E-collar recommendations for small dog.

[silverdoctor]

My minpin is giving me some intermittent hassles when off leash, and I need something to get his attention cause he goes tone deaf when it happens. Nothing wrong with his ears, thats for sure.

Recall is great, when off leash he always looks for me, knows where he left me. If I whistle, he stops to look, call him and he comes. I've recalled him off 3 rabbits already. But once in a while he'll forget everything and charges a bicycle or a jogger. Reverting back to his old ways basically.

He's highly social, met thousands of dogs of all sizes, adults, kids. Socialization isn't the issue here. Anyone can pick him up and pet him.

20 joggers can pass by, then he'll chase the 21st one for no apparent reason, he did this today and started nipping at her - I couldn't recall him. She understood he was amped up, but this is no good.

Not looking to spend hundreds on a collar, but if anyone has any info - or one for sale. Reading reviews online are mixed.

[javlin101]

The one we bought has 3 options. Sound, vibration, & shock. Have only had to use shock once on our Lab Cross and now just the beep gets his attention pretty fast. Vibration and he heels without being asked/commanded. The shock is only there encase he goes ballistic and needs a zap to break his focus.

[silverdoctor]

It's not something I want to have on him full time, just when we're off leash at the parks or camping or on the hunt for vermin.

2 bikes went past tonite in the park, ignored one but was bent on the other. Managed to back him down, made 3 runs for it, stubborn little bugger. But if I hadn't been there to block, he would have been gone. But yet, he called off a squirrel. I don't get it, he's been around hundreds of bikes.

[aulrich]

I was able to fit a Garmin delta on to a smaller cocker

[Nova316]

I bought one of those shock, vibrate, beep collars from Amazon.ca
It was relatively cheap and the vibrate is super useful, never really needed to shock ever but keep it low around 3. Test it out on yourself first to see how painful it is, that's how I set mine as you just want there attention. Its defaults at 100 which is insane as 7 is super painful.

I run my two dogs off leash around the community and they are amazingly responsive to the vibrate. I only ever put it on when we off leash them.

[silverdoctor]

Originally Posted by Nova316

I bought one of those shock, vibrate, beep collars from Amazon.ca
It was relatively cheap and the vibrate is super useful, never really needed to shock ever but keep it low around 3. Test it out on yourself first to see how painful it is, that's how I set mine as you just want there attention. Its defaults at 100 which is insane as 7 is super painful.

I run my two dogs off leash around the community and they are amazingly responsive to the vibrate. I only ever put it on when we off leash them.

Do you know the brand and model? That's all I'm looking for is something off leash.

[wwbirds]

Teach is when you teach dog what recall, stay, here or any other command means. Training is showing dog that taught command applies in all situations. If you have no way of enforcing a command when he really wants to do something else you are teaching him obedience is optional (when he wants to). Could be a squirrel running across road, kids playing or any other distraction. Anticipate what he will encounter and train for it.
Go back to check cord instead of off leash where he can do as he wants. When he is listening perfectly leave it on another 6 months. Everytime he has an option and takes advantage of it the task becomes more difficult to change.
The best way to get a dog to listen every time is to never let him think he is in control.

[silverdoctor]

Originally Posted by wwbirds

Teach is when you teach dog what recall, stay, here or any other command means. Training is showing dog that taught command applies in all situations. If you have no way of enforcing a command when he really wants to do something else you are teaching him obedience is optional (when he wants to). Could be a squirrel running across road, kids playing or any other distraction. Anticipate what he will encounter and train for it.
Go back to check cord instead of off leash where he can do as he wants. When he is listening perfectly leave it on another 6 months. Everytime he has an option and takes advantage of it the task becomes more difficult to change.
The best way to get a dog to listen every time is to never let him think he is in control.

Understand what you're saying about check cord, but I can't go back to that, too much risk of injury. He was on a 16 foot extendible leash for the first week and a half. Several times, large dogs would run through chasing a ball or frisbee, get caught up in the leash and take him for a ride - he ended up yelping. If he was 80 pounds I wouldn't mind.

