HAS ANYONE USED AN ELECTRIC COLLAR

[Chels*Claud*Midas]

Hey everyone.. i have a 7 month old Goldendoodle.. he is about 65 pounds now and is very wild..he jumps on everyone.. counter surfs.. and is VERY mouthy still!! i am contemplating getting an electric collar..set on VERY low just for in the house use.. when he is jumping up on people and nipping and things of that nature.. he goes to puppy classes has a trainer and gets several walks a day. this behavior is just not acceptable, as i cannot even have friends over the house. if i ever have a child he cannot be nipping and jumping like he is now.. he is in a teenage bratty stage i guess and is refusing to listen to me. anyways has anyone tried one of these collars? if so how did it work.. which did u use? and when will this behavior stop?? at what age?? thanks again

[Sheila & Finnley]

I use bubble wrap with Finnley. I fold it in half and twist it like wringing out a towel. It makes that nice popping sound, and is fun to squeeze !

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Everyone has given good advice. I agree that it is too soon to use an e-collar and that there are too many behaviors needing improvement. I just wanted to add that at 7 months Tara was a bit of a terror too and very resistant to training. She was actually worse at that age then when she was younger!  I had to really increase training time and repeat, repeat and repeat. I would give her a command and she would nip at me! It was really frustrating but I just let her know that I was not going to give up.  Eventually she realized that she needed to do what I told her to do. Plus she got older, past the teenage stage and calmed down some. Now she is really a wonderful companion and friend.

[Chels*Claud*Midas]

Wow I can't wait for those days lol.. Thank u.. I honestly don't know what to do.. I feel like I have tried everything.. When we first got him I did the yelp when e would nip.. Didn't work.. Then we tried a spray bottle with water.. He loved it.. Tried a can of coins also loved it.. Tried bitter apple.. If I spray it on me.. He will walk away.. But I don't want him to walk away from me I want him near me.. I tried hot sauce on my hands apparently he is a fan of hot sauce lol.. My trainer had us squeeze his lip to his teeth.. I can't do it but my husband will and he still comes back for more.. And I also feel he is worse then when I first got him! What else is there to do? If he is counter surfing and I say off and I'm close by he won't listen until I yank him off.. He is becoming stubborn and like a bratty teen refusing to listen! I don't know what else that's why I am looking into the e collar.. I'm desperate :(

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

But none of this is addressing an actual training program, with commands, and corrections. Have you worked with him on sit, down, stay, off, with collar corrections for mistakes and treats or verbal praise for success? Do you practice his commands dailly, or at least several times a week? Do you keep a leash and collar on him indoors so you can give a correction immediately?

[Chels*Claud*Midas]

i think i will try the leash inside.. what do u mean make correction..like if he nips me, yank him by the collar?

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

I remember the desperate stage!! LOL I finally had to use bitter apple on myself to get Tara to stop biting  me. It did make her back away but I always associated it with "no bite" so she could hopefully connect the two. Remember he wants to be near you just as much as you want to be near him. Being separated from you because he bites will be a punishment for him.  I didn't wait for the bad behavior. I set up training sessions. I would reach one hand out to her with the bottle of bitter apple in the other hand. If she didn't bite she got loves or play time. If she did bite I would spray my hand and offer it to her again-"no bite". It really didn't take long for her to get it.

I also kept Tara on a leash much of the time in the house for training purposes. For a while I thought she would be on leash for the rest of her life!!  But it made it much easier for me to get control of her quickly when she started misbehaving. I could put her on her bed for a down stay and "settle" session (or crate or ex-pen depending on how wild she was!)  without having to catch her and drag her by the collar. Also when she started jumping I could step on the leash  and in that way she got a correction by just trying to jump.

It was at the teenage stage that I got desperate enough to buy the Don Sullivan Perfect Dog system!  I ended up not using the training method.  That is a whole other story but I DID like the collar that came with the system and it was really helpful in training. It is similar to a Martingale collar but with little plastic prongs which definitely got her attention more easily than when we trained with her flat collar. What kind of training collar do you use?

[Chels*Claud*Midas]

i have a prong but do not keep it on all day...only on walks and in obediance class

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

It might be good to use the prong collar during training sessions at home as well as long as he is  always supervised when he is wearing it.

And I just want to reassure you that all the behaviors you described are perfectly normal dog behaviors. Yes, some dogs are more high energy then others but jumping, nipping, hunting (counter surfing to us!) are what dogs do!!  It's our goal to guide them so they can live in our world in a way that is acceptable to us.  All human behaviors are quite foreign to dogs, hence the amount of training required. Kind of like us learning a foreign language only worse! :)

[Chels*Claud*Midas]

lol thank you so much! i may try the collar inside.. i cant wait until hes just all cuddly and not a psycho anymore lol

[Chels*Claud*Midas]

He does know all those commands.. Sit down stay leave it.. But the biting he will not stop.. He is not leashed in the house

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'd start keeping a leash on him indoors.

[Adina P]

What Karen says is correct. You are just trying to correct jumping, you are not training him in obedience. Dogs don't usually just want to obey, you have to train them to obey and that requires a daily effort and planned lessons. An analogy I think of is kids at the dinner table. Kids don't naturally have manners. You have to teach them to use silverware, to say please pass the peas, etc. But if all a parent did was punish poor manners without helping the kids learn proper manners, well they'd get nowhere. Dogs are tougher because they don't learn through human example and you can't just talk to them. You have to put them through training drills, at home, at the park, in the yard, in the dog park... ALL over until they are trained. And then you have to use their training or else they can conveniently forget it.