I've used the Petsafe Remote Trainer to train dogs and it works well.. Range is 100 feet. It's more of a "reinforcement" training device... In other words, your dog should already have some basic obedience training and know that it should come back to you when you call it.
I prefer this kind of system to the invisible fence because it teaches your dog to stay with you when you're out walking places... I take my dogs when I go into forests, so I want them well trained so that they don't go running off into the bush after birds or squirrels.
To train the dog, you should call it back to you as soon as it runs out away from you...maybe when it gets around 20 feet away. Then you give it a chance to return to you . If it doesn't turn back, you hit the transmitter button that makes a "beep" tone... but no shock... which is meant to warn the dog. If it still won't return when you call, you give the dog a shock.
While the collar has about 8 or 9 levels on it, I don't think most dogs would require more than the mildest shock as they don't like it at all. If you can borrow a collar and transmitter set, it is probably better than bothering to buy one because most dogs are pretty much trained after a few days and you won't need the collar anymore, unless you have a particularly headstrong dog.... I have collies and they learn just about everything exceedingly quickly, so I just need to give about 3 or 4 shocks and from then on, just the warning beep...and then no need for a collar at all after just a few hikes... I've seen this trainer work really well on most hunting dogs, but suspect that there are dogs that don't respond well to the collar and will run out of range before you can get them to turn back to you. If I had a dog like that, I would keep it on a long rope and start calling it back every time it got more than about 40 feet from me, and then warn it with the collar before it got much further away... and if the shock didn't turn it back, I'd be using the rope to turn it back while giving another shock... Probably a good form of extra insurance anyhow if you're working with your dog in an area where it could get away and get hurt such as in the city or near roads. BTW, there are collars that have much greater ranges... made particularly for hunting dogs, but they are expensive...up around $400-500. |
