HELLO TO EVERYONE FROM JOHN:
Whether we choose to call it an E-collar, shock collar, remote trainer, or tickle collar, many of us have them but few of us get maximum use and value from them. Although some novice trainers use these wonderful and helpful gizmos too often, too harshly, too inconsistently, and set on too high an intensity, many other trainers are needlessly frightened of pushing the button. With some helpful coaching and information sharing, it’s a sure bet we could ALL improve our dogs and become more correct and confident in our training ventures.
Each month I’ll offer some food for thought designed to help you confidently move forward with your training efforts and ensure that owning your TRI-TRONICS’ equipment is a wise investment which will pay for itself over and over.
If you wish to discuss a topic further, you’re welcome to call me any day from noon until dark Central Standard Time at 573-564-6146 or 573-564-3028. About two-thirds of that time I’ll be available. The rest I’m Gone Dawgin’!
Love That Tone!
It’s Easy, Fun, Helpful, Practical, and Amazing
“T” is for tone on your TRI-TRONICS’ transmitter selector dial. It’s the one single setting I use more than any other. It’s one more important and helpful reason to have an E-collar on every dog during every outing. Although many people call it a “buzzer” and use it in a wide array of different ways while utilizing various dog training philosophies, most of us call it the “tone.” I prefer to keep things real simple for my dogs and me so I use it for one purpose only! Sure, many trainers use it occasionally for a little of this or that, but my main hound problems are getting the dogs to check back in with me occasionally. Or to come back to me when they get way yonder but I want them to return. Or when they get treed across a river, and I can’t get to them so they need to swim back to me. Or when my dogs are heading onto posted land, and they need to return so we can go a safer direction. Or when they’re heading towards a road they need to steer clear of and I want them to return to me so we can load up and go elsewhere or head them in a safer direction. Or I’m at the truck, it’s time to go home, and I want them to come in and load up.
All those goals are easily attained with a little practice and training and occasional refreshers by simply teaching my dogs that EVERY TIME they hear the tone button on their E-collar that means “stop whatever you’re doing and return to Boss Man John at a steady pace by a fairly direct route.” No negotiating. No uncertainty. No dallying around. No getting side-tracked. A properly educated dog knows he must calmly head directly back to John ’cause he wants to see me, and the dog has no choice or say-so.
As mentioned, I believe in keeping things as simple for our dogs as possible so my tone button gets used for nothing but that one handy signal. Each time, I try to be consistent and careful about using it for five seconds. If the dog is way yonder or deeply engrossed, I’ll then usually wait about sixty seconds and give it five more seconds of tone signal. Then wait sixty more seconds and give it a third dose of five seconds. After adequate training and reinforcing, most dogs are well on their way back to their master at that point or before.
Yes, of course, I also use my E-collar whenever needed to tickle ’em or jolt ’em a bit harder if required for lots of purposes. Many of those purposes are helpful, handy, or even necessary, but using the tone button to bring ’em back to me when wanted or needed has become as important, or maybe even more, to my hunting and training enjoyment than the shocking part of my remote trainer. What’s really crazy is that in the past I had that feature on my magic gizmo for several years and never even used it. But gradually with more years and miles and dog understanding and self-discipline under my hat, I’ve learned much more about how to think like my dogs and understand how to connect and compromise with them. I’ve also learned how super-sweet it really is to have a dog that works with me and for me and cheerfully and confidently handles like a dream. Yep, they can hunt good but still handle GREAT! AND YOU CAN DO IT TOO!
STEP 1: Start by, of course, getting your dog well accustomed to wearing your E-collar. Remember, preparation is always the key to success. (For more information on proper preparation, refer to my September article entitled Prepare to Succeed.)
STEP 2: After proper preparation is accomplished, simply do five to ten different sessions of working your dog in your backyard with a thin, fifty-foot-long cord or rope. Be sure to wear some gloves or you will be wearing bandages soon enough! Each time your dog gets to the end of the cord, give it five seconds of the tone button. Immediately reel the dog in to you as though it were a world record bass on your line. Drop down on one or two knees and give it some lavish petting and praise while using lots of your happy voice. A minute later, get up and ease on to a different spot and let the dog use up all fifty feet of your rope and then repeat the lesson. Do that about ten times in twenty minutes and put the dog away to think about and start to absorb this important and handy lesson. Try to repeat this about every other day.
STEP 3: Judging by the dog’s actions and body language, after you’re sure it now knows exactly what you expect when the tone button is pushed, be slower to start reeling the dog in. Before you reel the dog in, if it doesn’t immediately head your way, give it just a tiny one second tickle on the number two setting of your E-collar. Now, begin reeling it to you as you did in earlier lessons. By this point, you know the dog realizes you want it to come to you. If it doesn’t, back up your command with a little reinforcement—keeping it very light and gentle.
STEP 4: After a few training sessions when all is handled properly by the dog, turn them loose dragging the fifty-foot-cord and continue every other day with short sessions of toning them and praising them for properly responding. Anytime they don’t, give them that low-level short tickle to remind them that they must come and they must do so fairly briskly.
STEP 5: After five or ten sessions of that strategy, turn them loose without the cord, preferably in a large, fenced-in area or an open field where they have a minimum of distractions. Though they should have a good time running and romping around, try to do this in an area where they’ll still be able to focus primarily on you. Every five to ten minutes or any time they start getting more than 300 feet away, give them that five second tone and wait for them to hurry in and get their happy-voice-praise and lots of petting from their firm yet friendly master. If they hesitate to return or have their minds on something else after the tone button gives its command, they should instantly feel a short, mild reinforcing tickle. Be as gentle as possible but gradually raise it to a one notch hotter setting and possibly go from one second of stimulation up to two seconds if necessary to gently teach them that your wishes MUST be followed!
Remember that for most of us, we’ll want to command them to return using the tone button when they are in situations where there are lots of distractions. They may even be diligently working the trail of a game animal they’re trained to chase, or be treeing a desired game animal when we need them to leave it and return to us. After about four weeks of teaching and training, which is very enjoyable for us to do, your dog should return to you quickly and without hesitation whenever the TRI-TRONICS’ tone sounds. Until they reach that point, do not try this when the dog is in a hunting situation or has serious distractions on its mind. We must do our homework first, and then we can expand to more challenging places and purposes.
Earlier I mentioned “your” command, but that doesn’t mean you talk or yell for your dog to come. That’s one of many controversial subjects among dog folks. Even famous and accomplished pros in different fields of dogdom drastically disagree on that subject. In my experience and for my reasons, I don’t confuse the dog by giving a verbal command for this purpose. The tone button going off for five seconds is all the command they need or get from me. Make no mistake. I mean it as a command to the dog. They do hear it, and that’s an important part of my thinking on this issue of to yell or not to yell. My dogs are often out there in windy, rainy, noisy situations and may be a quarter to half mile away. In many situations, I could scream my guts out and the dogs legitimately couldn’t hear me. They shouldn’t be confused by sometimes hearing the tone sound and me yelling when they’re close. Be very consistent. Because the dog will not be able to hear me at a great distance, I never use my voice combined with the tone button. The tone sound is THE command! They should respond to that and that alone. Gently, carefully, and consistently, I’ll back up the tone command with whatever is the lightest tickle they’ll respond to while keeping their tail and head up but hurrying to me to get some attagirl petting and praise on arrival.
You’ll be surprised and amazed how easy it is to teach your dog this handiest of all tricks. After you do your part of this enjoyable teaching and training, you will be so pleased with your dog and yourself. Even though at this moment you might find it doubtful to believe, your dog will respond correctly to the tone button from amazingly long distances and despite distractions that you wouldn’t think any dog can ignore.
Yes, you’re right when you think there may be times the tone alone won’t bring him or her back. And yes, there will be occasions when they try you. During those times, all you need to do is dial up a little jolt and charge their batteries if they fail to respond to the tone. Although the tone is easy for any normal dog to hear, sometimes a little dose of your E-collar’s original purpose is needed to clean the wax out of their ears. Smiles.
“Why bother with this teaching and training?” you might ask. Well, besides the obvious handiness of a dog that handles so much sweeter, there’s also the fact that the world can be very dangerous, especially for wide-ranging hunting dogs. With this training, I’m positive that I’ve saved the lives of several of my dogs. If I had not toned them and brought them back, they may have been squashed on a highway, or shot by an angry landowner, or been stolen by someone in the next section looking to grab on to a quality hunting dog, or killed by illegal killer traps set in a section I wanted to avoid.
There are many practical reasons to teach all of our dogs to return to us on command. It’s just extra-sweet icing on the delicious cake when they handle well enough that we don’t have to go walking or running across country to retrieve them when we want or need them to return. Oh, and your buddies will be absolutely AMAZED at your brilliant training skills and the way your genius dog responds perfectly to your wishes, regardless of what kind of dog owns you! Smiles.
Let’s meet right here next month for more helpful and practical E-collar tips.
John Wick
Read the articles from October, September and August - "Stop Bad Barking Behavior!", "Prepare To Succeed" and "Keeping ’em Alive "