Are E-Collars Cruel? What Reactive Dog Owners Need To Know | LIVE Q&A

Hello everyone, sorry I'm a couple minutes late. YouTube was being mean and not letting me in. Hope you guys are okay tonight. Thank you for joining on to the live. If you guys would be so kind and let me know who you are, let me know where you are, let me know what dog you have, pop everything in the chat. So I don't feel like I'm just sat here talking to a screen on my own. That'd be really nice. Um, but I always say the same thing when we start, just in case people are here that have absolutely no idea who I am or what we do. Um, I am Kelly. I'm the owner of South Coast Canine Academy. We work exactly the same as YCA in that we specialize in reactivity with dogs, and we do these live streams every week, so it's a nice place to come and get something for free because you don't get much for free these days. You guys can ask me as many questions as you like, and I will do my very best to get through all of them in the hour that we have together. So if you have questions tonight, we're sort of focusing this Q&A around e-collars. So if you guys have questions that you want to ask, then pop them into the chat and I will answer them for you, or try and answer as many of them for you as I possibly can in this hour. Uh, hi Helena. Kelly went to Hogwarts and does magic with dogs and makes them happy. Huddersfield just got a 4-month-old red Staffie called Otto. Ah, cute. Nice. 10-month-old Jack Russell. Pitch. Is Pitch the name? That's such a sick name if that is. I've never heard that before. I love a miscellaneous name for a dog. Thanks for joining. Thanks for coming on to the chat. Now I know at least 3 people are listening to anything that I have to say tonight. Which is more than usual. Um, Staffy, 2-year-old Belgian Malinois. Ah, Staffordshire, not a Staffy. Uh, 2-year-old Belgian Malinois. What's your Malinois' name? Let me know. Um, like I said, tonight we're talking all about e-collars, and I put up a story on Instagram earlier so that people could ask questions. beforehand if you really wanted to get answers and make sure that you get first dibs on getting your questions answered. So I will run through those in just a sec. With years of having recalled their dog food following hundreds of cases of dry eye reported, what are your food recommendations as I'm looking for an alternative for my dachshund? Um, I am not a Dietitian, or that's not my speciality. We don't specialise in that, but I would say that one would recommend having a look at All About Dog Food. They go through loads of— they go through basically every dog food you can think of that's on the market. You can find a really good product for you, for your dog, for your budget, for your dog's specific breed, age. weight, all that good stuff. Um, you're able to sort through wet food, dry food. My recommendation would be that you find a food that has a really high protein meat content. Um, that's probably the most important thing that I would look for when I'm looking for dog food. Um, if your dog struggles with anything specific, it might be worth reaching out to an actual qualified dietitian Not an ad, but my recommendation would be the canine dietitian. Her name's Sally. I actually booked a consultation with her for my dog and she did really well. She's done really well with her recommendations, so I would definitely reach out to someone who specializes in that. But if you just wanted to have a look at alternative dog foods, then definitely have a look at All About Dog Food. 2-year-old Belgian Malinois and 2— plus 2 old huskies. Full house for you, eh? That is a lot of dog all in one house. Kira, 9-month-old Belgian Malinois. 2-year-old Samoyed. I only ever met one Samoyed in my life. Very cute, very fluff, very stubborn. Um, thank you, I appreciate that advice. You're welcome. Okay, let me hop on some of these questions, and then if you guys have questions that you want to ask Like I said, just pop them in the chat and I'll do my very best to get through them in the hour that we have together tonight. Free stuff's nice, eh? So just get your questions in there and I'll answer them as best I can. All right, um, cool. So can e-collar really help with recall around roads, wildlife, and other dogs? Absolutely yes, it can. So the thing about dogs and recall is Dogs are living, breathing creatures. You can train recall and you can make it to 99.9% accurate every single time off multiple distractions. Your dog will come back to you, but you have to remember, like I just said, your dog is a living, breathing creature. At some point in their life, there will be something Or someone in the environment that your dog will choose doing that thing, or going to that dog, or going to that person, or going towards that distraction over coming back to you, even if it's only hesitation for 5, 10 seconds. Dogs are real quick, they can get pretty far in 5 or 10 seconds, and That decision to ignore my recall is safety, right? Because you don't— or at least I hope you don't— go out on your walks with your dog just recalling them straight back to you every 5 seconds. The goal for dogs is to get them out there living as free a life as we can possibly give them, so they can be out there exploring, doing all that doggy stuff, getting involved in the environment, sniffing, running, moving their bodies. Um, so hopefully you're not recalling them every 5 seconds, but when you do recall them, they need to come back to you. They need to come back to you now, and they need to come right back to you. And that's where