E-Collar Myths: Separating Fact From Fiction

Hello, dog peeps. Jack here. Just a quick one before we get into this episode. You may or may not be aware that when I'm not talking dog stuff with Max, I in fact interview people who are incarcerated in prisons across the United States on a show called One Minute Remaining: Stories from the Inmates. And that show has been nominated for an award in America. And I would love your support if you've got 60 seconds to click the link in the show notes of this episode and just vote for my show. That would be amazing if you could. Thank you very much indeed. Oh, and don't forget to verify your email address. Otherwise, the vote does not count. Thank you.

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It's the Dog People Podcast with your host Jack Lawrence.

Secretly, I decided to start this podcast for some free dog training advice. You know, Malinois seem to be like the dog at the moment. Like, I think people see them on Instagram doing these incredible things. Yeah. Go, oh my God, that's awesome. And then I get one like, oh my God, what the fuck have I done?

And Max O'Neill.

You would not believe how many people I meet and I go, what made you want to get, say, an Aussie Shepherd? They go, I don't know. I go, had you met one before? They go, no. If you want to ask me how often I walk my own dog a week, it's only twice a week.

It's the Dog People Podcast, the podcast hopefully giving you a no-nonsense approach to dog training so you never have to shout, it's okay, it's friendly. Jack Lawrence, also Max O'Neill here, Down Under Dog Trainer. And Max, we're doing our Little series on the e-collar. If you haven't heard our episode on basically e-collar and what it's all about and that sort of stuff, then have a listen to that before you jump onto this one. Because today we want to talk about the common misconceptions, because as we mentioned in the first e-collar episode, obviously this is a tool that is controversial. But as Max and I were talking about before the mics came on, a lot becoming a lot less controversial, which we love because it should not be controversial. Yes. In the wrong hands, it can be used poorly, but when you But when used correctly in the right hands with e-collar training, they can just open up your entire world and more importantly, your dog's entire world.

Yep, absolutely. And it's funny, you know, when we speak to people on a daily basis and I do meet people that have a negative opinion of the e-collar, it's almost— well, sorry, not almost, it's always based on a misconception. They'll tell me, it's, oh, I don't like them because of this, this, and this. I go, well, none of what you just said is true. So I'm sure some of you guys might feel the same way. When we wrote down our biggest list of misconceptions that we see on a daily basis, the list actually ended up crazy long, which actually shows just how much misconception there is around it. So we've actually got our 13 reasons why, uh, shout out to it, of why misconceptions around the e-collar. So we're going to just unpack each of those. We won't spend too long on them. Um, but let's chat about it. Let's dive straight in.

Hey. Yeah, it's important for people to understand the misconceptions because obviously I'm sure that most people listening to this will have heard a number of these and it's important for them to know that, hold on a second, that's actually not quite true.

Yeah, that's it. And if at the end of these you still go, I understand it way better, but I still don't like it.

Cool. Oh, totally. All good. We're not here to force you to do anything. We have no shares in any e-collar companies, although I'm thinking about coming out with my own. So stay tuned.

But Big E Collar, if you want to reach out, you know, we're looking for sponsors.

Yeah.

Yeah. All right. So misconception number 1, it shocks your dog. Nope, absolutely not. It's not a taser. It's not even close. I'm not an electrician. I'm not going to pretend to be, but if you look at the voltage, wattage, whatever difference it is. Worlds apart. It's not funny. It's like comparing a car battery to the battery in your phone. That is totally, totally, totally different things. It does not shock your dog. On the highest level, it can provide a really strong current that'll feel hugely uncomfortable and painful for your dog on the highest level. But that's not how we train. But it's not going to shock your dog. Their hair's not going to stand on end. It's not going to make them convulse like a taser. It's just—

It's not, it's not an electric shock. It's just, it's a very high-powered, like we said before in the first episode, TENS machine. If you've ever used a TENS machine, cranked it up, you It's not being— it's not electric shock, but it is very uncomfortable.

It just means your muscles are going to contract even harder to a point that it's uncomfortable. That's all it means. So it's like comparing a water gun and a real gun. 2 very different things, worlds apart, not remotely the same, not remotely the same power. Cool. Not at all. Next one is laziness. There's a big misconception. People go, oh, this is for lazy people. This is one that I feel we both feel really strongly against.

So strongly.

I can tell you too, And when we do this episode talking out the e-collar, you're going to listen to it and go, damn, that takes a lot of work to properly train that in. It's not lazy.

