Re: [PLUG] Waaaaaay OT: Retrain a Beagle

[Gordon Dexter <gordon@texasdex.com>]

I would think that 2 and 3 would be most effective, especially 3.  
They're also less likely to get you in trouble with the SPCA, methinks.

My parents' labradoodles (they've had them for 3 years now and I still 
feel silly every time I say "labradoodle") didn't learn anything from 
punishment unless you caught them in the act and scolded them 
immediately.  Otherwise they wouldn't connect the deed (usually pooping 
on the kitchen floor) with the scolding and realize that it was 
something they shouldn't do.  The latter two are more clearly linked 
with escaping, and #3 would make sure that the dog is unable to enjoy 
his neighborhood romp and so remove the perceived benefits of escaping.

As for other ideas, I'm sure somebody clever could rig a GPS up to her 
collar and a little microcontroller to determine if she is in the 
allowable range and beep and zap her if she's not, with frequency 
increasing as a function of distance.  They might even make those 
already.  Battery life would be an issue though.  As would size.  And 
the only benefit over the radio-based one would be the possibility of a 
non-circular permitted zone.

--Gordon

Casey Bralla wrote:
> OK, I know this is ridiculous, but y'all are the smartest group I know.
>
>
> My stoopid beagle (who acts a little autistic) has lost her "invisible fence" 
> training.  She's learned that the short pain of the collar is worth it if she 
> gets to wander around the neighborhood.   She stays in the yard when we are 
> home, but quickly leaves if we do.   We can't leave her tied up because she 
> is able to get tangled very quickly, adn then is stuck outside of her dog 
> house in bad weather. (She's kind of like a reverse-Houdini:  she gets 
> tangled up in her leash when there's nothing to get tangled on!)
>
> Oddly, she learned the collar _VERY_ fast because even the little beeping 
> noise it made scared her.
>
>
> I am thinking of doing something like the following:
>
> 1.  Beat the crap out of her (figuratively speaking) when she goes outside the 
> fence.
> 2.  Buy a new "high power" collar that she will find more unconfortable.
> 3.  Buy a radio collar which will continue to shock her as long as she is 
> outside the range of the transmitter.
>
>
> Anybody have any other ideas?   This dog is kind of sweet, but she's always 
> been a difficult dog to keep due to her many oddities, and this is bringing 
> us to the edge of tolerance.
>   

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