Collar -Wise

Collar-Wise

written by Butch Goodwin
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Northern Flight Retrievers  
we don't seem to see as many "collar-wise" dogs - those that only obey when they're wearing an e-collar - today than we did in the past. I think the reason for this is because of better technology and better education for trainers, which has brought about more prudent use of the collar.

  It has really only been in the last decade or so that electronic collars have gained wide acceptance. For many years, they remained the tool as barbaric.

The best way to combat the "collar-wise" problem, is to follow your training program and collar-conditioning closely and not skip any steps. Then you'll get a dog that will behave whether the collar is on ...

of choice of professional trainers and a handful of amateurs who learned from them. "Shock collars," as they were known early on, were relatively crude and controversial, viewed by some of the public 

  But amateur trainers who saw the success some pros had with the collar thought they needed one to keep up. They quickly discovered that it was quite easy to get a dog to do simple things (like coming when called), which involved no real training; so they considered themselves dog trainers and, with little or no knowledge as to the collar's more advanced use, shocked dogs for the slightest infraction. And the dogs that were subjected to this quickly realized that when the collar wasn't on they could ignore the trainer.

  In an attempt to fool a dog into believing it was always wearing a live collar, the collar manufacturers began including a dummy collar. The dummy looked and felt identical to the live collar and familiarized the dog with wearing the real collar. It was suggested that the dummy be worn until the dog paid no attention to it and didn't associate it with training. To quote from the 1981 TriTronics book, Understanding Electronic Dog Training, "If you do
this wrong, your dog may associate the active collar with the stimulation, then he will behave only when he is wearing the collar" - i.e. he would become collar-wise.

Let's look at a little history. About four decades ago, electronic collars, which were originally developed in the 1950s for use by hunters with hounds, found their way into bird dog and retriever training. The earliest collars delivered only one level of stimulation, regardless of the infraction, thus they were aptly called "punishment collars." When the earliest collars were introduced into retriever training, the dogs were typically taught a lesson, and then the collar was used to punish the dog for incorrect behavior. Back then, we often heard the expression that the dog was "set-up to make a mistake" so that it could be corrected. This high-powered collar correction often resulted in a dog that performed out of fear and walked out to marks - afraid to put a foot down wrong. 

  The next advance was the "avoidance" collar, which had a second button that signaled a buzz to the dog before it was shocked, giving it the chance to correct itself. But these collars still only delivered one level of rather harsh shock.  The collar developers, recognizing that not all dogs could handle the same level of intensity, developed a collar that allowed the trainer to pre-select the level of correction by insert­ing different intensity plugs. This was a much better system, but once the collar was on and the dog was in the field or water, the intensity still couldn't be modified. 

  As technology evolved, e-collars allowed the trainer to vary the level of intensity from the handheld transmitter. It was still necessary for the trainer to pre-select an intensity plug, which came in low, medium, and high, but now the trainer could choose from his transmitter three levels of stimulation for each plug. Although a tremendous leap forward in design, there were still significant drawbacks. The trainer only had three levels of stimulation to choose from once the collar was on the dog, and if the intensity plug was too high or too low, he had to call the dog back to change it. 

  This design was vastly improved in the early 1990s, when new collar sys­tems eliminated the plugs and allowed all levels of stimulation to be selected directly from the transmitter. The trainer could now match the intensity to the infraction or the distraction simply by turning a dial. 

  Only one hurdle was left to clear:  The collar manufacturers were quick to realize that the collar system had evolved over the years, but trainers and the public were sorely in need of education as to the correct use of this powerful training tool if it was going to gain general acceptance. 

  And the level of education that has become available over the last decade may actually be the greatest advancement of e-collars to date. This train­ing for the trainer has detailed proper introduction to and correct use of the collar to build a solid foundation of training - the keys to avoiding future problems. 

Twenty years ago, information on the correct use of the collar was difficult to come by, but today we have much more sophisticated collar systems and a vast selection of books, videos, DVDs, and seminars that detail the correct use of the e-collar. And, largely because of the training available and modern collar technology, if a training program is followed as it is presented, dogs generally aren't developing that "collar-wise" behavior they once did.

  When I contacted my friend Steve Snell at Gun Dog Supply and asked why dummy collars weren't used any­more, he said, "Most manufacturers haven't supplied them with units in 
at least ten or fifteen years - and some companies don't even have them available. The collar manufacturers have discovered as the technology evolved, that if the training steps are followed and trainers condition dogs as described and use the collar correctly as a tool, the dogs simply don't become collar-wise like they did in the past, and there is less need for dummy collars. But I discover from most callers with training problems and those asking about how to cure a collar-wise dog, that they have skipped much of the conditioning and training steps and have gone directly to using the collar as a crutch for a quick fix. I suggest that they back up and start over, and if they will give the dog a proper introduction to the collar by following the collar­conditioning steps and give the dog the proper foundational training, they won't have issues to deal with down the road." 

  So it seems the ongoing problem continues to be convincing people 
to follow what they read or see in the videos and not exclude any steps. It's human nature to pass over the boring repetition and go straight to the "fun stuff," causing novices to get frus­trated and make corrections without letting the dog get familiar with the collar, or adequately conditioning him to understand what he can do to turn off the low level of stimulation in the first place. 

  Remember: A collar can't teach a dog anything. The dog must be shown what is expected of it first; a collar can only enforce what the dog has been taught previously. If the dog doesn't know what is expected before the button is pushed, it won't know afterward.