It is such— because you've got to train— like, I trained Kira in verbal commands, then on the whistle, then on the e-collar. So I had to train her 3 times.

Yeah, that's it.

So if you want to call me lazy, you can go and—

Yeah, yeah, you can go because it's, it's a lot of work. And same, like, when I have clients go, we want to do e-collar training, go, cool, let's get into it. And I explain the process. Sometimes they go, Oh, I thought it was going to be a bit easier. It's like, no, it's like, it's, it's a lot of work.

It's a gradual process. It's

not for lazy people. Yeah, it's, it's one more piece of equipment you've got to put in the morning. It's one more thing that needs charging. It's a whole heap of training. It's making sure you go out and it's always on. Like, it's, it's not laziness. It means my dog can enjoy a way greater life. But I tell you, it's, it's not laziness.

It's like with anything when it comes to the dog, it takes effort and time to have a well-trained, well, polite, you know, And, you know, that's why we see so many dogs that aren't well trained because it's not easy. And, you know, and getting an e-collar is not your road to an easy, quick fix. It's just not. So if you're thinking, oh yeah, I've been trying to train it sort of, but I'll just get an e-collar and then they'll just do whatever I want. It doesn't work that way.

No, that's it. You can try the lazy approach, but I'm telling you, you're not going to get very far and you're going to create more problems than you solve. The next one is that it's abusive. No, not inherently. Any tool can be abused. You could abuse your dog with— let's look at, let's look at our hands, for example. Our hands can stroke a dog, they can, you know, hit a dog, they can do nothing to a dog. The e-collar is no different. You could apply it to a level where it's therapeutic, like a TENS machine. You can make them uncomfortable, you could put them in pain. You can absolutely abuse it in the same way any tool, but then that's you abusing the animal, not the tool. When you put an e-collar on, it doesn't instantly abuse them. It's In the same way, you could put a harness or a collar on your dog. Neither of those tools are abusive, but you could choose to use that as a tool to abuse them with. So if your dog gets abused on an e-collar, that's because the person with the e-collar has abused them.

And that's the other thing, another one that I find really frustrating is because I love my dog. Like my dog eats so well. Like I feed, like I spend a lot of money on my dog. I buy her toys that are more expensive than I buy for my own children. Yeah. She ran into a tree the other day and hurt her paw. So I carried her the whole way home. Because I was worried about her hurting her foot. So for anyone to say, well, you're cruel because you put your dog on an e-collar, again, go and get— because I love that dog. And my wife says all the time, you take the dog out more than you take me out. So, you know.

Next one is it causes anxiety. Again, this is one of the things where it can, but it doesn't if you do it right. So let's think of like, let's compare it to, for example, an electric fence. Okay, not the best comparison, but whatever. If you put a horse into a paddock with an electric fence, they walk over, they touch it, they get a bit of a— oh, a bit of a zap— and they step back, and then the zap stops. They go, oh, okay, so you're telling me if I touch that, I get zapped. If I don't touch that, I don't get zapped. Cool, easy, total black and white clarity. That horse wanders around the paddock, walks, you know, a centimeter from the fence without any care in the world because they are in full control of when it occurs and when it doesn't, and there's no anxiety there. Okay, how many horses do you see in the paddock going, oh, there's that fence, I don't want to go near it? Well, no, because they just don't touch it. Okay, if our e-collar is conditioned and trained in properly, which we're going to teach you how to do, there's no anxiety whatsoever. Like we said, all of our clients and both of our dogs shove their head through the collar because they can't wait to get it on. Again, the same way a horse can't wait to get in the paddock. Okay, but if you do it wrong and your dog doesn't think that the stim on the e-collar is consequential, they think it's more incidental and it's just going to randomly occur, of course it's going to cause anxiety. Imagine if you put a horse in a paddock and go, hey, I'm just going to randomly come and hit you with, you know, with, with something, but I'm not going to tell you why, and it's just going to be an incident that happens. Of course it'll freak them out. They'll sit there worrying about it coming. And the other, other way this can, if it's done properly, is if you use way too high level. If you figure out that your dog only needs a 15 or a 20 to respond, but you choose to go to 50 or 70 or 100, then of course, like the threat of what might come is so big and severe that of course it could make them a bit anxious. Okay. So as long as you have clarity and fairness in your level, you won't cause your dog anxiety. I can tell you, I've worked with many dogs who are like generally a pretty anxious dog and an e-collar has actually been the thing that has helped them simply because they now have a communication tool which gives them clarity. They're wandering around their house and their life so like, I don't know what is going on. I don't know whether I'm in trouble, not in trouble. Mum and Dad are so unclear. But now I have this one tool that makes everything crystal clear. And I've had dogs who have overcome these anxious feelings because of an e-collar.

