Tri-Tronics Pro 200 G3 collar is the one I settled on after researching dog e-collars extensively (dogtra and cheaper petco collars). I will write/ link to a more extensive review with pictures and video at a later date. Will provide the url to it in an update but suffice it to say here are some of my findings and I hope this helps a dog lover with an unmanageable/ agressive dog.
PLEASE, if you are considering `giving up' on your dog read on this is a tool that if used properly can really help your dog become a better citizen despite what people tell you about dogs and shock collars/ e-collars.
E-collars are for dogs that are `hard' dogs. This term refers to an aggressive dog toward other animals or humans and views your commands and hollering as `optional'.
The opposite is a `soft' dog may not follow your instructions but listens and tucks its tail between its legs when you raise your voice these collars SHOULD NOT be used with soft dogs (more on this later). For a very good video on this and how to use e-collars see link http://www.amazon.com/Remote-Collar-Training-Pet-Owners/dp/B0013LUXZW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1301013433&sr=8-1
We have had a rescue for six years and have contemplated getting an e-collar/ shock collar but have been very reluctant b/c it can cause pain to the animal. Last winter we found a small dog abandoned to die in the woods by our house (still makes me very sad to think that people do this). Our shepherd-mix is very aggressive, so the problem we had was she was ready to kill the little guy. Luckily we have a large home and could separate the two dogs and worked on slowly introducing them. Took some 6 months to where we could allow them into the same room (on leashes). Given the big dogs aggression we needed to get her under voice command every time. Also, given her high prey drive and tendency to roam we walk her on a 50ft. leash. She did break the leash a couple of times and it took a good hour to catch her as she would take off chasing an animal in the woods.
Along comes the Tri-Tronics Pro 200 collar. After following the leerburg dvd instructions and some 12 months later I can truly I WISH I HAD BOUGHT THIS SIX YEARS AGO. I can take our big dog off leash in the woods and SHE ALWAYS COMES BACK. I can make her stop in her tracks with my voice command NO. I have used the shock feature about 10 times in one year. Only one time have I used it on a high setting (66% of full power). The rest of the time it has been on low settings (16%) it snaps her out of her prey drive and makes her pay attention to me. I MUST EMPAHSIZE I ALWAYS HAVE DOG TREATS IN MY FANNY PACK for both the little dog and the big one and I FOLLOWED THE DVD INSTRUCTIONS EXACTLY. Had I not bought the DVD I would have done it all wrong so I cannot recommend the product enough (see url above).
Why I chose the Tri-Tronics Pro 200:
1. I wanted a collar that would allow me to control my dog from a distance. If you are in the woods and there are rock outcrops the stated distance on e-collars at which you can control your dog drops off considerably. Given how much I love my dogs and how paranoid I was about the distance issue I wanted one that would, without a doubt, control my big dog, whatever the terrain I therefore settled for the one with a range of one mile. Keep in mind I had never used an e-collar but envisaged letting my dog roam free with the little dog (the recent addition) probably following her and wanted to ensure that I could control her over a long distance both dogs off-leash. This was the ultimate goal and I was very unsure how long this would take but wanted to have a collar that would work to satisfy this endpoint.
2. There are two different ways to `shock' your dog. One is `CONTINUOUS' lasts for ~10 seconds the other is a `NICK' last for ~0.5 seconds and is momentary. Reading up and watching all the material I could find I felt that the NICK in the end would be what I used more than the continuous. A year later I can confirm I was right.
3. Gradations More the gradations for the shock nick or continuous the better so I could dial in the exact setting to get our big dogs attention fine tuning the device to her sensitivity.
4. Expandability keep in mind we had just found the second dog. He was small, very badly abused. I wasn't sure with time if he too would turn out to be a stubborn guy so I wanted to be able to use two collars (one on each dog) controlled with one remote (in my hand) if need be. After a year I can say with certainty that this is not the case at all and so I will never use an e-collar on the little fellow. He does wonderfully with my voice commands.
