Why I e-collar trained my Terriers

I’ve been in the world of dog training for over 6 years now. And for the vast majority of that I would have happily labeled myself an R+ trainer. For those unfamiliar with the dog trainer terminology, that’s a trainer who chooses not to use any corrections when training dogs, you aim to achieve everything through the use of positive reinforcement. Having joined the world of dog training a bit later in life, when looking for places to learn and a group of trainers to become a part of, it felt absolutely the right thing to train with all the feel good ethics (and marketing) that goes along with calling yourself an R+ only trainer.

After all, I recycle, I buy as many ethical products as possible, I’m a vegetarian and I absolutely don’t believe in using punishment like smacking with my human child! So why on earth would I step away from those ethics with my dog? When the industry is so polarised, you are almost forced to choose a side as a trainer, especially a new to the game one who has no real experience themselves with which to make decisions on. Am I or am I not cool with using what I believed to be a straight electric shock to stop a dog from doing things I don’t want? Of course not…I’m better, smarter and have zero need to do such things. There are many very successful trainers telling me I don’t need to and will in fact mess up my dog and be a failure as human being if I do - so no thanks.

So, with a very high prey drive dog I spent nearly 3 years working towards a recall reliable enough to let him off the lead around wildlife. Honestly, I pretty much got there. Which you may be surprised to hear given the title of this blog! With the use of motivation based R+ training, many many hours of relationship building, endless work on self control and arousal management and becoming an instructor in the most popular ‘positive only’ system for prey drive, Predation Substitute Training ( a great system still) I had achieved recall in some very difficult situations, including calling both my Terriers off hunting behaviours at distance and at least one live chase of deer. I had proudly posted videos on social media and been a big believer in using management (a lead) in places where you weren’t sure your recall was up to it and allowing freedom in suitable environments the rest of the time. And for a long time that worked quite well.  I still think it’s a great way to manage a high prey drive dog if you are firmly against tools AND you have the time and means to provide them with enough freedom outside of tricky environments. If you and your dog are happy, then it’s not a bad way to live at all. I did it pretty successfully for several years.

So why then? Why would I decide to make the leap to using an aversive correction to control the dogs if I had a pretty successful life already? Well, here’s the downward spiral we went on (which in truth took about a year) that led me to where we are now, which is *spoiler alert* off lead freedom, lower arousal and happier dogs. Not to mention a significantly happier me. I genuinely look back on the last 3 years with Elvis and realise that if ’d got out my own way I could have done this a lot sooner and had a lot less stress, happier everyone and not to mention spent less time and money on training courses. I digress.

So, in the last year environments I had felt comfortable letting Elvis off the lead had become less and less, for several reasons. The number of ignored recalls were increasing as real life presented higher temptation things to chase. With 2-3 minute trips off after pheasants being totally normal, I pretty much brushed them off as fine because he always came back and I could call him back if I needed to. The deer chases that presented themselves - even in environments where they were very few and far between - became more common and the incidents where he would go and chase for 10mins plus were becoming more regular. Maybe once every few months. Again I sort of brushed them off because for the most part the recall was good and although I wasn’t that prepared to admit it, I was heavily managing the environments we were in. Luckily I have access to lots of deer fencing and fairly open places where I could use my own well developed hyper vigilance (thanks neuro diversity, you got my back here) to spot problems a mile off and mitigate them. Then over the space of a few months he went AWOL for over 2 hours, twice. Chased a deer and then got lost in a forest. 

The truth is I'd been through the cycle of restricting to a line, upping motivation and working on new cues so many times now, it only lasted briefly when I let the lead off again and no-one had any better suggestions for me.

Bearing in mind, this isn’t a dog who wants for anything. He lives with a dog trainer who runs classes in two dog sports, one started specifically FOR HIM.. He has the best diet, is in peak physical condition, gets more exercise than most dogs and has an abundance of both mental stimulation and rest. At this point I knew there was no more training I could do, I’ve done it all. I’ve taken the courses, booked the top trainers in the UK for 121s and had their advice. Frustratingly I’ve helped train and have trained other ’s dogs to a better standard then I was achieving with my own. At this point I’m out of ideas. We are now restricted to some very limited environments and on lead everywhere else. Then to it top off we had two incidents with him on lead where other dogs attacked him in a short space of time. Unfortunately due to multiple factors Elvis has always invited trouble with other dogs, sohis arousal levels on walks started to ramp up rapidly. 

