06/09/2025
What’s the most common challenge for owners?
Fixating on the level (number) on the e-collar dial rather than simply observing their dog’s response and letting that be their guide.
And of course I get it.
Owners, contrary to what the internet will tell you, aren’t just happily running around pushing buttons and spinning the dial willy-nilly. Over close to 20 years of professional training I’ve had maybe 3 occasions where I had to coach a client to slow down and be more sensitive with their e-collar — every other situation has been about helping to coach owners to feel comfortable with dialing up to levels the dog actually cares about.
If one hasn’t trained a ton with an e-collar, the fear of the unknown, or the uncertain, and the specter of something “electrical” occurring — and occurring by your doing — will cause almost anyone to proceed extremely cautiously.
Of course current e-collar technology isn’t shocking your dog, it’s utilizing a wildly sensitive, TENS-type of stimulation that, but that’s information you can explore elsewhere.
Regardless of the technology, owners are still super cautious, which is great, but that caution often leads to them not using the tool properly. They are desperate to stay at the lowest levels, even when they’re not having any effect on the dog (which means the training is poor/ineffective), and even though they see issues with the training, they remain fixated on the e-collar’s dial readout rather than their dog’s clear response.
Here’s the thing. While your e-collar is an amazing piece of technology, it’s also a super dumb tool. It doesn’t know anything about what’s best for your dog, or what levels should or shouldn’t be used.
The only thing that gives you valuable feedback (as long as you have solid, consistent contact), is your dog. And your dog’s response to the e-collar levels are going be as fluid and shifting as their minds and bodies are going to be to what’s going on in the environment.
So the pro tip here is to learn to watch your dog, not the dial, and let their response to the levels be your guide. And to understand that when the world is “quiet” for them, the levels required will be very low, and when the world is “noisy” for them, the levels required will be higher. That’s normal, but it takes work and repeated practice to make it your instinctive, default, and comfortable approach.
PS, when I’m out working dogs on a walk, the heel level might typically be a 6, but if they see a rabbit or bitter dog, that level could change to 25, or 35, or 45. Same with interior work, if the dog is on place and needs the occasional reminder for breaking when I walk around the room that corrective level might be a 7 or 8, but if someone knocks on the door, that level could change to a 50, 60, or 70. And if we’re talking about doing off-leash recall work, to get the dog to come back to me when just sniffing grass and exploring might take a 10 to enforce the recall, but get a deer running by and you could easily need levels as high 30, 70, or 100! And then, once that moment of extreme distraction/temptation has disappeared, the levels need to come all the way back down to where we were before things got spicy. Which means, if you want to do great e-collar work, be ready to be fluid and fast moving on the dial — fast moving in both upping the levels and lowering them. :)
