Stimulating Steps with Rick Smith

In the previous issue, you learned the importance of basic training for your hunting dog. Rick Smith, a professional dog trainer since 1957 and who comes from a long line of famous gun dog trainers, continues that point here with electronic collars.

"The whole idea behind using electronic collars to train gun dogs is to set the dogs up for success when you use the collars," he says. Smith says too many people set their dogs up to fail because they don’t use the collars properly or they don’t instill in the gs the basic training principles of working with electronic collars.

If you train the dogs properly, however, using electronic collars is a piece of cake. "It’s an extension of check cord," Smith says. The tricky part is gauging shock level, because the collars’ stimulation level isn’t necessarily painfully obvious to humans.

Smith, a member of Innotek’s pro staff, cautions dog owners not to expect instant results from their dogs when using electronic collars. "lf you take dogs out and put electronic collars on them without any preparation and you use the stimulation, the dogs won’t understand why they are being shocked," he explains. "You have to make the dogs understand what you want from them before the electronic collars will give you results."

Starter Stimulators

Smith uses a stakeout chain and "whoa" post to teach those basics. He starts young dogs on a stakeout chain, often training several dogs at a time. When the young dogs are collared to a stakeout chain, they fight it as hard as they can before surrendering to the chain, Smith explains. That teaches them to recognize the chain as a form of structured discipline: that they can’t have total freedom, must comply with their master’s wishes and must learn patience.

The pull of the chain on the dogs’ necks teaches these disciplines. "This pre-conditions the dogs to a point of contact on their necks, which is a form of stimulation," Smith explains. "This way, when you put electronic collars on dogs and stimulate them with the collars, the dogs are already accustomed or conditioned to a point of contact on their necks and know that point of contact means they must comply to whatever you want them to do. What you are doing is preparing the dogs for a transfer of that point of contact - from the regular collar to the e-collar."

When the dogs fight against the stakeout chain, they "stimulate" themselves on their necks with the collars. They soon learn to turn off that stimulation by not pulling or tugging against the chain. The whoa post works much the same, Smith says.

The whoa post teaches dogs to stand still upon the "whoa" command. By tying a half hitch around the dogs’ flank, then back to the post and back to the trainer through the dogs’ collars a point of contact is established around their flanks and necks.

	Dogs will fight a stakeout chain as hard as they can in the beginning. Over time, they learn the chain is a form of structured discipline.

"The idea," Smith explains, "is to transfer the point of contact around the dogs’ flanks and necks to the e-collars. This way, the dogs can still turn off the stimulation from the collars by standing still when the ’whoa’ command is given. It is extremely effective and harmless since the collars are set on the lowest level to get the dogs’ attention. Usually the first one or two levels do the trick, and the dogs learn quickly what you want them to do." The beauty of being able to transfer the point of contact from the stakeout chain, whoa post or check cord to the electronic collar is that you can enforce the command from 2 feet to 500 yards away, he says.

Shock Values

It is essential to find the level of stimulation from the e-collar that gets your dog’s attention, Smith says. That stimulation-attention level is "not the highest levels. Usually, you can use the first one or two levels. Hit the button momentarily and see if your dog notices anything. Maybe he cocks his ears, turns his head or something similar. When you reach the level where your dog notices the stimulation, that’s the one to use for your training."

Smith admonishes dog owners and trainers who use the highest levels on their dogs. "It’s just not necessary to use the highest levels in training. All that does is punish a dog for something he probably hasn’t been trained to do properly in the first place."

Smith cautions dog owners that the e-collar is not a cure-all. "You can do a lot with the e-collar, and it is probably the greatest training aide in the past 25 years. However, improper use of the e-collar is about the worst thing you can do when training or hunting your dog."