I put Loki on a remote trainer today. He wore the Dogtra NCP 280 to allow us to work on recall without any physical leash. We went through all of his obedience at first and he did beautifully. We run through obedience in order to have him experience the electronic correction coupled with my voice to help minimize confusion. As often happens, his obedience was sharper with the remote collar on than it is with a leash and pinch collar. When I took the leash off he was very unsure of what to do at first. With Kylie's help we got him playing and running around a little bit but he was still not fully relaxed. We did a few Recalls coupled with a page from the collar and he did well. The third or fourth recall we tried I knew would be different. He got that "I'm gonna bolt" look in his eye and sprinted off in another direction. I corrected him with the collar and with a firm "NO!" and he stopped looked at me, clearly confused, and tried it again. I turned the collar up by 4 or 5 levels and corrected him again. This time he was so confused he just laid down and tried to hide in the snow.
Why did he hide? It wasn't because the collar hurt him. He hid because his whole world changed in that moment. For possibly his entire life no handler or owner has been able to stop him from running away. It is likely that this running away is why he ended up in rescue in the first place. He had to process this new reality where he ran away and yet I was still able to correct him. Eventually he came to me, exhausted and, if I am being honest, a little defeated. We walked back and he napped for over an hour.
Later in the day we took another walk and Loki was a different dog. He realized the major plus side to wearing a remote collar. How fast can a shepherd mix run? Very very fast. He zoomed around the field and when he found a deep snowbank he purposely dove face first into it over and over again. Whenever he began entering an off-limit zone I simply had to verbally call him back and he happily romped back to me and sat down. I did not have to use the remote once during the entire walk.
This is one of the reasons why I love remote collars. A dog who might otherwise not get to really run free outside of a fenced area and be safe gets to enjoy that freedom. Owners get to allow their dogs to run and play and be dogs without sacrificing peace of mind that they can get their dog back at any time (so long as the dog stays within the radius of the collar. In this case a 1/2 mile). I use them on my own dogs when we are hiking or going to a new place. If you have a dog who may not immediately be reliable with Recall a remote trainer is a wonderful second option. AND! In almost all of Lawrence (excluding Mass. Street) it is a legal leash.
Why did he hide? It wasn't because the collar hurt him. He hid because his whole world changed in that moment. For possibly his entire life no handler or owner has been able to stop him from running away. It is likely that this running away is why he ended up in rescue in the first place. He had to process this new reality where he ran away and yet I was still able to correct him. Eventually he came to me, exhausted and, if I am being honest, a little defeated. We walked back and he napped for over an hour.
Later in the day we took another walk and Loki was a different dog. He realized the major plus side to wearing a remote collar. How fast can a shepherd mix run? Very very fast. He zoomed around the field and when he found a deep snowbank he purposely dove face first into it over and over again. Whenever he began entering an off-limit zone I simply had to verbally call him back and he happily romped back to me and sat down. I did not have to use the remote once during the entire walk.
This is one of the reasons why I love remote collars. A dog who might otherwise not get to really run free outside of a fenced area and be safe gets to enjoy that freedom. Owners get to allow their dogs to run and play and be dogs without sacrificing peace of mind that they can get their dog back at any time (so long as the dog stays within the radius of the collar. In this case a 1/2 mile). I use them on my own dogs when we are hiking or going to a new place. If you have a dog who may not immediately be reliable with Recall a remote trainer is a wonderful second option. AND! In almost all of Lawrence (excluding Mass. Street) it is a legal leash.
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