# Dogtra 1900 Inconsistent Stim??? Does the collar need to be replaced?



## VTGirlT (May 23, 2013)

So Zeldas working level varies grateful the most typicaly levels we use are from 18-26. On our walks in town the pressure i typically will use at her working level, is from 21-23. 

Today she blew me off, your supposed to find the right pressure, there is too high, too low and just right. I first made sure remote and collar were on, even though i remember turning them both on. They were both on, I check her fitting of the collar several times. It was perfect fitting... And on one of the usual places on her neck that i switch to (since you rotate collar around neck throughout day). 

So i decided to up the stim and go to cont. before i upped the levels, we ended up working at 36 and it still felt off to me.. :S 

So is it normal for dogtra 1900 to be inconsistent in stim? Does this mean i should replace collar maybe? 

(I probably will be purchasing an Einstein next time i get a new ecollar.. To try it. 100 levels is still good and i hear good things about it and it never being inconsistent stim. )

Any thoughts on the dogtra being inconsistent?

(Before i take off her collar/leash and ecollar i will try the ecollar on my own arm at 23 and than 36 to see if i feel a difference in stim level..)


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## Nigel (Jul 10, 2012)

The dogs "state" at the time of use will play into it as well. Did anything happen prior to using it? Fence fighting, barking at another dog or anything else that might get your dog excited? I've heard some of the talk about inconsistent stim with some units, don't remember which brands/models they were. My wife has a Dogtra Ncp2300 ? haven't had any complaints about it.


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## VTGirlT (May 23, 2013)

Nope perfectly average morning :S 

No barking she didnt get overly aroused on anything. There were just about the same amount of distraction of people, dogs and cats. Its just very bizarre.

Could it be she was just in state of not giving a rats ass (as my dad would say)? LOL I dont know! This never happened before i just find it quite odd. Im guessing its just the collar, because 36 is quite high for Zelda. 

Maybe 2300 is more consistent? I dont now..


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## Nigel (Jul 10, 2012)

Did you happen to see the thread talking about dogs learning to "tense up" while you put the collar on, then relaxing thier neck muscles afterward causing the collar to become loose? Being a remote unit, could there have been some kind of interference? Just thinking of any possibilities, how old is your collar?


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## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

How old is collar? When the battery starts to go the stim can get wonky.


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## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

I found that to be a problem with the 1900's when helping people with their collar intros. It was especially noticeable if the collar wasn't kept at full charge all the time. It was also an issue with my 2300. Depending on how old your collar is, it may need a new battery. I really liked how easy my Dogtra collars were to use, but the inconsistent stim has always been one of my complaints.


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## mego (Jan 27, 2013)

mine gets wonky like that when the battery needs charging or if it isn't tight enough and the collar shifts around. How long has it been since you charged it?


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## LouCastle (Sep 25, 2006)

I've seen more than my share of problems with Ecollars but I've only seen _"inconsistent"_ stim once. That came with the earliest 200's (in the early 1990's) and it turns out that it was an engineering problem that could be fixed on an individual basis and finally the manufacturing process was changed and the problem disappeared. 

I've been using Ecollars for about 25 years or so. First exclusively Tri—Tronics, and for the last 10-15 years Dogtra and Einstein. I've tried just about every brand along the way, including some that few have heard of. I've NEVER (with the exception noted above) come across one that displays _"inconsistent"_ stim unless it was accompanied by some other fault that was very obvious. By the last I mean things like watching the LED on an Ecollar change while it sat, untouched on a table. That one had some internal fault, some electrical part had gone bad. 

Virtually every time that one of my clients or someone that I know has made this statement and they've sent their collar in, I checked with the factory, and when they put it on the test bench it was fine. 

