The SHOCKING truth about E collars!
Whilst many people feel e collars are cruel & pain invoking devices, nothing could be further from the truth.
Most people fail to notice when their dog is being stimulated during training, the idea is to use the lowest level perceivable by the dog to gain outstanding results.
Over the years we have heard every horror story imaginable about e collar training, but when push came to shove, most of the story tellers had never even used an e collar let alone seen one, & after feeling the stimulation from my collar, they couldn’t believe any results could be gained from the “tickle” produced. Indeed when exhibiting at agricultural shows we have had members of the “do not agree with products”, try and buy after being re-educated.
There are some trainers around who will try & tell you that e collars are a strict aversive, will burn the skin and could even kill the animal. The truth of the matter is, these so called trainers lack the skills required to read dogs, they often fail to produce results & feel threatened by something like the e collar as the results that are gained with it in the right hands make their work look ridiculous. E collars are not capable of burning and all modern collars go through rigorous testing by veterinary colleges prior to going to market.
Often these people will attempt to tell you that dog training is all about morals & purely positive methods, plying you with guilt is their only option when they can’t get results with your dog. E collars where first designed to stop dogs from chasing stock. The old style collar many years ago, deserved their reputation as “shock collars” as the levels were considerably higher than is deemed acceptable or necessary in today’s market.
Modern collars have come a long way; out of hundreds of people, including children, we have found only one who could perceive level one. Few could feel two & most people can feel three, but often need to go to level four to make sure they felt three. The universal response is “is that it”?or “that’s not strong enough to control my dogs!”.
When they see it work they universally ask “can you put it on the kids/wife/husband”? People perceive electricity as a bad thing, electrocution, electric chair etc, few see it for its positive aspects.
When used correctly in dog training, few if any can equal the results gained by using a remote training collar. The unfortunate thing is, abuse is not limited to e collars, we don’t know anyone who would spend upwards of £150.00 on a collar to abuse their dog. A choke or check chain is one of the most misused pieces of training equipment on the market, unlike an e collar, it doesn’t come with a video, or instructions or any type of training course & they are cheap.
We recommend e collar training to many to many of our customers, its easier to teach the novice trainer than lead techniques & the results are, on average, outstanding. The other common problem is that people reach for the e collar as a last resort, when all other methods have failed to produce results. We can’t emphasise enough how big a mistake these people are making. They think the e collar is a kill or cure method & by the time they are willing to try it, the dog has built up an aversion to what ever behaviour is being asked of it. The dog may have gone trough positive training, then a training program that issues lead corrections in which all the dog has learned is to fight off the method long enough & the owner will give up & try something else.
The e collar is a subtle cue to get the dogs attention, if you wait until a dog is chasing stock & press the button, more often than not, a dog in drive will simply ignore the stimulation, even on it’s highest setting. Agreed the collars of old could blast a dog off a chase in high drive, modern collars are not very powerful, they are for training, not blasting.
One thing we find amazing is the tunnel vision of some trainers when it comes to e collars. We have come across so many people who have not used an e collar but will be the first to cry how bad they are, we can’t believe that such ignorance still exists.
Here are a couple of facts that surprise most people:
The modern e collar has an output some three thousand times less than the average electric fence.
The modern e collar has an output 6 times less than static electricity
you get off the carpet in your home.
E collars have a positive and negative probe, one inch apart. Unlike an electric
fence or cattle probe that use the body to travel to earth, the current produced by an e collar only travels from one probe to another. That eliminates the possibility of having any effect on the nervous system.
Modern collars have a time out feature, no stimulation can be delivered past 8 to 10 seconds.
Modern collars have levels so low, most people & dogs can’t feel them on the lowest settings.
Many Police departments, SAR groups, assistance dog groups & so on around the world use modern e collar training.
I believe a good trainer should be versed in more than one method & have tested & evaluated most if not all dog training tools.