Yep, Chucky the Tourist is what we call him now. He looks like he is wearing a camera around his neck. But it isn't a camera, it is his training collar. And it is working - we have not had to go look for him since we started using it.
The part that looks like a lens on a camera is actually a horn. We can "honk" it remotely with the hand held unit that we carry with us. It has a volume control and we keep it low if we know where he is and just want get his attention to turn him around towards home turf. If he doesn't respond, we can give him a light shock to remind him to listen to us. Believe me, it is not cruel - cruel would be letting him range all over the place and possibly get into trouble - maybe running into a rattlesnake or chasing the neighbors chickens or even making it to the road where he could get hit by a car.
The horn can also be set to honk very loud. If we were unable to find Chucky and he was hurt or trapped somewhere, we could locate him up to a mile away. That was the most important feature we wanted because we love our dog - he is part of our "pack" and we would be devastated to lose him. We lost one of our Basset hounds in the mountains once and spent many fearful and tearful hours searching for him. In the end he came walking up the trail I was hiking behind me like nothing was wrong! By then we had lost Tramp 1 and I had to start driving logging roads to search for him. At that time we had one of those musical horns in our truck (yes, we really did...) and I programmed it to play "Hail, Hail, the Gang's all Here" while I drove through the forest so Tramp 1 would know I had the dog. Turned out Tramp 1 didn't know that song but we did eventually find him and he wasn't happy. Maybe we need one of these collars for Tramp 1, too!
What about you - ever had to search for a pet or a person on one of your outings??
13 comments:
That's funny! :)
Maybe I should try one of those collars for Emma. I can't trust her at all off leash. :(
Now that raised a smile 2T.
John
I think you might have too much fun with that collar on Tramp 1!!
I'm forever hollering out the door for hubby-maybe I should get one of these. I wouldn't shock him too much-LOL!
When Molliedog was young she would take off after a rabbit or cow and we maybe would not see her for a half an hour (out in the middle of nowhere)...I would just finish my run and she would eventually come back before I finished but..now that I think about it probaly not the smartest thing....we just got lucky. She always reminded me of an alcoholic...she knew she shouldn't but unless you caught her at the very first moment.. she was gone...and damn the getting in trouble. I like the horn idea ...never saw that before.
All he needs is a pair of Bermuda shorts and some white knee socks. Go Chucky Go!!
I did lose Sadie once - the scariest feeling in the world. She was sitting on the front lawn when I got back to the house. I was so glad I didn't have to explain to my husband that I lost the dog.
Sounds like a wonderful thing to have if you travel much with your pet. Nothing worse than losing a pet.
What a good idea and I am thinking for hubby too. He is forever wandering off when we are out. I am always threatening to get him some of those reins that you use on small children!!!
That horn must be a new addition. We had a friend using the shock part as a training tool.It malfunctioned and started giving the dog small repeated shocks.As he tried to remove the collar the dog was upset and bit the owner requiring 7 stitches. You're right though the dog was fine.The owners wife just removed the batteries from the control and all was aok.Women rule.
The first thing that crossed my mind it the video taken by a cat with a camera on his (her?) collar. We are cat people, so keeping track of outdoor kitties was always a problem. When we lived in Los Angeles we were in coyote territory. They would run across the road from the park and go searching for supper in our back yards. Every time a cat failed to return for supper we started to worry. All the hunting and calling we did never did much good. Cats are like that. The best thing was to leave the bedroom door open and hope for the best. After too many nights like that, we decided our cats would be indoor only. But that's hard to implement with a young cat that remembers the outdoors. Now he is old enough that life with Mom in the condo is plenty of activity. Maybe making him indoor only has made him our longest lived cat. We estimate his age now at about 15. - Margy
years ago we had a golden retriever that would escape. The children were young and if he heard the door open he would gallop to it, knock over anyone in his way and bolt. I would get in my van and circle the block with a hunk of cheese to find him and coax him to get in. Finally, with my hands full raising 4 kids under 6 I gave up and found him a new home. It was just not the time to be trying to train a rambunctious dog like that one. :)
I have to tell my son abaout this thing for sure.
I needed on of those for Garrett! Then people would have thought I was a great mom teaching my son to use a camera. Instead I had to put him on a kid leash.
Good Grief that's just too funny! Your photographer may get famous!
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