I've seen plenty of Ecollars flat quit working. That kind of fault is easy to detect. I've seen some that worked intermittently, depending on things like the angle that you held them, or how you held the collar strap (with early models that had the antenna running through the strap). Those could be attributed to either a broken wire or an internal short. I've seen one company get a bad batch of batteries that would work with short distances between the TX and the RX but would not work on continuous at a distance. They would work by tapping the continuous button. That company never admitted the problem, I found out from an "insider." 

I've got collars of all ages here. Some with newly replaced batteries within six months and one that has batteries that will show a red flashing light (meaning it needs a charge) after only a couple of hours of being turned on. I keep this one around waiting for the inconsistent stim that some keep reporting. It's not shown up. 

It's been my experience that just about every time this report comes in, that one or two things are in play. For beginners the most common reason for inconsistency is that they've not put the collar on properly and it "bounces" in and off contact with the dog's skin and he moves about. 

Another reason for the apparent inconsistency is in the dog becoming distracted and simply not feeling the "old level" of stim that he felt a moment before the distraction came along. With some dogs, puppies and the highly driven or distracted, these numbers can be all over the place and they can change much faster that we can keep up with them. 

We also have to keep in mind that skin is not homogeneous and that some areas are rich in nerves and some scant. A slight turn of the head can move the contact points from a sensitive area to an insensitive one or back again. 

This is why I advocate finding the dog's working level of stim, the level that he first feels when at rest in a non−distracting environment, EACH AND EVERY time that the collar is put on him. It must be kept in mind, that's just a starting point when you go to work the dog in varying environments and under varying conditions. 

That being said, any mechanical or electrical device can fail. Usually, with Ecollars, when they do fail, it's catastrophic in that the failure is complete and obvious. They won't turn on or they stop working completely after they do turn on.


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## gsdsar (May 21, 2002)

Lou, have you seen collars that won't stop stimming? Friend thinks this is what happened to her dog. Nearly a disaster, but ended okay. 

I am picking up an Einstein on Tues. What are your thoughts on these collars?


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## LouCastle (Sep 25, 2006)

gsdsar said:


> Lou, have you seen collars that won't stop stimming? Friend thinks this is what happened to her dog. Nearly a disaster, but ended okay.


I've not personally seen this happen, but I've heard that it can. In fact, this is why every modern quality Ecollar has a "time out" feature that shuts the collar off if you hold the button down for 10-12 seconds. 



gsdsar said:


> I am picking up an Einstein on Tues. What are your thoughts on these collars?


One of only two brands that I recommend.


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## jafo220 (Mar 16, 2013)

Have a Dogtra 7100. Bought used. Works fine with full charge. But needs new batteries. Had an instance on a long walk where the batteries in the collar just slowly went dead. I have the collar on to where I could see the LED. Watched it slowly go from green to an amber to finally red. dog was not reacting to any stems at that point. Luckily, I've worked with him enough it wasn't a big deal. But with other dogs it could have been. 

Sounds like you need new batteries in either the collar or remote. I still need to buy some myself. I have a backup collar I can use in the mean while. Batteries for the collar for mine are around $20 on Amazon or you can get them directly from the manufacturer. I think I'll play it safe and just get mine directly from Dogtra.


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## jafo220 (Mar 16, 2013)

Oh and Lou is right. Collar positioning and tightness make a world of difference in the stimulation level. My biggest problem still is Cruz nosing the ground and the collar riding up to a spot where the stim is less effective or not at all.


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## Thewretched (Jan 1, 2014)

gsdsar said:


> Lou, have you seen collars that won't stop stimming? Friend thinks this is what happened to her dog. Nearly a disaster, but ended okay.
> 
> I am picking up an Einstein on Tues. What are your thoughts on these collars?



What model are you getting? We have a 300ts and a k-9 800ts


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## VTGirlT (May 23, 2013)

Everyone thanks for the replies, gave me insight on the situation. Since the situation it has been working just fine. Quite odd.. She is back to normal working levels.






