Great E-collar tips!

[Dads dogboy]

Folks, here is something I just found @ www.tritonics.com/wick7.asp there are some great tips on several topics where the E-collar properly used can help any Houndsman!

Mr. Wick writes monthly Tips and helpful thoughts on the E-collar and Hounds, Bird Dogs and other Dogs!

STOP Returns!!
Don’t Tolerate Returning to Trees
Hello friends! If you don’t follow tree dogs, you may feel this information isn’t needed in your bag of dog training tricks. But please read on because I believe you’ll find some worthwhile food for thought and encouragement, no matter what kind of dog owns you.
Tree dog followers are thrilled with intense and stylish tree dogs. However, that intensity and love of treeing often causes problems that need to be corrected in ways that are simplest and least complicated for the dog to understand. Returning to trees after a hunter has led his dog from them is just one of several time-wasting and unproductive issues that start as a possible trend and quickly turn into a horrible habit. This problem NEVER cures itself. You gotta take calm and sensible action of some sort.
Sooner or later many of today’s tree dogs have to be taught that they’re not allowed to return to a tree once they’ve been led off of it. They might be 10 or 12 months or 2 to 6 years old, but sooner or later most real good tree dogs have to learn that lesson. These days it’s just a normal part of practical tree dog training. AFTER properly preparing your dog as explained in my September 2009 TRI-TRONICS’ web article titled Prepare to Succeed, the simplest, easiest, most effective way I’ve tried follows:
After leading them a hundred yards away from the tree you’re done with, turn ’em loose and slowly walk on. Don’t say a word. Don’t yell at them. If they return to the tree, or you’re sure that’s where they’re going, don’t do anything except calmly reach down and push your TRI-TRONICS’ button for one second while the intensity is set somewhere between low and medium. Then just quietly go right on like you had nothing to do with it. It will do no harm. But a lot of good.
You don’t need to wait until they get all the way back to the tree to give ’em a little tickle to fix their flawed thinking and plans. In fact, I believe it’s best to go ahead and give them a minor bump while they’re obviously on their way back to that last tree. It’s the thought of going back that we want to remove just as much as the actual act of retreeing on a tree that should not be returned to.
If you have the necessary calmness, sensibleness, and experience to get a license to operate a remote trainer, you can read the body language of your dog and easily know whether it’s going on forward to resume hunting, or whether it’s blatantly busting back to that tree again. When it’s obviously on its way back, go ahead and make that preemptive strike, which will quickly and gently teach ’em that when a tree is over, it’s over! You’ll be amazed how little correction is needed, especially if you’ll go ahead and tackle this problem as soon as it shows itself rather than letting the dog get regularly into this very bad habit. Always remember that your dog is ready and willing to learn if you’re willing to gently and sensibly teach!
Do not yell at your dog when you realize he’s heading back to a tree. He knows exactly what he’s thinking just like we do when we’re considering some misbehavior. When it’s obvious that incorrect thought is in their minds, their focus is on exactly what we don’t want them to focus on. What a perfect time to give them a little zap. PERFECT! Our voice or us in the picture in any way at all only complicates matters and confuses your dog on the issue of whether his misbehavior, or thoughts of doing it, caused him some discomfort OR you were the cause of the discomfort. Heck no! Stay out of your dog’s mental and physical picture during every correction for every problem you possibly can. That way you and your dogs can always be best buds, which makes life much more pleasant for you and your dogs. Let your TRI-TRONICS’ equipment do the dirty work. Smiles.
If you start down this path towards sensibly correcting the bad habit in the beginning stages of it, two or three doses of this medicine will probably cure the disease. If not, consistently, gently, and sensibly stay with your plan and program and the problem will soon disappear, although some dogs may need a slight refresher occasionally.
Dogs that are firmly into the habit of returning to trees that have been handled and left sometimes become kinda tricky about returning to that tree they liked so much. They might bust on out of there going forward, but after they’re out of your sight, they just can’t help themselves and circle around and behind their handler going back to the tree without detection. Don’t worry about it. The instant you hear them make any treeing sounds, and you’re 99 percent sure it is the same tree, just quickly give ’em a one second tickle on the number two setting. If that doesn’t instantly stop them, jack it up to number three for one second. If needed, go on to number four, and that’ll almost always suffice. As always, be very calm and consistent. Gently, and without question or remorse, stay with your plan and you’ll soon be much prouder of your dog and yourself as you both reap the rewards of less hassle and better behavior. As always, have your TRI-TRONICS’ E-collar on every dog during every outing. That way you’re always ready to instantly, correctly, and effectively handle this and any other little bumps in the road as they appear.
Some followers of tree dogs are needlessly concerned about correcting any problems or faults having anything to do with treeing. Old-time lore says it’ll mess ’em up. But it’s like a fellow told me recently when he was here breeding a bitch. He said, “Years ago I had to practically kiss my dogs’ butts to get them treeing. These days I have to kick their butts to keep them from treeing too much!” He spoke a lot of truth.
There are still some dogs that need something kissed to get them treeing. We also have an abundance that need correction, or at the very least need little or no petting or praise to get them or keep them treeing only when it’s right!
The tree dog sport is jam-packed with incorrect, illogical, and totally off-the-wall misinformation and old wives’ tales. It’s nice the sport has a lot of tradition and old-timeyness to it, but everything on earth can be done a better way. We need to calmly and coolly think like a dog instead of listening to someone who never actually trained a top dog, but wants to be a local training authority.
Listen to everything that everyone has to say, but then think it out for yourself! Does this really make sense? Is this method that someone is proposing the simplest and least confusing way to teach the dog what you want it to learn? Will a commonly proposed method get the job done BUT cause three bad side effects which will last the rest of a dog’s life and be worse than the original problem? Sometimes the answer is yes.
It’s important to remember that dogs have evolved and progressed into much stronger tree dogs than they were 30 or 50 years ago when many of those incorrect inhibitions or illogical methods were dreamed up. We didn’t have good quality and reliable E-collars back then either. These days we have much more tree power, and good magic collars, so we have to rethink some of the old ideas. I often ask skeptical folks, “If you think the old ways are so good and so perfect, how come you’re driving a new pickup instead of a horse and buggy?” (No offense to Amish folks for whom I have respect and fondness.)
Never forget that some people––and they can be 20 years old or 90 years old or anywhere in-between––do have innovative wisdom and natural dog savvy or intuition which you can benefit and learn from.
After you gain experience and knowledge about how dogs think and learn, never be afraid to be innovative, and cautiously try something that you dream up which totally makes sense to you. That’s how all improvements are made. Some trainer comes up with a theory many others doubt, but the thinker proves it works. Ten or twenty years later most folks are successfully using it, and they all claim they’re the one who thought of it first. Smiles
See you next month to share more practical E-collar tips.
John Wick