the e-collar comes in, because by a means of negative reinforcement, I have a tactile way to say to my dog, even at distance, Hey, no, you cannot ignore my recall. You must come back to me now. And if you train it properly, then yes, can absolutely help, or it can proof your dog's recall off of distractions like roads, wildlife, and other dogs because you've trained it and proved it off of those things. Your dog knows. There will be a pressure of which I would rather avoid for ignoring that recall. Dogs learn through consequences, good and bad. So I'm able to teach my dog with that tactile communication, when I call you, you've got to come back. If you choose to ignore that and you know your recall, Then that thing will happen. You would rather avoid it, so don't ignore my recall. Come back, get paid. Then over time, it becomes double reinforcing for the dog because they're like, ah, I know how I can beat that thing. If I'm just quick enough, nothing happens, and when I get back, I get paid. So double reinforcing for the dog. Shadow the Rescue. Hiya, you were here last week. Thanks for coming back. It's nice to have repeat watchers to listen to my waffle for an hour. Why is freedom so important for dogs? Mine seems okay on lead. I would go so far as to say seems okay is not enough. When we get dogs, we bring them into our world And we expect them to live in our society, our society, under the rules that we put on them. And we are kind of the key holders to the amount of freedom that they get. They are supposed to be roaming and free and using their bodies and using their nose and moving in a more natural way that you just can't emulate at the end of a 5-foot, 10-foot long line or a flexi lead, a dog isn't truly free. And that off-lead freedom is so good for so many things. It, it provides your dog an outlet to do those— exactly those things— use their nose, use their body in the way that they were intended to use their body, to exercise and move And also to like build confidence and curiosity where they're free to be out in the environment marinating in it, sniffing that sniff, seeing that thing, feeling that breeze, hearing that noise. It builds confidence in dogs where they're able to explore and have that bit more agency to make choice on their own because you can trust them to be out there because you know when you call them They're coming back. Um, imagine— I always say it this way, like, we imagine, like, when, uh, parents put kids on reins. Imagine if you were like, well, I couldn't trust you when you were a toddler, and you're on your reins, and you shall be on those reins for the rest of your life because I'm not 100% sure I can trust you. You know, you might be at the end of 10-foot reins. Maybe you don't walk that fast, but Maybe one day you want to go over and say hi to that person, or you want to go and look at that thing in that shop window, and you hit the end of your reins and then you keep on moving with your walker. Eventually it gets frustrating, gets a bit depressing, you see less of the world. So off-lead freedom is really important, and I— We just personally don't think You'll ever get that level of enjoyment for the dog at the end of a lead. So that's why we really prioritize it on our boot camps. It's one of the things that we start working on from the minute people get here to a boot camp. We'll start working on your recall straight away so we can safely get the dog off lead using their body, using their nose, being in the environment as quickly as we possibly can. I'm considering getting another dog or working on German Shepherd. How do I introduce them to the house without disrupting what I've got with my intact Samoyed? Really well settled post-YCA boot camp. Ah, you boot camper! That's nice. Nice to hear from you, Tim. So making sure that you are thinking about how and when you're going to introduce those 2 dogs and making sure that the rules that you currently have in your house with your dog are immediately transferred over to the new dog that's coming into your house. So not just all letting it slip a little bit because they're just, just the baby, or just Oh, it was just that one time. I'll just look because they're just new here. Set your rules and boundaries that you want to have in your house and stick to them from the minute you take your dog home, making sure that you're meeting the needs of that working line German Shepherd coming into your house. Because in the title, right, they're working line, they were built for purpose, so you need to make sure that you're fulfilling that purpose. Working to get that dog off lead as soon as you safely and possibly can, making sure that you're meeting their needs and giving them somewhere to put that drive that they will— not inevitably, they will have. I'm looking for a posh word but I can't find one. So making sure that you've got some, you're giving them those proper outlets. Also, like, play is a great way to build boundaries and communication with that dog and making sure that you're introducing them in appropriate ways. So not just like letting them into the house hoping for the best because your Samoyed is now really well settled. You're introducing another factor into the house, so you need to be mindful of those interactions. Initially, you might want to use management things like crates, long leads in the house, like house leads. If you live with someone, I would say it would be a good idea to make sure that you— someone is in charge of your current dog and someone is in charge of your new dog, and each person is communicating