I just got one in and am using it sparingly. He gets quite annoying and sometimes I wish I had it. Well, now I do. Sometimes while playing ball he'll find someones food that someone threw on the ground.

If you tell him the "no" command he'll run with it trying to eat it as fast as he can. So his thgouht process is "if I can get away and eat it before he catches me i am fine"..

So he found a muffin in the bushes and was scarfing it. It was a HUGE one at that.

I gave him the command and he proceeded to ignore and swallow. I zapped the electric collar and he couldn't spit it out fast enough. I left played ball and walked near the muffin to see what he'd do. He walked right by it while looking at it.

HIs jumping is ignored. He'll jump, you knee him and tell him his "no" command and he STILL takes it as a big game. So I am pondering if I should use it for things as such.

One person told me if I use it I'll lose my dog. He said, once you ise it your dog will be broken down for life...

I on the other hand don't believe this and want to know you opinion and maybe a few pointers. Again I have a Mal, and I know that they take things a bit on the extremem side....

Thx

I've moved this topic to the Electric Collar forum.


Will Rambeau
Moderator

Broken down for life? LOL Are these cars or dogs we're talking about? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I use the e-collar, and none of my dogs are broken down...quite the opposite. It sounds like the person you talked to didn't understand e-collars at all.

Find Lou Castle's web site for the correct way to use the collar. BTW, I wouldn'r even give the dog a leave it command when he tries eat "stuff" he finds. He doesn't need to know you dissaprove. He only needs to know that trying ANYTHING other than what you feed him is not a pleasant expierience.

I have to agree with Bob. It's one thing if you just don't want your dog being a "canine garbage disposal" on a walk or whatever, but most people don't supervise their dogs 24/7. If he's not trained to ignore whatever isn't given by you (or as we do it, whatever isn't in the food bowl), then whatever he finds while he's in the yard/kennel/run/etc. by himself is fair game. Not much use when trying to keep gunk, or worse yet poison, out of his system.

Ceili is working on ignoring anything that doesn't appear in her food dish (which is kept inside), or given by us during training. She isn't even to accept treats from friends of the family. We did the bowl deal since we occasionally have to go out of town, and my mom petsits. We didn't want her to NOT accept food given by an authorized caregiver!

Ecollar is great for this and about 1,000 other things. I'm now a staunch e-collar user!

I may be a newbie here, but from what I have read,(and I have read a lot!!), you are not necessarily causing your dog "pain" in using the collar. In fact, if one's goal is to cause pain, they may not fully understand canine behavior. The sensation should be "uncomfortable", "foreign" to them. Most of the time, being able to break the dogs attention/focus, or more correctly his fixation, as he is starting to do what you don't want him to do, will give you the opportunity to allow him to hear your command. That is why you are correct in that for some dog's, the buzzer or pager is sufficient to get his attention. Other dogs that have different levels of drive or stimuli threshold, need something a little stronger.

Just the opinion of a newbie, which may be totally incorrect?

Papa

Mr. Longworth,

The following will sound nuts and that I am really nuts... Kind of a tangent to the thread of conversation.

I bought the collars and decided to personally 'test' the strength of the things before using them with the dogs.

So, cup of coffee on the table, full of bravado, and collar with studs against the palm of my left hand, I tested level one: just a tone. Level two: the tone again followed by a very slight tingle. This ain't so bad. Level three: the tone followed by a bit more of a tingle, though I'm not sure these things are going to get my dogs attention. So far so good.

Level four: the tone followed by a shot that stood me up and back from the table, and I mean lit-me-up. The collar ended up in the next room. It was kind of like when you grab a light switch you're trying to wire up, and your wife helps you by flipping the breaker to on. And there was a lingering tingle. Got my full attention!

So - at least the two dog collar unit I have - I know that if I use level four the dog will get an immediate set of brains, and that I can't use level four very darned often and still have an unintimidated or fearful dog - not a good outcome.

Anyway, just wanted to share that moment of insanity I experienced. But I really didn't want to use the thing on the dogs without fully appreciating the effect it would have. And I do.

Just two more cents...

During my (rather masochistic) testing of my ecollar, I noticed that the strength of the stim varies with its proximity to bone; the more muscle tissue, the less the stim hurt, if it rested on a bony prominence, them 'yeow' it woke me right up.

Lucky for my dogs, I have no intention of stimming them on their skulls.

Mike i think your assumption that a level 4 on a dog will get the same response it gave you is false. i've had an ecollar on about 30 dogs so far. They all have their own "working level". i have worked with more than one dog that is oblivious to a level 4 stim. However, most of the dogs that I've worked with usually respond at around a level 2 depending on distraction, etc..etc.
The brand also has something to do with the numbers and/or dial. I had a seven year old kid hold a collar and keep telling me to turn it up. He just giggled until it got to 50 (dogtra 200) then he just said "O.K that's good". <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />