There’s no doubt over the last 15 years, more dog trainers are teaching e-collar training for pet dog owners. Training Tips for Beginners:
In this article, I’m going to cover some of the important things you should know about using a remote training collar with your German Shepherd. If you were looking for information on this training tool. I know you’ll find this video helpful.
At what age should you start e-collar training?
Five months of age. You should never use a remote training collar on a puppy under five months, they are too young. But when it comes to this question, how old is, old, enough’ when can you start? No worries, I’m going to show you in the video below. You’ll see it done with my German Shepherd Princess.
You may have read somewhere else that it’s ok to start training a puppy at the age of 14 to 15 weeks. But, I disagree with that. Puppies at this age, are too young and too immature to use a remote training collar.
Because I talk with so many frustrated dog owners, they all want to learn about remote collar training for their dogs to solve unwanted behaviors. I see so many behavior problems with new German shepherd owners, because of not starting training at a young age and over spoiling them.
There are quite a few who want shortcuts to training their dogs. To me, that’s dog training HACKS’’ Here’s what I say. You’re looking for the quickest way to solve your dog’s behavior problems. I get it. If you’re just looking for a quick fix, you won’t get long-term success in dog training.
Best way to get results with Remote collar training:
You need to teach your dog the behaviors you want them to learn. Then you can add the e-collar to your training program. We don’t want to use this tool for correcting them for not listening when they don’t understand what you’re asking them.
Warning, Dogs do not know what stimulation is until you teach them. If you didn’t watch the video, I recommend you do, so you can understand how remote collar training works.
Training needs to begin with building a relationship and bond with your dog, teaching them basic obedience commands for on-leash and off-leash training. There’s a lot of good trainers that do start training pups at a young age with an e-collar.
Everyone wants to use an e-collar to get their dog to listen when they’re not on a leash. E-collar training is great for off-leash control. It gives you an invisible leash to connect with your dog. Dog owners love it because they get to let their dogs off-leash, and know they can get them to come back.
Remote collar training has been popular for training retrieval training, for hunting dog sports breeds for several decades, and still is today.
How e-collar training is growing:
Now, we see remote-collar training being used for police dog training, Sport Dog training for competition style training.
I first started learning about e- collar training in the early 90s. As a professional German Shepherd trainer, I wanted to learn and get educated as much as I could, while seeing this new style of dog training becoming more and more popular. Any good dog trainer, knows they need to keep up to date with what’s going on in the industry.
I knew I was going to have to learn about remote collar training. Sooner, or later, I would have dog owners contact me, to help them, learn how to use this technology. For every 15 teen people I meet, ten of them, already have a remote collar. It amazes me. And they have no clue how to use it.
However, in today’s dog training world, every trainer in the world is teaching e collar training for off-leash control. Every trainer that teaches this method of dog training, has their own way of teaching it. Some trainers teach dogs to turn off continuous stimulation, to teach the come when called command, known as a recall command when the dog is off-leash.
Teach your dog to shut off stimulation for training commands.
This is done by first finding a level of stimulation that your dog will respond to. Most dog trainers use a 15 or 20-foot cotton web a long line, by applying straight pressure on the long line, by pressing the continuous button on the remote, and giving the dog the command.
When the dog turns and comes to them, then the pressure from the collar shuts off. That’s teaching your dog how to come when called and turning off pressure use from the e-collar.
This is the most common way most dog trainers teach e- collar training. Retriever trainers use the collar this way, back when remote collar training, first came out. That’s all they knew. But over the years, they have learned multiple ways to use a remote collar, for training dogs. I like to use the e-collar for attention training. Don’t like to teach dogs to turn off pressure from a remote collar.
I found you can get the same results by using a couple of quick taps on the Nick button, or the continuous button when giving any command. I have taught hundreds of German Shepherd owners how to use this tool this way.
When it comes to remote collar training, there’s not just one way of using the tool.
Here’s a great video with an expert dog trainer. How he uses the collar for his Labrador Retriever. I thought it would be good for you to see how different trainers use this tool. How hunting dog trainers use the e-collar. Charlie Jurney walks you through setting up your e-collar, and how to introduce it to your training program. The sport dog brand is another good remote collar.
I enjoy this video. Learn more about Charlie at his website.
Remote Collar training for dogs:
I always teach all my dogs, the basic commands without using the remote collar. It’s important for your dog to know each command before using an e-collar.
When I first start training my dog with an e-collar, the first thing I do is find the lowest level possible of stimulation so my dog bailey feels it. Just enough that she’s looking for a flea bite or a bug flying by. That’s plenty to get started.
I like to start off with a 6-foot leash when giving a heel command, a second later a couple of quick taps with the collar. The minute the dog looks at me, I stopped and reward my dog with positive reinforcement using a lot of food rewards.
I am teaching my dog, just because she felt the stimulation, doesn’t mean she did something wrong. If you don’t teach e-collar condition to your dog, the tool, just becomes negative to the dog.
Lots of dog trainers use the tool for obedience training, and problem-solving behaviors, like digging, chewing, excessive barking, jumping, Etc. All those behaviors can be fixed with the use of a remote training collar. This happens because we have too many dog owners, that don’t start training at a young age. As a dog trainer, you need to know how to help people use these tools safely.
When a German Shepherd or any other breed of dog, has these types of behaviors. These behaviors are developed from a lack of leadership and training. Any dogs that don’t get physical and mental stimulation on a daily basis, will have Issues. Sooner or later, the frustration has to come out somewhere. And that’s why dogs become destructive.
How to train off-leash without using a remote training collar:
If you’re the type of person that doesn’t want to use a remote collar for training your German Shepherd off-leash, and basic commands on a leash, and off-leash commands. The best way to do this is to develop boundaries with your dog. With food Based training. For example, you can use a 30-foot cotton web long line to give your dog some freedom.
Once they go beyond the boundary that I want them to learn, I recall them back with a quick pop on the long line and reward them with food. This is how a lot of hikers train their dogs for off-leash. I like to start off by giving my dog ten feet of freedom at the beginning of training.
Another way to do this with the long line is to use a whistle for off-leash training when teaching the come when called command. Use the long line the same way as you would without a whistle. The key to using this method of dog training is to develop boundaries.
In other words, start off with giving your dog 10 to 15 feet of freedom in the beginning, as the dog starts to learn you will be able to give them more freedom. You will learn when you can trust your dog, as long as you learn to read the body language. Dog’s body language tells everything. If you’re thinking about purchasing a remote collar, check out my training collars reviews.
Conclusion: I hope after reading this article. You have a better understanding of remote collar training, and how to get started with using a remote collar for training your dog. If you have any questions. Please post them in the comments below. I do answer all my comments. I’ll be available throughout the day.
Best of luck, Dennis.