and giving feedback to each dog and advocating for each dog once you are getting to the point where you're bringing them both together. in the house. Um, I hope that made sense and not too much waffle. E-collar was the best thing for Ozzy. He's loving his life. Reactivity is nil now. Nice one, Helena. Um, yeah, I think a lot of the problems become dissipated. Another, another reason why we really focus so much on off-lead freedom as part of our training programs is that dogs often— and it's not through fault of the owners, right? Like, you, your world gets smaller and smaller because you, you can't trust the dog to do the things. Then they have to go back on lead, and with that lead comes restriction. And then they are out in the park and then they bark at dogs, so then you're like, oh, I can't trust them at that park anymore, so I won't walk them there anymore. And their world slowly shrinks. because they get worse, but they get worse because their world is shrinking. So we ideally want to get them back out safely off lead with a good recall or a reliable recall that's rock solid so that we can get them out into the world and give them a way to like release, um, some of that energy and give them an outlet to move their bodies. and use their nose and explore and all that good stuff and just be dogs again as quickly as we can. Um, and then all of the other reactivity stuff suddenly becomes much easier to work on because the dog doesn't have all this like pent-up energy. They're looking for somewhere to put it. When your dog's world gets real small, they still have a lot of energy that they need to put somewhere, and we can't fulfill that need at the end of a lead. Suddenly they, they've— they are reactive. They get a bit of a payout from doing it. Feels pretty good, whether it came from fear or it came from frustration. The dog's going to get a payout there. And then what started as fear or frustration quickly becomes their new favorite hobby because they're like, oh well, it feels pretty good when I do that thing, so now I'll just do that more because I don't have anywhere else to put this energy and I need somewhere to put it. So reactivity becomes a lot easier to deal with once we can get the dogs off. Um, so yeah, that's why that is so important for us. Do you have any ideas for group activities as enrichment on hot days? I have 6 small to medium-sized dogs. Um, ideally if you've got small to medium-sized dogs, like, I would just be getting up earlier and getting them out. Like my dogs, I have a big dog, Chancey, who, if anyone's seen him, and if anyone from YCA hears this, they'll be like, why are you putting an R in Chancey? It's because I'm from the south and that's how we say it. If anyone else on this stream is from the south, you would say Chance, you wouldn't say Chance. So Chance, yeah, he's a big guy. Roo's like a small-medium dog, I'd say. I get up early on those days and make sure I get my dogs out so they've had their, their off-lead time. They've been out exploring the world. On hotter days, they generally tend to sleep a lot more anyway, so I would get up, get them out early, um, get them home. They can rest throughout the day. They'll be tired. And then when it cools down in the evening, 15-20 minutes of play. 5, 10 minutes of play, whatever you can manage. You have 6 dogs, so that's a big household. I would think less about enrichment games and more about just like chopping your day up a little bit so that you can get them out if you possibly can. Um, some dogs should never be off the lead and that's the owner's fault. That's not the— yeah, exactly that though. That's not the dog's fault, right? That dog should be off lead. Uh, and of course there will be some exceptions to the rule. There are some dogs who maybe have a ceiling on how far we can get them, but most dogs deserve to be off lead. It's just that the owners need to make sure that they take the time to put the boundary in place of Go fill your boots, but when I call you, come back. And there are also a handful of things that you can't do. Things like putting teeth on kids, people, dogs, chasing children, chasing scooters, chasing livestock. I'll teach you in a way that you won't understand. You can't do those things. Go and pick something else. Um, so I would say slightly differently that there are some dogs that currently are incapable of being off lead safely, but not that they shouldn't be off the lead at all. My Dachshund used to be reactive to everything— bikes, people, out running. We can now trust him off lead with the cue walk on. He will It's been a game changer for us. Nice, well done, Nina. Shadow has 99.9% recall, but fireworks and explosions scare the— you're allowed to swear on YouTube, I learned that— so scare the shit out of him and he runs off looking for my car. What do you suggest I could do to help? I would say work on some counter conditioning to that noise sensitivity. Activity to help him get over that so it's not such a big deal when it does happen? Um, and do you— have you ever explored using something like, or using an e-collar to train in conjunction with your recall so your dog has that reflexive response? When I hear that word, I gotta come back. Go back, I can get clipped on. But obviously there is another component there of when a dog gets spooked and goes into flight, um, ideally you want them to come back to you rather than run towards a car. But helping them to overcome that sensitivity to those types of noises is really going to be key for you there. So I would make sure that you're really working on