I finally have time to try out the dogtra I purchased. I went out to day and following the instructions I read on this site and others I fitted the collar high on the neck , snugged it tight, worked the prongs into the hair and then proceeded to find the level of the dog. I started on zero and when the dog was fully relaxed hit the continuous button. I slowly worked my way up, nothing I took the collar off retested it with the light it worked. Put back on and proceeded. Now I am at the 20 mark the 21...41 mark,no response at all from the dog, no ear twitching, no scratching no furrowing of the eyebrows. I get to 42 and he goes through the roof with a long screetching howl, obviously way to high for the guidance system (low stim) I wanted to use. What do I need to do to get better consistency from this? (I stopped at this point and just played ball with him.)

also I have read that others keep the collar on the dog 24/7 and have read others say that it aggravates the dog to have it on for more than several hours, how do most do this?

Daniel, have you put the collar on your hand to see if there is any stim coming from the collar at the 0 thru 40 level? There are some collars that are malfunctioning at lower levels or when the collar needs to be recharged.
i also wouldn't use continuos when trying to find the dogs working level for now. I would just tap it or put the collar on momentary until you get this worked out. no need to send the dog through the roof. Good Luck with it.

After re-reading your post where you wrote that you tested the collar with the light tester, I would add that the dog may be responding to the continuos stim by freezing up on you and your not reading it in the dog. Again, I would try tapping the button through this phase of trying to find a working level.

Hi,

I put the E-collar on my dog in the morning and take it off at night. He seems to do very well with this, and it is also a good idea to let him wear it for a couple months before you use it at all.......even carry the hand held remote with you like you were going to use it so the dog gets used to the whole set up with no stimulation, so when you do finally use it he won't suspect anything out of the ordinary.

Also to find the working level for your dog, you should use the NICK button (like Scott said). One nice thing about the NICK button, is that it will only give a split second of stimulation no matter how long you hold it down.

thanks for all the advice, I think that somehow there was no contact and then all of a sudden there was after I had already increased the stim amount. I had heard that you needed to use the continuous mode in order to find correct working level because many dogs will acts as if the stim. is to high just because they are startled. this obviously was not a startled response and I think I will use the nick until I do find the optimum working stim.

Daniel if you've gotten the method for finding the dog's working level from this site or others that I've written I've changed it slightly. Now, instead of pressing the continuous button to find the working level I tap continuous button three times. For the Dogtra Ecollars that have the continuously variable stimulation, set the dial on “0” and press the Continuous button quickly three times. Since the Ecollar isn’t putting out any stim at this setting, you won’t see anything from the dog. Turn it up just a little. If you can move it in increments of 1/16," you’re in the right ballpark. Press the button again, three times quickly. Continue in this fashion to SLOWLY turn the dial up until you see some sign that the dog is feeling the stimulation.

There are many such signs. One of the most common is that the dog will sit down and scratch as if a flea is biting him. Some signs are subtler than that though. They include an ear flick, a quick look at the ground directly in front of the dog, a pulling back as if a grasshopper landed on the dog, moving to another place, locking up (rigidity of the legs). Sometimes all that is noticeable is a furrowing of the dog’s brow. A dog may also rear up, raising his front legs off the ground. A dog that does this may do so because of a startle reflex. He’s not in pain he’s just been startled. One of the more subtle signs, especially with very stoical dog is a blink of his eyes. Stoical dogs may try to ignore the discomfort as it increases. You’ll find that this dog will suddenly respond, usually with a yelp of pain and a jump. The stim has just gotten to high for him to ignore. This is the reason that I press the button quickly three times. I’m watching the dog’s eyes as I do this. Even if he’s trying to ignore the stim, he’ll blink three times, in time with my three button presses.

Most dogs feel the stim at around the 20 setting. If you have to go much higher there's something wrong, usually the problem is one of poor contact of the electrical points with the skin.

More than likely, you'll get a similar reaction next time you try the Ecollar because he's learned that it shuts off the stim.

The malfunction that another poster mentioned hasn't plagued your model but of course, any mechanical or electrical device can fail.

I don't know anyone who keeps the Ecollar on the dog 24/7. If you try that, you're almost guaranteed to get sores on his neck that will soon become infected. I like to put it on in the morning, even if we're not going to go training, and take it off in the evening. A couple of times a day call the dog over to you and move it so it's on a different spot on his neck.

Test the collar with the test light but this time use an assistant. Open up some distance between you and have him hold the continuous button down as you rotate the Ecollar through as many positions as you can. Also, jiggle it around. Make sure that it's working in all attitudes. Doing this at night or in a low light area makes it a little easier to see if it's working continuously. Go up and down the stim levels while you make sure that there aren't any dead spots in the dial.

I'm not a fan of using the nick button for teaching or training, except for those few very sensitive dogs for whom the continuous mode is too high. In that mode of use, it's little more than an invisible leash. Using the continuous mode lets the dog know when the exercise is completed because the stim shuts off.

I only use the nick when proofing, when I'm sure that the dog knows what behavior is expected.

The latest versions of my articles can be seen on my website, in my signature line. Of course, the link that discusses this is being repaired right now.

Lou, When first starting the recall training do you give the stim first then command?

I don't use any command at first. I let the dog figure out what's happening, that if he comes towards me the stim stops.

Next, when he's staying by me, I try to move away from him. If he doesn't follow me, he gets stimmed. Then when he's moving with me regularly, I introduce the command.

The article on my website gives more details.

That sounds like a good way to develop a dog thats scared to death to leave you.Wich results in a dog that crowds, wont do a sit stay or down stay.Not to mention a dog that looks wigged out all the time.If your gonna have to stim the dog to leave you (send away) or to do long sits or long downs because the dog is afraid to be anywhere other than against your leg, let me just say there are better ways to train with an e-collar than to shock the dog into everymove it makes.

Not one of the over 1,000 dogs that I've put Ecollars on was the slightest bit scared to leave me. None of them crowd. All of them do sit stays and down stays. And none of them look "wigged out" any of the time. I also don't stim dogs to send them away from me.

I also don't recall saying anything about "shock(ing) the dog into everymove (sic) it makes."

I have no idea where this nonsense comes from. Perhaps if you used a high level stim to train the recall this might occur, but since I don't, it doesn't. Perhaps you might be better served by reading my article on how I train the recall, on my website. The link on my website for how I find the dog's working level of stim isn't working right now but an earlier version (which doesn't include the modifications I described a few posts above) can be found at

http://www.leerburg.com/cgi-bin/UBB/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=23&t=000039#000007