I was prompted to write this after reading a comment on one of the articles on the main site. A poor lady sent her dog away to be recall trained and was horrified to discover after four weeks that the dog had been ecollar trained without her consent. Sending your dog away to be trained Residential training can work out ok, but on balance, I think that there is a lot of scope for things to go wrong.
Re: Sending a dog away to be trained I'd rather go on a course with my dog and end up with my imperfections meaning I don't have a perfectly trained dog but at least I should understand my dog to some degree and more importantly our limitations. Plus it's nice to make progress together and feel that sense of achievement (although some days you have to live without it lol) With regards to the whole consequences side of things....we're putting Riley on and off lead far more often now as he's still convinced everyone out there is a new friend - possibly due to the kind of puppy socialisation he had - and his recall and return from retrieve gets pretty shaky if there's someone new around to meet. The reward for running off is much greater than staying put. If we catch him quickly though he will sit and happily go back on his lead. All this means really is that we've become more vigilant and pay attention to him when we're out and about. He's getting better with people, other dogs are still a massive draw.
Re: Sending a dog away to be trained Only just read this , how awful for the owners to discover that their dog had been trained with an e collar , they must have felt so guilty . I agree with BBrown , we all know our own dogs better than anyone else, their strengths and weakness too and can take action if we feel that our dogs are about to behave inapropriately . One example of this is on Sams training session , which took place of the open moors , I was very twitchy indeed because of the fairly close proximity of grazing sheep whereas the trainer said " not to worry, he will be fine " Well , sorry but I know him and I didnt think he would be fine at all if he spotted one nearby ! He hasnt ever chased sheep but then he has never had the chance either , needless to say, I have asked that our next session take place somewhere else, for now at least . My lad does the same as yours when he sees other dogs , I know it must be addressed and am also using the lead more but neither do I want him to be anti social, its hard to strike a balance sometimes !