that, um, in conjunction with with your recall training. I have a 2-year-old Cane Corso, has already broken my rib and nearly broke my leg. Oh God, okay. However, the only trouble I have with her is other dogs, and she bucks like a bronco. Sorry to hear that, that's really savage. Obviously big dog, And as she— is it she? Yeah, her. Uh, as she's got older, sounds like your problems have got worse. I mean, if you have 5 minutes today, I think there is a link on this chat. Um, it would be really great to chat more with you about that. Um, obviously we— oh great, there it is, link in the chat. Um, We specialize in reactivity, and that sounds like a dog that we regularly work— the type of dog we regularly work with. So like, I would just say book on a chat with us, speak with one of the team. We'll be able to chat to you a bit more about exactly what is going on there. And if you're a good fit for one of our programs, then we'll absolutely be able to help you with something like that. So yeah, I would use one of those links, and if you've got 5 minutes tonight, just fill it out, get on a call. They're free and they're half an hour, and even if you decide not to work with us, you'll get something useful from it, hopefully. So worth it. Everyone loves a freebie, right? In my country, e-collars are illegal. How do I get the same off-leave reliability as with an e-collar? Prongs are also illegal. That's a tough one. Like I said, you can get your dog's recall to 99.9%, great. Making sure that you have got things like motivation, correct motivation. Your— the thing about e-collars is that if you think about your motivation to come back to you, usually with food, or occasionally for the right dog we might use a toy. Um, you can get that out of 10. You can really work on that motivation, obviously depending on like breed and all that other stuff, probably to like a 7 or an 8 to come back to you in the face of something super distracting. But where tools come in is they help us to bridge that, that gap in motivation where like we stand there and we have our food and we have our food motivation and the dog knows they can come back and get the food. They have a charged marker, everything's golden, they know their recall cue. But at some point, like I said, there will be something that we're an 8, there will be something that's a 10. Let's say in this example it is a rabbit. Um, that's where tools come in and they help us to bridge that disparity. So Something you can, you can get your recall really good, but you'll never be able to guarantee that your dog will definitely 100% come back to you if you don't have some form of tactile communication when they are far away. So a bit, bit shit, but something like a drag line, leaving it on. Um, making sure that you maybe mitigate the, the chance of that happening by keeping more of an eye on the dog. Like, if you're— as soon as your dog clocks something, like the, the dog, the squirrel, the cat, practicing recall before they get super high into prey, when you kind of become this— you are there, but you're a very distant voice at the end of a very long tunnel. So Making sure that you're practicing that a lot will help to build up your, your recall. How do you think I should start on a long line with a very low level to get the dog used to it? I heard some trainers say it's not the best practice, not sure what to believe. You need to make sure that your dog actually knows a recall cue without using, uh, that pressure first, and also that your dog knows how to yield to pressure. So your dog knows recall. Your dog also needs to know when I feel pressure, I yield to it and come to you rather than fight against it and head the other way or stick to the floor because I don't like pressure, I don't want to give in to that pressure, I'll just stick here and do what I want and then eventually you will turn it off. So making sure that your dog knows how to yield pressure. before you start thinking about things like e-collars. Um, you— I would recommend if you, if you are unsure, making sure that you take the time to look and go to a responsible trainer who will be able to show you how to utilize that tool properly, because you're You can easily mess it up, um, but with the help of a professional, it's very easy not to— very easy to get you where you want to be in a very short space of time and get your dog off lead safely within the space of a week. That's what we do here every week. Dogs show up on a Monday, they already have an idea of their recall cue. We help them learn how to yield to pressure, and then we start working with our e-collar, laying that in over our recall cue. But yeah, you definitely will want to use a long line in the beginning because that— if especially if your dog has never felt that pressure there in that way before, they won't know how to respond to it. So it's our job to help them understand when you feel that pressure, it means come back to me. So. You'll need something there. Um, a long line is probably better than a flexi lead because with a flexi, like, the pressure is kind of always there a little bit. You want the dog to learn it where they have that as much of a feeling as, as of freedom as possible. So when you— if you need to help them, you can, but it gives the dog the ability to learn without you giving loads and loads and loads of feedback constantly. Use a bandana or a snood, say it's a tracker. I'm not here to say anything on that. I'm not really into e-collars as I have all day training and playing with Shadow. Okay, I mean, like We're never here to force you