HELLO TO EVERYONE FROM JOHN:
Whether we choose to call it an E-collar, shock collar, remote trainer, or tickle collar, many of us have them but few of us get maximum use and value from them. Although some novice trainers use these wonderful and helpful gizmos too often, too harshly, too inconsistently, and set on too high an intensity, many other trainers are needlessly frightened of pushing the button. With some helpful coaching and information sharing, it’s a sure bet we could ALL improve our dogs and become more correct and confident in our training ventures.
Each month I’ll offer some food for thought designed to help you confidently move forward with your training efforts and ensure that owning your TRI-TRONICS’ equipment is a wise investment which will pay for itself over and over.
If you wish to discuss a topic further, you’re welcome to call me any day from noon until dark Central Standard Time at 573-564-6146 or 573-564-3028. About two-thirds of that time I’ll be available. The rest I’m Gone Dawgin’!
Putting a Handle on Hard-goers
There are some hunting dog enthusiasts who want their dogs to range far and wide. No distance is too far! While there’s no denying that go-power and desire are necessities for any dog to be an upper-class hunter, the majority of us do have some limit in our minds as to when our dog has maxed out its allowable range. Our world is becoming increasingly unsafe in several ways for those dogs that “get gone” and never look back or check back. Our blocks or chunks of hunting territory are also rapidly shrinking in size in most areas. No doubt about it, for most of us, we and our dogs have come to the point in time where exercising a little self discipline has become necessary.
For many years I’ve received lots of questions asking how to get a dog to hunt harder, faster, and farther. I never could offer a good answer because I didn’t believe it was generally possible to train a dog to have more “want to.” That appeared to be primarily an issue of breeding for what we want. In recent years, hunting dog enthusiasts of all types have certainly succeeded in gradually breeding dogs that have plenty of go power. Therefore, the question of how to get them to hunt farther has faded. Replacing it, however, has become growing concern and questions from hunters asking, “How do I teach my dog not to go so far and to remember that we’re partners in the field? We’re a team, and we’re supposed to be working together.” And this isn’t only an issue to hunters. Owners of companion dogs also need their K-9 friends to understand what their limits are.
Those same thoughts and concerns have gradually become an issue to me and my dogs; the same as they have for most of you. So a few years ago I began experimenting with some of my hounds that wanted to hunt farther than my wishes and territory allowed.
Each of us probably has a different opinion of what a satisfactory and safe maximum distance from us is. We have different purposes, goals, and amounts of space. Some of you are fortunate enough to be in open spaces and in the daylight, so you can easily see when your dog is getting too far away. Others are running dogs in thick cover, which quickly hides a dog from view. In my case, it was much more challenging because I’m mostly running my hounds in the darkness, and in thick cover. Even with Tracer lights on their E-collars, there’s no way for me to consistently see how far away they are.
It occurred to me that since I couldn’t see accurate distances, I would need to try to hear how far away my hounds were. Like most people’s trailing dogs of all types, mine open on track. This means if they are trailing game, they’re barking in some sort of way to tell the world they’re on the job and in pursuit. After they start trailing, we expect them to keep trailing their quarry. Our imaginary distance limits then usually fall by the wayside because our dogs are expected to go where the game goes. If they’re heading into dangerous territory of some sort, however, then I will use the tone button and bring ’em back to me. Much better for them to follow my instructions to quit the trail and return, than get a dog hurt or killed. For complete details on using the TRI-TRONICS’ tone to bring your dog back to you, please see my previous article titled Love that Tone. It’s information you’ll want to learn and use in several ways.
So if our hounds of any type are trailing game and they’re reasonably close and within our acceptable range, we can hear them working. Most of the time if their voices happen to fade from our hearing, we’re okay with that and will try to move closer.
But if any of our dogs are roaming and not trailing game, and are out of sight and not barking in heavy cover or darkness, we need a way to gauge how far away they are if we’re to do anything about teaching them what our idea of appropriate maximum distance of ranging is. Always remember . . . our dogs are willing to learn if we’re willing to teach.
Okay, you want me to get to the point. Here it is. I originally used a bell snugly strapped around my dog’s neck. I prefer a good-quality dog bell that allows a three-quarter-inch collar to slip through a metal loop at the top of the bell. The type of bells frequently sold that have a nylon webbing loop on top of the bell do not fit tightly enough to jar the dinger loudly enough to be heard a sufficient distance. A bell that tightly fits onto a three-quarter-inch collar and then that collar snugly applied to the dog makes the bell jingle and jangle at maximum amounts and loudness. That’s what I want and probably you do too. Most of the time we can hear that bell a consistent distance. Strong winds, rain, or extra heavy cover will certainly diminish that distance, but for the most part, we can hear it nearly a quarter-mile.