Again, going back to obviously Kira, my experiences there, because she's a very— she's a tough dog, but she's a very sensitive dog. Because I obviously had all these misconceptions as well. And I was like, oh, I wonder if I might ruin my relationship with her. And that's why I was so tentative about the levels and going so slowly. And, you know, and then now we train and there's no like fear whatsoever. She's like, we're in, we're on the zone.

Your relationship's stronger because of the stuff you can do.

Oh, totally. Yeah, exactly. I can let her off and just know that categorically, should she decide that she— that over there is far more, far better for me to be entertained with and chase, you know, and I just give it a tap. But even now, as I said in the previous episode, now when she sees like a motorbike or something like that, yes, she's like, you can see she's just like a just want to chase it, but she looks to me and I can put her in a down and she'll sit and she'll wait until that motorbike's gone, throw it, and I don't even need to use the e-collar anymore. Again, it's just a seatbelt for us now.

Yeah, that's it. So e-collars don't inherently cause anxiety, the misuse of them does. And don't get me wrong, I see clients who have seen a poor trainer or have tried it themselves or have caused the dogs— they say, damn, your dog feels super anxious about this e-collar. We had one recently and we've had to fix that. But, uh, the tool itself doesn't, the misuse does. But with that being said, you could misuse food, you could misuse your dog's toys and make them anxious about stuff. So e-collars don't cause anxiety. Next one is the misconception that e-collars are a last resort. Again, total bullshit. You don't have to think that you've tried a collar, a harness, a slip lead, treats, toys, and then you go, oh, I guess we're left with an e-collar. No, it's not that. It's just another option. It's just another way of doing things is When Nelson was 12 months old, we started e-collar training. He hadn't done anything wrong. I just went, cool, I now want to start teaching him to do stuff with the e-collar so we can open up our world more. So it's, it's absolutely not a last resort. You can get going with it when you're ready, really.

Yeah. I mean, I wish I'd started earlier with Kira because for me, I was that last resort person. But then now I realize, like, I should have just done this straight away and it would have, there would have been so much less hassle in my life and so much less stress with the chasing of things.

Yeah.

If we'd just done it straight away.

Yeah, that's it.

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The next one is it alters our dog's brainwaves. This is a bit of a silly one, but there's a local trainer. Let's call him Mark from Happy Pooch Dog Training. That's not his actual business. That's a hypothetical name and business name who tells all his clients that it alters a dog's brainwaves and brain theta and all this shit. It doesn't. It causes your muscles to contract and your nerves to contract. Next one. It causes aggression. Again, no. An e-collar doesn't cause your dog aggression. You have to misuse it in a very niche circumstance for this to happen. Okay. Again, you have to use this in a really shitty fashion where your dog goes, hey, this is big. You're doing this unfairly, or you've done this to me in a shitty way for your dog to maybe start going, hey, like, screw you. Or the other way is if you're using it to manage dog-to-dog social interactions, if your timing and your communication is poor and your dog thinks, hey, the other dog gave me that stimulation, then it could cause aggression. But again, if you use this properly, we use e-collars all the time in dog-to-dog social interaction, particularly if we're resocialising a dog and we need to correct out some behaviours. Or even last night when Nelson was meeting a dog for the first time and he just was giving that sniff that little bit long, and I just went, And this dog was a little bit old and wouldn't give— put up the boundary. So Nelson just got a, hey, no, tap, tap on the e-collar. He went, yep, sweet, all good. He wasn't aggressive off the back of it. You have to misuse it to, um, to cause any sort of aggression. Again, like any tool. Next one, it's only for punishment. Absolutely not. The first 6 months Nelson— no, maybe not that long. First 3 months Nelson wore an e-collar, we didn't punish him at all. It was all about reinforcing commands.

Same with Kira.

And quite often, 99% of the time we're using it, it's not for punishment. It's simply to make a behaviour a little bit faster, a little bit sharper, more reliable, better, make it clearer, or to do it from a distance. There's— yeah, there was. And if you do it right, and we're going to talk about this in our how-to episode, is you'll see that punishment comes last. Most of what you're doing is just reinforcing behaviour.

