glenmar
Posted : 2/3/2008 9:05:58 AM
Let me preface my comments by saying that I know nothing about these. I give very wide berth to anything I think of as an aversive and tend to be rather close minded about even investigating.
Now, that said, I believe I've seen others discussing collars such as you mention. NOT a shock collar, but one that simply vibrates to get the dogs attention. In that case, with a deaf animal, I don't see anything wrong with such a collar. You already know, but I'll repeat for our lurkers, that of course the dog has to be TRAINED to the collar and I'd reserve using it for absolute life and death emergencies and not as an everyday, "leave it" type tool, otherwise I would think that the vib would just become so much nagging.
Ideally, you want to set this dog up to succeed without the use of tools and I think I'd limit her area of the house and the yard until you've been able to teach a good solid "watch me" so that it becomes a default behavior for her to constantly be checking back in with you, even if you were to take her out on a long line. I use some hand signals....probably not the RIGHT ones....with my dogs from the time they are pups and over the years, it's just become second nature to me to do so, since all dogs get old, and sometimes old dogs don't hear as well as they used to.
Off the top of my head, I suggest doing a search for the user Spiritdogs and PM'ing her for suggestions. Anne is a professional trainer and I suggest her because she thinks along the same lines as I do as far as trying positive ways first. I'm sure that others here think similarly, but I haven't had enough coffee yet this morning to think of anyone else!