Written By: Victoria Regan (Valley Canine Training)

When I mention the word e-collar, you may  automatically think “shock collar” or maybe you don’t know much about e-collars at all and you are curious to learn more about them. You may be nervous to use an e-collar on your dog, or unsure how to use one in a safe and humane way.

Here is some info that I explain to all of my clients to clarify how, and what type of e-collars and training we use in our Reliable Recall Course.

The e-collars we use are NOT shock collars, they are stimulus collars, they feel different and they DO NOT shock your dog.

The stimulus ecollars we use feel like a tens machine (often used at a physiotherapist) or a Dr.Ho machine (which where very popular in he 90’s). If you have never felt either of those, then the best way I can describe it is, it feels like a tingling tapping feeling.

During class I always make sure you feel the ecollar on your hand, yourself before putting it on your dog. That way you understand what your dog will be feeling, you feel comfortable using this training tool and also understand that it is not a shock.

On myself, I cannot feel the ecollar until about a level 9, and that’s still a very light feeling. My dog Misty works on a level 7 for her recall; I cannot even feel a level 7 on myself.

When we start ecollar training we always want to figure out what the lowest number your dog can feel. This is their working level. We want the feeling to be like a tap on the shoulder to get their attention, we DO NOT want it to be a shock or correction.

The way that we teach ecollar training is by using the ecollar as a communication tool. Not a corrective tool. We are not correcting our dogs to make them listen/avoid correction (that is a very outdated training method). Instead we are using the ecollar as a communication tool that’s combined with up to date training methods.

During the course we go through 4 different phases, these 4 phases teach your dog how to respond to the ecollar. I have perfected my Reliable Recall training system, breaking it into small steps. This helps your dog learn how to respond and understand what the ecollar feeling means, and has created a tried and true course that has a produced perfect recall in over 285 dogs over the past 7 years.

If you have any further questions about the ecollars we use, please feel free to reach out to us via email anytime.