Electric Collar Training- Robin MacFarlane
In the dog training world there are about a thousand and one different styles of thinking. This training is using clickers. That one uses treats. That one uses training collars. And that one barks at his dogs when they disobey.
While there is no shortage of differences of opinion it seems like one topic is the most controversial Gets people the most angry. Causes the most arguments.
I’m referring, of course, to electric collar training.
When it comes to electric collar training Robin MacFarlane of That’s My Dog in Iowa is a recognized expert. I wanted to get on the podcast to explain her take.
Electric Collar Training- Listen In
Click play below to listen in.
Electric Collar Training- Our Take
So you may be wondering where we at Ty the Dog Guy fall into the debate.
The answer is that we’re big fans of this style of training. Like Robin we get a lot of clients who send us their dogs from out of state and we get tons of Utah dog training clients who come to us specifically for our expertise in electric collar training. We like the style so much that we’ve even produced our own product line on how to properly do electric collar training.
For those who don’t understand this style of training they often ask….
‘Why would you like electric collar training? Do you like shocking your dog?’
Robin spoke about that same topic in the podcast above but let me add my own perspective. When this training is done right it is done with low levels that are communicative in nature. They don’t cause pain. They aren’t geared to hurt the dog. At all. Like she mentioned, it’s not much more than a tap on the shoulder to get attention.
The reasons we like this training and have developed unique programs that get unique results are:
- It is a very humane way to train. No matter what kind of training you do there is going to be some sort of correction. The correction may be a leash tug, some people hit or smack their dog (NOT a good idea), yell, take away a treat, say a stern ‘no’, etc. Regardless, there is always some sort of corrective measure. The e-collar allows one to use some of the most gentle correction available. When you get more gentle (take away a treat, simply say ‘no’) you find that those types of correction carry no meaning to the average dog.
- It is a much faster way to train a dog. We’ve had clients come to us who have been going to other trainers for months or even years. In most of these cases we can accomplish in minutes or days with an electric training collar what they weren’t able to accomplish in months. The clearness of the communication and the ability to mark behaviors with 100% precision allows the learning process to be much faster with this style of training.
- We’re able to get results where others don’t. We are often the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th trainer that dog owners call. With our electric training collar methods we’re able to get results that just aren’t achieved with a more traditional ‘treat training’ type of approach.
A huge thanks to Robin for this interview. Tons of great info!
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