Shocking Collars--What Age?

[CoonBaumer]

I was wondering what age your dog should be before you intorduce them to the shock collar? I have a 4 month old pup that has been picking up some bad habits and need to fix them. I don't want to use the shock collar on him if he is too young. What to you guys think?

[Roughneck72]

Not until he has his adult teeth. And even then the dog needs to know some basic commands. Otherwise you have no way to introduce the collar. For example the sit command. You would use this to collar condition the dog you can't just light the dog up if the dog does not know what you want. So the dog knows sit and what the command sit means. Now you can put the dog in front of you give the sit command at the same time give the dog a nick. You should also have the dog on a lead to prevent the dog from running away. Otherwise if you nick the dog and it takes off what are you going to do shock it again you would just be digging a bigger hole. My advice is before you get zap happy stop step back and ask yourself if you have taken the time to show the dog the desired behavior. The shock collar is a great tool when used correctly however it is not a shortcut or tool to be abused the shock collar has ruined many good dogs.

[Hydro1]

rough neck summed it up pretty well.
I won't start any dog until 8 months old on an e - collar.
Even then some dogs I hold off on for another couple months.
It's really dependant on the dog, that's not saying a dog whom is 6 months old couldn't handle after it knows what you want. Just not what I do.