I am inquiring if anyone has experienced any negative effects with Dogtra E-collars. Are Police K9 unit has been using E-collars since 1996 after we went to several seminars and then brought a trainer in to help us with the training and transition. The first collars we got were Tri-tronics lite series and we had success with these. We changed to Dogtra as we were looking for a collar that we had more control of the stimulation (ie control at the controler, not switching contacts). We settled on the Dogtra collars, but I have noticed that the consistency of the stimulation with this collar isn't always consistent. We have experienced this with virtually all 8 of our collars. We tried going to the longer contacts in the event that the collar was not making good contact, but the problem has persisted. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this and if they found anything to make it more consistent. Thank you

Various PD's are using various collars. There are probably more departments using TT's than Dogtras because it's only in the past couple of years that the Dogtras have improved their reliability.

I find it hard to believe that you have eight defective units. While no manufacturer is perfect and there will always be factory defects; for one organization to get eight defective units is statistically highly improbable.

The only problems that have been reported have been with the 200NCP Gold unit and those problems only occur at very low levels, below a 15.

What unit are you using? How have these problems shown themselves? Are you using the continuous mode or the nick mode? What are you doing when you notice the problem.

I have been using E Collars for years. I have had several Tri Tronic collars, however, when they changed to the newer generation collar I have had many problems with several different models. TT is always great about "making it right", but I was tired of sending them in.

Now, I have a 2Dog Dogtra collar and I love it. I've used it for over a year and have had no problems. The key may be to ensure that you follow the companies guidelines on charging and storage. When the collar are going dead, they won't deliver the same bite that a fresh collar will. However, that's where the riostat dial comes in handy.

Steve - I agree with Lou - you may want to spend some time on the phone with the DOGTRA people. I use their collar and like it. I wish it had a digital read out but I am sure it will come some day. My 1200 NC collar is storesd on the charger every night - I sell a lot of these collars and dont have customer complaints - if i did I would not sell them.

I would be interested in hearing what the facotry tells you and if it works.

First I appreciate all the replys. We bought all the Dogtra collars in late 2001 at the same time. The problem we are experiencing is in the continuous mode. When go up (stimulation) with the collar it seems to have no effect on the dog and then all of the sudden it hits the dog and yelps. This happens at the lower levels. Our collars are the 1200 NC and there are no numbers on the dial, so I cant give the exact level that it happens at. We at first thought the problem might be that we weren't getting good contact with the dog and we were getting arching so we ordered the longer contacts. This didn't completely alleviate the problem, although it has been better for most of the dogs. I am going to contact Dogtra later today and see what they recommend or if they would be interested in me sending my collar back to them to see if they locate a problem. I am glad to hear otheres are having good luck with the collars as I like the concept of how they work in that you can adjust stimulation instantaneosly. Again thanks for the reponses.

Steve,
It sounds like you may not have the collar on tightly enough. I had problems similar to what you describe until I started making sure the collar was on very tight. It should be tight enough that you can not move the collar. It took me some time to get used to the idea because it is much tighter than you would normally have a collar but as long as the dog can breathe normally it is not too tight.

Steve wrote: The problem we are experiencing is in the continuous mode. When go up (stimulation) with the collar it seems to have no effect on the dog and then all of the sudden it hits the dog and yelps. This happens at the lower levels. Our collars are the 1200 NC and there are no numbers on the dial, so I cant give the exact level that it happens at.

LC: One of the characteristics of this Ecollar is that a *little movement* on the dial means a lot on the other end. That is to say that a slight change on the dial will change the stim level quite a bit. Movements are best made in increments of 1/16" or less, if you're capable of it.

LC: As far as not having numbers, the earlier dials are marked "low-med-high." Most dogs (and people) first feel the stim at about the "L" of Low. You can use the letters in place of stating numbers when talking about the levels. But it's only good for communicating between people who know this "numbering" system.

I've never been above the "E" level except when doing aversion training.

Lou, I sent you an e-mail. Your message box is full on here.