We are frequently asked about using the electronic collar. Is it useful? Is it appropriate? Is it humane? How does the trainer avoid mistakes? Will it hurt my dog? The modern day electronic collar is by far the most effective humane training device available. The collars that we recommend and use ourselves have a pager feature on them. This is similar to the vibrator on a cell phone. The majority of dogs can be trained effectively with using only the pager.
Our program has always been based on the use of very low level stimulation or the pager. A low-level program gives the dog gentle comparisons, and teaches it that it is in control of the collar. We've found over the years that this approach makes it possible to take advantage of the powerful benefits of remote training collars (consistency, perfect timing and impersonality), while not sacrificing the dog's good attitude or enthusiasm for training. In fact, the remote trainer helps maintain a dog's happy attitude because stimulation given with it can be perfectly timed. It is therefore much easier for the dog to learn, and the time needed for developing reliability is greatly reduced. A dog associate’s perfectly-timed stimulation with its own actions -- rather than thinking the trainer "got me." Its attitude stays confident because it also believes that it can avoid stimulation through its own actions.
The low-level stimulation or pager method of dog training is a step-by-step system. This system starts by teaching the dog to understand the basic commands you plan to use. Then, utilizing the principle of escape training, the dog is taught to turn off low-level electrical stimulation or pager by performing commands it already knows. Through repetition, the dog becomes quick at performing commands, because it learns that, not only can it turn off stimulation by performing, but it can beat it altogether when it performs quickly.
Dogs introduced to the remote trainer this way feel that they can control mild stimulation or pager by their own performance. They do not see control as being "forced" to do something by their trainers. Rather, they see it as something they want to do. They come to see "beating the correction" as sort of a game. When a dog has this attitude toward electrical stimulation or pager, the number of situations in which stimulation can be used to guide the dog's choices becomes very great.
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