Here is my take on collars for your short hair. Number one I would get separate training collars and/or beeper/GPS collars. Here is why. You will use the training collar extensively for things like force fetch, recall, heeling, steadiness, and a variety of other training methods. It is a pain in the ass to have a beeper and or GPS collar on a dog when doing this because they are big, bulky, and typically the dial systems are not as conducive to pure training.
I am not going to advocate for a particular brand. I have used several different brands, and they all have their pros and cons. I would order from somewhere like gun dog supply, because they have a 30 day trial period during which you can use the collar and see if it fits your needs. It’s pretty hard to beat that for customer service.
I would look very hard at a training collar that has a dial adjustment for the stimulation. When you are training your dog, there will be times when you want to gradually increase the intensity level while holding down the stimulation button. For instance, if your dog is chasing deer you would want to press the continuous button and hold it, starting at a low level, and then gradually increase the level of stimulation until he stops chasing the deer and starts coming back to you. It is very difficult to do this without a dial setting because you’re having to push and hold buttons, some of which we may or may not work while giving stimulation.
I am currently looking at a new training collar also, because right now the only collar I have is a Garman Alpha. It is a great hunting collar, but it sucks for training for the reasons I stated above. Again, I would look hard at a company like gun dog supply and go based on their recommendations. Honestly if you need more than a half mile of range on the collar, you have severe dog training issues that need to be reconciled. My dog rarely ever ranges more than 400 yards from me, and I can’t imagine needing a mile of range for shock stimulation
Probably most important, more so than what brand you choose, is knowing how to apply stimulation. The collar should not be applied to your dog until you have sound obedience foundations in place, and then you introduce it through a collar conditioning process where the dog learns to understand how to escape the stimulation. If you don’t do this, you’ll end up with a dog that has no idea what the hell he is doing wrong and you could cause some serious hunting issues that will hunt you down the road. The training collar will be your best friend during the advanced part of the force fetch process, if you do the collar conditioning correctly.
