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 A Friendly Reminder by John Wick

Most folks know that TRI-TRONICS is now owned by GARMIN. Since that historic event occurred, and even for a couple of years before it was finalized, smart people from both companies were working on a shared vision. Not only did these two companies feel they had a great idea and improvement in mind (and more ideas are in the works), but dog owners, especially hunting dog owners and trainers, have dreamed of this type of product for many years. So what do you get when the world’s leading E-collar company marries the world’s leading GPS dog tracking company, and they have a baby? Alpha 100! It is a combination of its two parents. The very best of both worlds in one package. Dog tracking and locating better than it’s ever been done before, and remote training better and farther than it’s ever been done before. Wow! Both on one collar! Both operated with one handheld! The Alpha 100 is a major technological achievement, and a fantasy come true for all who work or play with active dogs.
 
Here’s what I want to remind all of us about. Most of us do know this, but it’s something we and others may temporarily forget in our excitement to use this new product. You see, all of us who have used various types of dog locating equipment never needed to be concerned about our dog becoming accustomed to the collar before using it on our favorite canine partner. And most of us realize that an E-collar is a different story. It’s critically important that we spend a week or ten days getting our dogs accustomed to the weight and feel of that pronged collar before we actually put it to stimulation use. Not doing so inevitably leads to a “collar-wise” dog. Collar-wise means a few different things and a few different types of reactions depending on the dog and its experiences. However, collar-wise is always a bad and unwanted thing, and it is almost always something that leaves behind negative side effects that we must then deal with for the rest of that dog’s life.
 
Here’s the thing. When you get a new Alpha, it’s fine to strap it on your dog and after an hour or so of the dog feeling the weight and smelling the new scent, you’re ready to go and do the tracking and locating part of the Alpha. However, I strongly advise against doing any stimulation with the E-collar buttons until your dogs are thoroughly accustomed to feeling those prongs while working, playing, rambling, and roaming for at least part of half-a-dozen days or trips.
 
The other reminder I’m thinking of is that we’re accustomed to having dog locating collars on our dog at about medium tightness around their neck. However, if we’re going to use the Alpha to stimulate our dog when needed, those prongs—just like with all E-collars before it—need to be snug and making excellent contact with the skin of the dog’s throat area—right behind their head. Putting the Alpha on loosely and farther back on the neck will result in fine dog locating experiences but very poor dog stimulation results.
 
Using the stimulation feature of this new product before your dog is completely accustomed to this new scent and to feeling those two prongs rubbing its throat may cause you to lose the ability to use your Alpha as an E-collar. That’s because after they’re “collar-wise” or “collar-shy,” you usually have a dog on your hands that either won’t get out from under your feet; or as soon as you turn it loose, it’ll run back to your vehicle and want to get in or under it; or your dog will very tentatively and timidly kind of hang around and mess around but not really do anything good or bad because it’s unsure of why each of the first few times it wore this collar it got zapped. Those too soon shocking events clearly indicated to your dog that this collar is a serious problem, instead of the dog more gradually learning that some its behaviors are a problem. Done slower and more carefully, it never even realizes that this pronged collar delivered a corrective message.
 
As always, keep in mind that patience pays big and productive dividends. Not being patient and thinking like your dog always causes bad results, no matter what kind of dog owns you.
 
I’ll see you here next month to share more thoughts.
 
John Wick

Tags: collar-wise, e-collar, John Wick, training
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ABOUT JOHN WICK – John is known to thousands of hunters as “Uncle John” because of his life-long efforts to help and encourage others. Though he’s owned and enjoyed all types of hunting dogs, John is nationally known for his 46 years experience with tree dogs. For approximately 25 years, he made all or most of his living breeding, training, and competing coonhounds in Missouri.

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