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I am new to training with an eCollar but have been using it successfully with Dasha, my 4 year old female. I use it so that she can be off leash during play times without fear of her running off after squirrels/bunnies. It has worked great so far. I also have a 7 month old male. He is very well behaved but his recall isn't the best so I want to use the eCollar with him as well. I have a large yard, surrounded by woods but my yard is not fenced. If the dog goes after a squirrel or rabbit, he can disappear from sight very quickly. Natty (the 7 mo old) is growing more independent so I tried him out with eCollar this past week. He is much more sensitive to it that Dasha, so I dialed it way down. However when I use it with him, he just seems confused. I think it frightens him to some degree and he tends to just run in a circle. This is obviously NOT the desired effect. Do I have it turned up too high or is he just too young to get the concept? When this happened I just stopped using it for fear of doing more harm than good. Are there any suggestions as to how to acclimate the dog to the collar? (BTW, Natty's reaction to a nose halter was similar. He vigorously fights against it and never caught on to the fact that if he walked in position the pressure would stop. I stopped using that too, especially since giving him treats produces a good loose leash walk.)
I know some people are very against this form of training so let me ward off some of the arguments to say that for all of my training, I use positive rewards, even when using the eCollar. I hesitated using an eCollar for a long time but so safety reasons I felt like I needed it to ensure that the dogs didn't run off. I have also used long leashes when they run and find that they are also hazardous. Yes, it would be ideal to have a huge fenced area but that is not feasible at this time.
I know some people are very against this form of training so let me ward off some of the arguments to say that for all of my training, I use positive rewards, even when using the eCollar. I hesitated using an eCollar for a long time but so safety reasons I felt like I needed it to ensure that the dogs didn't run off. I have also used long leashes when they run and find that they are also hazardous. Yes, it would be ideal to have a huge fenced area but that is not feasible at this time.