We tried the walker-leash. We tried cookies & praise. We tried a whistle. We tried a squeaker toy. We even resorted to the black plastic whooping spoon. None of them kept Mr. Sandman VIII out of harm's way when he was off the leash. And with the Golden Retriever breed and with Sandy in particular, he needs the exercise daily to run and play and burn off his energy.
So last weekend after some unpleasant happenings on our daily walks, we made the decision to purchase one of the electronic collars for dogs. I checked out all the varieties online and placed an order for an Innotek Rechargeable Basic Remote Trainer. It has a little box with some probes that fit closely to Sandy's Adam's apple. I charged it overnight and we tried it out Friday night without good results. But Saturday I read the instructions (a novel idea) and discovered that it came with longer probes for longhair dogs and that it has different "incentive" levels.
Saturday we went out with Sandy again, better educated and with the correct "incentive" level set on the remote that we hold. Sandy has always loved kids and other animals, especially dogs. He will run after kids and dogs and there has been nothing we could do to stop him. Right off the bat, we met 2 young girls walking down the street on our path. Sandy took off like a rocket to one of them. We're both hollaring, "Stop, Sandy! No, Sandy", but to no avail. Then David pressed the remote once. Sandy kind of shook a little but didn't stop. David pressed again. Sandy kind of yelped. The third time David pressed it, Sandy jumped up in the air and yelped loud. We called, "Come, Sandy, Come!" And boy, he came right to us and was ready to sit, and get a cookie.
He had to be given some incentive once to come away from a fence with other dogs in it, but it was only a little incentive.
And mysteriously, he became a much better, more obedient dog almost instantly. He didn't know how, but suddenly we had power over him even when he was off the leash. He got LOTS of love and praise and cookies on the walk because every time he came to us when called, we reinforced that with good things.
The final real test came though, when we turned a corner and there was a C-A-T sitting in the alley ahead of us. Sandy was immediately at attention. Prior to yesterday, we would have lost him to the chase. But yesterday, David told him to SIT and he did. Told Sandy to stay and he did as we just waited for the dumb cat to go away. It was wonderful!!!
The incentive given of course, is a beep and a shock. Just to let you know, while I was getting everything put together and charged, I tested it on myself and I kind of yelped and jumped like Sandy did. It's enough to get his attention to know that he has to mind what we verbally tell him to do, but it's not horrible. And the trick is to only use it when he ignores the verbal commands and does his own thing----don't think that's going to take long, as well as yesterday went. I took him for our 1/3 mile walk this morning before church with it and he was a model little boy. He was eager to please and came when I called him and stayed closer to me than usual. Twice he found something nasty to eat along the way and I told him, "No, No" and he dropped it both times and went along his way. That was a major improvement because he'll eat anything and then get sick and throw it up.
More as we get him trained with the Electric Slide collar. We want him to be a good citizen and not jump on people, not chase their dogs & cats, and come when we call and NOT get run over darting across a street. I would highly recommend Innotek collars and this is after only 2 uses!