5. The two manufacturers that came to the top early on were Dogtra and Tri-tronics. Each of these manufacturers have several different models and this is where it gets tricky and why I am writing this review (for now without the pictures and videos of my beta-testing). I decided I needed a 1 mile range and as many nick gradations I could get. I looked at the Dogtra 3500 NCP and the Tri-Tronics Pro 200 because they met my criteria. I decided to buy both and then keep the one I felt was best returning the other one.
6. The Dogtra has 127 continuous gradations for both the nick and the continuous mode. It is smaller than the tri-tronics and I was leaning toward this manufacturer. After having bought both to test out I quickly realized that the tri-tronics is actually far better for both the dog and the trainer. The way the e-collar works is there is a component that sits around the dogs neck (the receiver) and the transmitter (you have in your hand). The component on the dog's neck has two prongs that push into the dog's neck and this is what carries the electric shock to the animal after you press the button on the transmitter. The prongs on the Dogtra were brutal. They were significantly more pronounced and pushed into the dogs neck in a way that I thought was excessive, especially when compared to the Tri-tronics design. Keep in mind I was using the SMALLEST prongs from both manufacturers. The prongs have threads that screw into the receiver and you get a couple of different sizes in each box. Dogtra is a Korean company and I felt that keeping the dog comfortable while it has the receiver around its neck was not a priority and came through in the design. Remember the receiver is only activated for a very small fraction of the time the dog has this around its neck. This was something that I never did see in any reviews and was surprised to find out when I actually had both units in my hand and was beta-testing them for my use.
7. The Dogtra has 127 gradations while the Tri-Tronics Pro 200 has 18 for Nick and still fewer 6 for Continuous. On the face of it I thought this was a major drawback with the Tri-Tronics Pro 200. Also, the Tri-Tronics Pro 200 has a bigger transmitter (the part that sits in your hand). Surprisingly the Tri-Tronics is really a more thoughtful design and SUPERIOR product despite having less fidelity in the transmitter. Turns out the 18 gradations for the Nick and the 6 for continuous in the Tri-Tronics Pro 200 ARE MORE THAN ENOUGH. IMO there is also a design flaw in the Dogtra transmitters (regardless of model #) that again I only discovered because I bought both and was trying them out side-by-side and I haven't seen mentioned anyplace.
The Dogtra feels like a thick cell phone (think Motorola startac vintage but 2x thicker) that has a knurled knob where the antennae would go that you rotate and as you rotate it the level changes in a little LED screen on the face of the device, displaying the setting value (between 1 and 127). As you rotate it the value changes from 1 127. You have two rubberized buttons labeled nick or continuous positioned on the side of the instrument (where the volume buttons on a cell phone would be). You also have a vibrate button (more about this later) but this is on the face of the device above the LED display ().
The Tri-Tronics Pro 200 has a knob on the top, with hard stops, and these go from 1-6. This device looks like a 2D maglite flashlight, albeit smaller and lighter. On the SIDE of the cylindrical device you have three buttons that control the levels of the shock low, middle and high. Take a look at the picture else it will be very confusing
So, if you set the knob on TOP of the device to a 3 and press the low button on the SIDE of the device the dog get a nick at the 3 level. If you press the middle button instead (again on the SIDE) the dog is now nicked at a 9 level. If you press the low and middle buttons together the dog is now nicked at a level 12. So, you are ramping the level at which your dog is being shocked very rapidly. The third button is colored red and will provide a continuous shock (for ~10 secs) at a high setting (keep in mind the knob on the top stays at a 3 in each of the scenarios I listed). This is VERY IMPORTANT in your training and let me give you a real scenario where this became CRITICAL.
