Do you have a dog that you wish would stop jumping up on everyone? Would come when you call him? Would stop barking when you tell him to? You need to know about the Pet Tech training collar.

We have a wonderful 14-year-old golden retriever and an energetic 1-year-old puppy who had a lot trouble minding. I kept telling my husband that when Cooper (the puppy) matured and settled down, he would be a great dog. But the only time he was really awesome was after we had completely worn him out and he was exhausted enough to stop moving. It got to the point that it was really unacceptable behavior. Every time anyone came over to our house, we had to crate him because he was so poorly mannered. I had never had a dog that was so unruly and seemingly untrainable.

I was originally very unsure of using a training collar for our one year old puppy. We spoke with a dog trainer who promised to have our dog totally trained within 3 weeks… to the tune of $1,000. Well, that was not in the budget so I asked the trainer about buying a dog-training collar. He warned me that it was very easy to use it wrong and traumatize our dog.

Thank goodness for Google. I got online and started researching the proper way to use a dog collar. There were lots of great articles. Then I started researching different collars. I read a lot of reviews and advice and settled on Pet Tech. It has four different settings. A light, which I still can’t figure out how you would use, a beeping sound, a vibration, and a shock. Both the vibration and the shock have settings from 1-100. And the remote control can be used with two different collars if you have two dogs.

Some of the best advice I read was to start at the lowest setting. We put his training collar on and did not use it right away so he would get used to is. Then we decided to focus on one behavior at a time so we started with the jumping up on people. As soon as his front feet left the floor, we beeped him. It was immediate! Just a beep! He could not figure out where the sound in his ear was coming from but he definitely did not like it. We used the beep that day every time he started to jump up. His behavior modified immediately.

Our next big step was to teach him to come when called. Before, every time we took him outside without a leash, he thought it was a game to run away when we called him to come. This is actually the behavior that pushed me to buy the collar. I had a situation where my husband was not home and Cooper ran away from me. I had to get my daughter to come outside and trick him and then she dove on him to capture him. This is completely unacceptable and I was furious. He had no sense of fear of cars and there are lots of dogs and kids in the neighborhood. Again, we started with the beep only. Unbelievable! He came when we called and he stayed out of the street when he was beeped as he neared the street.

As he got used to the beep, we shifted to using the vibration setting. We started it very low (level 5) and moved on to other behaviors like pulling too hard on the leash during his morning walk.

Now, Cooper is a wonderfully obedient dog. He still has his moments of getting too excited but a firm word is frequently all it takes to correct him. Our neighbors can’t believe the crazy dog that they saw every morning is now walking between us without a leash all the way around the neighborhood. Yes, we always have our leash in case we need it, but he has gotten so good about heeling and minding, that it is rare that we need it.

Cooper has gotten so good, sometimes I forget about him! There have been two occasions recently when I told him to get in his bed while I fed our other animals. About 20 minutes later, I heard a little whimper from his bed. He was still there, staring at his food! I totally forgot to release him. I praised him for being such a good boy and told him to go get his food.

There are occasions that we have had to use the shock setting. These typically involve a safety situation with a (mean) dog or a vehicle. But I don’t think we have ever used that setting above a 5. I can’t imagine a reason you would ever raise the shock very high. And just so you know, before I ever used the shock setting, I tried it on myself to be sure it was humane. Yes, it definitely is an uncomfortable shock, but the low setting is the equivalent of a strong electric shock we experience in the wintertime from walking on the carpet or getting out of the car. It is enough to be a strong deterrent but not harmful.

It is important to do a lot of reading on the correct, safe ways to implement using a training collar for your dog. The Pet Tech collar is definitely a Shiny Penny. I hope you will reach out to me if you have any questions about how to use it effectively and safely.

Heads: You want to be the “safe place.” Never use the dog collar out of anger. You want your dog to run to you when his behavior has been modified, not run away from you. He shouldn’t associate being corrected with you. He should associate his poor behavior with the negative stimulus. Praise is still very important in your training. Always tell him/her what a good dog he is when he does something right.

Tails: Consistency is key. Take the time to work with your dog. Make it part of your daily routine to work on something specific 15 minutes a day and constantly for the nagging behaviors like jumping up.

Here are links to some articles about how to use a training collar properly, withOUT traumatizing your dog.
Rules of Thumb
Finding the Right Level
3 Reasons to Use a Training Collar

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