About E Collars

[Raintheshepherd]

Somebody just told me that e collars deliver an electric shock, I was under the impression they just vibrated?


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[KayleeGSD]

Originally Posted by Raintheshepherd

Somebody just told me that e collars deliver an electric shock, I was under the impression they just vibrated?


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It is a stim and you have different collar models. To me the e collar stim feels like a tingle on the low levels. I suggest you go and test an e collar on yourself to know exactly what it feels like. Starting at 0 I held the collar in my hand with both poles on the box making good contact on my skin. I also took it and actually strapped the collar on my leg too and did a second test. Page function vibrates all dogs can feel the vibration and it reminds me of a vibrating cell phone.

Now getting to the stim. Start at zero I hit the nick button and then gradually increased the level one number at a time. I felt it at 23. As I continued to increase the level the stim became more intense and to me it felt like an annoying rubber band hitting my skin. It was not a pleasant feeling as I continued to move the levels higher but it was not painful like I was being electrocuted.

[Kaiser2012]

Originally Posted by Raintheshepherd

Somebody just told me that e collars deliver an electric shock, I was under the impression they just vibrated?


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I have an e-collar I got for Dakota years ago simply because it HAD a vibration only function. It is from unleashed technology. Dakota is far too soft a dog to deliver a shock correction to, but she does have a selective hearing when we are long distances apart so I trained her recall using the vibration feature. It worked like a charm. Its just enough of an external stimulus to get her attention and remind her that I'm giving her a command. She loves wearing the collar because it means we get to go outside for hikes or beach walks.

[Bear L]

A lot of e collar will have the vibration function. It may not work for all dogs - some disregard the vibration after they get used to it.

[katdog5911]

The e collar I have has a vibrate. My trainer says not to even bother with it. But I am wondering if I can use it to mean-"look at me". Just as an attention getter. Any suggestions how to do this? My thought is maybe have her wear the collar in the house, vibrate and when she looks at me she gets a treat?

[RowdyDogs]

Originally Posted by katdog5911

The e collar I have has a vibrate. My trainer says not to even bother with it. But I am wondering if I can use it to mean-"look at me". Just as an attention getter. Any suggestions how to do this? My thought is maybe have her wear the collar in the house, vibrate and when she looks at me she gets a treat?

Yes, you can use it that way. I use one on vibrate as a "look at me" cue to great success with a dog who is somewhat deaf (not completely, but if there is any kind of outside background noise like we are near a road, or if he is too far away from me, he has a lot of trouble hearing and recognizing commands). I trained him pretty much exactly like you suggest, except I would actually give him a verbal "look at me" cue (which he already knew) as I vibrated the collar in the house at first, then only gave the verbal cue occasionally, then not at all, then moved outside, etc.

It worked very well and although I rarely use it anymore because he's rarely off-lead in noisy environments now and sticks close when we hike, he still does respond to it. He'll stop and wait for me to give him a signal about what I want him to do.

In my case, anything above a vibration (which doesn't bother him or scare him a bit) is not an option because I would not be okay with shocking a dog who can't hear me as an attention-getter. We've been using it for years without him ignoring it or getting too used to it, if that is your trainer's concern.

[RowdyDogs]

I wanted to add to my post above...using the vibration as essentially a non-verbal command as I do with my dog requires the same amount of training that getting a dog who isn't hard-of-hearing to respond to a verbal command does. If I was using it as a correction, my dog would blow right through the vibration. However, I think it can be harder to ignore. Sometimes I think dogs aren't intentionally ignoring commands in an exciting environment, but they honestly don't register the command. Hearing is important to a dog, but a super-interesting scent or something can overpower that, particularly since they're used to filtering out a lot of unimportant (to them) verbal chatter from their humans. If that's the case with your dog, it could be very useful.

The vibration alone is also plenty strong enough for many dogs to see it as an aversive. My deaf dog is a very hard dog when it comes to physical stimulus--he's one of my heelers, which are a breed notorious for that. I have worked with other dogs who would probably regard a vibration on their collar as a very unpleasant stimulus.

In general, I was taught that you start with the lowest setting of the collar (or, depending on how much you can adjust it, the lowest setting that you can personally feel if you hold it to your own arm--some collars are so adjustable that the lowest settings are essentially unnoticeable), and test your dog's reaction to it before increasing it. Delivering a strong shock to a dog who would respond strongly a vibration or a tingle is cruel.

I add that because I am not sure if your trainer was advising you to never bother with the vibration setting, or is just saying that (s)he doesn't think it is going to work for your dog. If she thinks your dog is hearing your commands and ignoring you, and that the vibration setting is too weak to get her attention, then that's one thing. If she doesn't think vibration ever works, then I would have to disagree with her.

[billsharp]

Yes, Rain, you can use the ecollar in your circumstance. It will teach the dog that barking at horses is not allowed. Be careful not to use it unless she is barking at horses so she will continue to warn against intruders. I'd recommend not using the "indiscriminate" bark collar for this reason.

We bought one that was about $150 at Academy sporting goods. It works very well and we've had not problem with "walls" although we haven't really tested it more than about 100 yards away.

I don't think you need to be there to see the dog's reaction. If you stim at the right time, in mid-bark, you'll hear the dog cut off the bark itself.

You won't hurt the dog with the ecollar prongs if you just leave it on at night only until the dog gets the idea.

Get one with an electric shock. It is more effective than just a vibrate. Definitely try it on your leg first so you will become comfortable with the idea that it is not an inappropriately harsh correction, and you will thus use the tool with more confidence.

[Raintheshepherd]

Thanks so much everyone. I'm definetly going to invest in one.


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