Living in Southern California, I never had any need for an electronic training collar. My American Bulldog mix was always on leash unless in a contained and designated "off leash" area such as a dog park. Moving to Park City, Utah, and inheriting a hunting bred Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, I quickly learned the imeasurable value of an electronic training collar! Park City is home to the "off leash life" dog. Daily trail runs, mountain bike rides, cross country skiing, snowshoeing and other adventures await our Mountain Dogs. What an incredible life we get to live! With this privelege comes responsibility. I am responsible for every dog that I take into an off leash situation, as is every other handler. Our duty is to ensure that we take dogs in appropriate locations with appropriate behaviors and that each dog is under our control. PERIOD. I expect my dogs to be interested in wildlife, they are afterall bird hunting dogs, but I also expect to be maintaining a watchful eye on them and to have the capability to immediately recall or redirect my dogs at ANY point in our adventures (yes, even if a jack rabbit or snowshoe hare busts out of it/s hiding place!). Electronic training collars provide several benefits: 1) ability to communicate with your dog at a great range (as someone who loses my voice during many colds, this is invaluable). 2) ability to correct a dog at a great range if needed. This is probably the most important benefit, becuase when we recall our dog off leash and they choose to ignore us, they are immediately reinforcing themselves. Imagine, our dog is enjoying some awesome smells in the grass, but does not realize a horseback rider is approaching on the trail. If I recall my dog and they continue gettting to sniff amazing smells, they are rewarding themselves while ignoring my request to recall. In this situation my dog may put themselves and the rider in a bad position becuase of my lack of control in the situation. Enter the E-collar... Now when I recall my dog, should my dog ignore me, I can issue a correction (similar to a tug on the leash if we were walking on lead) and then reinforce the response to my request.
Now for the not so great... It is VERY easy to quickly create negative associations for your dog with poor timing when using the e-collar. Just the other day, a dog excitedly ran up to me at a park. The dog's head started tilting and then he let out a yelp as he cowered away from me. Seeing the e-collar, I knew immediately that the dog had been corrected (too harshly) for not recalling. A second yelp and cower came, and then the pup ran back to his owner with tail tucked. That dog may think I caused his discomfort, or in the worst case, he may decide that strangers cause him pain. Now that dog might become defensive and reactive with strangers because he fears the corrections the owner put on him.
If you're interested in utilizing an e-collar, I cannot stress enough that you MUST meet with a trainer to help you learn the timing and understand the value of core obedience skills. We do NOT want to correct a dog for behaviors/skills they do not yet know how to perform. Find a trainer that you and your dog feel comfortable with who can keep your sessions positive and confidence building for both of you!
These are the collars I recommend to my clients as they offer the greatest range/longevity/value: (Affiliate Links provided below)
1) Dogtra Ecollars: I use these for clients as well as my own dogs. I find the controllers are incredibly intuitive, lightweight collar and handheld, the ease of charging and durability cannot be matched! The PetsTek model offers a tone function in addition to vibrate and stimulus which is ideal for more sensitive dogs. And their two dog system is the absolute easiest to use.
2) Ecollar Technologies: The "Tap" feature on the vibrate makes a great attention getting tool and the light feature is ideal for darker environments such as winter use. The handheld is a bit cumbersome to learn, but the stop watch styling makes it quick to use once learned.