down a route you don't want to go down with your dog. All we can do is make recommendations based on the results that we've seen for other dogs and other people. Um, obviously I don't know you and I don't know your dog, so I use e-collars with both of my dogs, and we've used equal— We use e-collars with hundreds and hundreds of dogs that we've worked with, and we've seen the benefits that it brings. When you do it properly, and the life that it can give a dog. So we can only make our recommendation. I need help with my dog. Let me know. Oh, you've answered that. Reacting to people coming in the door, he goes nuts, and I'm sure he would bite someone given the opportunity. This is the issue we're currently trying to solve. Well, that is absolutely the sort of dog that we work with here every week. So. Like I said, I'm so sorry, I'm rubbish with names, but oh, Curated Comfort. Like I said, there, there's a link just above where you commented there. I would recommend getting on a call with one of our team and just like having a chat. We'll go a bit more in depth and kind of see exactly what's going on there and just make sure that you're right for one of our programs before we say Yes, and go ahead. But even if you— if we decide we're not a right fit for each other, it's a half an hour free chat with a trainer, so you might get some useful information there. Long line with a slip collar, don't know what it's called. Yeah, we use a long line and a slip, or you could use— preferably it would be a long line, but yeah, flexi too. Never onto a prong, always onto a slip. If e-collars are illegal, could you use a vibration collar to utilize that tactile response? No. Well, I mean, in theory, yeah, you can do anything, but the problem with the vibration collars is that an e-collar, a decent one, not just like some shitty one off of Temu or Amazon or wherever people get them from, the e-collars which we use to train go from level 0 to 100, and we're able to add a lot of nuance in there because of that, in terms of like what level of pressure we use with each dog based on what that dog needs and what that dog is responsive to. Um, everyone— if you've ever tried an e-collar, if you've ever worked with us, when you try one, everyone will feel the sensation at a different level. And it's the exact same for your dogs. No 2 will be the same. So the problem that you'll have with a vibration collar is that the vibration is just— it, it is just the sensation that it is. There's no nuance there. There's no way to go down or up. It just is what it is. And normally with a vibration, it's immediately aversive to the dog because it's quite a lot, and a dog— the dog's never felt it before. It also— the dog can desensitize to it really, really quickly. So no, I wouldn't recommend using a vibration collar. Um, they're just not great. Um, same reason that we would never use the vibration function on the collars that we have. Have you ever used an e-collar with a rescue dog? Mine is nervous and doesn't like other dogs. Would it make her more nervous? Yeah, I've actually used one with both my secondhand dogs, and my rescue Roo is Romanian rescue. So if anyone here has a Romi rescue or have ever met a Romi rescue, you know that they're quite prone to being little nerve bags. She was really nervous of other people when I got her, um, and could be nervy around other big bouncy dogs. The thing about using an e-collar with them is it teaches them— you're able to teach them how to yield to pressure. And like, for a lot of rescue dogs, that's something they really struggle with. They've never been taught to walk on a lead or give in to any form of pressure. They just like see it as a hard thing and they're like, nah, don't want to, back out of it. And quite often what happens with a nervous rescue is we go, oh, Like the pressure goes on because they put it there because they're like, no, I don't want to. And then you go, oh, don't worry, and then the pressure goes off. So what have you just taught your dog there? You've just taught them if you don't think you can do something and you stick into it hard enough, that pressure will go away and I won't make you do it. But that's not fair because they never learn they can. Rue, when I got her, I was really keen Off the bat to get her used to overcoming small challenges, and giving in to pressure is one of those really easy small challenges. It's like when you take your kid to school for the first time and they sit and they cry and they panic because they don't want to go to school and they can't go in, it's gonna be the worst thing ever. You don't say, oh, okay, don't worry, I'll just homeschool you then. You're like, nope, sorry, you gotta go. You'll be fine. It'll be okay. Off you go. And then they come back at the end of the day and they're like, oh, that was amazing, and I made new friends and it was sick. And, um, same for a dog. If we never teach them how to overcome small things, we'll never build confidence because this dog just sits in this state where they constantly think they can't, but they can. We just have to show them that they can. Um, so no, an e-collar— oh God, I waffle a lot, don't I? Sorry. Um, an e-collar won't make your nervous rescue more nervous. It will actually do the opposite, helping them to build confidence. Because also, in conjunction with helping them learn to overcome pressure, work through it, give into it, and actually find reward at the end of that, they're also going to get to be safely off lead. So they can have, in conjunction with having a good yes and a good no, you're