Puppy and wireless fence

[fireman164]

Hello, I have a 11week old cane corso, we currently have a wireless fence we use to keep our yorkie from running the neighborhood, I bought another collar that gives a small correction if the dog gets to close to the boundry area. My question is at what age would be appropriate to start using the collar on my corso pup?

[Mike D'Abruzzo]

I have never been a big fan of the wireless fences for safety reasons, especially because it doesn't keep anything from coming into the yard. But, I do see how they have their uses if dogs are not left unsupervised out on them.

That being said I definitely would not use one on a pup unless they were over 6 months of age at the youngest and have had at least a month of boundry training by walking the dog around the property border on a leash and leading back to the center when they hear the tone from the collar (with the prongs taped up with electric tape or rubber tips).

You want to use a lot of caution using invisible fence collars on a pup because they are new to the world and are sometimes still fearful and discovering what is considered normal out in the yard. There is a potential risk of causing various types of environmental fears if they get corrections that they do not quite understand - especially since invisible fence collars generally use higher levels (avoidance levels) than you would use with other types of training (threshold levels) with remote devices.

I would recommend breaking the training into 3 phases similar to how we would do with obedience.

Phase 1 - safe walks around boundry and reward for staying in. Gentle guiding back when you here a tone from taped collar.

Phase 2 - similar but use a leash correction just motivational enough where the pup seems to have a desire to avoid it when he hears the tone.

Phase 3 - Expose the dog to the untaped prongs, but be ready to guide into the yard with a long leash if the dog gets confused/panicked

Maintenance - Do proofing, etc.

I would stay at phase 1 until 6 months of age and at least a month practice to play it safe.

Also, use the flags for your own reference only as to where the boundry line is - teach the dog the boundry , and not to avoid flags. The old holding the flag and saying "no, no, no" technique has proven to confuse a lot of dogs for many years now but some trainers of the system still do it for some reason.

Good luck with your Corso!

[fireman164]

Hey mike , I just wanted to say thank you! this site has been a god send for me, I started studying your self help site about a month before I got my pup, and it has taught me more than i could ever imagine, I thought about sending the pup away for professional training but they wanted to take him for 3 months, which to me is valuable bonding time that he would be away from my family, using the techniques you teach i feel i can do all but maybe some specialized training that he may need for working with my handicapped daughter so once again thank you !

[Mike D'Abruzzo]

Thanks! I'm glad you like the site! I'm chipping away at it constantly and feedback is always appreciated!