I decided that each time the bell was fading from my hearing, but my dog was not opening on some critter’s trail, then I would lightly bump the dog with my E-collar for one or two seconds. The key words here are lightly and two seconds max! Hopefully, you’ve taught your dogs to return to you when the tone button is pushed. That’s why we want to use a different signal now. When our dogs are out roaming and having a great time racing to and fro but getting too far from us, we want to use a consistent signal in a very consistent way that lets them know ooops, I need to rethink what I’m doing. With gentle, yet consistent persuasion by way of an E-collar nick, eight of out ten strong-willed hunting dogs and ten out of ten companion dogs can surprisingly quickly learn that they have ranged too far from you.
The ding-a-ling of the bell is fading to your right. Your dog is not opening on a trail, and you don’t want the dog to go any further in that direction. Lightly and quickly bump her. Be gentle, but do what is required so that you hear the bell coming closer or swinging to the left. Just get the dog to alter direction a smidgen as long as it’s not getting any further from you. In the beginning stages of this teaching and training, you may have to occasionally bump the dog a little harder than at other times. But it will be surprising how quickly your dog starts figuring out your new program IF you remain very consistent in your maximum allowable distance limit, and in how you signal to your dog that the limit has been reached. As the dog figures this out, you’ll be able to back off and probably be able to use a number two setting for one second. This won’t hurt your dog but will signal it. After enough time and consistency of teaching this program, it seems most dogs do catch on to how far is too far and they’ll need less and less signaling at that point.
When they get the signal, some dogs will come halfway back to you and then resume hunting, rambling, playing, or exploring. Others may come all the way back to you, especially in the beginning of these lessons. If that happens, simply give her a real cheery-voiced “howdy girl” and keep moving along in the direction you wish the dog to go.
Maybe you want your maximum allowable distance to be at the point when the bell ringing is becoming slightly faint yet still heard. Just be consistent about it. Or maybe you want ’em to go a little further, and you’ll allow the bell to fade from hearing and then wait another minute or two and signal the dog that its limit has been reached. It’s up to you based on your purposes, goals, and space availability.
I have to admit I was actually surprised how easy it was to teach my hard-going dogs about these new limits of mine. All except one learned what I was trying to teach and cheerfully learned to handle so much better and sweeter. Only one hound, and he was ten years old, could not seem to grasp the fact that he couldn’t go as far as he pleased just as he’d done all of his long life. When I would signal him, he never could decide—even though he was highly intelligent—whether to come back to me, go yonder, or sit down and wait for me to catch up. At different times and in different situations, he used some of each of those thoughts.
Want another option? Okay, this also has worked very well for me, and it is the exact same plan except instead of using a dog bell, you use a TRI-TRONICS’ beeper collar. Commonly used by bird hunters, it also works well for anyone wishing to keep track of their dogs by using their ears. The beepers have at least a couple of settings on them so that if a dog is not moving, it can be a more rapid beep than when the dog is traveling. This would mostly come in handy if you’re running Birddogs and want to shorten their range a little but don’t want to tickle them while they’re on point. The main advantage of the beeper is that generally it is louder than the dog bell so usually it can be heard farther. Depending on which way the wind is blowing, a person with normal hearing can usually hear a properly working beeper farther and clearer.
How about yet another option? GPS dog tracking systems are growing in use and popularity. If you already have one, you realize that it’s easy to tell exactly how far away your dog is. Talk about consistency of regulating your outer approved distance! With a GPS tracking device, you can measure it right down to a consistent amount of feet, but I don’t think your dog will actually learn to be that precise. Smiles. A properly working GPS does, however, take much of the guesswork out of things.
If you’re using GPS on a trailing dog of any type, it’s important to know whether the dog is working a track or is simply out there rambling. If you decide, for instance, that half-a-mile is your outer limit, unless your dog is extremely loud and the breeze is coming directly towards you, the dog could very well be opening and working a track but you can’t hear it that far. In that situation, you probably can’t determine with certainty if it’s working a track that is going too far away from you or just rambling. Sometimes we must accept our limitations.
Using good judgment, consistency, and all the helpful tools at your disposal, you can put a better handle on most of your dogs, especially if you start working to avoid the problem before they get used to regularly rambling too far.
See you next month to share more practical E-collar tips.
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