The Collar of Obediance

"Make no mistake, it's not a training collar, it's an obediance collar!" says one of Dan's co-workers.  And he's RIGHT. 

Gracie is a sweet puppy, but she's a puppy.  She loves to steal things like socks, shoes, toys and toilet paper.  We have diligently been working at teaching her "drop" using treats as rewards.  The problem is that it hasn't stopped her from stealing the items in the first place.  She would still grab and dash away until we came after her with a treat in hand.   The other big problem is Zac.  Gracie LOVES Zac.  She wants to snuggle and cuddle and munch on him whenever possible.  No amount of telling her no or treats has worked to stop the problem.

A friend mentioned he had to buy a shock collar for his dog who was running into the street.  Just a few zaps, the dog no longer goes anywhere near the road.  I went right out and bought one.  Of course, then I started reading all the horror, bad dog owner stories on-line about using them and felt horrible.  It took me a week to put it on her and only after I'd used it on myself many times to make sure I wouldn't electrocute her.

The shock collar is maybe the single best thing (after obedience classes) that we'd bought for our dog.  She still loves Zac, but she approaches him with caution and plays easily with him.  For some odd reason, she gets this weird tingling feeling when she tries to tackle him :).  A month ago, there's no way Gracie could have sacked out on the floor twelve inches from the cat without being all over him.  Amazing!  Zac is thankful he can enjoy his sunshine in peace.

Now that we've gotten Zac protected, we are tackling the snatch and run Gracie likes to do.  She still gets things, but it's on a limited basis now instead of the every five minutes it was.  She will actually walk past toys in the floor.  She still can't resist an odd sock, but she drops it with a verbal warning or a beep from her collar (the beep precedes the shock). 

I even got Jaelyn to sit with me yesterday while I tried to brush a matte out of Gracie's ear.  She hates to be brushed and nips constantly at me and the brush.  Everytime she did it, I said no and Jaelyn shocked her.  It took three "nip-no-shock's" before she decided to obey.  She even let me brush out her muzzle.  She obviously didn't like it, but she tolerated it.  There's hope!