The UK is an area known for legislative upheaval in the dog training world, particularly in regard to electronic dog training equipment. The following testimonial is from a dog owner who used a remote collar after exhausting a myriad of other training advice and now has peace of mind that he can control his Border Collie’s dangerous habit of chasing cars.
The e-mail was forwarded to me by the vendor who received the note of thanks. I am very glad the e-collar assisted the owner in solving the chasing problem. While it may not be the e-collar conditioning protocol I would have recommended for this case, it does point out there is a time and place where it is appropriate to let a dog know that some behaviors are not safe or acceptable.
The folks at British Dog have mentioned to me the vast need for more education regarding remote collar use. I hope they find this blog a valuable resource for their customers.
Hi,
Just to let you know I am delighted with my purchase from British Dog. I purchased the Petsafe 350m training collar after talking to you and taking your recommendation.
Things had become so bad with my 18 month old border collie chasing vehicles that her life was in danger. The final straw came when she bolted and ran out behind the wheels of a reversing dust cart. I had tried absolutely everything with positive reinforcement, clicker training, taking her favourite toy with us on walks, distracting her with fresh chicken, dog treats etc. Nothing had worked – Once she saw a vehicle she took a dislike to, the ‘red mist’ descended in front of her eyes and she was off !
I hated the idea of putting an ‘electric collar’ on my dog but you assured my that they were safe, humane and so many people had been in my position and I knew that if I didn’t take this step now she would be seriously injured or killed.
Within minutes of putting the collar on I couldn’t believe the change in behavior. I took her over the field where she invariably spotted a car or truck to go after and sure enough within a few minutes a DHL van appeared and Ruby was ‘locked on target’. As soon as her body language changed and I knew she was about to bolt I pressed the button on the remote. I only needed level one and she came straight back to me and sat by my legs. I was quite literally gob smacked !
I have had the collar now for several weeks and Ruby is a changed dog as far as behavior goes. Her recall is now faultless NO MATTER WHAT the distraction and to be honest I only occasionally need to use the beep on the collar for her to respond.
Thank you so much for recommending the product and quite literally saving my dogs life.
Pease feel free to use all or part of this email in any of your testimonials on your site, I cant thank you enough.
Best regards
Mark Jacobs (& Ruby)
I’m in the UK and have just ordered a remote collar to work with a 17 month old spaniel who gets very easily distracted by the excitement of wildlife and the thrill of the chase/hunt. I’ve spend a huge amount of time training him and in controlled environments and when he is paying attention to me he is very good. He will sit, recall, stop on recall, and change direction by whistle command even when out in the park – provided he is not distracted. The problem is as soon something more exciting gets his attention he is gone (for as long as 20 mins). He always comes back to me and is excited to see me when he does but its when he’s ready.
I’ve been researching remote training collars for a long time and your videos and articles have been very helpful in educating me on how to use this tool – thanks for that.
Hi Sally,
I’m happy to be of help. I think education is the key. The more we know about dogs, how they learn and how all tools can help us to have a better relationship with them, the better both species will be.
Good luck with your training goals. If you have any questions, let us know.
This caught my attention for the fact that it was a dog from the UK. Anyhow, I am sure it is hard to do what we try to do here in the U.S. with remote collars, since there are legal issues in the UK. I was at the first of a three day seminar with a prominent dog person from the UK today. It was hard to hear how he referred to “shock collars.” I feel as though there is lots of good info, such as this site portraying the e collar in a positive light and showing that it can be used in other means than delivering a “shockingly” harsh punishment. I plan on trying to write something up and putting together some info for the presenter. I am not one to call him out in public in front of others and press the issue of him realising the improvement in shock collar technology and improvement in the methodoligy of using shock collars. I feel as though the ecollar helps many many dogs and people have a better relationship, because you can get such great results and retain a happy dog with training that is more realisticly done by the average pet owner in my opinion. Something that kept coming up today was building a relationship with your dog. And then after a question pertaining to shock collars, a response was given ” why would one ever shock a dog that you were trying to build a relationship with.” Well… I have seen ecollars enhance many more dog/owner relationships than not. And…. have seen ecollars save more dogs lives than end them. *note that this is with a just right level stim and a trained response not a high level stim without a trained response. If you are open minded and look and learn how and where ecollar can help….. and you still dont like them….. thats fine, but dont bash what you dont know.