too late for e-collar?

[alg]

I have a golden retriever that is 15 months old, and she does not come every time when I call her-----especially if distracted with something. Is it too late to start her on an e-collar?

[riverview]

If she knows what come means, i would say she is a good candidate. Personaly i think e collars are overused, but if you have a good ob foundation she is the perfect candiate

[machohorn]

Start with a 15 foot lead, say come or here and pull on the lead. Once they have that down then move to the e-collar, one little "nick" with the word here/come and pull on the lead. Mix it up, come/here, nick pull - come , pull - come, nick etc. Make it so they come on command period! I sent mine to a pro trainer after 3 weeks with just the lead they into'd the e-collar. Obiedience is vital.

[gspman]

No. But she should know the command and what is expected before transitioning to the collar.

[fishroger]

By no means. Find a range on the e-collar where the dog doesnt yelp. On my dogtra and my dog its about in the middle, about 50. It can vary for each dog. You want them to notice it and not ignore it. If you have your commands down and the dog doesnt obey give them a nick right away. When they start getting with the program you will have to use it less and less. Keep on practicing, repetion is important. When I take my dog out now for some training its rare that I have to nick him more than once.

[pikehunter]

I agree - go for it. The last thing you want is to worry about general obedience in the field. I started my year-old Brit on his collar at about eight months, just because it seemed like I had a hard time getting his attention when he was in the field, even though he knew the commands. Four months later, I've still never had to use anything more than the vibrate feature, just to get his attention.

[DuckDog]

I trained my wife on the proper way to use our dogtra e collar. Well her and the dog went for a walk and it was one of those days where my lab was in her own little world.

The wife comes back and says this thing is not working. She was pushing the on off button by accident. Well she turned it up and pushed the right button (thinking she was showing me it does not work). The dog, now laying down from her walk, jumped two feet in the air.

Needless to say my wife never used the collar again as she felt bad for the dog. On a side note the dog has not had an issue on walks since and listens to my wife's every word.

[OutlawTorn]

It is certainly not too late, in fact much earlier on the collar is TOO early. The collar is used to reinforce commands the dog already knows, NOT to teach new ones.

Also, "nicking" the dog when it doesnt listen is a surefire way to condition your dog to handle a full-power blast, eventually. It doesnt happen to every dog so I will un-doubtedly get some flak for saying this, but most "collar-hardened" dogs become this way because the collar was used to "get their attention" after the command has been given and ignored - in other words, punishment.

Try this - find the lowest level of stimulation the dog notices by putting the collar on and starting at the lowest setting. When the dog blinks its eyes or casually scratches its neck, you've found the number - any higher stimulation is too much.

Next, put the dog on a check cord and press the continuous stimulation button just before/at the same time you give the "come" command. When the dog comes and sits at heel, you turn the stimulation off. Over the course of just 2 weeks, your pup will learn that it has the power to turn the stimulation off by obeying your commands.

I like this method because you are empowering your dog, not punishing it AND you have your dog trained to respond with a very low level of stimulation. When the pup is conditioned to low e-collar stimulation, the higher levels actually MEAN something for the RARE time when the situation is critical (traffic, porky's, etc.).

Just my .02. Im no pro, but Ive done one dog the way the others are recommending and the newest pup this way, and there is a world of difference. The older one will grit her teeth and keep doing her thing on high stimulation, the young one comes running as fast as he can with the first or second level of stimulation. You can decide which is better...