Then the final nail in the coffin. My fault - I let him get too far ahead of me in a very safe environment, but unfortunately on this occasion a group of dogs were just around the corner. He didn’t charge in, he didn’t do anything. Just froze on the spot and totally zoned out shooting in to crazy high arousal and ignored, or more likely just did not hear, his recall. The group of 4 dogs containing entire males  surrounded him and in one of those horrible slow motion moments  one of them got too pushy with sniffing him and then bang a scrap broke out. Nobody was hurt, it was all noise BUT at that point I knew I couldn’t  let this dog off the lead anymore unless I could see for bloody miles and I knew there was nothing for him to chase. The perfect storm of real life had well and truly screwed me over.  This, despite the fact that for the most part in the large majority of situations his recall is pretty bloody good, better than most pet dogs I’d say BUT, because of the dog he is the consequences of failure are too high. Lots of pet dogs ignore their recall but the consequences are a 2 min jolly the woods or an over friendly hello to another dog that’s unwelcome. With Elvis it was 2 hours lost in the woods or a fight - or in the right set of circumstances both..

So I’m now looking at my young, independent, drivey little Terrier and considering the prospect of keeping him on a lead for the next 10+ years or until he’s too old to run off! This might be a touch controversial to say but Flexi leads (which I actually like to use in many circumstances) are where the Terrier spirit goes to die. The number of unhappy, frustrated, overweight and under muscled Terriers who have simply lost the will to live that bumble about on Flexi leads for exactly this reason is high. I was not prepared to watch the life slowly drain out of him. I’m considering if I can put EVEN MORE effort in with R+ methods and rescue the situation BUT HOW? With what? I can’t see what else I can do and the sum of his experiences are now too great in my opinion. I didn’t invite any of this stuff but it happened anyway and so here we are.

Now it’s time to face the elephant in the room. Look at the other half of the dog training industry who say they can get my dog off the lead with an e-collar and not shut him down, scare him or suppress his nature. It’s something that’s been at the back of my mind for quite some time and I’m now feeling that if it’s that or have hold of a lead every time we step out the door for the next 10 years….well I owe it to him to give it a go. My previous prejudice should not stand in the way of his freedom. I chose this breed, brought this little idiot my life and no one else is going to solve this for us. So I started learning all I could on e-collars, the why, the how and researching the different ways they can be used.

After thinking it all through I settled on the path I was going down. I would be using it for recall only and yes I was going to use it as a ‘correction’. I was going to put him through an unpleasant experience in order to set the boundary that he may not ignore his recall. Here’s why - Elvis is a dog that will push any limit you put in front of him. He’ll track a deer for 2 hours over 10km, he’ll happily step up to a fight with a fully grown entire male Great Dane, he is not the sort of dog that will simply take a new sensation as a cue to recall to ‘interrupt’ his prey drive. It would have been extremely naive to think that. If I just needed a new positively trained cue, well I wouldn't be having this problem in the first place.

So I now know that’s what I’m doing. So I now need to consider the following, making it as fair as possible, giving him the knowledge of what to do about the correction when it comes and making sure I do everything possible to minimise the amount I need to use it to get him not ignoring his recall in the future. I can hear a lot of you thinking now - she’s openly saying she’s going to put the dog through an unpleasant, potentially painful experience and she’s fine with that? What a terrible person! Well you definitely could look at it that way, for sure. Or you could look at it that by putting this boundary in place, by giving this one rough lesson, I could open up his freedom, his world, provide him with a wealth of new experiences for the next 10+ years of his life all the while avoiding the frustration and stress that comes from keeping him on a lead. This was one or two nos to open up a whole world of yes. And *spoiler alert* it worked exactly how I wanted it. In fact nothing I’ve ever done with Elvis training wise has gone as smoothly. Why? Clarity and clear communication  - he got the message and from then on in everything was easier. Also in fairness - I had a lot riding on it so I made damn sure I did it right.

