Jump to content
  • GUESTS

    If You  want access  to member only forums on FM, You will need to Sign-in or  Sign-Up now .

    This box will disappear once you are signed in as a member.

Shock Collars?


Jimmy from Cottage Grove

Recommended Posts

How does everyone feel about shock collars? I have never used one. Yet will be training a new puppy in a few weeks here. I am sure you don't use them for the first couple months. Do you think that it is something that is needed to train? How hard is it on the dog?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Depends on the dog. If he is hard headed, hard charging dog a collar would help a lot i am sure. I know guys with softer dogs that preferred not to use them. Without a collar it might take a little longer.

Main thing to do is to not use the collar unless you understand how to use it. They need direction but you don't want to ruin the dog by over stimulating it. I have seen dogs that have been ruined by poor training and they become very skittish and nervous all the time.

It helps if you know what other dogs from the same bloodlines have turned out to be. smile.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As long as they are not abused and used the way they are intended I think they are a great tool for training. I don't think it is any harder on the dog then other forms of correction out there. It is also great in the field to remind them of things things when they forget what they are supposed to be doing. I wouldn't go without one anymore.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would be interested in what others here have done with them also. I have a young Britt and everything I read said not to use an E-Collar till they are close to or at 1 year old. I have seen the benefits of them, when used properly, and have also seen when used improperly and the dog refuses to get near the collar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many times, "soft dogs" respond better to training with a collar vs. traditional methods. Used properly (correction vs. discipline) it is an annonuymous correction. The dog thinks it "did it" to itself. They can't comprehend that you pushed a button and they got zapped. Thus it takes "you" out of the equation. They end up not losing confidence in you which can happen when you formally correct them without the aid of an e-collar. Get a good book on e-collar training and read it before you purchase or use it. Try the Tritronics book by Jim and Phylis Dobbs.

Good Luck!

Ken

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never put the collar on and immediatley begin to use it. Then the dog will never be able to put 2 and 2 together.

I learned a trick from a trainer years ago... get the collar out, put it on the dog and throw a ball 2 or 3 times for it so it equates putting the collar on with fun. It will literally stand there with it's neck stretched out waiting for you to put it on...

Remember, dogs can't reason. Meaning this, if you associate the collar to fun, they can't reason that the collar is doing the correction. The series of events is the collar = fun... they can't put the stimulation they are feeling on the collar as the seires of events had a break in it between putting the collar on and the correction. When I trained dogs for trials, we put the collars on at home and they rode in their crates in the truck with them on. Putting the collars on meant they were going for a truck ride. They had no idea it was doing the corrections an hour later.

Good Luck!

Ken

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ken, Great Information. At what age do you generally start using the e-collar?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For those interested, there was a related topic posted on E-Collars if you go back to posts around 3/31/07. There were a number of posts on the pros/cons of collars.

I'll throw my 2 cents in on age. I don't really think it is as much an age question as a judgement call as to when you think your dog is ready. For me, thats based upon how far along the dog is in their training, maturity, personality, and also the breed. I have introduced them at various time of my dogs age, depending upon when I felt they were ready and when we were at that point in training where I felt it was beneficial. I have used them for training on all the labs I have ever owned. I also have had a couple of english cockers and didn't use it on my first one and have on the one I currently own. Variable intensity has been around for a long time but I think that was a revolutionary change in terms of the ability to use the right amount of stimulation, which I believe at least initially is enough stim to get their attention and let them know an incorrect response and yet not so much as to damage their spirit. I think this is also a subject where there isn't necessarily a right answer and the opinions you will find are quite varied.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I picked up a female short hair pup and last year I sent her to a trainer at age 9 months, anyway it was real interesting working with him and the pup on the e-collar training end of it. We went out into the field the first day with her and his first statement was that this collar is used for "CORECTION ONLY NOT DISIPLAN", I have also heard the saying that one should put a collar on his own neck with the dog before going out in the field so he doesn't get to carried away with the e-collar, not sure if I'd want to go that far. I guess you would have to judge how the dogs back yard manners are with out a e-collar and go from that, as it turned out my pup was pretty soft and I only needed to put the collar on and she was all business after that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shock collars are great training tools and useful in the field. As stated above they can wreck a dog if used improperly. For age i think it depends on the dog, but around 1 year is a general guideline i use. i have a 10 month old that i'm going to start using the collar on, as she's ready in her training for it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use the e-collar, but I have quite a bit of experience. If you do not have access to someone who can teach you the basics, or the funds to have a pro condition your dog, I would take Labs suggestion and buy the Dobbs book. It will give you the basics. For those out there who just strap it on a dog and go, the potential for problems are endless.

As far as the age of the dog, it really depends on the individual animal and what you are trying to do with it. I personally like to teach things manually and then introduce the collar later. At low intensities though, the training can be far less traumatic to a soft dog than traditional methods. Good luck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The collar should be put on the dog at a young age just like you would put on his/her normal collar. Like LABS stated the dog needs to adjust to having it on before stimulation starts. When you do start the conditioning of the collar start with very low stim.

When you are looking for an appropriate response each dog is different in the amount it will take to get such response.

Collars are like guns, collars/guns don't hurt dogs/people, trainers/people hurt dogs/people.

If you train with malice you will in most cases affect the dog to a negative degree.

GOOD LUCK!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.


  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.