Patti - I will be curious to see if you say the same about recalls if you get a hard driving GSP. It took 2 years of recall training and an ecollar to get my girl, Halo, to hear my recall when we were in an open field. She was perfect 100% in training class and had her CD in Obedience, but as soon as I turned her loose in an open area her prey drive kicked in and she was gone. She would eventually come back or I could send my older shorthair after her, but she just flat would shut out everything when I let her off leash. Once I conditioned her to the ecollar it took only one time and she realized I could reach out and touch her and I have had no problems since with her recall.

My other shorthairs have not given me the same problems, but I still reinforce the recall with the ecollar once they are solid in controlled situations and on a long line. I do allot of hiking in the high country of CO and NM, and the hill country of TX and my dogs range far and wide, so I want to know that when I call them they will return to me. I also want to be able to call them off of any critter. The ecollar allows me to get to that level in their training. I also believe that the ecollar is the only training tool that will get me as close as anyone can ever get to a 100% recall with my dogs. For me the ecollar is the extension of the leash in training as it allows me to reinforce a behavior at a long distance, and that extension is necessary because at some point the "call of the wild" will inevitably get the better of the dogs, at least for a while.