[Hipshooter]

John,
I will tell u a story about a Bluetick.
This was my friends dog.
When u turned him loose, u could not catch or see him till he treed.
It might be 2 or 3 miles away,
He always had a coon, never failed.
U had to haul him 4 or 5 miles away or he would go back to the tree.
One time we treed a coon in a cedar tree.
We got the coon out and dog killed him.
We only went about 1/2 mile & turned him loose.
Back to the cedar tree he went.
When we got back to the ceder he was in the top of the tree treeing
& would not come down, my friend had to climb the tree and get him.
This dog would tree a pickup load of coon for u, but u had to hunt his way.

[twist]

hipshooter, I believe strongly if the dog would have been corrected when he first started returning to the tree he could have been a much nicer dog to hunt and handle. Most of the time it is the handlers fault for how a hound handles whether it be from loading in the box to running until treed. Then again if the owner doesnt mind walking back to the tree or finding his dog 3 miles away still hunting for a track that is he or shes call. I road my hounds to keep them in shape and if I had to look for a pack of hounds every time I let them out of the box they would learn some manners real quick. the better a hound handles makes it alot funner hunting. jmo later, Andy

[cat and bear]

Boy, I'm as big of fan of e collars as anyone, I'm not sure that is the answer for bear dogs, about the time you get almost out of sight, the bear crawls out, the dogs watching, and wanting to run it again. Happens every time, I wonder?

[Hipshooter]

You all know about the buzzing noise u get on the collar when it is in the off position.
I used to use this when I wanted my dogs to come in.
When they aren,t on track or barking, Just buzz them & honk horn a little & they will learn to come right in to the pickup. It dom,t shock, just a little buzzing that they can hear.

[Melanie Hampton]

I think everyone who uses an e collar should first test it out on themselves.. All the way 1-6.. That way you know what you are inflicting when you press that button..

[Dads dogboy]

Ms. Melanie,

Most of us have probably done just that....maybe not on purpose but I sure have!

CJC

[david]

I have done it often just to make sure the thing is sufficiently charged. What I found out is that a level that I can not even feel on the palm of my hand is a significant shock on my neck skin. So my point is, I still am not sure if I know what the dog is feeling. I am guessing his skin, hair, and sensitivity is going to be completely different than my palm or neck. But I do know that when I can feel it, it would make me want to stop what ever I was doing, or stop thinking about what ever I was thinking about. That is why I sure wish God would have used one on me in my formative years. He sure could have kept me out of some trouble. That whole thing He's got about free will and loving him being a choice, sure messed me up I still wish I was wearing a trash breaker at times.

[Hipshooter]

John,
Maybe u should wear a collar & let your dad have the transmitter.
Shape u up like he does the dogs.
He He

[catdog360]

Another problem I see in a lot of handlers is the issue of way to much heat. When you are training a dog start low. Most dogs will react to level 1 or 2. If your hound is yelling/barking every time you shock him you are useing too much heat. All you are looking for is a reaction from you dog. The only time I use a lot of intensity is when my hound is running trash and is in that state of mind where no matter what you do he can't hear you. But I have witnessed guys the shock their dogs around the truck for simple mis-behaviours and the dog flings two feet in the air. All they needed to do is give a lite shock to where you see some sort of a reaction from your hound.