote: Steve Kaplan

I would recommand an e-collar. They work great and LB has some great videos and they sell e-collars as well. I use them with my dogs and have trained puppies on them as well. You don't have to be affraid of the e-collars. Just watch the videos from Leerburg and ask a lot of questions. Good luck

The thing I think other posters might be saying is that learning how to train and actually doing some training comes first.

It sounded as if maybe the O.P. had done no training at all.

This:

 Quote: Guy Ballard

... has been professionally on leash trained. However, off leash he can be a holy terror. He tries to go where he's not allowed, he gets too close to moving vehicles in our driveway and he loves to gently bite (playfully) on our 7 year-old grandson.

made me think that some good basic ob work was in order, by the owner.

We haven't yet heard back about whether anything has been done aside from what sounds like some not-too-successful outside training.

E-collars are training tools, but not substitutes for training.

 Quote: Steve Kaplan

Just watch the videos from Leerburg and ask a lot of questions. Good luck

Excellent point: When you do get the e-collar, get the video too.

Alot of times dog training problems can be fixed with examining the way we choose to live with our dogs. The main red flag I see in this is that you're describing a leash trained dog with no enviromental structure.
The leash is a structure device, a tether is a structure device, a crate is a structure device, a kennel is a structure device. My first thought as to why this is such a problem is that you have no control over your dog, what and who he interacts with, and expect him to mind and just know what you want him to do. Sadly most dogs don't watch TV and see how they're suppose to be and we're left with the reality of a dog who behaves much like something that we'd see on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.
My second thought is that your dog isn't ready for an e collar yet. He is too young to be off lead at all and allowing him to be offlead at this point is setting back your other work. I know it may seem a little silly for your dog to be onlead all the time even in your own house or yard but the end results will be amazing.
When I screw up this process I have to take a moment and ponder "How did I fail to set up my dog for success? Did I or did I not tell my dog what to do? Did I tell my dog to do something that they didn't understand? Did I train my dog correctly for the behavior I wanted?"

Finally, keep the dog away from your grandson until he's fully trained and has good manners. There is a big section on this website of having kids around dogs. A dog biting a kid no matter how gently is a big huge glowing red flag for me.

I'd get the video even if I didn't plan on getting a collar at this time. The recall training section in the E-Collar for Pet Owners DVD is almost all longline work and gave me a huge amount of tips and techniques. Other sections of the DVD will be helpful as well. The e-collar (as someone else mentioned) is just a tool. You could substitute a different correction for electrical stimulation and still use most of the techniques in the DVD.

I bought the Leerburg e-collar video and the e-collar at the same time. The video recommends you spend some time conditioning the dog to the collar, before you ever turn the collar on. So at a minimum you'll have a week or two with the video before you put the collar on him. Leerburg shipping is as fast as you want it to be, so I would recommend you get the video, watch it, then determine if you want to spend the money on an e-collar.

As to the age of the dog, Ed does demonstrate training with the e-collar on young dogs.

Maybe ... if you don't already have it, you should also purchase the basic obedience DVD. In my humble opinion, the e-collar DVD supplements the basic obedience DVD very well.