You know, with all said and with experience with the underground fence, I am now at a crossroad with age related training. Because:

Daisy (5 mos old) just got her collar. She is doing AMAZINGLY well! Way better than Duke at same age - (surely personality and mix difference). BUT . . . She hears that beeper and comes right back to Mom/Dad/Son with PRAISE. We intentionally made her have a low frequency shock as per training guideline. Once she hears that beep, it seems to be the only learning curve versus Dukes. What a girl!! Duke was the same age when we got the fence 1 year ago except Duke (my little nut) tested it soooo many times his battery went low way to early.

Now however, Duke is MOST respectful of his boundry lines. So wouldn't you think that the younger they are trained the best scenario/outcome with this feisty little breed? Granted, mine are mixes, but age related training may play a big factor in success.

Each dog is different.. as is their learning curve and/or pain tollerence… IMO

I do not think it is an age thing. Each dog is an individual and their learning curve and pain tolerance is different. Rally as a pup would run up to our cats get swatted on the nose pop back then charge in a again until she was separated from them because she did not make the connection that the cat swatting her was a message to stay away. Ringo, Rally's son, has been taking trips out to a barn that has an enclosure of geese. He goes up to the geese sticks his head in get bit, pulls his head out, looks at them a little while then sticks his head back in and gets bit again. This is not a dumb dog, he very quickly picked up commands like wait, break, ready, etc but just doesn't connect the punishment with the message "Don't stick your nose in the goose enclosure."

I'm just hoping for some encouragement. Yesterday was her first day. She is a real softy kind of girl. (fingers and paws crossed for the next week or so) Will keep you posted with her progress. It is hard for me too…

That is so great, Jill. We have ours set at the next to highest level for Nala. My husband always says, "one more notch up and she'll just be a puff of smoke" if she goes through it"! LOL! Seriously, it's great when they learn quickly. One word of caution is to set the boundary to it's largest setting when you get snow in the winter. We had so much snow that the boundary wasn't high enough to cover the snow "mountains" that had piled up and the little she-devil figured it out! They each are different and most are so smart!

OK. Age related or not. Daisy is being the MOST observant here. Daisy hears the beep - and WHAM! Back to her hooo-mans! The last 2 days - I have not observed her to come close to the lines. YAY - DAISY - WOO HOO!!! That is exactly the praise she gets. There are flags everywhere now. She sees them and "bam", she backs away! I do believe I have a very smart girl on my hands - different than Duke who is always testing, testing-testing!