It's Not The Size Of The Dog In The Fight!
Posted on 23rd March 2025 at 13:38
It's The Size Of The Fight In The Dog!
There is a lot of confusion about the size, power and range of the collar required for your dog. Logic dictates that if your dog is say Labrador sized and bigger then you will need a large breed collar. However, my experience tells me that this is not correct.!
When people call me and ask what collar they need for their dog I ask the age of the dog, breed of the dog and what they are trying to curtail.
Some people are genuinely overawed by the prey drive in their dog. It might be their first dog, it might be their first dog from a working strain. My own background is in high drive FTCH spaniels and I moved from those onto high drive imported Malinois and Dutch Shepherds. So people will often tell me that their Cockerpoo needs a really powerful collar because it is super high drive and is killing all the pheasants in the local area and they need a really powerful collar. But they have been put off the Dogtra 640C or the Dogtra 640X for example because it says on the packaging "For Mild Mannered Dogs"!
So What Is a Mild Mannered Dog And What is Not?
I would say a mild mannered dog is a dog of any breed here in the UK that could be classified as purely a pet and on the whole is biddable and generally does as it is told. If I recall my training years ago, I am sure I am quoting another long forgotten trainer here but prey drive is both interuptable and exhaustible.
So on the whole a dog like the German Whirehaired Pointer about is OK with Something like a Dogtra ARC800 or a Dogtra 640X because if your requirement is purely to interrupt the prey drive then that is easily done with the smaller and lowered powered Dogtra collars.
However, you will occasionally and I am certain that is accounts for about 10% of my customers, you will occasionally get that one dog that is and extreme of it's breed when in prey, these dogs tend to be very difficult to keep as pets anyway. It might be a Mali, it might be a Rottie, it might be a bull breed but we are talking an extreme example of it's breed. A dog that is constantly pushing the boundaries a dog that may even have had training to enhance it's prey as with some sports dogs, police or personal protection dogs. For these dogs then without doubt you might well need something like a Dogtra ARC1200S which is a third more powerful than the smaller units when you are at levels above 60.
Are There Some Dogs That Definitely Need A Large Breed Collar?
Yes there are. There are dogs that are expected to work more than 600 to 800m away from their handler. So a collar like a Dogtra ARC1200S or a Dogtra 3500NCP comes in handy with their increased range.
However, there is a big difference between asking a trained dog to work 1KM away from you and the fact that your dog once ran away and was found 1KM away from you. In all instances that someone calls wanting a long range collar for a dog that ran away further than 600-800m I always discourage the customer from buying the larger collar.
Any of the Dogtra E-Collars will keep the average pet dog within whatever distance or boundary you decide to set and the dog should never get past the range of your collar, unless you are ignoring your dog and E-Collars are certainly not an excuse for not watching your dog or knowing where your dog is!
The other group of dogs that definitely need the more extensive power capacity of a larger collar are those dogs being specifically trained in defence or fight drives or when you have a stubborn breed or highly reactive dog that feels like it needs to fight for its life!
If the dog is being trained in defence then I would expect it to be being trained by someone who knows how to manipulate these specific drives, how to put pressure on and how to take pressure off. Good examples of dogs trained in defence are police, security or personal protection type dogs.
In the case of reactive dogs I never advise someone tackles this behaviour on their own with an E-Collar. Reactivity is best dealt with by an experienced trainer. You can make the matter far worse and this is when you need to be looking at my Dog Trainers Page.
If you are in any doubt as to which E-collar to buy, then send me an email or give me a call to discuss. My advice is based on years of experience and over 25 years of working with Dogtra products.
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