Caesar Milan

My English Springer Spaniel requires an e-collar at all times when hunting and is out of an incredible pedigree of U.S field trial champions. When she see's the e-collar she knows its time to work and listen. In fact she gets so over stimulated by birds that only an e-collar would stop her from missed birds during her early training.

In fact i had her at a reputable breeder/trainer of UK English Springer Spaniels this past summer for training and a possible breeding in the very near future to one of her UK dogs. While the very experienced trainer was working with her came to the conclusion that my Elly has ADHD. The trainer had come across this before and recommended medication. The trainer put an an email together for my vet to read along with her early training methods and made a recommendation to try medication to treat the ADHD.

My vet was so impressed with the trainers knowledge and methods used to help Elly that he immediately put Elly on Clomipramine. That was 2 months ago and Elly is a completely different animal while hunting and as a family pet. She still wears the e-collar while hunting but i have yet to correct her since she has been on the medication. She is an absolute pleasure to be around and no longer requires constant correction. Her pedigree or breeding program that she came out of requires an e-collar while the UK dog breeding programs focus heavily on promoting a much calmer focused dog and the reason why many of the UK breeders do not use them.

My Uk Labrador Retriever import has not ever worn an e-collar and needs very little correction if any. She is completely focused on me at all times and obeys all commands taught most of the time. Would she be a field trial champion...possibly with a lot more work. Her pedigree is riddled with field trial champions going back many many generations. But we all know U.S field trials and UK field trials are different from each other.

In my opinion I prefer the UK dog because of a more pleasurable training experience. An e-collar has its place but its not for every dog temperament and could easily sour a dog if not used or introduced properly.

Good points YD about the ecollar. Those unfamiliar with them are astounded how seldom they are used although constantly worn to uphold a standard and for safety.

Even when I use a collar many eyes would never see it happen judging by the dog's response. People have this mental picture what they think it would look like. Of course that's where collar conditioning comes in along with the proper introduction of it.

You're fortunate with your female but I've always said...what works... works.

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Originally Posted by krakadawn

I do disagree with your position around neg/pos reinforcement for training. Quite to the contrary negative reinforcement is not required on a constant basis to reinforce the desired response.

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Furthermore, I think we're misusing the terminology here. Negative reinforcement is not applied with a boot to the rear end -- that's punishment (positive punishment, to be precise). And it's the least effective method in the training toolbox.

I'd go so far as to suggest that in most cases, if a collar is being used as a punishment tool, it's being misused. The state of the art in e-collar use has moved on.

My Brittany never leaves the house without his ecollar. It doubles as a beeper so I can keep track of him if needed. He also never needs correction anymore and comes running in joy when he hears it get turned on. Collars are a wonderful thing for high prey drive dogs. Properly used most dogs don't need them used to correct very quickly.

Thanks for adding that Welsh, you are quite correct.

One of the best retriever training resources is a book titled 'The Art and Science of training retrievers' by Dave Rorem, a US pro trainer. The title pretty much sums it up.

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Originally Posted by terrym

My Brittany never leaves the house without his ecollar. It doubles as a beeper so I can keep track of him if needed. He also never needs correction anymore and comes running in joy when he hears it get turned on. Collars are a wonderful thing for high prey drive dogs. Properly used most dogs don't need them used to correct very quickly.

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Mine don't need corrections anymore from an e collar , but as you noted, the locator feature is invaluable ; gives me peace of mind , as I lost a dog forever once.

Sharon...are you not using the e-caller as a detergent, even if you are only using it as a GPS tracker ?

When you put the collar on the dog, he behaves according to what the collar means to him, regardless if it's turned on or not.

Very true Mike. Thanks for clarifying that.

Same with the JRTs anti bark collar. I haven't changed the battery in a year, but it is still effective outside when he decides he hates the neighbor.