I have always been a purely positive trainer, I have a female GSD who is just turning 3. I have had great luck getting her to do absolutely anything I ever wanted her to do for the promise of a game of tug.

I just recently adopted a male GSD mix. My mistakes were: I gave him his freedom too soon to run offleash. I worked him on a longline for about a month and his recall was just great. He was very insecure and wanted to stay close to me and the girl, and I knew she'd mind. Then I had a few instances of him bolting and going missing for a few minutes. THEN the killing spree started. He caught our pet parrot sort of by accident, the bird flew off of her perch and landed at his feet. She died. Then he caught a snake (this is scary because we have like 6 or 7 highly poisonous varieties here in SW Florida) He caught a black racer thank god. Then he moved on to coons. He has killed two coons now, once by bolting with such force that he ripped the leash right out of my hand and was gone before I knew what was going on)

So...he's lost all his priviledges and gone back into bootcamp and I ordered a dogtra 1900, which he has been wearing for a few days but I haven't turned it on yet. I have put him back in his gentle leader which controls him great. It had been so many months since he misbehaved onleash that I thought I was safe the use a buckle collar Mistake Number 683 with Mr. Ruger.

I have been working super hard with him with all positive reinforcement, mild leash and voice corrections, and he has made leaps and bounds. He has a reliable heel, great loose leash walking, and will recall 90% of the time unless he sees a critter or thinks he's in trouble. For instance, if he has loot in his mouth, he'll run because he thinks he's going to get in trouble. He is also a fairly mild resource guarder, so that comes into play with loot too.

I have dreams of turning this dog into a Therapy Dog, he is super friendly with people and excellent with all dogs so far, incl. not taking the bait when a big male RAh Rah-ed in his face.

He really loves and needs to run, i have high hopes of polishing his offleash ob and putting an end to the crittering (hard, I know, since he's killed successfully) I feel like he's got a really good foundation under him. I can finally recall him off a really good critter scent, which I couldn't before.

Cross your fingers for me! I already used the dogtra on myself up to 40 (I'm a wuss) to see what I was going to do to him...

Do you have this? http://leerburg.com/318.htm

No I don't have that video. It just ocurred to me to put it on my christmas list. I don't have a lot of money and what I do have gets sucked up by my female's expensive diet (food allergies) I saved for two months to buy the dogtra, I have been using this and other forums soaking up all the advice I can come by. I think I have a fairly reasonable knowledge base for someone who has never used one.

Another thing, if you put it on 40 on yourself and didn't REALLY feel it, it probably isn't charged or something. The day i got mine my stupid 250 lb 20 yr old nephew put it on his neck nice and tight , started barkin like a dog for everyones amusment, explained a buddy of his has one and they don't hurt and told me "quit being a pussy and crank it up" so i quit being a pussy and cranked it up in the 90's because i'm an excellent listener, he ended up on the ground speaking in some dialect that i had never heard before or since, clawing at his neck ( the continuos button really does work, so there is definitely juice there.

Oh no, 40 was the limit of what i could tolerate. I think it is working fine. Under 15 was barely noticeable, 15-25 annoying but no big deal, over 25 was getting uncomfortable, 40 I quit.

I'm putting that in perspective where the dog has hair, and I don't. Plus I know when he's hot on a scent or a critter nohting matters to him. Not even getting his ear shredded by a coon. He's a hard case lol.

Oh Al, how you crack me up. Sounds like my family. "Excellent
listener" hehe.