# Ecollar do's and don't's...



## dhaney81 (Nov 5, 2014)

My dog is now 10 months old and I just ordered the dogstra 1900 ncp (almost went with mycobraracr's tri-tronics g3) both got good reviews but I decided to go with the brand new over the used.

Anyways I've done A LOT of research on them including reading loucastle's website and watching about a million youtube videos on them. I really want to do it the right way so I'm looking for do's and don't's with the ecollar...

Thanks for any tips or advice.


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## Steve Strom (Oct 26, 2013)

I'd make sure you go through an intro period with it like you've read about, and don't think of it as the cure for everything. Obedience is still training, the collar is just a little different tool.


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## jaudlee (Mar 28, 2013)

Only issue i had was that the dog was too **** smart and knew when his collar was on and when it was off haha so don't look at this as a cure-all just as Steve said below. Nothing beats good obedience training and I learned this through trial and error, but still love my e-collar for recall off leash hiking!


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## zyppi (Jun 2, 2006)

Steve Strom said:


> I'd make sure you go through an intro period with it like you've read about, and don't think of it as the cure for everything. Obedience is still training, the collar is just a little different tool.


What Steve said!


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## dhaney81 (Nov 5, 2014)

Yep, I definitely don't want him to get collar smart


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

If you do it right with a 2 week idle collar on whenever you go outside and random times inside, it works. I used it for chasing wildlife and it worked. She hasn't had a collar on for several weeks. The other day (no collar on) I put her on an off leash down-stay in the presence of a doe and fawn on the road pretty close by. And she stayed down when I crossed the road to get the mail. I will put on the collar off and on to make sure she doesn't get collar smart because I still want her to wear it (on active) when we go on trail walks when the weather cools off.


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## sourdough44 (Oct 26, 2013)

One of the biggies is the dog needs to already know what is expected, be trained to expected behavior. The ecollar is when they know but choose to ignore the command, like a simple 'come'.

Dogtra is my brand of choice. I also think the 'page' feature is very important. The gentle reminder with some vibration is usually all it takes, besides just wearing the collar.

You can always look over videos on Utube or other sites about use.


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## Baillif (Jun 26, 2013)

That pager feature is far more disruptive and obvious to the dog than just a working level stim. I don't even use the pager unless it's a deaf dog and I need attention on me or using it for hunting applications. 

If you don't want your dog to become collar wise don't make it the only way you correct your dog.


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## CaliGSD3 (Apr 23, 2015)

Make sure you have the right fit and contact point length. The correct fit is probably a little tighter than you would think and I found that I needed the 3/4 inch contact points for reliable contact. My pup had a normal GSD coat and I had thought the longer contact points were only for really long haired or thick coated breeds like huskies.

With the regular contacts, I would have to have the collar overly tight and then I still couldn't get 100% contact. I dint know for sure if contact was the issue or if he was ignoring the stim... But when I finally got the longer contacts points, I figured out all our issues were due to unreliable contact. Woud'lve saved me and my pup months of Ecollar confusion if I'd have known to try the longer contacts in the first place!


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## sourdough44 (Oct 26, 2013)

And by all means take the collar off when not needed. One dog I know got very sick from an infection when the owners left a collar on way to much.


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## dhaney81 (Nov 5, 2014)

Good point. The manual says no more than 8 hours in a 24 hour period. I could definitely see someone leaving it on way too long. 

I got the collar a couple days ago and have only been putting it on him and taking it off here and there, with no stims. In a couple days or a week I'll start working on recall with him, while using a light stim on him for it.


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## LouCastle (Sep 25, 2006)

The problem with leaving the collar on the dog for prolonged periods of time, is not that so much time has elapsed. It's that the collar points have sat in one place on the dog's neck for so long. Problems can be avoided simply by moving the "box" around the dog's neck. Several times a day call the dog over and move the collar to the 11 o'clock position. Gravity will pull it down eventually. A couple of hours later, move it to the 1 o'clock position. If it quickly moves back to the lowest position, the strap is too loose.


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## Murphsfromaz (Jul 1, 2015)

My boy wears his (E-collar the "The Boss" w/ comfort contacts) all day long. He is a working service dog. I move the collar multiple times a day when I praise him for good jobs.


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## nezzz (Jan 20, 2013)

One thing is don't always keep using the same stimulation level. When your dog responds to a certain level, use that level for your training session. For your next training session, you bring it down and work your way up till you get a response again. This prevents them from being desensitized thus needing more stimulation in future. Also sometimes you get a sweet spot, sometimes you don't.


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## ZiggytheSheprador (May 6, 2015)

i have a ecollar with three variables: shock, vibrate and beep. i use the beep like a clicker when he was a pup. now if he's out of sight, i will beep for almost any reason and he comes running.


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