More Information
 On: 2008-03-23
The Dogtra 1500NCP collar is amazing. We bought it for our 100+ pound rottweiler-black lab cross who has a very strong "prey instinct". We live in the bush in Alaska and have lots of deer, fox, and grizzlies around. Our dog loves to chase any and all of these - yes, even the grizzlies - even though he never harmed any of them. But dogs that harass wildlife in AK can be shot, so we had to do something to stop this behavior and didnt want to have to keep him tied up when we live in the middle of nowhere.
The problem was that our otherwise very well-behaved dog didnt acknowledge that we even existed when he was on the chase and nothing seemed to make any difference in his behavior. So we decided to invest in an electronic collar. I researched several online and decided to go with the Dogtra 1500NCP and it has been perfect. I only had to shock him with it three times over the course of about a month and he completely "got it."
Weve been using it with him for about six months and never use the shock feature anymore. Now, sometimes he wont even attempt to start a chase if he sees an animal. And if he does succumb to temptation, he will almost always come back with just a voice command now. On the rare occasion when its too much for him, I only have to give him a vibration "page" and hell come. (When we trained him to the collar we always gave him the voice command and the vibration page first and only resorted to the shock if he didnt respond.) So we are thrilled that it has worked so well and he now listens to us in these situations.
Hes shown no ill will towards the collar or us when we put it on or used it. Hes actually excited about it because he knows hes going outside when we put it on. Weve only used it for the prey chase situation and have not tried it for other problems as hes a pretty good dog otherwise.
One reason we got this particular collar is the long range of the remote. As were in the middle of nowhere he could be a half-mile or more away from us when an incident occurs. Another reason we got this particular collar is the waterproofness of the collar itself. We live on a bay and between that and the rain and snow, we knew the collar we be exposed to water. Our dog doesnt swim, though, so it has not been submerged. The charge on the collar and remote seems to last a good long time as long as you dont activate it - probably about 3 weeks or so. If you do activate it, it still lasts awhile, but not as long. We also really liked that you can just page or can do a series of escalating page, nick or constant jolt. And we liked that you can set the power level from 0 to 100. The knob for the power level is nice and sticky and doesnt move around on its own so you can be confident when you reach for it that it will be where you set it. Weve also never had a situation where it unintentionally went off when in a pants pocket or such. It is a little bit of a pain to deal with the fact that he cant wear the collar for long periods, so we are frequently putting it on and taking it off him as he goes in and out throughout the day. But its not too bad and only takes about 20 seconds to turn it on and put it on him before letting him out.
This link shows the Dogtra 1500NCP is no longer available, but the dogtra.com website still lists it. But even if it does become discontinued at some point, I would not hesitate to use a different Dogtra product since this one has been so great.
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