You are interviewing dog trainers.
You find there are two choices:
- Trainer says they can train your dog in 1 or 2 weeks with an electric collar.
- Trainer says they can train your dog, but would never start a “green” / untrained dog with an electric collar. And it is going to take time.
Which should you choose?
What does an e-collar manufacturer recommend? I own the book, “Tri-Tronics Retriever Training” by Jim Dobbs (1993). Here’s what I can tell you in a nutshell. They have you train the dog in the basics before using the e-collar, that can take several weeks or months. You are 63 pages into the book before the dog is exposed to the collar, and the introduction is supposed to take at least 3 weeks at 5 different locations. THEN you start using the collar on top of the known commands you have already taught the dog. The training should then continue for another 4 months as you add additional skills.
Get the book. Read it yourself. You decide.