I will never forget the first time I showed up to train dogs with a core group of trainers. I was 18, brought out my little pup at the time. They truly taught me so much. Every bit of what I use today still. When it came time to introduce the collar, the old man who was really teaching me said I wasnt to put it on that dog until I came to the next training session. I did just that, he then took the collar and put it around my arm. He told me I needed to understand what I was putting my dog through every time I touched one of the buttons. I got to 6/10 and ripped that freaking thing off.
One day she was just on one. Not listening at all, being a puppy and running around with the bird instead of coming back. She was certainly in her teenage phase and filling out. She had never been this bad but it wasn't overly unusual as my first lab was beyond curious about everything. He finally told me to turn the collar up to get her attention and just to give a nick on a higher power. I told him it was on 6 and I knew what it felt like. He said that dog is tougher than you, hit her higher. She got a nick on 8 and then I got her attention. She didnt even let out a yelp, but it definitely got her attention and was hauling arse back. She came back tail wagging and happy as can be with the bird her mouth, meanwhile, I felt so guilty I had to hit her on an 8. Ive come a long ways and understand the collar much better, but at such a young age, that was an insanely important lesson to be learned.
My current little goober is as dumb as a bag of rocks. I lover her to death but she just doesnt have it. Shes a heck of a retriever but shes as soft as gummy bears. If I even slightly give the wrong tone, she will cower. She will act like I beat the living snot out of her, then I change one little voice inflection and shes as excited as a 3 yro on christmas morning. She really is a very very happy dog, but she cannot take any kind of pressure. It is rare I even put a collar on this dog at this point, but it never goes on electricity. 100% only vibration and its all this dog needs. At this point she retrieves well. She is very steady, and the only time I put a collar on is in layout blind situations and I think she might break, otherwise she only releases to name and she has a lot of go and its all i can ask for in this dog. End of the day, shes a hunting dog 4 months out of the year but shes my shop buddy and best friend 12 months out of the year. She doesnt come inside tho and that bugs me a ton. My last dog would come in and lay right on my lap and sit with me, this one sits for 5 min and then goes and whimpers by the door. She'll spend all day in the shop with me when i am making decoys, won't sit and watch a movie with me though.
I truly think that some of these pro trainers need the results. I saw it when I was putting my first through all the hunt tests. Life is tough right now, there's probably a ton of pressure on this guy to prove results. End of the day, he did absolutely no favors for this dog and even set it back in training and made his situation way worse. Now the trust has to be rebuilt and who knows who the dog will listen to after taking enough of these beatings. I found a news article about the incident and one couple said their dog would duck every time they went to pet it, and they knew something was not right when it first returned home. That same lesson about the shock collar, I was told that human will pick up on a routine after about 20 repetitions. In order for a dog to grasp and understand something, it takes 80-110 repetitions. So what might feel super boring and like the dog isn't getting it, its actually more than likely just not enough reps for the dog to fully grasp and become proficient at that skill. So in turn, I was always told, if frustration sets in, ALL training ends and both the dog and trainer need to take a moment and just be a dog and a buddy and not a trainer and hunting dog, and then come back to it again the next day. I've always lived by that.
