What I do with my dogs (even my puppies since 4 weeks old!) is - ok think of it this way. The dog wants something (car ride, to go out, etc). Well in order to get what it wants, it has to "pay first" as in offer a sit.

I tell my dogs sit. If they don't there is no correction, it's just "oh, too bad, you didn't sit. Well, I guess I can't open the door." (I communicate this simply by removing my hand from the doorknob, not putting the leash on, etc).

Think of what would happen if you went to McDonald's and ordered a Big Mac meal. But... you don't have any money. Do you think you would get the sandwich?? (They aren't going to nail you for it, but they just aren't going to feed you.)

(I think this is called negative punishment - where the correction is simply removing the reward)

I am sure Cindy's advice of food as a reward will move her focus to obtaining the reward, instead of the door. I also like Angela's suggestion, and I think you could use this at the crate. You mentioned that the dog was having trouble behaving when getting out. What I do is I have her sit in the crate before I open the door. Once her butt hits the ground, the door opens, and I squat down to put on the collar. If she breaks the sit, I close the door and tell her, "No, sit." It didn't take very long for her to understand that sitting was part of getting out.

As far as your ecollar question, I don't know the answer. Is there nowhere in the tape where Ed discusses the dog being confused about the stem?

I started asking for sits last night at every door, after getting through the door, and before going up or down stairs and she had to wait till I got to the top or bottom before moving. I think she is showing some initial progress and I am working also very hard on staying calm while dealing with her. She was much calmer in the house last night even just laying down on her own while I watched some TV (this was with not much excerise at all throughout the day, just some short training sessions and a car ride to the mall).

I am not sure how much or when I am going to again attempt to work with the remote collar. I need to watch the dvd again and see what I might have missed. I don't believe that they really go over what to do if the dog is confused by the stim. It is shown in the part of getting your starting stim level, that many dogs do at first look around and sniff trying to figure out what just got them. But once Ed is past that and starts to work on an issue the dogs don't seem to react that way anymore, where Kayla did.

I am very hopeful that my new ways of interacted with her (more calm, less physical corrections and forced behaviors, and the methods suggested to develop pack leadership and respect) will carry over and help me work through it if we continue to have issues with the remote collar.