The E-Collar Conditioning Process, Step by Step
Most of what gives E-Collars a bad name happens in the first week. Here is the groundwork we do before the collar influences a single behaviour.
If you have read anything negative about E-Collars, there is a good chance it describes a collar being strapped on a dog and used the same afternoon. That is not training. That is just startling an animal and hoping it learns something.
The groundwork is the whole job. Here is what actually happens, in order.
Step one: the collar is just a collar
For the first few days the unit goes on and comes off with nothing switched on. Your dog wears it on walks, in the garden, at home. It becomes as unremarkable as a harness.
If a dog only ever wears the collar on the days something happens, the collar itself becomes the signal. We do not want that. We want it to be furniture.
Step two: finding your dog's working level
Every dog is different, and the number on the remote means nothing on its own. We start at zero and come up one step at a time, watching for the smallest possible acknowledgement: an ear twitch, a head turn, a slight change in expression.
That is the working level. Not a level that makes a dog yelp or flinch. If your dog reacts dramatically, we have gone too far and we come straight back down.
You will feel this level on your own hand before your dog does. Every time.
Step three: teaching the off switch
This is the part that makes the whole thing fair. We pair the sensation with something your dog already knows how to do, usually coming towards you. Sensation on, dog moves towards you, sensation off.
Within a few sessions most dogs work out that they are in control of it. That realisation is the moment the tool stops being something that happens to your dog and becomes a conversation.
Step four: adding distance and distraction
Only now do we start asking for the behaviour when it is genuinely hard. Fifty metres away. Another dog in the field. A rabbit in the hedge. The tap on the shoulder still works at that distance, which is the entire point.
What we never do
We do not use it on a dog we have not conditioned. We do not use it to punish after the fact. We do not use it on a fearful or anxious dog as a shortcut past the fear. And we do not use it on a dog whose owner is not comfortable, which is why the free consult comes first.
How long it takes
The conditioning phase is usually two to three weeks of short, boring, repetitive sessions. It is the least exciting part of the programme and the part that determines whether any of it works.
Where we stand on the law
Being straight with you: using an electronic collar on a dog is an offence in Wales, and a ban in England has been proposed, shelved and revisited more than once. We work in Trowbridge, Bradford on Avon, Frome and across west Wiltshire, where it is currently legal. If that changes, we will change with it.
See the whole method first
Get the free E-Collar guide, written in plain English, so you can read the process end to end before you decide anything.