Tag: robin macfarlane
We’ve been pretty bogged down here in Iowa with cold, COLD weather and LOTS of snow….but it didn’t stop my 10 year old Malinois, Tommy from wanting to go out and play! A good reminder for me to just keep moving forward and making the best of what ever comes. Dogs are fabulous for being that constant ‘in the moment’ presence in our lives. So what ever your New Year’s resolutions or hopes for self- improvement include this coming year […]
Just wanted to share some photos from this weeks video shoot. One of our regular day care attendees, Sam got into the act while shooting some short clips for the iQ Pet training collars. If you think the idea of Tap = Attention doesn’t work then you need to have a conversation with this Golden Retriever! He nailed it by very effectively interrupting our shooting numerous times. When the director called “Action!” and we went to roll, he […]
A few years ago I created a very basic instructional DVD about e-collar training, Just Right Training. The goal was to provide viewers with the basics of how to safely and humanly collar condition their dog. I hoped to help people understand how to properly fit the e-collar, figure out what level is appropriate for training and how to avoid creating confusion for the dog. It was titled Just Right because of my continual reminder to users that there are […]
One of the many reasons I like training with an electronic dog collar is because I believe it is a quicker path to off leash freedom for a dog. Rather than using the tool as a “shock collar” and punishing a dog for none compliance, myself and many other professional dog trainers world-wide are using e-collar stimulation as a prompt to gain a dogs attention in the midst of distractions. Once the tap on the shoulder gets the dogs attention […]
Questions & Answers: Remote Collar Dog Training Recently I had a chat with Ty Brown of Dog Behavior Online about e-collar training. We discussed some of the basic training concepts as well as some of the commonly held misconceptions such as; can e-collars be used with anxious dogs? Are they ok to use in the case of aggression issues. Are they really humane and how do they feel? What does it mean to use the Just Right level? I remember […]
This past weekend I was in Texas presenting a remote collar training workshop with On The Ball K-9 Training. We had a wonderful group of participants, both pet owners and other professional dog trainers. The dogs ranged from young pups to older dogs with behavioral issues. Regardless of age or past history, we started at the beginning and learned the foundation skills necessary to build better behavior. The foundation skills of remote collar training include teaching the dog that stimulation […]
This past week I’ve been busy teaching my 10 day professional dog trainers course. We are a week into it, and I wanted to share a few reflections. We started the week with 6 students and a variety of dogs to work with. Most of the students brought either their own dog or a clients dog, plus we had several of our training dogs in residence to work with. On day one, none of the dogs were e-collar literate. They […]
Remote Collar Training for Dogs Requires Skill? There are several skills one must master in order to become proficient at remote collar training for dogs. Learning when to tap the button and how to help the dog understand the sensation are two of the main components for success. But the one that seems most intimidating for the novice handler is understanding how to adjust the stimulation level appropriately for the dog. The e-collar instructional dvd’s I created were titled “Just […]
Emily Stoddard from Canine Sports Dog Training recently sent me a success story of how proper use of an e-collar helped a dog destine for euthanasia. Guinness’ story is not an unusual one, a dog with a less than desirable upbringing, going to a new home and the new owner struggling to rehab an animal who has learned the wrong behavioral response to anything he perceives as scary. Unfortunately the sad stories like his aren’t hard to come by. The […]
It is time for my Halloween post. I had so much fun dressing up last year, I knew I’d find a way to pull out another alter ego this season. With that in mind, I decided we’d discuss if the use of aversives are necessary when training a dog. I know it is a topic that causes much debate among trainers. It is like politics, with the topic getting heated and people tending to gravitate to one side or the […]