E-Collar: Working Stimulation Level

[LouCastle]

Originally Posted By: JKlatsky
However, I've found that for my dog there are a variety of working levels depending on how much drive the dog is in. So factor that into your calculations. On a low drive activity like a hike I only need the pager or maybe 15. In obedience with the ball, maybe 35. In protection I could get up to 70 before he acknowledged it. And he's fairly sensitive to the electric. It can take even more with our bitch who's very sensitive to the prong and not with the electric.

This too is covered in the articles.

[zyppi]

my two dogs have very different levels.

Suggest you put the collar on the dog and just wait until the dog is not focused on you or anything else... wandering yard or laying on the floor awake.

Start with zero and hit stim, repeat scrolling upwards at small integrals until dog pricks ears or looks like something unknown is bothering of causing him to register question...

Start training with that low level and if it doesn't work, slightly increase.

Not only different for each dog, but different for differents days or session.

Example - if one of my dogs focuses on cat, may take an increased stim vs normal training exercise.

Good luck

[Jason L]

Hi Lou,

Thanks for your response. I did go back and reread your articles and corrected some of my initial mistakes.

I have two additional questions:

If I understand it correctly, I do not give a command "here" in the beginning of recall training right? I just let the dog wander off and then stim him and pull him back? I don't start adding the voice command until I start doing the switch of direction walks?

Also, today I was out with Obie doing recalls (lvl 20) and the first 4 recalls went perfectly. I hit the "continuous" button and he immediately turned around and trotted back to me (without any leash pressure on my part. I was using the flexi and I didn't have to move the handle at all). But on the fifth time, he blew me off completely. Not only did he not turn around and come back but he actually laid down on the ground and start scratching the collar (something he has not done before - not even when I was mistakingly stimulating him at lvl 40). What's going on there?

[LouCastle]

Originally Posted By: Jason LinIf I understand it correctly, I do not give a command "here" in the beginning of recall training right? I just let the dog wander off and then stim him and pull him back? I don't start adding the voice command until I start doing the switch of direction walks?

That's correct. I want the dog to figure out what's going on for himself. If you start giving a command at this stage, you become a distraction.

Originally Posted By: Jason Lin Also, today I was out with Obie doing recalls (lvl 20) and the first 4 recalls went perfectly. I hit the "continuous" button and he immediately turned around and trotted back to me (without any leash pressure on my part. I was using the flexi and I didn't have to move the handle at all). But on the fifth time, he blew me off completely. Not only did he not turn around and come back but he actually laid down on the ground and start scratching the collar (something he has not done before - not even when I was mistakingly stimulating him at lvl 40). What's going on there? [Emphasis added]

What going on is that he may have come to for any number of reasons on the first four reps – But he didn't know that he had to, to make the stim stop. I'd suggest that unless you're an experienced dog trainer that you not " free–lance" the method. It says to pull the leash right from the start so that it's IMPOSSIBLE for the dog to make a mistake. You didn't do that. And so, on the fifth time he didn't know what he was supposed to do.

Here's something that it says on the site,

Quote: The protocols are written as they are because they've been found to work after years of testing. If you're a beginner, this is very much a "read and follow the instructions carefully and closely" situation … If you decide to skip a step or modify the protocol you may get the desired result and you may not. You may get what appears to be a good result only to find later on, that a problem has developed because you've skipped a step.

Quite quickly you've seen one of those bad results. Of course you're not required to follow the instructions. But if you don't, you probably won't get the desired result, a dog that recalls no matter how far he is from you and no matter what distractions are present.

[Jason L]

Thanks Lou! I stand corrected. I certainly don't want to do anything to screw up the dog. I'll ask around and see if I can find someone to work with me on this.

[LouCastle]

Jason there's certainly nothing wrong with getting someone to help. But I don't think that's the problem. I think you're shortcutting the protocol by skipping steps. Perhaps that's because you haven't read it thoroughly or perhaps you think that because you're dog has been responding properly, perhaps because of prior training, you think it's OK. You're not the first one to do this and you're probably not the last. But as you've found, skipping steps leads to problems. I think if you follow the protocols as they're written, you'll be fine.