Day 25: Another Tool in my Belt

For those who know me, you know that I'm generally opposed to the use of an e-collar for training. I don't ever want to nick Fred for something that he doesn't know, but I do agree that it can be an effective training tool. I think my stubbornness, and abandoning the collar too early may have been contributing factors to getting where we were. That being said, I have had my new-ish Hawx collar on Fred for the past few sessions. To anyone who hasn't purchased one of these yet (a low cost add on if you have the upgraded Bumper Boy Electronics), I highly recommend it. For a novice trainer such as myself, the rigid expansion strap makes placement a snap and keeps you from making it too tight or loose which helps to ensure proper contact.

I didn't turn the collar on until today when I decided to get back to conditioning from the ground up. We revisited the undeniable H trifecta: hup-heel-here. I set the collar on the lowest stimulation and gave myself the "keep calm, carry on pep talk". I started with hup and just kept on the lowest stimulation when I gave the command and tugged on the lead. We hupped dozens of times, but it sure didn't take long to crisp up his response. Next we moved to heel. I kept the leash loosely in my left hand. Every time that the lead tightened at all, I gave him a low nick and repeated the command. Sure enough in 10 minutes or so we were on very loose lead and hupping perfectly. We did several here's as well, although I didn't need to use the collar at all on here as his response on this was immediate.

We took a big and exciting walk around the property for about 30 minutes and I kept this up when needed. I realized that I was being a very responsible trainer as I was not using it to train and for once I was being completely honest with myself and Fred. When using this method, my timing is much better than it is when I am simply trying to jerk him into place (anyone who has seen me dance knows that I lack all sense of coordination and timing!)

I have always been very cautious with the collar, so going back to these basics is helping to re-collar condition both of us. As I cautiously rebuild my Lincoln Logs with Fred, I will continue to use the collar fairly and consistently as yet another tool that can help me help him to reach his full potential.