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In a previous blog post, we discussed the importance of training when it comes to acclimating a dog to a new pet safety system. No two dogs are the same — they each require a different style and level of training before becoming fully conditioned to the system.

Today, we are going to sort through some of those different types of dogs and why it’s important to be mindful of their personality and demeanor in order to create a constructive, effective training process.

Adjusting to the needs of your dog

The goal of training is to condition the pet to become mindful of the boundaries set up by the system. Easing them into the process is important so they don’t become nervous traumatized.

It’s also important to adjust training methods to meet the special needs or characteristics of your dog. These can include:

• High or low pain tolerance: Conditioning is done through the use of a very low level shock. However, some dogs have lower or higher pain tolerances. It’s important to recognize this early in the process to adjust the settings accordingly. Dogs with a higher pain tolerance won’t start learning until the shock is intensified and provides a small level of discomfort. Trainers should start low and go from there.
• Rescue dogs: Be very patient and slow moving with rescue dogs, because, as a trainer, you don’t know what they have been through in their life (i.e. past trauma). You don’t want to exacerbate past trauma.
• Stubborn dogs: The same applies for stubborn dogs. These are dogs that are not necessarily emotionally traumatized from a previous event — they just don’t do what you want them to. The key here is simply repetition and diligence. It may take weeks or months to finally train the dog.
• Deaf dogs: Pet safety systems offer audio prompts to alert the canine that they are approaching the boundary. This clearly won’t work for deaf dogs. Some pet safety system retailers like ours offer a collar that vibrates so that deaf dogs can still receive that needed prompt.

Every dog can be trained to comply with a pet safety system — it just might require a different training method or amount of time to get there.