A couple of days ago, I took my 8.5 month old Shiloh Shepard "Kiyah" on a walk and while in a undeveloped area of our subdivision, I decided to work on some off-leash training. She did so well on recall and stay commands, I decided to finish the walk off-leash. The rest of the walk went very well. She is normally skiddish of cars passing or cyclists, but didn't seem concerned on the rest of the walk.
I took another walk with her the same day to make sure it wasn't a fluke and sure enough, she behaved admirably. This included encountering a neighbor with a lost-dog on leash looking for it's owner.
note: I keep a leash on hand just in case and I use an E-collar on her as a correction tool. She still need a little help on occasion with the E-collar when she gets too distracted, but does well overall.
Here is Kiyah at the local park on walk #3 without leash as we were learning obstacles:
Same here. An E collar on a young dog like that? For what? Distraction requires training; increasing distance and you getting more interesting for her with the use of toys and treats. Ditch the E.
If the e-collar is working, use it. If you feel you can find a better way then find it. In the end it's a personal choice that shouldn't be decided on a freakin message board by someone people don't know from, adam. People around here lately can't help but show they can do it better for less on their ego trips.
The E-collar is primarily a fail-safe in case something abnormal happens that causes her to get obsessive. Our neighborhood has a lot of traffic, stray cats and the occasional stray dog. I have no doubt that in the next few months the e-collar will not be needed.
That's why I love and use the e-collar too. Though hopefully you aren't using it as a punishment and instead to continue to TRAIN a reliable come. There is a vast difference in the methods of training as well as the outcome.
So do not use the ecollar to PUNISH when they don't listen (come come come come WHAMMO is wrong). Instead you teach them to listen and 'beat' the stimulation by turning and coming BEFORE you have to activate the collar.
I don't think I would have a "skittish" dog off leash where she might spook at something and bolt. She could be a couple of blocks away before you even remembered you had the e-collar control.
Sheilah
The Ecollar isn't really used as a fail safe if you're stimming a couple of times during the walk. It's used to correct the dog
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