# E-Collar Training in Ontario, Canada?



## Tilleygirl (Sep 16, 2021)

Hi Everyone,

Wondering if there is anyone else from Ontario, Canada (I'm from London) who has e-collar trained their V so I can get trainer recommendations. Our girl is almost 6 months so we are starting to think about it as an option.

Before anyone suggests it, we understand the benefits of R+ training and we have taught our girl everything using those methods. She is so smart and willing to learn and she is actually quite well behaved because of all the training and rewarding we do with her. We understand it is more effective to reward what we like and prevent what we don't.. the exception being her frustration at not being able to say hi to every person/dog (but especially person) she sees. If we are on neighbourhood walks and can create enough distance, we can call her into a heel or have her "focus" with high value treats and she is good. We have even taught her to simply watch squirrels and then come back to us for a reward instead of chasing them. But when we are on hiking trails, there's just no way to keep enough distance between people we pass. We take her as far off the trail as we can and cue her to sit/stay/focus or some other command but as soon as the people are close enough to see her, she shakes and lunges wildly to say hello. Obviously recall is out the window when she sees people as well. This is despite our best efforts to not allow her to greet anyone on leash ever, but she has been like this since 9 weeks old.

She needs to have time in the woods in order to be content, but since we live in the city there is no such thing as a trail where we won't encounter other people so I don't really know what else to consider. People are the highest value "thing" to her so there is no reward I can give her to compete with it. I'm only considering the ecollar for situations like this in which she can hurt herself or cause a lot of frustration, not for everyday obedience. Anyone who has any trainer recommendations or similar experiences, I'd love to hear your advice!


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## Helga (Sep 22, 2014)

In my view, e-Collar works very well for Vizsals. You don't need a trainer for it - but you do need to watch videos on how to do it. The basic key learning is relatively simple, but somehow you tend to forget it when in action. The key point is that pressing the button doesn't mean that the dog know what you want him/her to do. It is merely an equivalent of calling their name out loud - and in a way that they pay attention. However, anything you want them to do after, you need to 1. Give a command for. 2. You would have had to have taught that command prior.

Somehow it's easy to think "my dog knows what I want them to do when I press the button". But that's what the videos teach you - that's not true from their perspective. You can press the button as give "sit" command, or you may press the button and give "stay" command. So pressing the button is equivalent to calling their name only - what you ask them do to after you have to both state clearly after and also you would have had to train that comment before.

What is great about Vizslas and e-collar is that Vizslas are so sensitive that once they feel the affect of the collar, they are likely to not want to feel it again. Once my Vizsla sees that I put the collar on, he just starts listening to me - and I don't need to use it.


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## anna wright (Dec 12, 2021)

Helga said:


> In my view, e-Collar works very well for Vizsals. You don't need a trainer for it - but you do need to watch videos on how to do it. The basic key learning is relatively simple, but somehow you tend to forget it when in action. The key point is that pressing the button doesn't mean that the dog know what you want him/her to do. It is merely an equivalent of calling their name out loud - and in a way that they pay attention. However, anything you want them to do after, you need to 1. Give a command for. 2. You would have had to have taught that command prior.
> 
> Somehow it's easy to think "my dog knows what I want them to do when I press the button". But that's what the videos teach you - that's not true from their perspective. You can press the button as give "sit" command, or you may press the button and give "stay" command. So pressing the button is equivalent to calling their name only - what you ask them do to after you have to both state clearly after and also you would have had to train that comment before.
> 
> What is great about Vizslas and e-collar is that Vizslas are so sensitive that once they feel the affect of the collar, they are likely to not want to feel it again. Once my Vizsla sees that I put the collar on, he just starts listening to me - and I don't need to use it.


This topic was disccussed recently here: Adolescence is here!!!
Scroll down to Dan_A - and find the best instruction on how to use e-colar; and yes it comes highly recommended.


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## organicthoughts (Oct 9, 2012)

My dog is the exact same - he is 9 years old now

We also resorted to the e-collar when he was younger to enforce off leash boundaries. It was not perfect, but worked for us. No need for the e-collar anymore. He still will get excited to see other people/dogs when on hikes but it's less intense and his recall works 75% of the time in these scenarios. We also lowered our expectations off leash and try to be more proactive. If we see/hear people coming we will recall and put him on leash, etc....

I worked with a trainer one on one about three times to get the dog properly attuned to what the collar/buzz means.

It's also a good problem to have. Much better to have a social, happy dog than a fearful one.


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## anna wright (Dec 12, 2021)

organicthoughts said:


> My dog is the exact same - he is 9 years old now
> 
> We also resorted to the e-collar when he was younger to enforce off leash boundaries. It was not perfect, but worked for us. No need for the e-collar anymore. He still will get excited to see other people/dogs when on hikes but it's less intense and his recall works 75% of the time in these scenarios. We also lowered our expectations off leash and try to be more proactive. If we see/hear people coming we will recall and put him on leash, etc....
> 
> ...


I know for a fact that many owners are horriffied of the e-colar. I think this is due to lack of information_. _The e_-_colar saved my baby's life, not once; I am grateful for this device. High energy breeds must have off-leash time daily in order to stay mentally healthy. I rather prefer to zap him than banning off-leash or to put his life in danger. I am glad that you've found the advantages of this tool. To your further help: I paired the e-colar with a silent-whisle and used it before the buzz-mode, (and of course the buzz-mode before the zap). I noticed that he is more responsive to the silent-whisle than to the buzz. You can check this s-whisle out in any outfitter store at the hunting section. I highly recommend it.


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## organicthoughts (Oct 9, 2012)

anna wright said:


> I know for a fact that many owners are horriffied of the e-colar. I think this is due to lack of information_. _The e_-_colar saved my baby's life, not once; I am grateful for this device. High energy breeds must have off-leash time daily in order to stay mentally healthy. I rather prefer to zap him than banning off-leash or to put his life in danger. I am glad that you've found the advantages of this tool. To your further help: I paired the e-colar with a silent-whisle and used it before the buzz-mode, (and of course the buzz-mode before the zap). I noticed that he is more responsive to the silent-whisle than to the buzz. You can check this s-whisle out in any outfitter store at the hunting section. I highly recommend it.


I did the exact same. The e-collar was used always on the second whistle if he decided to ignore the first one


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