cavan shooter wrote: »

Dont see a need to give a dog an static electric shock when he doesn't answer to a command. Be careful overuse can run a dog

Vizzy wrote: »

Here is a post that I put up about 2 years ago.

I have one - Sportdog 1200

My fella was going great, responding to recall, stopping on the whistle, ranging left and right.
Then, about 3 weeks before the season it was as if he went deaf. Simply wouldn't respond to whistle when he felt like it.
Tried him on a long lead (50m) but he got to know when he was out at 50m and then he would stop etc as good gold.
Take off the lead and he was gone again.
The e-collar has 3 separate buttons - one is a simple audible beep, second one is a shock of 1/10 of a second and the third is a shock for as long as you keep the button pressed. There are also 8 levels of intensity for each button. On level 2 or 3 the actual shock is similar to the shock you would get from touching a car on a warm day ( I tried it out on myself before I put it on the dog)
Start the dog off on the lowest possible intensity and press one of the buttons to see if he responds, if he doesn't, move up to the next intensity level. Once he responds DO NOT move up any more levels.
I initially put on the collar for a few minutes each day without turning it on just for the dog to get used to the collar.
Then I moved on to try him with the collar switched on.
What I did was to pip the whistle and if he didn't respond immediately, give him a "beep", pip the whistle again,if there was still no response, give him a 1/10sec shock and finally a full shock if he still was not responding.
I think that I only had to give him a shock 3 times in the last 4 months and I have only "beeped" him about 5 times.
Sorted the problem entirely in about 2 hours (total) of training.
He doesn't normally have the collar on him at all at the moment, but I do put it on every now and again just so that he doesn't associate "no collar means I don't have to come back".

I tend to vary the distance he goes out as well so that he doesn't think that "if I stay close I'll be fine but if I go to far I'll get a shock".
The idea is that the dog associates the correction with not responding to the whistle, and not with the trainer (if that makes sense).
I would caution that you need to be careful using the collar if the dog is actively hunting so as not to discourage him from following a bird along a ditch etc, but with a bit of practice the dog will be like a new dog in no time.

Vizzy wrote: »

ronn,

I haven't used my collar for about 2 years.
Dog is perfect ( or as perfect as I need him) since.

The collars are expensive so if you could get one on loan it might be a better option. If the dog is just testing you, which my fella seemed to be, you should certainly sort it in a week.