is an ecollar used to reinforce the commands (avoidance/escape) all the time? meaning, i have training sessions with my dog, come back home and want her to sit before i feed her/play with her/wife coming through the door. since you are trying to teach her that when you give her a command any time, she must obey, shouldn't this be reinforced with the ecollar so she doesn't start thinking that the estim only comes once in awhile?

another question is, i've read the articles on the lou's website teaching the obedience commands, i didn't find much on corrections however. so i was wondering if those of you that are using the ecollar for ob. training, do you also use it for problems such as jumping on people, on furniture, bothering the cat...etc? if so, would you use a nick or a constant stim. say "NO" before the stim?

Thanks
Phil

I don't use mine like that, but I'm training my dogs for schutzhund. The only time mine has it on is for barking (bark collar didn't work and was only teaching him how to be po'd) I give the command quiet, if he continues then he gets nicked. Continues, then he gets continuous. Normally he stops on quiet now. Hopefully someone else can answer this better than me.

I personally feel that sometimes we have to watch that we don't get carried away using the e-collar and us having control issues with our dogs. As in 'I am the boss and you must always listen to me no matter what even if I ask to you sit 1200000 times a day I said sit so SIT!'

I only really train for a specific period during the day. And the younger the dog, the shorter the training period. And during that time I want my dog to WANT to learn, and to be in the game. Not to constantly have to be 'corrected' each and every time she fails to 'sit' 'down' 'heel' absolutlely perfectly. I would rather use my girls TOY DRIVE when training to have her SLAM into a down and get some fun and play. Than me set her up to fail so I can 'teach' her by using the e-collar.

When I'm not officially 'training' during the day, I won't use the command word unless I'm in a position to make sure I can quickly and calmly have her do it, or I have a handful of treats so I know she'll do it, or be playing ball in the yard and have her 'sit' throw the ball when that butt hits, 'down' throw the ball when those elbows hit the ground.

I want my dogs to LOVE to learn, see that prong collar and leash and go out of their minds with wanting to learn, and be staring up at me dying with joy for the next command. I do not want my dog only doing as I ask cause I ask it and they know they are going to get it if they don't.

Do I use an e-collar? You betcha! But for things that all other methods had failed (and for me kind of life/death). My dogs prey drive were just not allowing me to call them off chasing deer out of my yard, and away across the roads. No matter if I had a roast beef around my neck or a favorite toy in my hand, those deer would win. So the training with the e-collar and getting a reliable 'come' began.

In my opinion, some people tend to use the e-collar as an 'easy fix' rather than learning all the other training skillis we need. Timing, motivators, proper training collars, proper methods to work best with our dog. I always recommend finding a great trainer so you can learn from someone who's already done the mistakes on their own dogs while learning!

But I know people do use the collars for obedience work. Here's a site (scroll down in it) that has alot of articles and steps you need to follow. http://www.uwsp.edu/psych/dog/obed.htm#elec

Philip read the article on my website that talks about weaning the dog off the Ecollar. You'll find that it talks about giving automatic stims every time you give the command for a specified period of time. If you don't, until the OB becomes a habit, you'll teach the dog that the stim happens "sometimes." What you'll get is a very unreliable dog. He'll think, "This is real interesting, I'll gamble that this time the stim won't happen." I wouldn't use the nick mode if you taught the behavior as I suggest with the continuous mode.

Jenn,
Thanks for the reply, it was well written and makes total sense. i don't want my dog to be afraid when i go grab the leash or even just have him in the house, wondering when he'll get shocked next. i'll be sure to check out that website.

Lou, i'll re-read that article, i have them printed out, saved to my computer at home and at work, they are just awesome guides.

You both offered different suggestions. both logical, so i guess it is for me to decide how to approach it.

thanks for your help guys.

What happened to my reply? I was the third to reply, but my response isn't here? This was a few days ago.