Well, I trained one, my first retriever, with out the collar.
The first year was just obedience, and short marks. After that first year it was a very slow process.
Charlie Jurney helped with the FF, with me doing the final stages. When he was two I tried a collar. He was good for about two nicks at the 2 level before he would freeze. Then it was two months before I could get him to do anything at that "place".
I got a Lab. After the lab's formal training, I trained both dogs on the same marks and blinds. The lab on the collar the Boykin sans e-collar. By the time he was 5 years old he could hold his own with most average hunt test dogs, though his field was limited, due to his "people" :wink: not being allowed to run in certain circles.
In my opinion, only a few, make that a very few, folks have the knowledge and understanding of Boykin Spaniels, to sucessfully start using an e-collar on a 4 month old pup.
The first year was just obedience, and short marks. After that first year it was a very slow process.
Charlie Jurney helped with the FF, with me doing the final stages. When he was two I tried a collar. He was good for about two nicks at the 2 level before he would freeze. Then it was two months before I could get him to do anything at that "place".
I got a Lab. After the lab's formal training, I trained both dogs on the same marks and blinds. The lab on the collar the Boykin sans e-collar. By the time he was 5 years old he could hold his own with most average hunt test dogs, though his field was limited, due to his "people" :wink: not being allowed to run in certain circles.
In my opinion, only a few, make that a very few, folks have the knowledge and understanding of Boykin Spaniels, to sucessfully start using an e-collar on a 4 month old pup.
