Some time ago I mentioned I wanted to try using the e-collar vibrate function as a reward. I put the collar on Jager every morning and used the vibrate function while he was eating, getting a treat, and a reward during play time. My goal was to imprint the vibrate function as a happy thing.

After a few weeks I was taking the trash can out to the end of the drive way and had Jager off leash. He instantly bolted to the neighbor's yard to check out the other neighborhood dog's scents. I called him back, he ignored me, I had to increase the intensity twice (approx 1/4 of maximum) and used continuous correction of about a half second. It looked like he hit a brick wall. Jager stopped, then prepared to bolt further down the street. I called him, when he looked at me I hit vibrate, he took two or three tentative steps toward me and I used vibrate again. He broke into a gallop towards me and I kept hitting vibrate again and again.

This last weekend I had Jager out at the local National Guard training facility (I'm retired military and help training troops as a hobby) and I had him on leash for an hour, then just let him go (you gotta do it sometime) and although he was excited and checking everything and everyone out, he came when called.

So, after that shaggy dog story, I think using the vibrate function "May," have promise as a mechanism to reward a dog for desired performance at a distance.

Red Thomas
Mesa, AZ

OK folks - not snide comments on the title of this thread :-)

I do NOT have extensive eCollar experience by my observations with one of my dogs was that the vibrate function was quite distressing to her compared to the electronic stim.

Strange but true - not sure if that holds for other dogs or not.

You can use vibrate or low level stim to "reward" the dog.
It depends on the associate you've created. Gene England use to play with the dog, while giving it low level stim so it associated the stim with pleasure instead of punishment.
When the dog was "corrected" the drive went up. Helmut Raiser uses the Prong collar similarly. When the dog is doing a H&B he is getting popped with the prong and then gets the reward bite. The dog associates the pleasure of the
bite, when he gets corrected with the prong during OB
Of course Gene and Helmut are better trainers than most of
us, so your mileage way vary :-)