Vibrating Collars, can you use them?

MyDogRules asked:


Vibrating Collars, can you use them on dogs that can hear or only def dogs? How do you get your pup used to it?
My little pup behaves and I don’t want to use it to discipline or punish her, but I’ve become a weekend warrior dog trainer (I don’t get paid, but I’ve really love working with dogs and I’ve always got people asking for my help). And now someone has asked me to help with their older dog that’s going def, my pup knows lots of hand cues, but without getting her attention, of course, she doesn’t see commands to follow the cues.

So, I did some digging and see a lot of people with def dogs A) keep the dog on leash all the time, or B) use the vibrating collars, so the dog looks for the commands when it feels the collar

So, this guys 10yr old jack russell has way to much energy to be kept on leash & is well behaved when it knows what you want from it, but its been having trouble, as its is almost def now, you really have to yell at it to get its attention and its getting jumpy, probably gets startled not hearing things come up on it.

So, I’d like to use my dog as a Guinea Pig. She already knows the hand commands for many things like come,down,sit & stand, so we’ve got head start & I can focus on getting her used to the collar & following commands with out verbal cues. The Jack Russel already has to start learning hand cue’s for the commands, so I don’t want to jump right into a collar too to just compound what it has to learn or get used to.

So, my question is, how do you desensitize the dog, so it doesn’t see the vibration as a punishment, but as a cue for ‘look at me’ & even tougher, how do you get the def dog used to it?

Is their any negatives with using one of these things? The cheapest one we could find is a combo shock/vibrating one…I do think their is some cases where you might need a pinch or shock collar, but both my pup and this other dog are good dogs & we are not interested in punishing our dogs, but we want to improve the quality of life for his def dog and we are both short on extra $$, so cheep is good on the collar & my free training is all he can afford….trainers at petco are no help & the only experienced trainer who he found to help wanted 150$ an hour..phhh, whos got that kinda cash.

Anyone with a def dog? Anyone use one of the things in any context, for corrections for fun? I need some input!!

THANKS!

Jamie