[dearraine]

I am currently researching electronic collars. Here’s the reason why. My husband works on a large tree farm (65 acres) where Ruby has been allowed to run / get some good exercise in the past. But we don’t trust her. She has taken off into the neighbors horse paddock to chase the horses. Luckily there were no riders present at the time otherwise we could have a real problem. The neighbor was helpful but I am not so sure his boarders would be as nice.

Ruby has also headed down to the stream into an area that is hard for people to get to and then comes back up about 1/4 mile away. My husband has to jump in a truck and go find her.

At the farm I was thinking of training her with an e-collar to establish a range where she could run. Then letting my husband carry over from there.

The article I read is this- http://www.uwsp.edu/psych/dog/LA/castle3.htm

I am a public school teacher and will be finished in two weeks. I plan to work with Ruby all summer. I have been clicker training her for basic obedience and she is responding well to me. I am skipping the fancy tricks (like spin) and concentrating on the ones that I think are necessary for good behavior. And yes- "come" is definately on the list but she's not there yet.

I need to socialize her more this summer as that has not been completely done. She seems to have a very high pry drive and that kicks in a lot. I am hoping that with the clicker training I can take her out intot he neighborhood more- over to friends houses for short planned visits, etc.

The electonic collar would just be used at the farm for the purpose I described above unless and / or until I understand it more and think it would be helpful in other areas. Not sure.

We need to buy one. I am looking at the Cabellas website.

Any advice- thoughts? Does this sound like a logical purpose to use this type of collar?

 

[Dohhhhh]

She would need to understand what the collar is and what it means when she feels the stim. That comes with training. I see you are in NJ. There are several excellent e-collar trainers throughout the state. I highly recommend consulting one before buying and using an ecollar. Most offer free demos and evaluations and if you decide to go with it, you will actually learn how to teach your dog and problem solve.

Getting her into obedience classes would help you both learn e-collar training and would get her the socialization that she needs. You would also learn how to teach her that "visiting" the horses is not acceptable and she would certainly learn the come command and respond to it immediately. Once you become proficient with using an ecollar properly, the sky is the limit with your training.

Please feel free to PM me with any questions. Good Luck.

 

[dearraine]

Thanks- We had her in obedience classes- but she was very nervous, had bm accidents and the trained said she would do home visits. I believe she did one, went on vacation, had the flu and then refunded out money. I was furious.

My husband said that Ruby failed the classes (again me furious) I told him that he failed the classes.

So I'm taking over. (Have been already).

My husband is good with the dog. He just doesn't have the patience for training.

 

[Dohhhhh]

All the more reason to get her into a good obedience class. To help her learn and understand that the world is good. Our training classes have special drills for extremely nervous dogs to help them see that other people and dogs will not hurt them. We also end classes with something that the dog really enjoys doing be it chasing a ball or most often a few runs over the agility equipment so that the last memory they have of a class is something they really enjoyed doing.

How many lessons did she have? What type of training where you doing and how many dogs were in a class?

Please don't give up on obedience classes because one did not work out.

 

[lhczth]

This is Lou's official site with a lot more articles. http://www.loucastle.com/

There are also better places to buy e-collars than Cabela's (expensive). If you do a search you should be able to find previous discussions on e-collars with links to places to buy them.

 

[MaggieRoseLee]

collarclinic.com is a good site.

BUT you really should line up a good trainer before getting the colllar. Specially with a soft dog, if you don't use it properly you can really mess the poor thing up, permanently.

But with alot of research, training, and a good set of session it may work very well.

I also recommend you finding a good set of dog classes and taking your pup. Beginner beginner even if you have been working some with your dog. That way you can MOSTLY be just working on the socialization aspect along with the training. While the rest of the beginner beginners have to work on the socialization as well as the commands. Makes it easier.

Hey, I take dog classes for as long a I need them. And if I have to take the beginner session 5 times to get a good basis to move on, then I take it 5 times. So what, each time gets easier for me and the dog.

 

[Catu]

Originally Posted By: MaggieRoseLeecollarclinic.com is a good site.

BUT you really should line up a good trainer before getting the colllar. Specially with a soft dog, if you don't use it properly you can really mess the poor thing up, permanently.

And if your plans are to hire one, with all the options available he/she will be the best person to tell you what is the best for what you need.