I ordered a Dogtra Super-X E-Collar along with the DVD on Electric Collars (Leerburg's Remote Collar Training for Pet Owners DVD) a couple of weeks ago for my 3-year old pointer, Pete. He is far from being a dominant or an aggressive dog and I have taken him to obedience classes ever since he was a pup (he has his CD and a couple of rally titles.) The reason I decided to try an E-collar is because has run off and not come back when called on four separate occasions within a 2 month period, with the last two "runaways" being when he ran out of the rally advanced ring at a dog show--embarassing!!!) For me, this is a safety concern as the last thing I'd want to see is my dog get hit by a car. I want to mention that he is the first (pet) dog I have ever trained for anything, so as a trainer, I'm sure I have made many mistakes along the way.

I followed the recommendations from the DVD (GREAT DVD, by the way!) in regards to having him wear the (dummy) collar two weeks before using the collar "live". When it came time to find the correct setting for him, as I was watching for signs that he felt the stimulation (he was on a long line when I was doing this), he went from no signs to his body flinching (like when you have the hiccups), but he didn't sniff the ground or jump or run around or react in any other way to the stim. It was like he just accepted the fact that something happened to him and he stood there. I was at 35 on the Low stim setting. However, when I tried the pager/vibrate feature, that seemed to get his attention way more. That is, he reacted to the vibration (which included tucking his tail between his legs) and came running to me after I said, "No. <page> Come." Because of the better reaction with the pager, I decided to just continue to use that.

With that said, I have a few questions:

1. What are everyone's opinions on just using the page feature to train a dog? I know the DVD does not recommend only using the pager/vibrate feature to teach come unless the dog has a reliable recall, but it seems to be working for me and I don't even have to use that much when we're outside training/reinforcing "come". It's as if Pete just needed a slightly firmer correction for the come command to help teach him what he needed to do. Additionally, he seems to have picked up the "No" marker, because I often walk him now (on a long line) and he comes on "command" without me having to page him. He will sometimes even come after I said "No" but before I press the page.

2. Is it possible that the collar is still too loose if he isn't reacting to the electric stim (since the pager physically vibrates the collar and he could probably feel that even when loose)?

3. One observation I have noticed though is that for those times when I've had to page Pete to come on a walk (he is on a long lead when we do this), he will lower his tail for the remainder of the walk for any walks we go on where he has to be paged to come. Does this mean the page may be causing some stress for him? Again, I really haven't had to use the page in the past few days to get him to come--I can just say "come". I had to use it a few times tonight when we were practicing come from greater distances with more distrations (i.e. flying insects in a fenced school football field...he loves pointing at them), but even then, for the majority of the time, he came with just the command "Come".

I hope this isn't too "rambly"... I was just trying to include all questions, thoughts, and observations. Thanks in advance for everyone's opinions, suggestions, and advice!

Heike

Really, I am partly bumping this, but also asking if we can have more info about what was going on on the other runaway occasions.

There are folks here with solid eCollar-for-recall experience who will see this, too.

Also, can you by chance get someone to video a little clip of this (including the minute or so before the pager is used, as well as the dog's reaction)?

"One observation I have noticed though is that for those times when I've had to page Pete to come on a walk (he is on a long lead when we do this), he will lower his tail for the remainder of the walk for any walks we go on where he has to be paged to come. Does this mean the page may be causing some stress for him? "

I ask this because I use a pager alone for a dog who is becoming deaf, and thinking that there might be something around the use of the pager (rather than the actual pager) that's causing stress .... ?

You're not being "rambly." I admit that there are a few aspects that are puzzling me, and I like to think I'm a good recall teacher, but I'm not an experienced eCollar-for-recall trainer.

So ... bump.

It's probably not fitted correctly. You have to go against the grain of the fur and make sure you have skin contact, then just make sure it's snug. Even if you think you have it right , double check it.