Black Jack 1998-2008
Huxley 2008-
Note: This page is new and under construction. More information and pictures will be added as time goes by. The main reason for posting page besides the love of our dogs, is to share some experiences which might be useful to other Schipperke owners such as the modification of an E- (Shock) Collar to prevent our dog from chewing off.
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Black Jack 1998-2008 |
Huxley 2008- |
Black Jack's life with us will be added later. He died of Lymphoma in the summer of 2008.
Huxley, a male Schipperke, came to us from the Kennel of Richard Hatton in Missouri. He was born 10/07/2008 and was air shipped to Harrisburg Airport on 12/05/08. Much more about his adoption of us will be added soon.
For now, we want to share our experience with an "E-Collar" (Shock Collar) so that others may benefit from our frustration and adaptation of a "PetSafe" Brand Collar.
We live on 5.5 acres of wooded mountain land in Central PA. While there is ample room for our dogs (we have a Lhasa also) to run, we did not want them to stray into neighbor's yards. We were also concerned with the safety of our dogs since our area has a number of predatory animals including Bobcats, Foxes, Coyotes, and Black Bear.
Some people are opposed to the use of a shock collar as we discovered in our research of the subject. We did not want to hurt our dogs in any way and only after considering the pros and cons, did we decide to try an underground electronic fence and shock (E-collar) system. An 18 or 20 guage insulated wire is buried to a depth of 1-3 inches to enclose an area for the dogs to roam. I used a grass edger attachment on my weed wacker to make the shallow trench necesssary to lay the line. We purchased a "PetSafe Small Dog System" (Approx $350) to encompass about an acre of running area for the dogs. The system included two "E-Collars" designed for smaller dogs, a transmitter to generate a low frequency RF wave and enough wire to enclose the area. Training took about a week, during which time we kept the collars on both dogs for short periods of time.
After we were satisfied that both dogs would stay within the wired area (marked by white flags), we kept the collars on while they played outside. Samantha our Lhasa adapted to her collar and has not been a problem. Huxley on the other hand chewed off his collar. The collar strap is made of a durable water proof plastic with convenient snap, but he still managed to chew through the material. The Schipperke has a long snout that enables the dog to easily work his mouth between his body and the collar strap. Schipperke's also have long, very "aggressive" teeth for their size. If we adjusted collar so that it was tighter on his neck, the prongs of the "receiver" (shocker) were very uncomforatble and he let us know it. During this first "chewing" however, we thought we had put on the collar too loosely.
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Huxley with Modified PetSafe E-Collar. Receiver has been moved to side of neck for picture. |
Enlarged View of Receiver showing Shock "Prongs" that must be in contact with the neck. |
Since the strap of Huxley's collar was no longer useable as it was intended, we contacted PetSafe and were shocked (pun could be intended) to find a replacement collar cost $100. After much deliberation, we decided to invest another $100 and buy a second collar, making sure the collar was more snug around his neck.
The second collar lasted a few days longer than the first since we made sure it was tighter. We also learned that collar could be too tight and prongs would cause him great discomfort. After chewing the second collar we called PetSafe again and explained the situation. We don't think they understood the problem and said they had not experienced this problem. They were not willing to send us another collar (of any type) without payment. The representative said they had another collar with a nylon strap that was on sale for $20. We were told the strap was replaceable and the receiver had only one shock setting (more expensive collar has four settings). We reluctantly purchased the less expensive collar and upon its arrival realized the representative absolutely did not understand the problem. The prongs of the 3rd collar were even longer than the previous. They would have cause even more discomfort to Huxley.
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$100 Receiver on left. Note longer prongs of $20 receiver on Right |
We did not even bother to try the less expensive collar on Huxley since we knew from experience, the longer prongs would not be comfortable. We did more searching on line but did not find any E-collars that were advertized for dogs that could chew the collar. We therefore decided to use the receivers of the two more expensive collars and experimented by adding different straps to the remains of the plastic strap molded to the receiver. We drilled a hole in each strap and tried the following materials unsuccessfully:
My wife finally found a metal necklace with a variety of link chains of different sizes. We chose one that looked promising and attached an end link to the stub of plastic collar with a screw, two washers and a nut. To secure the ends of the necklace we used the nice pinch clasp that came with the necklace. With some trial and error, we discovered the right tightness aournd his neck and are happy to report that so far he has not been able to remove or chew through the chain. He does not seem to be uncomfortable unless the chain is too tight. We did discover that if the chain is too loose the prongs would not sufficiently make contact and he would "fly the coop" going across the white flag "forbidden zone" and into the woods. Pictures below show the modifications and comparison of the two collars:
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Top is PetSafe Small Dog Collar with snap plastic collar. Bottom is modified collar with link chain attached by screws to plastic strap |
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At Left, chain shown attached to plasic strap with screw and washer. At Right, the nut side of the attachment screw is visible. A second washer was used. |
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Please contact us if you have any questions about our modifications and experience: TIM YOHO