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Show Sports Meld instantly" type of advertising, which some electronic-collar manufacturers continue to use, is particularly misleading. "The "The electronic dog-training collar is the most controversial device ever used in dog training," train-ing," declares Gun Dogs Editor Jerome B. Robinson in the July issue of Sports Afield. He quotes the famous professional trainer John Rex Gates, handler of the 19 72 National Champion, Texas Squire, who calls the electronic collar "the best training aid invented in-vented since birds," then adds that, "the collar has ruined more dogs than it has helped." "In the hands of a man who does not fully comprehend when and how it should be used, an electronic training collar col-lar can do irreparable damage to potentially excellent hunting dogs. When used Jhroughtfully tby; a man who knows when not to use it, the electronic training collar can correct mistakes dogs make more effectively than any other training tactic. A man with a training collar can, at the touch of a button, deal out punishment to a distant dog at the moment the dog makes a mistake. That can be a great advantage. ad-vantage. Electronic training collars work on a radio principle. The dog wears a collar which contains con-tains a small receiver unit. When the trainer presses the button on his pocket-size transmitter, the metal poles on the inside of the collar give the dog a harmless low-voltage electrical shock. The shock lasts as long as the transmitter trans-mitter button is held down, thus it is up to the trainer whether the dog gets a quick jab of electricity elec-tricity or a long jolting electrical wave. The greatest danger of the electronic collar is that it is too easy to use. The "trains-dogs- collar doesn't train, it punishes," says John Rex Gates. "You've got to train the dog yourself." Gates does not begin to use the collar until a dog is mature and has had its basic training. Then he uses the collar only to stop the dog from doing certain negative things which other methods fail to correct. He uses it only when a dog is disobeying a command, which it fully understands un-derstands and is intentionally ignoring, or is behaving in a way it knows is wrong. "The collar is great for correcting cor-recting bad habits," he says. "If the dog chases cars, put the collar col-lar on him and zap him every time he goes for a car. You want to break him of that habit entirely, en-tirely, so you can shock him every time he does it until he knows he is going to get it in the neck every time he takes after a car. The collar will stop a fighter from going after other dogs. It can be used to quiet a barker or to break a dog from running deer or trash game. You can stop a dog from trailing other dogs. These are all habits you want to break off entirely." The most serious mistakes electronic-collar owners make are the following: (1) Shocking when the dog does not clearly know what it has done wrong. (2 ) Shocking when the dog is out of sight (and may actually be making no immediate mistake, mis-take, or may be on birds). (3) Shocking too often. (4 ) Shocking Shock-ing to make a dog stop on point. |