I was planning to start working recalls and leave-its in the field next to my house. In my yard he will comply with simple voice commands, so I have no reason to use the collar under those circumstances.

At this point my only option is to give him a leash correction to get him to pick up his nose fot leave-it or recall. I thought in the field I could perhaps get him to understand that the collar is a correction that he can turn off by complying- there is nothing over there that he could mistakenly associate with the collar or anything. what I would like is to have him understand how to work with the collar, then start walking him in the neighborhood on the 15 foot line and work on leave-its from exciting smells.

Hopefully I can teach him to accept the E Collar instead of the leash correction (what I had done before was very mild, and on a flat buckle collar)

Then do the 30 foot line maybe down the greenbelts in between houses, next distraction level... (slightly more critter smells- bushes to hear critters in, etc.)

Eventually take him back out to the trail when I feel like we have a decent foundation that I won't have to blast him at a high level to stop a chase (I HOPE!) I also intend to buy a coon scent from a hunting supply store and work him on that in our field, he's caught 3 coons now, we've gotta start in kindergarten with that...

And all in conjunction with the positive reinforcement program- most yummy treats his tummy can tolerate. This dog really eats up verbal praise and a rub on the shoulder, too.

Juliana,
You're thinking about using escape training?

Escape training- no, not in the sense that I would stim him before giving a command and hold it down until he complies. That doesn't seem fair to me. Today I finally had success working him on level 13.

I press the pager button breifly as I give a command (I have experimented with the pager w/ him, he has no real reaction to it. i.e. it is not startling or scary for him. So today I did

1. pager w/"leave-it" : the first four times he quickly picked his head up and got big praise and cookies. The last time he did not pick his head up so I stimmed him continuous on 13, which I had found this morning to be his minimal perception level. He picked his head up with a funny look on his face, then looked at me like "huh?" as soon as he picked his head up, I stopped the stim and switched to big praise.

Instead of using the lease to force him to comply with leave-it, I used the E.

My understanding with e-collars is that you start with the lowest level that emits a twitch or flicker of the ears, right?

Secondly, has anyone here seen a trainer who gives the dog a nick when the dog does what you want it to?

Hi Dina;
Sometimes dogs will, stop what they are doing, blink, or turn their head. The idea for some of us ecollar trainers to interrupt the thought and focus the dog on the trainer. Lots of fun to train this way.
I do have a student of my school using the pager as a marker. Very interesting.
Roni

Juliana;
If you are teaching the dog to turn off the stimulation, well that is escape training. I am not a proponent of that method.
Roni
I suggest using marker training. Michael Ellis's videos are amazing!

 Quote: Dina Hitchcock

My understanding with e-collars is that you start with the lowest level that emits a twitch or flicker of the ears, right?

Secondly, has anyone here seen a trainer who gives the dog a nick when the dog does what you want it to?

question for me? yes thats how I get dialed in for general training. I use the pager for recall