Yeah, and I mean, when I first started with Kira, it was all about That sensation meant only good things. So like when she felt that tap, as soon as she turned to me, it was almost the same as how we first trained recall. When I called her, she turned to me, it's like, yes, here you go, here's your ball. So I did, you know, tap with the thing, she turned around, yes, there's your ball. So now she runs off around the corner and I do tap-tap, she just comes sprinting back around that corner. Like, where is it? Where's the ball? Let's go. I'm here. You know, I'm back. Perfect. Yeah. So, and it was, as you said, like, you know, corrections didn't come Yeah, I don't, I can't remember when I started bringing them in, but it wasn't, it definitely wasn't straight away at all.

So definitely not just a punishment tool. The next one we've got down here that it automatically trains your dog. You can just throw one on. And I have lots of people go, yeah, we bought him an e-collar train collar. I was just going to, you know, chuck that on to train. I was like, oh, do you know how to train collar? Nah, we're just going to, you know, press the button to make him sit, press it to this. And, and this comes from seeing movies like, if everyone remembers the movie Cats and Dogs back in the day and the big Uh, villain, you know, of that story was the, you know, the big shock collar that the evil genius kind of had, and it would make dogs backflip. And a lot of people watched that and kind of went, that's how they work. So a lot of people think that their dog just, you know, if you press a button, they're like a TV remote and you can just press a button that makes them sit, press a button that makes them down, press a button that makes them stop. And it's not. You have to teach your dog what all these different things mean. Next one is that it's going to damage your relationship. Again, no. Like a lot of these things, if you do it wrong, sure. If you, uh, you know, not following all our advice here and using way too high level at an inconsistent time and showing your dog that that's coming off the back of you, they're gonna start to say, hey, screw you. But again, that's not the tool, that's the misuse of the tool doing that. Next one, it's only for large breeds. Nope, absolutely not. There's a collar made by a brand called Dogtra, uh, that do an e-collar for dogs 2.5 kilos and over. And we've used those sometimes for dachshunds. And things like that. So it's not just for big dogs, it's for any dog 2.5 kilos and over, really, just as long as it's— the only reason I don't go lower than that is because I think the receiver's too big and the little dogs just fall over.

It's just this big dog with this little dog just dragging its neck around with its receiver on it.

Yeah. So it's not just a big dog thing, guys. I've used them on dogs from, yeah, 2.5 kilos and up. Yeah, 2.5 kilos to 100+ kilos. Anywhere in between. It's not just for big dogs. It's for anyone who needs it as a part of their training plan. And then the last one is it replaces your need for foundational training. This one's probably one of the biggest loads of BS because you have to have your foundations in place first in terms of your dog has to know very clear markers. They have to know a fair few basic commands and know them well. They have to understand a few other concepts for e-collar training to work. If I get people who say we want to e-collar train, my next question is, cool. Where are you at with your markers? Where are you at with your training? Where are you at with this? Does your dog know clear communication? And if you don't have those foundations right, I won't e-collar train your dog. You need these in place for it to work. If you're trying to stick this on and train your dog with it without any of that stuff, you are just going to do more harm than good. So this doesn't replace foundational training. You need it first before e-collar training.

And so it goes back to laziness. You know, it's not for when they say, oh, this is only for lazy people. It's not because it's not, it's not easy. As I said, I trained Kira. Verbal commands. Then I put her on the dog whistle and then we went to the e-collar. And it's only because she knew all her commands. She had a recall, she had a down, all that sort of stuff. And then I can place it. It was like, it's no different with the whistle. So I taught her all the commands verbally and then I can transfer that to the whistle. And then once you, so once they know those commands, great. You've got that foundation to then pair that with the stimulation of the e-collar.

Yep.

Yeah. You simply don't just train them directly straight onto an e-collar if they do not know nothing, they don't understand anything. As you said, no markers or anything like that. That all has to be in place. So if you're listening to this and your dog is not there, an e-collar is not what you need. You need to start from scratch and work your way to the e-collar.