My large dog was out in the woods and as I have mentioned she has an incredibly high prey drive. She saw a woodchuck and took off after it down a valley (this is after we got the e-collars but were still testing them out). She was off leash b/c of how well the e-collars worked out. She had the Tri-Tronics Pro 200 on that day. I use it at a "3" on the top of the device and press the low button to get her attention. So, I am nicking her at 16% of the full power. Once she had locked onto the Woodchuck and took off I could not get her attention at this setting or the middle setting. I was worried she would catch and kill the woodchuck and so I pressed the red button, again with the setting on the top remaining unchanged and still at 3 (Here it is 66% of full power). She came back squealing really quickly. This has been the ONLY time in a little over a year that I used the high setting on her and I have never had a problem stopping her with a NO voice command since. Had I had the Dogtra system I would have had to have fiddled with the knob first, raised the setting level, and then pressed the continuous shock button. In the heat of the moment I am quite sure I would not have gotten this right and it would have taken me longer because I would have been messing with device. With the Tri-Tronics set up you are pressing a large button, without even really looking at the device in your hand. So, I went from pressing one button to pressing one above it almost reflexive never taking my eye off my dog. I think if you are training you want there not to be a time lag of any kind so there is no confusion in the dogs mind. Also, in this instance, I was able to avoid an untoward incident. If you have an aggressive dog you need to be able to switch to the highest setting instantly, without taking your eye off the dog.
8. Both units clearly work well. I think the Tri-Tronics Pro 200 is a better unit. If you have a dog that you are considering euthanizing or giving up for adoption because of behavior issues PLEASE CONSIDER trying an e-collar Dogtra or Tritronics in conjunction with the video I mention above. You will find your dog changes dramatically within a week. If you follow the instructions and the prep work in the video to the letter the first 15 minutes where you actually use the e-collar on the animal will have a DRAMATIC impact on behavior. Please do the prep work, it takes about 2 weeks but the results are truly stunning.
It took us rescuing our little dog to actually look into an e-collar for the Shepherd-mix. I wish we had done this sooner because she now roams without a leash and really enjoys herself on walks where before she was always on leash. I am happy to report the two dogs are now best of friends and the little fella actually loves the Shepherd more than he does us.
It's not cheap, but it's worth every single penny. I have a young, very high energy dog with a strong hunting instinct. She _loves_ to run and needs to get a good run off leash every day for both her and us to stay happy. Before I got the collar, she just blindly followed her nose and chased anything that moved. It made it difficult to find places where she could safely run free and I had to be on guard all the time to make sure I spot anything that might be of interest to her before she did. With the collar she learned within a day or two that she needs to listen and obey commands even when she's not right next to me. I can now let her run off leash anywhere and I don't need to worry about kids, runners, dogs, or other animals. I love the system with multiple buttons that allows quickly changing the strength of the shock whithout fiddling with a dial. It's great. I set the strength of the shock low enough that with the lowest level button it does not really hurt. It only reminds the dog to behave, like a tug on a leash would (I tested it on myself). If that is not enough, the stronger middle button stops her. But I don't use it much and I've never had to use the highest level red "emergency break" button yet. It feels good though that it is there because it gives me the confidence that I can stop her any time, no matter what. For the most part, I now use only the green beeper button to call her when she gets too far or out of sight. No need to use the other buttons. She understands "no" and comes when called reliably, even if there are pretty strong distractions. I only wish it were possible to control the beeper (different tones, different lengths, or different number of beeps) so as I could use it for several different commands and not just "I want you to show up and check with me". The way it is, it produces only short beeps at a single frequency and you can't really tell how many times it beeped because you don't hear it (only the receiver on the dog's collar beeps, while the transmitter in your hand is silent). The transmitter and receiver are pretty well built. The dog gets wet with the collar regularly and sometimes goes even in salty water and there seems to be no harm. The transmitter is a little bulky, but it's not too bad. The battery both in the transmitter and the receiver lasts for a long time. I charge them only every few weeks. The dog loves her e-collar too. She knows that when I put it on her, she will able to run free and explore and I won't be nervously calling her each time she gets more than five yards from me.
Buy Tri-Tronics Pro 200 G3 EXP Training Collar Now
This is a classic case of needing a chew proof break away collar and none being available. So we end up with a cluge make from by using this product. The breakaway is the need for an escape if the collar should get caught in fencing material. In rural areas this is common. Even brush can catch. The dog needs to carry identity tags in the collar is needed for the lease. Simple nylon woven tubing over a flexible chain chew proof partial core. The dog can chew through it in an emergency when caught. The nylon is comfortable and will not choke. Please someone.
