Training collars?

[OutsyderBC]

Hey guys,

I have a young GSP who is getting a bit carried away, not terribly but I feel she needs reining in a bit and beyond the positive reinforcement.
She is now picking up scents, moving birds and chasing squirrels, chipmunks and the rest…….you know, being a hunting dog!

So, I have zero experience with training collars and back in the UK they were not really on my radar (not even sure they were available/legal?) but I have friends and acquaintances who swear by them and advocate their use.

Thoughts?

Suggestions/brands/specifics I should look at/avoid?

Not wanting to shell out too much so would be interested in a secondhand one if anyone can help a brother out?

Thanks in advance

Marc

[jlirot]

personally, stuff you described is nothing i would poke a dog for...

get some books and see how you use a collar.

[Dog_River]

Collars are for folks who know how to use them. They are not for training a dog what to do, they are used for reinforcing what a dog already knows.

I personally don't use them. Try and spend more time with your dog in the yard doing the basics. Voice a command once only and make it stick. Go back to square one and rebuild if you have to. It take a lot of repetition to get a dog to handle properly and the training never ends.

How old is your pup ? do you have good training books or dvds ?

[Big Lew]

Collars are for folks who know how to use them. They are not for training a dog what to do, they are used for reinforcing what a dog already knows.

I personally don't use them. Try and spend more time with your dog in the yard doing the basics. Voice a command once only and make it stick. Go back to square one and rebuild if you have to. It take a lot of repetition to get a dog to handle properly and the training never ends.

How old is your pup ? do you have good training books or dvds ?

I agree. I have a unit that I used on my over-exuberant lab only a very few times after I not only got
professional guidance, but tried the unit on myself to insure I didn't have it set too high. Each dog is
different. My lab had absolutely no training or discipline when I acquired it at one year old, but was a
quick learner. I didn't use the device to train him....only to grab his attention when he was too excited
to obey commands he already was taught. After only a very few times I didn't need to use it any further.
He is now just over 4 and an exceptionally trained and obedient retriever, family pet, and companion.
I still have the unit in a drawer but it hasn't been used for 3 1/2 years.

[Lozzie]

We use the tri-tronics classic 70 for our lab mixes. Good training is all good but the issue we've had is that living out in the sticks my one dog would chase after deer and even bears while my wife had them out on a hike. I hardly ever shock my dogs just a little beep every once in awhile to let them know they are not in charge, but they behave differently when they are out with my wife (she babies them). So if you need to correct or call back your dog from a few hundred yards they work great, if you want to give me pointers on wife training I'll take all you've got.lol

[Ry151]

I have a the et-402 by educator. It's a very slick unit and is very customizable with 99 levels if stimulation. It works well and you can run two collars on from one remote. I would deffinetly get a professional trainer to help you with it and like others stated it doesn't train the dog but reinforces things the dog already knows. Other thing, when you test the collar don't just simulate on your hand to feel the strength because a tickle you can barely feel on your hand is quite different when against your neck like the dog would feel. the vibration mode doesn't work at all for my dogs, it just freaks them out so that's another thing to consider.

[Iron Glove]

Have never been a fan of "shock" Collars - not against them, just not my bag.
Have used "beeper" and "citronella" collars with good results on our dogs at times.
Last night though set up a Garmin Delta XC to use on our 14 year old female as her hearing is getting worse with age. We do a lot of off leash walking and hiking in remote areas and her voice recall has deteriorated to the point that we are reluctant to let her roam too far. Visual, i.e. hand signals still work well so it must be hearing or the fact that she's a red head. So, we are going to try the vibration and beeper aspects of the new collar and see how that works.
The Garmin seems to be quite easy to set up and use with a reportedly sufficient range and lots of variable settings to us.

[Big Lew]

Have never been a fan of "shock" Collars - not against them, just not my bag.
Have used "beeper" and "citronella" collars with good results on our dogs at times.
Last night though set up a Garmin Delta XC to use on our 14 year old female as her hearing is getting worse with age. We do a lot of off leash walking and hiking in remote areas and her voice recall has deteriorated to the point that we are reluctant to let her roam too far. Visual, i.e. hand signals still work well so it must be hearing or the fact that she's a red head. So, we are going to try the vibration and beeper aspects of the new collar and see how that works.
The Garmin seems to be quite easy to set up and use with a reportedly sufficient range and lots of variable settings to us.

Good luck with it! I have a friend that has the same problem...his dog is all but deaf, so he uses
the vibrator collar with good results. I've watched him, and when he activates it, his dog immediately
returns.

[russm86]

They do work, as others have said its more for getting the dogs attention and back on track rather than training, different dogs react differently to them. I think anyone I know that has owned hounds uses them but if you don't know what hounds are like, especially young ones, they can be very stubborn and hard to "persuade" to stop or listen. Everyone I've talked to it seems to be just a part of the breed in fact I've met houndsmen that wouldn't let hounds off leash until they were 2 years old. You don't need to test the unit on yourself as what feels painful to you the dog may not even feel with all the hair and skin, especially hounds with all the extra neck skin. What we did to set the level is just start at the lowest and then as you need you increase until you get their attention. Some hounds, especially our bitch that was dominant right from a pup in her litter (she was the biggest in the litter and her attitude says it all), will sometimes just push right through it and ignore it, today actually she just turned 2 and has calmed down quite a bit and rarely do we need to shock any of them, just a vibration will remind them now.

[ACB]

If you happen to get a collar have a professional trainer condition your dog to it. Don't try to do it yourself because if you do it wrong it could be really hard to fix. I use the Dogtra 2300 NCP, N is for nick, C is constant and P is for page just vibration and the collar has a huge scale of stimulation. You have to remember the collar isn't for punishment but for reinforcement of commands. I like to call it my dogs hearing enhancement, not saying I'm constantly shocking my dog I don't have too. When I put the collar on him he knows something good is going to happen. Either go for a walk, or out in the yard or hunting . It's all good to him.