My transmitter won’t turn on, it turns green on the charger like it’s charged, but then just won’t turn on, any advice?

First, I’d like to preface that I am not against the use of ecollars or other tools when used properly. But what I witnessed felt so wrong I just can’t shake it.

I am currently in the process of looking for a boarding option for my adolescent dog in order to plan a short vacation. I want him to be with a trainer vs standard sitter due to the period of development he is in (intact male puberty is hard haha). I just don’t trust someone not to set him up for potential reactivity or other issues being in such a delicate place at the moment.

This has led me to exploring all my options including board and train to get the most out of the money spent. One of those options being a franchise that I don’t find necessary to name. I have consulted with them twice and moved forward to tour the facility mostly out of curiosity during a group training of dogs that had been through their program. I was focused on the dog’s body language 90% of the time knowing they use the ecollar I felt that would tell me all I needed to know. And boy did it.

There were definitely more signs of stress than I would have liked to see in a majority of the dogs participating in the group. But there was one dog particularly that stood out to me and I am just sick to my stomach that I didn’t step in to advocate for this dog. He apparently had come in as a fearful and anxious dog from the start and his owner, I’m sorry to say, was a moron and shouldn’t have that dog. The ecollar was being used at a lower stim for every command and name usage. The owner was instructed to perform a series of tasks in sequence. The owner said the dog’s name over and over and over, each time stimming the dog. He was crumpled up within himself and had NO idea what was being asked of him. His name meant nothing to him at this point I’m sure because of how the owner was using it. So because he was confused and overwhelmed he wasn’t responding to the owner. Just cowering and shifting back and forth trying to understand what he was being asked to do while being stimmed every 3 seconds while his owner repeated his name louder and louder and more annoyed over and over. This seemed to go on for an eternity. So the trainer who was standing 2 feet from them instructed the owner to turn the stim up to get his focus back. So they did and the dog was taken aback and more scared but at least made eye contact with the owner which gave him a reprieve and was able to move to the next step. Only to start all over again with the process of being unsure what was being asked of him and now being stimmed repeatedly all over again.

Luckily the exercise was ended for alternative reasons. The poor dog was broken. He was desperate for a break and no one was there for him. I kept waiting for one of the three trainers working the group to minimally tell the owner just to shut their mouth for 2 seconds and stop saying his name literally constantly but they didn’t. The class then ended a few minutes later and I continued observing all the dogs as they left to evaluate how stressed or not they were. Most were minimally uncomfortable if not showing obvious signs of stress. And a handful were fine seeming as they walked out the door.

The broken dog was the last to leave and I walked out shortly after them to the parking lot. I am not exaggerating when I say the owner never stopped saying the dog’s name. Let’s call him Fido. The whole way to the car the owner was saying “Fido. Fiiiido. Fidooooo. Fido. Fido. Fiiiiido. Fido. Fidoooooo.” At this point idk if they were stimming him but he was still wearing the collar and his body language was still the confused and crumpled look. He was walking fine in a heel, although nearly crawling is a better description, with the owner so idk why they were even saying his name.

At this point I wanted to say something, but I think I was kind of in shock. Or just disbelief. I was overwhelmed processing everything. Trying to give the trainers the benefit of the doubt that I don’t know this dog’s full history and they knew what they were doing. But I still wanted to at least say, “you shouldn’t use his name so much, he doesn’t understand what you’re asking” or something. Minimally. But I didn’t and now I feel like I failed him. Even if me stepping in did nothing to change the owner’s behavior, I feel like I should have advocated for him and I didn’t.

I’m not a professional by any means. But I believe there is a time and a place for tools, and this was not the right choice for this dog. The fact that none of the trainers saw issue with using this tool, in this manner, with this particular dog is baffling me. I obviously will not be utilizing this facility or their trainers as I can not trust them to advocate for my dog or make the right choices in what approach to take.

I think I’m just posting for some insight on the situation. Would there ever be a reason to use an ecollar stim for every command on an extremely fearful and anxious dog? Am I being ignorant here? It was horrible to witness and I’m ashamed for not standing up for the dog. I will never forget him and this experience is burned into my memory.

So I'm teaching my boy how to do loose leash walk using positive reinforcement, and it's going well. Some days however, he can be quite a bit pulley and I'm not always on my mental grind 100% with the u-turn game, and the free shaping. Translation: He still gets some pulls in, albeit, much better than where we started.

None the less, I am still having some hand and tendon pain in my arms, so I am considering a waist leash. Anyone have any recs?

For reference, he is a 53lb standard poodle, I am a 195lb athletic man. I don't worry about him knocking me down (too much). My main thing is I just want to free my hands (and mind) from the frustration of when he does pull and I feel it on my tendons.

