Carol,

I have the same dogtra you have. I bought Ed's DVD and started off conditioning him first.

Something you have to learn to do is put the collar on tightly enough so you get good contact. It took me awhile to figure out what was too loose, what was too tight, and what was just right.

Before I tried the collar on Hans, I tried it out on friends and family. I'd have people hold it with the contacts against their palm in one hand and let them adjust the stim and stim themselves with the other hand. The lowest anyone felt anything was 15, but some people had to go as high as 40 before they felt it.

Like others have said, when the dog gets in drive, the stim has to go up for him to notice it. When we approach a dog behind a fence, when Hans first looks at him, I can control him with a low stim. But if Hans sees the other dog first and goes into drive I have to crank it way up before he notices.

I couldn't figure out what to do with the pager at first. Now I use it to get his attention. If he's starting to get into something he shouldn't, the page will get his attention back to me. I was playing frisbee with him this afternoon and a couple of times he just stood looking around before coming back to me. I paged him, and he immediately came to me. Then he saw a squirrel and was off like a shot. Paging didn't do anything, and the squirrel was up a tree and out of site before I could raise the stim level, so I didn't really bother. But I know I would have had to give him quite a jolt to get his attention once he started chasing the squirrel. (This all happened in our fenced back yard, no danger of Hans chasing a squirrel into the street or anything like that.)

Take your time with the collar and explore what you can do with it. If you have Ed's DVD, watch it. It's very good.

Rich

I also use the 1700. I use the vibration for a recall rather than a warning.

Bruno started wearing it at around 18 months (Had to shave his neck). I got to around 80 and also thought there was something suspect so I went back down. I feel it around 35. I knew it was working so I boosted beyond 80. His normal stim level is 95 with a drive jump to around 110 and 127 for aggression. At 95 he'll lazily get up and move. 110 works good when in drive and 127 does what it should for aggression. I thought odd that so little jump at the high end made such a difference but whatdoyaknow!

Thanks guys, that is great info.

I finally used it yesterday and it is a great collar.

My Lab is a low setting dog and my Mal starts at 50 for minor infractions.

The vibrate alert works great. The first time I used it my Mal jumped a bit, I think she thought it was a correction at first but after that she figured it out.

 Quote: eric dziedzic

At 95 he'll lazily get up and move. 110 works good when in drive and 127 does what it should for aggression...

Damn Eric, your dog Bruno is a beast! My dog jumped in the air when I nicked her at 40.

I know the collar is working well, my wife's cousin was downplaying it and put it on his neck and had me turn the power all the way up. His body arced away from the side the collar was on. I must say it was pretty funny. Why Bruno's setting is so high, I don't know. His fur is really thick but I shave a ring around his neck so I can rotate the collar every now and then when he's wearing it. I can stim him at 90 and he won't move. Then again a continuous stim at 95 gets him in line quick. Lately we've been using it when he attacks our little dog, sort of a "I get to greet the humans first" thing. I try to use it more during positive scenarios such as out in the woods off leash. He's still my boy and I want him to be a happy dog.

My sister has a 130 pound great dane that jumps around 40.