Here's a brief run down of what the process looked like. I started from a place of having a dog with great engagement, a lot of value in recall and lots of time spent working on arousal management and self control. He also has pretty good disengagement skills and is getting all the necessary needs met in all areas of his life. This is absolutely the gold standard for using the e-collar in my opinion. So with that all done the collar is used on the lowest level the dog can feel it to make the association with recall. You feel this sensation, you recall. All done under management of a long line so that the message is received loud and clear. Stim = recall. There’s a process of level setting, using both positive and negative reinforcement to make sure the dog has this down, fully understands the assignment and can do it in lots of different situations. The more proficient your dog is with training and recall the easier this will be. I took a few weeks with Elvis, just in case - but truthfully he was plenty competent in a few days. I just hedged my bets.

So now he understands the game, all he has to do when he feels that stim is recall and it switches off the instant he’s heading back to me. Then the long lines are off and I wait for him to find a reason to ignore his recall, knowing at that point I need to guts to push the button and give him enough stim to make him choose the recall I’m asking for over the chase of the wildlife. I decide to go for 15 levels above his working non aversive level. So for context anyone who has some knowledge, he’s on a micro educator collar, which is smaller and less powerful that the standard mini educator and his base level is between a 6 and a 15 depending on the environment. The moment came, he found a pheasant to chase and he blew off his recall. The first higher level tap stopped him, he definitely felt it and he definitely didn’t like it, but he also decided to continue the chase. The second tap at the same level he recalled and was rewarded handsomely for doing so - to my mind he knew then it wasn’t a fluke or a one off. Ignoring the whistle now meant an unpleasant consequence and he took the message loud and clear. He then continued on his walk, a little less full of it than before but absolutely fine.

That was nearly 6 months ago and since then I’ve had to use the collar on a higher level once and on the working level a handful of times.  The remote remains in my pocket untouched for weeks on end. If the next 6 months continues on the same vein I may consider not having it on him unless we are in very challenging environments. He’s not shut down, he’s still very happy to chase things and is still his sparky cheerful self. With one crucial difference. He doesn’t ignore his recall.  With that criteria in place he now has the freedom to run when he wants, dig, jump on critters in the hedge and sniff whatever the hell he likes. We have opened up our world from one or two walking spots to many and explore the local forests daily. He’s recalled off deer, rabbits, other approaching dogs and slow and vulnerable red squirrels. He’s safe, he isn’t going to get in stand offs with dogs and I am no longer a hyper vigilant maniac waiting for the next incident to occur. Arousal levels are way down on walks, he doesn’t actively seek chase in the same way at all. He’ll take it if it presents itself but he’s stopped looking for trouble which has had the effect of settling his nervous system and making him a calmer, happier dog who is in control of his own actions. I don’t nag or micro manage, we just have one clear boundary that will not be crossed and because of the way it was done he isn’t  shut down, confused or overly stressed by it. He certainly didn’t enjoy it but those two clear nos have led to an uncountable number of yeses he would not have had otherwise.

If I could go back and do this 3 years ago - I absolutely would. Beattie my other dog has now been trained the same. She won’t be the dog that runs after the rabbit in to a road and causes an accident making the local paper, like I’ve seen several other Terriers do. She’s also been told, no you can’t ignore your recall. Because of that we are all happier, I’m calmer, they are calmer - we can go anywhere we want in the countryside and the wildlife, livestock and other countryside users are safe from Terrier madness and for me, most importantly they are both free to do *almost* everything they please.

I extend an open invitation to anyone to join me on a walk with the dogs. If you aren’t convinced I’m telling the truth, if you think that my dogs are unhappy or shut down then come and see for yourself. If you can convince me I’m wrong or there’s a better way to do things, I’ll listen. I live in Peebles in the Scottish Borders and I walk them every single day, twice a day. I’d also like to extend a huge thank you to Linnea at Walk and Train Edinburgh for helping me with the whole process, being my backstop with questions and listening to my mildly panicked voice notes when I doubted myself and what I was doing.

Finally get in touch if you think this is a path you’d like to go down, I’m here to help.