Remote Collar

[FuFuBear]

I was google searching tips on how to get my 10 week old boxer to stop chasing my 6 year old cat and I came across this remote collar - "Electrical stimulation from the collar is intended to distract your dog by delivering an unpleasant but harmless electrical sensation"

Remote Training Collars: General FAQs

As much as I want to correct the behavior, I am not sure if this is harmless. Is anyone in here uses this kind of training/correction? Does it work?

 

[LILYLARUE]

It is against the rules to discuss any type of aversive training tools. I will say - PLEASE use positive training methods and don't use any methods that hurt, cause fear, or damage your dog's emotional well being.

Any of these types of collars DO DAMAGE! Either physically or emotionally and can destroy the trust the dog has in you.

Instead, teach the pup the "leave it" command. I doubt the dog has any other intention other than playing with the cat. Give the cat places to go that the dog will never be able to reach so the cat always has an escape route.

I also highly doubt that any members here, atleast the experienced dog owners, would ever use shock as a type of training. Instead they use consistant, positive reinforcement training methods to teach the dog to do things that make the owner happy and acheive a positive reward. Whereas aversive methods teach the dog to be fearful and unpredicting to any situation.

I would start to read up on postive reinforcement training. Several great trainers have books you can get on any online bookstore. Ian Dunbar, Patricia McConnell, Victoria Stillwell are just a few popular ones. OH, and please do your relationship with your pup a favor and don't try any of Cesar Milan's methods. He is way outdated in dog training (and a trainer I consider abusive to dogs).

 

[Gilbert]

IMO there is nothing you can do about the chasing with out messing up your dog and his/her playful attitude. My wife, 2 small dogs and new kitten all learned the hard way "no running in the house". Achilles (boxer) mistakes running or moving fast as a invitation for him to chase you and when you stop he tramples all over you.

 

[Heidi Mae]

Sad. I would never use a shock collar on their cute little necks! :( We have 2 cats and Dexter just wants to play with them and our female cat wants NOTHING to do w/ him... She turns into a mini lion, charging, batting hissing.. its quite comical and Dex just looks at her like, 'What is your problem??" Male cat isnt his BFF quite yet but doesn't get as crabby about his playfulness. We installed a cat door on the door to the basement so the cat always have an escape route so maybe try that if that can be an option? Good luck!!

 

[johann]

A more effective and better way to teach a boxer not to chase cats. It is very possible to teach this without ruining your dog and their playfullness, but it takes alot of work.

The first step is management- do not allow your cat to be chased by the puppy at all. Have puppy wear a long, thin leash so you can stop any chasing immediately and redirect the puppy to an appropriate activity. Make sure they are not left unsupervised together, the more times the puppy "practices" chasing, the harder it will be to break. In addition, reward for any calm behavior around the cat with click/treat.

While doing the management, work on teaching a very strong leave it. Start with a toy or treat on the floor- stand with puppy on leash so they are just out of reach of the "prize". Once puppy looks (even very slightly) away, click and treat. Repeat this until you feel like they are looking away practically immediately, then start adding the verbal "leave it" to the exercise. When puppy seems to be really understanding this, you can vary the exercise and start using moving objects (toss a toy, etc). I did a major reward for ignoring a toy thrown by him, so Johann would know that no matter what he ignored- there was something even better coming. You can use food reward or a play reward for this (we did a lot of tug).

Now, you can start using the "leave it" in relation to chasing the cat (this didn't take Johann long to get to this point- maybe a few days to a week). Keep puppy dragging a leash and let the cat into the room. If puppy doesn't immediately chase- click/treat. Continue to click/treat any time the puppy looks at the cat and doesn't react. When puppy does start to move to chase, say "leave it" and start to walk in the other direction. Do a click/massive treat when he turns away from the cat. Once you feel like the puppy as figured out "leave it" means to not chase the cat- you can remove the leash. Also, hopefully by this point your cat is more comfortable and less likely to run away. By the time your puppy is old enough to be left out of a crate or xpen when unsupervised, you shouldn't have to worry about him chasing the cat.

It does take a lot of work, but you can end up with a boxer and cat that live together with no issues or concerns (in most circumstances).
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