able to give that dog agency to make a choice, and that builds confidence. And then they can go out and they can explore in the environment, and they can become curious about things. And because they've learned before, like, when I found something hard and I was unsure about it, I've done hard things before, maybe I can do that. And that curiosity again breeds more confidence. So no, using an e-collar with your nervous rescue won't make your dog more nervous. It will actually breed confidence. And Rue is off lead every single day, exploring things, trying new surfaces, getting into streams and rivers and on and off stuff, and walking past people and walking past dogs and seeing new sights. That compounds on itself, and she every day grows into a more confident and capable dog. That was a good waffle, wasn't it? Let me just go back to my originally asked questions, which I've woefully neglected since everyone's been so good in this chat. This is lovely this week, everyone's such chatty Cathys. These questions are really good. Um, why wouldn't it go that way? Freedom, we did that one. How long does e-collar training take? So anyone that knows our or has ever been to our boot camps knows that we don't mess around when it comes to e-collar training. Actually, I think when you take too long and spend months and months and months trying to do it, it can actually be kind of damaging and not as productive As if you just make sure that you're doing it properly off the bat and you've got those foundational things in there. So e-collar training, for us, we can get it done in 2 or 3 days. But caveat to that is that you will want to do that with a professional. Don't just go out there and watch a bunch of random YouTube videos and try and wing it on your own, because likelihood is you will mess it up and you will confuse the dog and you will make the problem harder for yourself, and it will go on much longer than it needs to. So if you're looking to get it done, um, and you want to get your dog out there and you want to get your dog off, depending on what problem you have, maybe you'll be a good fit for one of our boot camps. So that could be something to explore. But definitely making sure that you're working with a good trainer who knows what they're doing, you can see the results that that trainer has got for a dog like yours in the past. And see that those results stick. So that's really something to make sure that you're looking for when you're picking out a trainer to do e-collar with. Yeah, making sure that it's not going on for ages again, like I said, with the foundational stuff. So making sure that your dog actually has an understanding of recall, has an understanding of how to yield to pressure, and and has good food motivation and a strong yes marker. If they come in, if that dog comes in with all of those things, we can get it done in 2 or 3 days. So shouldn't take forever, it shouldn't take months and months. Can actually make it worse if you do take months and months to do it. So, but just make sure that you're working with someone decent. Um, if I'm e-collar training my dog, should I do recall first before any 4 sort of an aversive training. You need to make sure that your dog understands the cue for sure. Yeah, you can't just go out into the field with a brand new dog on a lead, call it back, it's never heard that cue before, and then you just use aversive pressure right off of the bat because that's really unfair. The dog has to know how to avoid that pressure before you put an aversive pressure in. They have to know how to yield to pressure, and they have to have an understanding of what you are asking before you apply any kind of negative reinforcement. So yes, your dog does need to learn recall to some degree, you know, in like a low-level environment. where there's not too much going on, you say come, the dog spins on a dime and comes back to you, fine. If it's that your dog knows recall but it's just under distraction that they don't come back, then stop using that cue and trying to make it happen by just repeating it because you'll poison it. Go and find a decent trainer and get started with your e-collar training. That's my advice to you. Um, I found that my dog being e-collar trained also gives me more confidence, which Translate to a more relaxed dog. Oh, hey Ginny! Yeah, for sure, because you know I can go anywhere, I can go around anything, and if, uh, life throws me a curveball, I know I can call my dog and they will come back and I can keep them safe. Therefore, my dog can have more freedom and I can go more places. So yeah, 100%, like, that's the, that's the goal. Um, if I use e-collar to punish the dog for reacting to another dog, will it get to the point I don't have to use it anymore, or do I always have to use it to reinforce good behavior? No, you shouldn't have to use it every time, but that is with the caveat that you also have a good punishment marker. When we teach anything, dogs have a hierarchy of learning, so tactile is first, Visual is second, auditory is last. If either of these 2 things— that looks so weird, it's reversed. This one is tactile, this one is visual. If either of these 2 come before the audible, they will overshadow this one. So if you don't have a decent punishment marker or you're just using your e-collar, I would say that you're probably not using your e-collar as punishment. You are using your e-collar as an interrupter. You're interrupting the dog in the moment, but should that same situation present itself again to the dog, they would still do the thing. So if