(Problem) I am a fairly new subscriber and the owner of a great 11-month-old yellow Lab named Grady. I have always aspired to own a good hunting dog and, along with training him, learning the art of sport dogs.

From the beginning I was behind with training Grady because I purchased him when he was five months old. In six months I have adequately trained Grady in the basic commands, sit, come, stay, down, heel, along with force fetch, and working with the whistle. He loves to train and play out on the golf course I live on. Now to the problem.

When my fiancé Becky and I first purchased Grady, it was more for a companion dog and watchdog. But in the back of my mind I knew what he was going to be for me. We live in the city and I purchased a wireless containment system to keep Grady in the yard and not chasing golfers or those little white round balls. The system worked great. He quickly figured it out and no longer needs the system.

Then recently I purchased my next training tool, an electronic training collar. I let him wear it every time over the next two weeks when we went out to train and play without actually turning it on. Then the first day with the collar on out on my golf course he got a nick. He completely shut down and bolted to the house, covering the distance of a long par three faster than a 5 iron shot.

Over the next two weeks he wouldn't train at all out on the course or even chase a fun bumper. Once he worked back up to the point he was at previously I took him to my training site about 20 miles from my house. We started to work again and he got another nick. He didn't understand why and after a couple nicks he wouldn't leave my side where he stayed with his tail between his legs.

I have watched the training DVD and read all about properly conditioning the dog to an electronic collar. I did all the necessary steps to the best of my knowledge, but remember I am new at this and easily could've made mistakes. If you have any ideas or suggestions, it would be appreciated. Please tell me I didn't waste $300 on the collar.

(Solution) If you ruin Grady by using the collar, it would indeed have been a wasted 300 bucks.  Put it away for a year or so and then if you need to use it, you can. But for now, I would say you really lucked out and got a good, solid, intelligent dog whose temperament has just the right amount of sensitivity.  He is apparently very easily trained because he possesses these characteristics.

I really don't know why you felt the need to buy an e-collar and I wonder even more why you used it. The shock collar, euphemistically an electronic training collar, was invented as a remote correction device. It delivers punishment, more or less harsh, depending on the setting used.  It is negative reinforcement.