A new era is upon us and it is necessary for all of us to re-examine our training methods. It is far easier to continue to use training techniques developed by our grandfathers that are familiar to us than to go back to school on our own. It is my goal to make available to you all of the "new " concepts that make it easier for dogs to learn.

Let's examine the difference between Punishment and Negative Reinforcement when the e-collar is involved. Punishment with the e-collar is straight forward. To stop a behavior with an e-collar using punishment requires that
    1) that the correction be immediate,
    2) that the correction is adequate to stop the behavior,
    3) and finally that the correction should not have fallout.
A worse case scenario of fallout that I see to often are Pointing dogs that are not taught to point but do point naturally. When they dive in on a pointed bird (they will all dive in at some point) the punishment is swift for breaking point as they catch a bird. And boom a non-retriever is made in an instant. This not a big problem for a field trial dog that will never be allowed to retrieve but what a task it is to train a dog to retrieve that is fearful of feathers in his mouth. With punishment, timing is everything! Low levels of punishment can create an animal with increasing levels of tolerance to punishment. These dogs might be called bullheaded or stubborn but they have actually been taught to tolerate bad training.

A negative reinforcer is something that a dog would like to avoid. A negative reinforcer prevents or changes a behavior by reducing the odds that the behavior will occur again. Have you seen a dog react to a raised voice or hand by a change in his body posture? And have you seen that same dog relax when the voice or hand lowers? Negative Reinforcement is the removal or termination of an unpleasant stimulus- the reward is when the negative reinforcer stops. The e-collar is unparalleled in the history of training dogs. It is the tool of the future for all dog training. The key to the immense power of the collar is the knowledge of behavioral training. The e-collar is the ultimate negative reinforcer because the timing can be impeccable and distance is not a factor.

It is important to develop the e-collar as a conditioned reinforcer so that it is useful in all areas of training. In the late 1980's I developed a system of introducing the e-collar to all the dogs that I trained. This intro was done with every dog with no matter to his training needs. I adapted the concepts of shaping and eliciting to training with negative reinforcement with the early true training collars (See Collar-wise - Part I article).

The first part of my early system was called SILENT BODY HANDLING. I always start at the lowest level (level 1) in an enclosed area. With obedience dogs the size of the area is not important but for field dogs it should be several acres. When training field dogs we would simply go for a walk down the field. At some point in the field I would change directions 180 degrees. The collar immediately goes on until the dog acknowledges my change in direction by looking in my direction. If there is no response I would move to a medium 1, then high 1, then low 2, etc until there is some change in behavior. At first just looking in my direction is enough to stop the collar. Most dogs will respond by joining you when you change directions. We progress in small increments, first just a look in my direction, then a step in my direction, then several steps in my direction. Remember that the collar goes off every time one of the increments is satisfied. Soon you will have a dog watching out of the corner of his eye to anticipate your change of direction. Now you can teach a dog to handle naturally or quarter with silent body handling. You are the cue instead of a voice command. It is necessary to teach SBH in several locations before teaching a field recall with the collar. Generally most field dogs will come to you when you squat once they start responding to SBH. Never shape a dog to come to you while teaching SBH. Teach only one behavior at a time when shaping.

With obedience dogs the approach is different. We begin by starting like the field dogs but our goals are not the same. We will teach the dog to come all the way into the trainer. Again in small increments we shape the dog to look in our direction, then a turn in our direction, then a step, then steps, and then finally all the way to us. The early sessions should be short with only one goal. Although this can be learned very quickly it is important to teach this slowly. We are developing a conditioned negative reinforcer, which is the e-collar while we are teaching the dog a behavior. Once the dog is reliable at responding to your body language by coming to you when there is a change of directions then you can add a verbal command to come. This is called overlaying because we are adding a different command to a known behavior. The verbal command is also a conditioned reinforcer but it is a positive reinforcer because it arrives after the stimulation stops. What we get are dogs that come happily from any distance. Once we have a dog that recalls reliably we can refine the behavior to a dog that walks at heel. To do this we keep moving when the dog is called. Every time the dog goes past you on a change of direction you apply the e-collar as the dog passes and you change direction. Very quickly the dog learns that you direction will change if he passes you so he slows down and pauses at your side. We are shaping an off-leash heel. Once the dog stays near you we can introduce the command to heel as the e-collar goes off. Again the command to heel becomes a positive reinforcer because it arrives as the stimulation ends. With patience and timing you can develop a superb off leash heel. But again our ulterior motive is to make the e-collar a conditioned negative reinforcer.

The second part of my original system was to teach a stationary behavior such as whoa for pointing dogs, sit for retrievers and obedience dogs, or down for herding breeds. Point of Contact training is very useful when teaching stationary behaviors. With a suitcase leash and the e-collar under the dogs waist we can teach whoa. With a leash and the e-collar on the dogs back we can teach sit. Today's Tri-tronic's e-collars can be as gentle as a light touch of the hand or light physical contact. While walking the dog at heel we start at the lowest level and gradually work upwards until we notice some type of response. We hold the button or buttons for 7 seconds before going to a higher level. If that response is consistent with our goal of sit or whoa we can begin to use successive approximation with the e-collar. In the beginning we will reward any attempt to sit or pause as a proper response to the e-collar by shutting off the e-collar. Any dip in the back or partial sit initially is rewarded but we gradually honor those responses that are closer to our goal of sitting. Once the dog learns to respond to the light electronic contact we can overlay the command word. As the dog demonstrates understanding of the command we can move the e-collar back to his neck while polishing the responses to this conditioned negative reinforcer.

To teach whoa or stand we use a suitcase leash to control the dog. A suitcase leash has chokers on both ends. With one choker on the dog's neck and the other around his waist we can walk the dog at heel and prevent unsolicited sits. The dog should also wear the e-collar around his waist on his belly. At first we just walk to let the dog get comfortable with the training scenario. When we stop we gently pickup on the leash to apply light but constant pressure until the dog is still. Then again we start at the lowest level and progress slowly until we see a response. We combine the gentle guidance of the leash and the e-collar so that we can shape the proper response with successive approximation. As the shaping occurs we will take the lead away from the waist so we are leading the dog from his head. As he learns to be stationary we will gradually move away from him and add distractions. Now we can overlay the command on a learned behavior and at the same time we can overlay a hand signal also.

This method of introducing the collar to any dog has many different aspects of behavioral training that we have not yet covered but will in the future. The most important point is the establishment of a conditioned negative reinforcer that a dog knows how to avoid or turn off through compliance. This method was refined by Jim and Phyllis Dobbs at the Tri-tronic's Training Center as the Three Step Introduction. The third step teaches a dog to leave you side by going to a crate or the place board. I now use the Three Step Introduction with every dog that I train.

Please see Collar-Wise Part 3.