LouCastle said:


> I've seen more than my share of problems with Ecollars but I've only seen _"inconsistent"_ stim once. That came with the earliest 200's (in the early 1990's) and it turns out that it was an engineering problem that could be fixed on an individual basis and finally the manufacturing process was changed and the problem disappeared.
> 
> I've been using Ecollars for about 25 years or so. First exclusively Tri—Tronics, and for the last 10-15 years Dogtra and Einstein. I've tried just about every brand along the way, including some that few have heard of. I've NEVER (with the exception noted above) come across one that displays _"inconsistent"_ stim unless it was accompanied by some other fault that was very obvious. By the last I mean things like watching the LED on an Ecollar change while it sat, untouched on a table. That one had some internal fault, some electrical part had gone bad.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the great insight on this Lou. Good to know, it must have been me not fitting the collar correctly, it can be hard with Zelda being a long haired shepherd. I did check it twice, but maybe i did not check it correctly. Or like you said it slipped in between a sensitive area and non sensitive area, perhaps it was in a non sensitive area and she was blowing me off.


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## gsdsar (May 21, 2002)

Thewretched said:


> What model are you getting? We have a 300ts and a k-9 800ts



It's the 300TS. So far so good. My boy is getting used to it, as am I. Funny thing, he responded way bigger to the vibrate then the stim. It was a bit funny. Right now with no distraction, he is working between a 10 and 12. 

I am just pairing it with commands he already knows. Just to get him to understand how to turn off pressure.


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## Thewretched (Jan 1, 2014)

gsdsar said:


> It's the 300TS. So far so good. My boy is getting used to it, as am I. Funny thing, he responded way bigger to the vibrate then the stim. It was a bit funny. Right now with no distraction, he is working between a 10 and 12.
> 
> I am just pairing it with commands he already knows. Just to get him to understand how to turn off pressure.



It starts out higher for us, she's now at a 7 with no distractions (in the house) and I can't even feel a 7 on myself. We use the vibration as a "here" command because it breaks her out of prey drive. She also responds way harsher to the vibrate.


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## MonsterMorgan (Jul 16, 2014)

I just started using the Ecollar for the first time on Monday. I ended with the 2300NCP I am still working on the recall from Lou's Site. I first put the collar on her to find her working level. Went one level at a time until I hit 20 then she bolted. Went down to 9 and she still felt it. but since then she has been all over the place. I will start at 9 and nothing go to 10, 11, 12, 13 and nothing I usually have to go to 17 to get a reaction then back down to like 9 or 10. And that only lasts a little bit because she will just stop moving and roll around on the ground. I am guessing the collar is moving and not making contact or I need longer contact prongs.

But I feel like this is holding back the training because I don't know if the STIM is actually working all the time or not.


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## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

Make sure the collar is tight enough to be making good contact. It shouldn't be moving around. I didn't have that issue with my 2300NCP. Only seemed to be a problem with the 1900.


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

l have the 2300 and l don't feel anything til it hits 13...my dog works well at about 35, never had to go above 65 when we proofed him. He has extremely thick neck coat and I have to make sure it is in contact with the skin. 
I haven't had any problems with it, works great and is 3 yrs old.


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## LouCastle (Sep 25, 2006)

The most common error committed by new users is not putting the collar on securely. "SNUG" should be the operative word. If it's not on properly, then getting consistent contact is impossible. 

Try testing it on your own arm, and if it seems that it's giving inconsistent stim, send it to Dogtra for repairs/a checkup.


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## MonsterMorgan (Jul 16, 2014)

Lou, thanks for the heads up. Before I put it on her today I tested it on my arm and I felt it at 9, so I put it on her and made sure it was snug. Today went better she is just stubborn and refuses to listen. When I get more time this weekend I really think we are going to have to have a session that lasts a few hours just to get to the point where she gives in.


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## VTGirlT (May 23, 2013)

She is a long haired, so since then i have gotten longer contact points for the e-collar and do double check if i even turned it on! Or if its on snug enough.  

Thanks everyone!


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