When most people think of an electronic training collar they think “Punishment”. In hunting dog training, this could not be further from the truth. In fact using an electronic collar to punish a gun dog will ruin him.
The collar is simply a means of applying “pressure” on a dog to perform a command quickly When done properly the dog will learn how to turn off the pressure by quickly obeying a command.
What is pressure? Pressure is simply making the dog uncomfortable, with slight pain. Ear pinching and toe hitch to teach “Force Fetch” are other examples of putting pressure on the dog. We sit the dog, hold a bumper a foot from his mouth, then, pinch his ear enough to cause pain and tell him “FETCH”. The second the dog reaches for the bumper we release the pinch.
This teaches the dog that obeying the “FETCH” command stops the pain on his ear. When done repeatedly the dog will “FETCH” as quickly as he can to turn off the pressure. This same type of conditioning is what the electronic training collar is for. By applying pressure and giving a command at the same time and releasing the pressure the instant the dog obeys the command teaches him how to shut off the pressure.
This is why the collar cannot be used to teach a new command. Because the dog has no idea how to turn off the pressure on a new command he gets “Burned” and more confused. To turn off the pressure the dog must know what he is being told to do.
Punishing a dog with the collar never teaches him how to turn off the pressure, it’s the same as beating him. He knows he’s getting beat but has no clue how to stop it other than running away. Punishing the dog with the collar in most cases causes the dog to just stop, because he’s confused, and he learns to fear the collar. Even worse when a command he knows is given he does nothing because he is afraid to make a mistake. This is how a good hunting dog can be ruined by not using the collar correctly.
The best video I’ve seen for teaching proper collar use can be found by clicking the video pictures below.
Joe Dynarski
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