Ben's progress with his e-collar

Due to the emotiveness of the subject, I will not be responding or joining in with any threads on the main forum concerning e-collars.

But I will post up progress (or failure) reports om how Ben is going with his recall training.

Fantastically well. He comes when he is called - including not going into other people's gardens to have a good nosey around, which was a particular problem that we had with him and could not cure him of. A particular person we know who lives in our village has a pond in her back garden, and Ben used to love to sneak through a hole in her back fence and flop into her pond!! We had to remember to put him on the lead going past that particular garden, but now we don't have to.

We control his recall now with the vibration only, no zaps required. If he ignores a command to come, then he is given a rumble (vibration, NOT zap) and he turns to look at you. You then call his name and say Come, and he gallops over for a pat and a titbit. This is exactly what we wanted to achieve.

It must by now be about 3 weeks since he had to have his second zap - there was then a fairly long period when he didn't even need to have the vibration, but now he sometimes needs just a reminder to come.

He is still totally accepting of the collar going on and coming off.

I don't know if you can post pictures in Blogs but I will try to post one up of him. Here goes: here's the link, hope it works!

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/g...9_edited-1.jpg

x gnasher x

He looks lovely, first photo I have seen of him

I know you dont want to hear it but I am concerened that he is already testing the boundries and needing paged to make him 'obay' your 'commands' imo this is not boding well for the long term fix
I hope I am wrong, and I truly hope that he never needs to again feel the punishment of electricity

Very well said, Ben, I could not agree more. I can tell you right now - he IS testing the boundaries, and he will do so for ever, whatever training method is used.

However, I am concerned that all went so well for a couple of weeks, and now he needs an occasional vibrate just to remind him. As you say, and I am absolutely sure, this is just a wilful dog pushing his luck to see what happens!

I can give you an example of his wilfulness, if that's the right word! Tai is boss, absolute out and out leader of the dog pack in our household - but Ben still has to push it sometimes, still pounces on Tai and beats him up in a gentle way, but there is a seriousness behind it, and every time you can see Tai thinking 'is he ever going to learn?', followed by a ferocious roar and a firm putting down of Ben on the ground!! Ben grins goofily up at tai, rolls his eyes at him and wags his tail, as he lays there!! Interestingly, this is virtually the only time that Ben wags his tail, like his father, he never wags it for humans.

He is a card!

Gorgeous looking dog.

He is a lovely looking boy. However, I don't think a dog lovers forum is the place to put the use of an e-collar blog.

Thank you both of you, he is a gorgeous looking dog.

Re your remark Heather & Zak, it was Azz who suggested that I start a blog! I had no idea how that worked, but I eventually managed to work it out. So if you don't like it, you had better report me to Azz!

Thanks so much for your sweet comments about Ben though - I would never say this in front of Tai, but IMO he is FAR better looking and his coat is just to die for, so silky!

I am a little concerened that you let your dogs fight and you find it funny
imo dogs get good at what they practise and if you let them keep on fighting then one day you are going to have a real nasty fight on your hands as resentments reach a peak

I agree Ben, especially as it seems body language may be being mistaken - wagging a tail isn't always a sign that the dog is happy/playful

I agree with krlyr. My last german shepherd would wag his tail when he was not a happy boy and was about to attack. We were always aware of his body language especially his tail.

Not surprised he doesn't wag his tail for humans. Can't see that any have given him reason to.

Nice looking collie cross.

rune