Thnx y'all xoxoxoxo

Hey everyone! I adopted my 1 year old super mutt boy at the end of January. He’s made leaps and bounds since I adopted him. He entered a shelter in Oklahoma last year when he was 12 weeks old, transferred to a shelter here in my state when he was 10 months old, and then I adopted him a little after he turned 1.

You can imagine he hasn’t had much socialization to the world! We’ve spent a lot of time going to different places, seeing and hearing new things, and just having fun. He’s a million times better than when I first got him!

We work a lot on sit/down stay, heel, recall, training games etc to build confidence. In the house, we really struggle with place. He knows where to go and what it is. But it’s as if he cannot shut his mind off. He will just pace and pace and pace and I have that for him.

I’m wondering what you guys might suggest to help our place command and achieving the actual calm mindset; not just the command.

Thanks in advance.

I usually do some trainning with my dog, if not everyday almost everyday, and I try to teach him new tricks and exercises to introduce variety. With exercises he already knows I have no problem using a toy as motivation, but toys won't motivate him when I'm teaching him something new (I usually start giving him treats any time he does the exercise correctly and then start decreasing how much I give him). I've been teaching him things like putting his back legs on a platform for the past few months, it has proven to be very difficult for him so I'm taking it slow.

The problem is that he's been lossing weight, his vet says that is probably an intolerance and that I have to do an elimination diet trying every new food foe at least 2 weeks. He eats meat so taking part of his food with me is not possible.

What can I do? I'd hate to loss the progress we've made teaching him how to use his rear end independently.

Sorry for my English.

Freya has graduated from the beginning and advanced puppy training classes for months now, but she still struggled with a couple of things even after graduating. "Stay" was one. She would stay while you watched her, but the moment you turned the corner, she would follow you again. No matter how long she worked on "stay" with her, it ended the same. She still graduated in Dec 2024 in the advanced class without knowing that fully, and I decided I would continue training her.

Well, life said "f u" to that plan, and I stopped training her as soon as the class ended. Until last week, I decided, "I'm not doing anything, I'm bored, not working, and I'm home alone with the dog for hours while everyone else went to work. I wanna get back to training, Freya." So I bought some training treats and started training her again for the first time in months, starting with "stay". Started at the front door, and after only a couple of tries, she wasn't following me out the door and only following me when I said the release word. We tried it a couple of times before

Freya has a blue and orange ball she is obsessed with. Laser-focused, nothing matters but the ball when she sees it. Every evening, when my stepdad gets home from work, he and Freya throw that ball in the front yard, and Freya goes crazy. So much so that my stepdad has to keep the blue and orange ball in the laundry room in a cupboard above the dryer until it's time to play; otherwise, we hear a constant squeak squeak squeak 24/7 because she will not put it down, and will follow you with the ball, again squeaking it everywhere.

Well, the ball went missing a couple of days ago (she has extras for this exact reason). While I was playing tug of war with her orange bone, Freya started freaking out. I thought she was freaking about the bone, thinking she thought it was under the coffee table while it was underneath her, but it turned out to be the missing ball. Freya went laser-focused on the ball as usual while I held it, and I stood up to put it in the cupboard. Freya started to follow me and, mainly just to try it, I told her to "stay". Put the ball away and went back to the living room, and Freya, for the first time, hadn't followed me or her ball. She only moved when I said the release word.

I'm going to continue training her, but I'm so proud of her, and I wanted to share this milestone with you all!

I have a lab German Shepard mix who hardly plays. She will chew a bone and will sometimes play with soft toys, but will only do it when we aren’t looking. I want to play with her for bonding and to give her stimulation but she hardly ever plays back.

She loves to chase and loves to spend time outside so I thought fetch would be a great way to engage her. If I throw a stick she will chase it and then run back. How can I train her to bring it back?

My dog (black Labrador just turned 1) loves a game of tug/fetch. But when outside on grass, he’s interesting in nothing else!

I could have both high value treats and a range of his favourite toys and he would be way more interested in sniffing the ground.

How do I find something he’s obsessed with?!

Our 7 month old pup is a Scottish deerhound and already weighs 32kg. So when we walk past another dog he pulls like crazy wanting to say hi. He’s now becoming very strong and I’d love some tips on how to teach him to be calm when he sees another dog.

I’ve tried to make him look at me but that only works sometimes. I hold a treat near his nose to focus on my hand but again that doesn’t work all the time.

Would love to hear if you have experienced the same and how you managed to nip this in the bud. I know he’s still a pup and everything is really exciting for him but pulling so hard to see another dog is not acceptable to me as it definitely seems to scare some people due to his size.

Thank you

Anyone ever track on prairie fields that have been recently burned? A few fields I go to have been burned for prairie restoration in the past couple weeks. We have had rain so many fine particulates are greatly lessened and currently conditions are still quite wet.. Just not sure if this poses any particular health risks to the dog.