collars
I'll try a more detailed response in light of someof the other posts here.
TimC, I'm going to pull one line from your excellent post. It illustrates exactly why a person should NOT try to train with an e-collar without being trained himself first.
" I wasnt going to punish a dog for my failings."
The collar when used correctly is not used to "punish" the dog. It is a training tool.
If a person's training program is one of "crime and punishment" he has his work cut out for him.
I have trained many dogs and some were bright , eager to learn, and a joy to work with. Winners in every sense. I could still set the training session so that the dog would fail.
So should the dog be "punished for failing?
Not at my place.
The trainer should set the pace at which the lessons are conducted. He should decide the difficulty of the lesson. A very good dog will not only
allow him to do that, but will tell him when and how to do it as well. The trainer must only pay attention.
In the retriever game, one part of the program is "force breaking" I wish someone would think of a different name for it, as it puts people off before they even know what it is or how it works.
I have force broke some dogs at 7-8 mos. and I have had to wait til 18 mos for some. Each dog has similarities, but they also are different. A good trainer observes the dog and "listens" to the dog, and sets his program accordingly.
There is a difference between discipline and punishment.
Dog training philosophy cannot be explained in a few lines, but if a dog is running around and I call him. If he doesn't come, I then stop calling [he already heard me and knows what I expect him to do at that command], and I walk him down. when he finally stops and lets me approach, I'll reach down and pinch his ear. He will howl as if I was tearing it off, even though it's just a little pinch. I then tell him to sit. Of course he will sit. I then tell him to heel and we continue whatever it was we were doing.
This is discipline. The dog made a bad choice and was corrected. He then got the opportunity to make two correct choices, sit and heel. It is a win win. next time he will be more inclined to respond to "come" and he got to finish this episode doing two things correctly.
BUT. If I call and he does not come in, and I wait til he does, often much later] then I slap, kick, or hit with a stick. That is punishment. It serves no good except to relieve some frustration in the handler. The dog was punished for coming in. next time he will be more reluctant to come to the call. It is now a lesson he must first "unlearn" and then relearn.
With the collar it is a longer stick. You call the dog, he doesn't come in. You burn the dog he yells. and runs around because he feels the shock, but doesn't know where or why. You burn again. The dog figures out that the "collar" burns and the only place it stops is by your side.
Soooo he will cringe when you put the collar on him, not pay attention to the lesson because he is afraid of the collar and then you will burn him because he isn't responding to the lesson. The other thing that happens is he will be reluctant to leave your side, [the safe area] Try to teach a dog to retrieve when he never leaves your side.
So I guess this is a long winded way to say the collar is an excellent tool, but you must learn how to PROPERLY use it, or it isn't gong to be fun for the dog and it is gonna do a lot of damage to a training program.
Every time she hears a beep now she goes ballistic.( two warning beeps and then a zap) And if we are not home and she hears a beep, well, she tares the place apart.
