My Husband and I have been consistantly using the e-collar with Jake when out for walks etc... as he doesn't like other dogs. Our trainer taught us to nick him every time he looks at another dog and starts getting fussy etc... I am beginning to find however, this doesn't seem to stop him. I don't want to go up to too high a level and hurt him, but he just seems to mind the nick and go about making a fuss at the other dog. I don't know what to do about it anymore. In Ed's Video, and when we first used the collar in our training class it only took a couple of corrections for the dog to start minding him/us, but know he almost doesn't seem to care.

My main concern now however is this. Over the last couple of days, I have noticed that when we nick him for looking at/getting fussy over another dog, he starts to bark/growl at the dog at the same time as being nicked. He never used to do this at all. I am concerned that he could be starting to associate the nick with other dogs, and I really don't want to make him more afraid of, or more defensive towards other dogs, I'm trying to achieve the opposite! I'm just getting kind of frustrated at all this and would appreciate any opinions/advice??

Does the dog know the correction is coming from you? For instance, do you tell him "no" before nicking him?

Yes we do, at least I know it is always our intention to say no before correcting him.

Perhaps there could be the occasions when we miss that step before we hit the nick button, in the heat of all that activity and trying to calm him down.

There are two ways to use the e-collar in this situation, depending upon your foundation work with the collar. One way is to have the dog associate the nick button with getting his attention on you, pairing that behavior with something that the dog really desires. This needs to be practiced while the dog is not so excited about the other dogs he meets on a walk (my preferred method)
If you desire to use it as a correction, the level of the stimulus must be just enough to let the dog know that it is unacceptable behavior and not so much that the dog preceives the stimulus as pain. Pain can cause an adverse reaction in any dog.
Same as the use of a prong collar. What collar are you using and what level of stimulus are you using in the situation?.
Hope this info helps.
Roni

I'm in training for my deaf pit bull who became agressive with my other dog - we are using e collar which is helpful with her deafness as she "looks away" when she doesn't want to listen. We are doing the version of e-collar where the sensation is to train her to look at me instead of shocking her out of a bad behavior. I am very happy with this as she is getting to the point of ignoring things she used to chase after and the other dog to look at me. In fact it is almost kind of annoying because she won't stop standing in front of me looking for direction/treat.

If she did go nuts and went after another dog I wouldn't hesitate to give her a large shock but at this point it isn't even nessecery - kind of a prevention type of approach I think.

Do you walk your dog directly past the other dogs? If so, try to walk in a curve around the dog, since your dog is showing aggressive behavior.
I don't think your dog is associating the stim. from the collar with other dogs. I think Ed says in one of his videos-can't offhand think of which one-that when a dog aggressive dog gets stim. or prong-collar correction the dog becomes more aggressive thinking that the other dog is somehow attacking it.
The best thing to do IMHO, is to walk in a curve away from the other dogs and try to keep your dogs attention while doing this(if you can)and don't "nick" with ecollar.

I'm going through something similar with my dog. I have found that just crossing the street can help. But also, I must start the correction process before he goes into drive. Once he is in drive I have to turn the stim level way up to get his attention.

On our walks we pass a house where the dog charges the fence and barks at us every time we go by. I can see my dog's ears go up and his head turning that way as we approach the house. That's when I'll tell him "no" and nick him if he doesn't look away. Waiting for the dog to charge the fence is just too late. Crossing the street also helps, the further away he is from the other dog, the better.

The other thing I've noticed, if another dog pays little or no attention to my dog, a simple "no" will often suffice as enough correction.

Rich

I believe another method Ed mentions in his video is practice with distance, then shorten the distance as training progresses. I didn't thouroughly watch that section as my dog only seems to want to eat ME! It should be in the aggressive dog DVD. He trains the dog so he wants nothing to do with the other dog over he fence.