100%. And I'll get the odd owner who reaches out to me. Maybe they are a bit lazy. They go, yeah, we want to do e-collar training. Awesome. Cool. And then we kind of dig why and we're like, ah, you guys think this is a shortcut. No, no, no. Before we begin e-collar, your dog barely knows sit. They're going to have to learn sit, their down, their recall, their place. Loose lead walking, gonna have to up their food motivation, charge this marker. And they go, oh, we're gonna do all that? Like, yeah, this is not for lazy owners. This is not a shortcut. This doesn't make you skip your foundations. All of it, you have to do all this stuff first. So, and if they're not prepared to do that, you know, any good trainer won't be prepared to use an e-collar on your dog. So hopefully that breaks down— there's, there's our 13 reasons why. Hopefully that breaks down some misconceptions. So if you're listening to this and go, oh, I used to think one of those points was true and now I understand it. I'm happy. That's what we're here to do. And again, if you don't like the tool, even when you understand it, that's cool. It's not for you. But hopefully we've changed a few minds today if you've listened to this, or you can send it to someone. If you've got a, you know, if you're a dog mum out there listening to this and you've got a friend who constantly, you know, judges you for wearing an e-collar on your dog, then send this to them and go, hey, look, I couldn't articulate this, but these guys can. Please listen to this so that maybe some of these things that you've, these hangups you've got, you maybe better understand.

And I think a lot of the times people actually have to see see it in action before they understand, you know, because we can talk till we're blue in the face, but people go, of course you would say that. But it's like my mum who was super anti it, thought all of these misconceptions. The dog would be scared of me. She's— you're going to change her personality. She's such a sweet dog, blah, blah, blah. And I was trying and I was like, I'm not going to try and convince you otherwise. This is what I'm doing. It's my dog. This is what— this is what's happening. And then as soon as she came and visited and I took her out, she understood straight away. 100%. She got it. And she said, like, I totally understand. She still wasn't like, I think, you know, I think it's a great thing. But she was just like, I I get it. I understand why you're using it. I can see it's not upsetting her or hurting her. She's still as beautiful as she was before you did the e-collar training. Nothing has changed there. And you obviously have now this freedom where you don't have to panic that, you know, she might chase something.

100%. And when I, you know, whenever I go along and we start e-collar training with a client, I'll do a few things. I'll always take Nelson, my dog. I'll always show them, hey, I'm going to get the e-collar out. Watch how excited he is to put it on. Shoves, and they'll go, you kind of see them going, righto. And then they see them shove his head through and wag his tail. They go, Okay. And then they go, yeah, but what about when you stim him? And then they see I give him a ready, let's work, tap, tap. And they see him light up and go, what are we doing, Dad? And they go, oh, I wish my dog looked that happy. And then when they worry about, I'm just worried it's going to damage our relationship, I go, if I sit on the ground, this dog will try and crawl inside of me.

Yeah.

Not in a sexual way, but in like, he will try and get on my lap and just be all over me. I go, does that look like a dog who's scared of me? Does that look like a dog with a dodgy relationship? And then I'll show them photos and videos of them like, look at the places I get to take my dog and my previous dogs. Like, our dogs have been to the snow. I've taken dogs to the cinema. Dogs have been in grocery stores. Dogs have been at every park and beach you can name. I'm like, and sometimes it's simply because we have this tool that means we can. Like, I'm yet to find a dog with a better life than, you know, some of mine and some of my clients who use an e-collar because it means they can reliably go everywhere. So

I think people also think you're constantly just going around just zapping your dog as well. Just like, oh yeah, zap, zap, zap. Yeah, it's like, not that, as I said, with Kira now, I literally barely use the thing. I'm at the point, the only reason I wanted it was to make sure that, you know, that recall, which was already great, but it wasn't when prey drive kicked in. That's purely for me. That is the purpose for the e-collar. That, that's the simple purpose. Other people use it for different purposes, but for me, that was it. And now we put it on and it just doesn't get used.

Yeah. There's times when I won't press it at all. And there's also times To add one more to our misconception list is a big misconception is my dog has to wear it all the time and forever. Oh yeah, absolutely not. You can pick and choose when you need it. There's times and places. There's a lot of time that Nelson goes out in the nude, so to speak, and he doesn't wear it at all. And then there's times when I think, oh, maybe we'll wear it today just because of this. Yeah, simple as that.

And I do the same depending on where we're going out. You know what? We won't wear it today. We don't need it. There's no big— I'm not concerned of anything in particular. And there's other times where I'm like, you know what? I'm going to put this on because For instance, that we still go around the area where she was triggered and ran after a car.

Yep.

A motorbike, sorry. And we put it on there. But yeah, I mean, she certainly never wears it around the house or, you know, like anywhere like that. So, but yeah. So any questions, as always, jump on the Facebook group, just search the Dog People Podcast. Any questions you've got, any misconceptions you may have heard that we haven't covered, anything like that, jump in there and we'll get them answered for you. But more to come on our e-collar The Dog People Podcast is a Mashed Pumpkin production hosted by Jack Lawrence and Max O'Neill. Edited, produced, and audio production by Jack Lawrence.

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