Folks --
I wanted to give my 2 cents worth here...
I borrowed an e-collar from my neighbor, but HAVEN'T put it on her yet...just haven't been able to bring myself to it. But, today's experience might be the kicker.
I will admit, I have NOT been persistent enough with the recall training as many would suggest, or as I would like to in an ideal situation. Frankly, I simply don't have the time to work enough -- using positive-only methods -- to develop a 100% recall. Can it be done? CERTAINLY. I have heard many folks here that can attest to it. But, I think it has to be the most time-consuming way of doing things that there is. And I think the reality is that many of us have enough time to bond with/work with/walk/exercise our dogs, but maybe NOT QUITE enough time to teach 100% recall using positive-only techniques. For example, I work rotating shifts, so tiredness/fatigue are big issues at times; we own a large acreage -- great for the pup, but grass mowing/upkeep are very time-consuming; all this combined with other commitments and being a husband/father mean that I don't have as much time as I might like to dedicate 100% attention to training the pup.
I am NOT trying to sound like I'm making excuses; I do work with Misty as much as time permits -- I
accepted that it would be a large time commitment before we decided we were willing to take on the responsibility of getting her. I try daily to work with her on retreives with training dummies; I will normally take a 45-minute or so walk with her off-leash each day, and at least 1, sometimes two, on leash walks of 15-30 minutes. I work at every opportunity with obedience training, etc. etc. BUT...it seems that my choices are ONE: to find a way to devote hours and hours, training recall in a "positive-only" fashion, or, take what time I have, and work to strengthen her recall using some "electronic" help to hasten the process.
I can understand how these things could be mis-used. I could see someone who thinks it's fine to "fry" the pup at every opportunity, when the pup doesn't even know what in the world the correction was for. However, I think I can understand how they can be used, properly, as well.
Here is what happened today...
I took Misty on her off-leash walk. An hour, and she behaved GREAT (as usual)!! I can keep her within whatever range I want from me just using voice commands; she knows "leave it" when she wants to pick up a forbidden item; every time a car approaches (we walk on country/very very low traffic roads), I tell her to COME, which she will, and then put her in a sit-stay, which she obeys, until the car has passed. This all works well.
However -- there are 3 occasions where she loses her "recall" -- ONE, we see a dog not on a leash that wants to play with her; TWO, we see a person close-by (which of course, Misty thinks MUST be standing there for the sole purpose of being her playmate :
), and THREE, we get back to our house and it's time for the walk to end (when she proceeds to go into a hyper-insane round of butt-tucking!!)
We have had heavy rain yesterday, and this morning my new neighbor's still relatively grass-less yard has a HUGE muddy swamp in the front -- which, when this "swamp" exists (after any heavy rain), is Misty's FAVORITE thing to play in. I know this, so today, I decided I'd be smart, and about 100 feet before we got home, I called Misty to me, with the intent of putting her in a sit-stay while I clipped her leash on -- thus preventing her muddy romp in the swamp.
I obviously, in hindsight, should have come up with this idea at one hundred and TEN feet away. But, alas, I didn't.
She started to trot away as I called her. She ignored and started to "gallop." I called firmly -- MISTY, COME!! She stopped dead, turned around and looked at me for about 1/2 second, and then turned back around and kept trotting toward the swamp. I tried again, as firmly as I could --
MISTY! COME!! She stopped dead again, turned around, considered my command, and then took off full speed for the swamp. After 5 minutes of butt-tucking through the water/mud and playing "keep away" from me, I finally corraled her, and had to take her home for a thorough bath. :
Anyway, my point is, she OBVIOUSLY KNOWS the come command. She obeys it frequently; she clearly heard the command and chose not to obey it --TWICE -- in this case. At that moment, I SO MUCH wished I had the e-collar clipped on. I am certain that a nick of the 'zap' button, and she would have turned around and come back. THIS is where I see this tool being useful. Yes, I know many folks will say that this is not fair to the dog; that it is MY fault that she did not come back to me -- I haven't trained her around enough "distractions." This is probably true -- she DOES need more repetition. However, I simply cannot agree that for those who are not able to spend quite enough time reinforcing the "come" command to a very headstrong young pup using positive-only techniques, that the e-collar cannot, when used properly, humanely, and intelligently, be a good tool for hastening the training process.
These are just my opinions, of course, but the bottom line is, Bolts21, I think your case sounds like one where use of an e-collar would help. I know others won't agree; just the opinions of a very inexperienced dog owner/trainer, who is struggling with similar issues with my own 5-month old pup!
Steve