Dog Training Collar

There is a lot to like... I am a professional bird dog trainer and have tested and used many e-collar systems, from low-end to top-of-the-line, over the years. Before using this or any e-collar system, I recommend Googling The Hunting Griff e-collar Pros/Cons Dos/Don'ts. This is not one of your high-end units, but it offers a lot for everyday use. I tried this system on two of my dogs and a couple of clients' dogs I'm training, and the range was excellent. The collar is lightweight and small, and it is also easy to turn on and off. Two of the dogs I tested it on went swimming in my two-acre pond, and the collar continued to work properly after being in the water. The handheld transmitter is also lightweight and easy to use. The on-and-off function is a switch that you slide on and off, which, I like, because it removes the guesswork. The control buttons are also easy to use, and I like where they are positioned. The blaze orange makes this transmitter easy to find if you drop it on the ground or look for it in your UTV. All the functions worked perfectly when I tested them. Overall an excellent, well-priced unit. If I could suggest anything, it would be to make the handheld transmitter a little smaller. I would hesitate to use this on any of my dogs.

Some Success. We rescued a badly abused German Shepherd who was dying of starvation, parasites and disease. After nursing her back to health, we hope to get her trained to, among other things, respond to our recall when she spots one of the many deer we have roaming our property. We consulted with a professional trainer who recommended such a collar. It’s been almost three weeks now and we can see some progress but also the dog, Mal, has outsmarted the collar. She’s the model of perfect behavior when we put this collar on her but tends to backslide when she’s wearing any other collar. We have one of those 50’ leashes so are using that too to teach her to come to us. The difficulty we have is she still has separation anxiety. If we order her to stay and then walk away extending the long leash, she’ll follow us. I hit upon the idea of me staying with her while my wife does the walk away but that only induces a decision anxiety in her. She looks to me and makes a dog squeak asking me for advice or wishing me to get the pack back together. We’ve never used the negative reinforcement capacity because it’s overkill. Our first experience with this collar was in the deer fenced part of our property (8 foot fence to keep deer out). When we tried a tone, Mal got a sad look on her face, moved to a shady spot (it’s hot here) and lay down looking discouraged. I had to give her a bit of a massage to get her up. I won’t use harsh negative reinforcement as many recommend which I’m sure will be effective so part of the lack of progress is my fault. In sum, this does everything it claims so is worth the five star rating. It hasn’t been the magic we hoped it’d be likely due to the dog’s severe history. I’ll include a picture of Mal after she finally understood she had a pack.

Good Training Tool with a Few Minor Drawbacks. I got this collar to teach my overly enthusiastic, 50-pound fuzzball some manners. She thinks jumping on people is a great way to say 'hi,' and when she's really fired up, she might throw in a little nip for good measure. The collar has been a great training tool—I rarely need to use anything beyond the beep because the beep is like my secret weapon. It gets her attention most of the time. The range is solid, and the battery is still going after about a month of use. But there are two things I wish were different. First, the collar loosens up over time, so the contact points don’t always make proper contact after an hour of running around. Not a big deal for me since I mostly use the beep, but still worth mentioning. The real kicker is the remote—it’s massive! I feel like I’m carrying a TV remote around the park. A more discreet version would be awesome. All in all, it does the job, but the remote could definitely go on a diet. Also, my dog has long hair, and the points were able to make contact just fine when the collar is adjusted correctly. I see other reviewers who have had issues with this, but it worked great for my dog