E-Collar Training for Dogs – The Basics are Important!

E-collar Training – Proof Your Dogs

Love it or hate it, electronic collars, known as e-collars, do have a place in the dog training tool kit. Just like any other training tool, its place in training is neither good nor bad, it’s all about the way it’s being used. E-collar training is no exception.

The Best Use of E-collars

Some “trainers” like to train everything on the e-collar from the time the dog is a puppy. I personally don’t understand the reasoning. The dog learns all control is from the collar, and therefore must ALWAYS wear the collar.

Full Disclosure here: My husband Ron Murray has been training the public and their dogs since 1978. I have picked up a thing or two in our years together since 1994, so my philosophy on e-collar training has come from my experience training with him.

Be fair to your dog and teach him what’s expected!

I (we) believe, a dog should have a full grasp of what’s expected of it before fine tuning with the e-collar. I also believe, the e-collar’s best use is for problem solving and trouble shooting; correcting behaviours that basic obedience just can’t cover.

Since some of the behaviours can be life threatening, such as chasing cars, farm animals, or wildlife, dog fighting, or simply not returning when called, the use of stronger correction methods is certainly justified. You can do the basics on leash, but when drives are high, those basic lessons fall short of registering with your dog.

High drives are a double edged sword!

Here’s an example of how the e-collar could have saved a great deal of pain, and money. Our “sweet and spicy” girl Flirt has an incredibly high hunt drive. Think “if it moves, I’ll kill it” type drives. She has a high functioning nose, a take-a-message attitude, and on top of it all is super fast and determined. She often wears an e-collar for these reasons when we go walking in the woods. There have been days when she’s caught a scent of something and taken off on a tear through the woods towards our busy highway! Needless to say, panic and much yelling ensued.

I can’t tell you how many times Ron and I have threatened “you’re wearing that collar for the rest of your life!”. But of course, to be human is to eventually grow complacent.

Flirt vs the Porcupine

On such a day, Ron took Zeus and Flirt through the woods up to our training field. No collars. Of course, with the dogs running, they arrived at the field before Ron did. When he did clear the tree line, he caught sight of Flirt attacking a porcupine on the field. By this time she already had a face full of quills, but she attacked it again, and then a third time. He and our vet were two hours pulling quills out of her face, chest, and legs. We continued to find quills for months afterwards.

Had Flirt been wearing the e-collar, she would have stayed closer to Ron, and even if she did get some quills the first time, she would not have continued to attack once corrected on a high enough level.

We live in the country, we share their territory, therefore we must take precautions to protect them and our dogs.

E-collar Training – Simply Set Up the Problems

Unfortunately, not much of basic obedience covers the attack on a porcupine, however having a strong recall, reinforced with e-collar training can make a difference.

As with most problem solving, e-collar training is most effective when problems are set up. Take the reactive dog situation, why take a chance on an accidental dog fight when you can set up the scenario and correct the dog(s) for aggressive behaviour in a safer environment.

Obviously setting up chasing and attacking wildlife is a bit trickier, but consistently working on that recall with e-collar reinforcement will make an unexpected situation a lot more manageable.

Choosing your e-collar

For e-collar training, our favourite brand is Dogtra!

There are many e-collars on the market, and more arrive daily. There are lots of ways to cut costs on dog training, but going cheap on electronic collars is not in your best interest. Features differ a great deal, from weather resistant to waterproof, range of effectiveness, beep/vibrate/correct, and multiple dog systems. Our personal favourites are from Dogtra. Because we have a multi dog family, and acreage, and we train in all weather conditions, Ron and I each got a set of Dogtra 1902S collar systems. You might not need that much power, and there are many systems to choose from in their product line.

If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out by commenting on this post, or emailing me writers@odoggomydoggo.ca or message on my Facebook or Instagram accounts!