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22/09/2024
CLARIFYING THE E-COLLAR WARS
If someone is demonizing e-collars, I always ask whether the person on the opposite end of the wire actually has any recent experience with a modern e-collar, and please tell me what brand and model?
Be specific.
Post a picture of the remote, and a picture of the collar on your dog .
Here's a clue: Most folks demonizing e-collars have no experience, or "cannot remember" what make or model, and have no pictures of the equipment in question.
Right.
Theory running on rumor, rather than knowledge running on experience. A common-enough illness.
And to be clear, I ask for e-collar make and model and a picture a *lot* and I have *never* had a demonizer respond.
Not once.
Now here’s the thing: the request is not a heavy lift.
If you actually own an e-collar, you know what make and model, and the collar and remote are in your training tool box next to the leashes, muzzles, slip chains, brushes, nail trimmers, etc.
At over $200 a unit, no one is throwing out a modern e-collar, even if they chose not to use it.
To be clear, there is a *reason* I talk about *modern* e-collars and ask for make and model.
And that reason is that a lot of the low-cost e-collars still sold today are very old, off-patent technology, and were designed over 50 years ago.
Five decades is a very long time in tech.
Your dentist is not using 50-year old amalgams or x-ray machines.
Your car is not using 50-year old fuel injectors or rolling on the type of tire construction used 50 years ago.
You are not reading this missive on a 50-year old computer, or calling on a 50-year old rotary phone.
So what are these low-cost e-collars built on 50-year old tech like?
These collars typically come with six or seven levels of stimulation -- far too few to actually use this type of e-collar as a true training tool.
These low-cost old-tech collars are designed to send a "knock it off" signal to a dog chasing deer or other "trash" animals.
I refer to these as “buster” collars, and they are analogous to an invisible fence containment system, which is also very old tech that sends a strong “buster” signal.
For the record, I have used an invisible fence to contain my dogs for more than 30 years, and it's a terrific system because buster collars work well for the very limited number of things they are designed to do.
But are they a dog *training* collar?
No.
In my opinion, "buster" collars with just 6 or 7 settings are pretty close to worthless for training except, perhaps, for proofing a recall when used at the lowest setting.
But are the modern e-collars with 100 levels of stimulation "buster" collars?
They are not.
I cannot feel an E-collar Technologies collar set on 10 or 11, and my dogs are worked at level 4-8, depending on the weather and the level of distraction.
My dogs don’t yelp when I hit a button — they simply change behavior because they have been trained and conditioned to know what I am asking for.
Modern e-collars are not "shock" collars, but "tap" collars designed to break through canine Attention Deficit Disorder and reinforce basic collar-leash training at a distance, and with perfect timing. They are, truly, a marvel. That said, they are also not commonly sold at pet and discount stores and, when they are, older and cheaper "buster" collars tend to beckon to the first-time dog owner.
Hence the need to "fence up" and "fence out" when talking about e-collars. They are not "all alike," and they do not "all do the same thing”.
Finally, a simple point: the fact that an e-collar advocate has a newer e-collar and a better training technique does not make him or her a genius, or folks on the opposite side of the e-fence lying idiots (though I find many actually are). It simply makes that person up-to-date, and the other side not (yet) fully informed.
The message of ALL sides should, in fact, be the same: Move to NEW tech, not ban ALL tech.
Modern e-collars are a massive step forward in the world of dog training. But if the goal is training, that e-collar has to be a modern training collar, and not an old "buster" collar designed 50 years ago.
E collar advocates need to stress this message.
When debate is engaged, start by asking what make and model the other side is using, and ask for a picture to screen out the liars.
My bet is you will get the same response I get: silence and the end of the conversation.
Perhaps your results will be different.
But I doubt it.