# E collar insensitivity or??



## gsdluvr (Jun 26, 2012)

I am baffled by my dog's lack of response to the ecollar. I have a mini educator which I have tested on myself to make sure it works. The collar is tight and I can see it makes her muscles twitch. But other than that she has no other eye movement or any other movement to let me know she feels it?? I'm having a hard time getting the correct settings to use! We had it up to 35.


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## Thecowboysgirl (Nov 30, 2006)

I recently had a similar thing happen starting my young male on E Collar. I think the subject of that thread was E Collar Fail if you want to try and look it up. If the muscles are twitching then you have connection, which I think might have been a bit of a problem for us. But it did seem like with mine he felt it but couldn't categorize it as anything so he didn't respond. 


I FINALLY got the standard tell at 30 something after wetting his neck down too, and after I got that initial "look" (the where's the bug look if you are familiar with it), then I scrolled back down and he was responding all the way down to like #5. This was on a Dogtra 280, and I switched him to a Dogtra 1900. 280 being lower powered. Not really sure how they compare to the Mini Educator.


I went on to do the sort of standard start to collar work in the low teens on the 1900 which was what I have done with other dogs and it was pretty normal from there on out


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## Steve Strom (Oct 26, 2013)

If she twitches she feels it. They don't all react the same though. Sometimes they're determined to ignore it when they don't know what it is.


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## gsdluvr (Jun 26, 2012)

Steve Strom said:


> If she twitches she feels it. They don't all react the same though. Sometimes they're determined to ignore it when they don't know what it is.


LOL Steve!! That describes what it looks like! and if she chooses to ignore it....what good is it???


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## Thecowboysgirl (Nov 30, 2006)

At least in our case the ignoring was super temporary. After we got over that initial hump things were normal from there on out. It wasn't something I had encountered before but I gathered from people's responses to my post- people who had seen it before, that the dog generally does go back down (in numbers) once they kind of get a clue.


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## Steve Strom (Oct 26, 2013)

You teach her what it means. How to turn it off and it can still be effective for corrections. She just doesn't understand what it is.


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## gsdluvr (Jun 26, 2012)

So maybe for her I should initially try it higher?


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## scarfish (Apr 9, 2013)

depending on what you are using the Ecollar mainly for. sporting, hunting/working or just as a correction/attention grabber while off leash. i only know how to use one for the last one. getting attention to a dog being a butthead off leash. if your dog is twitching she feels it but doesn't know why. our first trainer had us train to use it for corrections while actually using corrections. which meant setting the dog up for failure and correcting by voice or prong along with the Ecollar to get the dog the hang of it.


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## Steve Strom (Oct 26, 2013)

No, not now.In fact I'd turn it down a little and take her through the steps of showing her how to turn off the stim.


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## gsdluvr (Jun 26, 2012)

Steve Strom said:


> You teach her what it means. How to turn it off and it can still be effective for corrections. She just doesn't understand what it is.


I understand that. But I'm just trying to adjust the training level. I guess I'll have to use the twitch, instead of blink, sniff, head movement etc.?


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## gsdluvr (Jun 26, 2012)

Steve Strom said:


> No, not now.In fact I'd turn it down a little and take her through the steps of showing her how to turn off the stim.


Oh I'm just using momentary nick. Not continuous Okay I get it. I turned it way down and used it like you explained. She definitely gets It!!! I can probably go lower!


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## Steve Strom (Oct 26, 2013)

Even though I don't use it except for corrections, I still intro it the same way on all my dogs with the continuous and known commands. Sit, come, and go to place.


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

gsdluvr said:


> I understand that. But I'm just trying to adjust the training level. I guess I'll have to use the twitch, instead of blink, sniff, head movement etc.?


The level all depends on the dogs state of mind/drive level the dog is in. I would pair it to commands, and start low regardless. Maybe send the dog to a placeboard with the stim low enough that the dog feels it, when the dog is on the board, the stim is removed. That will help the dog clarify what is going on.


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