We are joining Heart Like A Dog and co-host Donna and the Dogs for the Follow-up Friday blog hop.
It’s the the blog hop that lets you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.
I don’t have too much follow-up this week.
Oz the Terrier asked about the collar the dogs are wearing in training pictures.
That is an e-collar. We train with e-collar and use it a lot when the dogs are off-lead.
If the dogs are training…
Or hunting…
Or playing…
…they are wearing an e-collar.
There are a lot of misconceptions about e-collar. Used properly it is an effective training tool to reinforce an already learned behavior. We have had great success using it for our field training and to reinforce a recall anytime our dogs are off lead.
There are different types of collars and the price usually depends on the range of the collar. Ours will work from quite a distance away. We have two collars that work off of one controller. As you can see, one is blaze orange and one is black. If we are out with all three dogs, Thunder usually doesn’t have to wear the collar because he is pretty good about sticking close, but he still wears it for training.
As for holding the collar, sometimes with a young dog you need to direct their head to look out onto the field so that they are looking in the right direction. Eventually, they will do it on their own. Some people add a tab which they can hold to control the dog’s head, but our collars are long, so it makes a good tab to hold.
This has been a fast week. I am hoping for good weather so I can get some training pictures tomorrow. The temperatures are finally above freezing so maybe the fields will be clear of ice and snow.
Have a nice weekend!
Thanks to Heart Like A Dog and Donna and the Dogs for co-hosting the hop.
Check out the other blogs in the hop here:
Thanks for joining us in the blog hop! I sure hope you get some good weather, we are once again getting hammered with snow! LOL No icy melt this weekend. Have a good one!!
Oh I just love that photo of the first pheasant. Beautiful.
Blessings,
Goose
We have friends with hunting Spaniels that have an e-collar each. Seldom need to be used but better safe than sorry. Have a fabulous Friday.
Best wishes Molly
The collars are definitely helpful while out hunting in high cover.
Agreed. Better safe than sorry. A friend of mine was able to break her dog of a dangerous habit that she never could have corrected otherwise. You are right. They can be very, very effective training tools.
Interesting about your friend. Good to hear a dangerous habit was broken.
Hope you get some good weather soon. It hasn’t been a terribly bad winter, but I’m so done with it already.
Us too!
Love that pheasant photo! (Yum… pheasant!)
Hope you get some nice weather there! You should come here! It is going to be really nice today, rain tomorrow but in the 70’s next week. We can’t complain!
We finally got some nice weather yesterday, but I don’t think the warm temps went as far north as where our trainer lives.
Don’t you mean maybe the fields will be super muddy? 🙂 Those collars sounds way cool.
Thank you for answering my question! That photo with the pheasant is awesome. Gosh, I wish I could hunt and retrieve…but alas, that’s not really what I was built for. BOL
Have a wonderful weekend!!!
Oz
Thanks for the great question. 🙂
I agree, there are a lot of misconceptions about eCollars. Some people rely on them for every aspect of training, which I feel is unnecessary. But it totally makes sense for field work, especially the important recall.
I have seen good results when used correctly for everyday training, but we don’t use them that way. Plus it does no go to use them if the dog does not already understand what is expected. Even in field training, we use them to reinforce only.
Great post and pictures. Have fun visiting your boy.
Ah no visit this weekend. He is still getting settled in, but it sounds like he is finally getting in the swing. Hope to see him as soon as our trainer thinks it won’t set back his training. We went through this when Storm was there too. Took a few weeks…lol.
I’ve written about e-collars a few times although I have no personal experience and have gotten some of the snottiest comments. I think they are valuable tools for the kind of training you do and was glad to read about them.
My readers are great and even though I know some use only positive methods, they are open to hearing about how we train our doggies. I think I may have commented on your entry about ecollar. 🙂
e-collars have come a long way and those who use them are much better educated…20 years ago I had serious questions about their use, but having seen the new models and talked with users i am much more comfortable with them now
From what I gather those old collars had one or two settings. The modern ones go all the way from vibrate to a higher setting, with many settings in between. I think that makes them more useful.
Our dogs are also trained to invisible fence (because we can’t have a real one where we live…stupid I know). Invisible fence collars are adjustable, but not as much as training ecollars.
I actually would love to get an ecollar with a gps for hunting. I get nervous when the dogs are out of sight in cover. 🙂
Nice article on e-collars, I vowed never to use them but when my trainer taught me how to use them properly, they work nicely. The only time I really used mine was last year when Mia took off chasing a jack rabbit. I nicked her a couple of times and she’s never gone after one since. Better than losing your dog, for sure.
I think most that object to them have never been shown the proper way to use them. They are really helpful when a dog is blowing off a recall or any command really.
Really great pictures and super explanation about Ecollars. Plus we really love your header….
In the right hands, the e-collar can be a very useful tool. It’s just scary if it lands up in the wrong hands.
It took us forever to put handling on Thunder because we went very slowly. We did not want to correct at the wrong time or do too much. We would wait until we had a private with our trainer to hash out issues. Even now, my hubby is careful with corrections during training. If you correct at the wrong time or unfairly, you can mess a dog up and even ruin them for hunting. You have to be careful. 🙂