I can use a check cord in an empty field, but that's no good without the direct distractions of bicycles and joggers. I'm not trying to make excuses for it, but pins aren't the toughest dogs structurally.


As a side note, he was attacked by a dog last week, wondering if that's having some effect on him.

[wwbirds]

You cant train anything with an e collar only reinforce the commands they already know and obey. You are supposed to go back and retrain everything with the collar which is called collar conditioning and it results in using less and less e collar all the time until it is not necessary anymore because the dog has learned they can turn off or completely avoid the e collar by instantly obeying. If you use a collar for punishing undesireable behavior that is considered avoidance training but it is still negative based training such as they use to rattlesnake proof hunting dogs. All joggers and bicycles are then taboo and you may have a paranoid dog at the end of it all. Dogs trained with punishment training have a much higher incidence of fear biting or bolting as they either fight or flight. If entanglement becomes a real concern with check cord I drop the end I am holding so there is no resistance for dog to get jolted.

[Jeron Kahyar]

Originally Posted by silverdoctor

Understand what you're saying about check cord, but I can't go back to that, too much risk of injury. He was on a 16 foot extendible leash for the first week and a half. Several times, large dogs would run through chasing a ball or frisbee, get caught up in the leash and take him for a ride - he ended up yelping. If he was 80 pounds I wouldn't mind.

Your check cord should be a long static cord. That way you can drop your end in this case without the handel recoiling into your dog on rewind. Since you dog is quite small a thin static climbing cord from MEC or such (4-6mm) should work well (or any stiff cord to avoid it getting tangled if he is freely trailing the cord).

[Nova316]

https://www. amazon.ca/Petrainer-PET998DRB1-Rechargeable-Rainproof-Electronic/dp/B00W6UVROK/ref=aag_m_pw_dp?_encoding=UTF8&m=A39VTLCPMNRL3Z

Thats the one I got but please read the instructions and lower the shock value to 5 and under. I don't recommend shocking yourself but I did just to check how strong it is, I couldn't imagine anything over 10.
I only ever use the beep and vibrate, I use the vibrate when they walk onto the road or wander to far from me. After a few walks they learned not to walk on the road or wander to far from me, most times I don't even carry the remote with me.

My dogs do know the commands well of stay, come, and wait. The little vibration or beep just diverts there attention to me so they'll obey the command under any circumstance.

[silverdoctor]

Originally Posted by wwbirds

You cant train anything with an e collar only reinforce the commands they already know and obey. You are supposed to go back and retrain everything with the collar which is called collar conditioning and it results in using less and less e collar all the time until it is not necessary anymore because the dog has learned they can turn off or completely avoid the e collar by instantly obeying. If you use a collar for punishing undesireable behavior that is considered avoidance training but it is still negative based training such as they use to rattlesnake proof hunting dogs. All joggers and bicycles are then taboo and you may have a paranoid dog at the end of it all. Dogs trained with punishment training have a much higher incidence of fear biting or bolting as they either fight or flight. If entanglement becomes a real concern with check cord I drop the end I am holding so there is no resistance for dog to get jolted.

Just looking to get his attention. Like i say, his recall is pretty solid. But he's reverting back to his old ways and it just seems to be lately, and seldom. He's been attacked a few times over the last couple of months by other dogs, but this last one caused a gash beside his eye. I'm still wondering if that's caused any grief.

I just ordered a collar, it's not something where I'll be zapping him every time he does something, not for punishment - it's just to get his quick attention for those rare occasions. It's only $40 for a collar. If it doesn't work, i'll have to go back to a check cord and start over.

Problem is, i'm getting old and fat, he can launch alot quicker than I

[Newf]

Originally Posted by silverdoctor

i'll have to go back to a check cord and start over.

This^ might be the best approach. While its real easy to press a button, without proper collar conditioning its just not fair to the dog.