it— punishment should be reducing the likelihood, intensity, or frequency of the behavior. If it's not doing any of that, it's not punishment. When you're teaching a dog something, you always want to say your word first so it doesn't get overshadowed by either of these 2 things. So when you're teaching punishment, you need to make sure if you want to rely on your dog knowing that, that when you say that word means you got it wrong, you need to make sure your word comes first and then any tactile or visual interrupter comes second. Because otherwise, yes, you will always You need your e-collar in punishment or some form of tactile communication if you do not have a strong marker word. And when you say you use your e-collar to reinforce good behaviour, what's that mean? Or mean? Not ideally. You do need a strong yes and a strong no, and then you'll be able to give your dog feedback. That was right, I like that, do that more. That was wrong, don't do that again. Dog training. E-collars are the best tool ever made for dogs, but as she says, please get your dog conditioned for a collar with a professional trainer. Yeah, just make sure that you're using someone decent. Winging it on your own never goes well, and the YouTube— the tube for things like that can be an absolute minefield of just like difference of opinions. Make sure that whoever you're gonna go with, if you're using it just for recall, that they have got results and they can prove that they have got results with clients before, before you just book in with them and believe that they can do it. And like I said, if someone says, yeah, it's going to take me 6 weeks, I don't know about that. Being e-collar trained has actually made my dog more confident. Don't even need to use the e-collar now 99% of the time. And that's the point. So dogs, like I said at the beginning, Learn by consequence. This doing this or that thing led to this, and that thing is either reinforcing or aversive. If it's reinforcing, I will do it more. If it's aversive, I will do it less. So your e-collar should be there as like a safety belt, like a seat belt. I think someone asked this question actually, so I'm just gonna go ahead and waffle on and answer it. And if you didn't ask it, then I'm gonna answer it anyway. Um, so you'll always have your e-collar on your dog when you go out to— because like I said, there will be that one time in your dog's life, there will be something in the environment that is more motivating to your dog than coming back to you. That's when you have your e-collar to say, hey, no, I know you know what I asked. You have to come back when I tell you. Flies everywhere. Um, and if you have trained it correctly, then the dog should know that. The dog should know it's not worth me ignoring that cue. And I can beat the thing by just spinning, going back, get paid, and then they'll let me go again. Um, so your, your e-collar, yes, you would always have it on your dog, but you shouldn't always be using it. And if you are using it a lot, you're not using it properly. Dog training. Um, Let's go back to my Instagram questions. There was some more here. Here we go. I have one already and it did nothing. Does that mean they don't work for my dog? What do you mean it did nothing? Um, if your dog, like I said, doesn't understand What that pressure means, then that will be why it didn't work. But it depends what you were using it for. So you can use an e-collar to train literally anything. We primarily use them to teach a rock-solid recall, but at the end of the day, it is just another form of pressure. So you can use it to teach, uh, heel. You could use it to teach a sit. You could use it to teach a You could use it to teach a middle, my favorite, if you're watching, Jacob. Um, but if your dog doesn't have an understanding of pressure, then yeah, it won't work. But no, it doesn't mean it doesn't work for your dog. It just means you need to make sure your dog has an understanding of pressure. Um, will I have to use it for the rest of my dog's life? Oh, there it is. I knew it was in there. Someone asked Um, you shouldn't be using it, but your dog should always be wearing it. Um, my dog is reactive. It feels too risky letting her off lead. Are you sure this works for all dogs? First of all, there is a— it's not just the case of teaching your dog a recall and then just sending them out into the environment and hoping that that is the solution to all of your problems. Um, you also need to make sure that you are able to give your dog feedback about the things that they're getting right and things that they're getting wrong. So yes, an e-collar training and getting them off lead is a huge, huge part of it. But it's not the whole picture. The dog still needs to be able to communicate with you in a way that they can, or you need to be able to communicate with them in a way that they can understand. So no, don't just train e-collar and then let your dog walk. You need to put in that foundational work there first. But yes, it does work for Not that e-collar doesn't work for all dogs. E-collar does work for all dogs if you use it correctly, um, but obviously for some dogs, a very, very, very small amount of dogs, there will be a ceiling in which we can reach to where and when that dog can safely be off lead because of the dog that they are. But that is like The most minuscule amount of dogs that I have ever seen or that we have ever worked with. Um, but all dogs deserve to have that off-lead freedom, and without it, your, your dog's life kind of shrinks and is just a fraction of how good it can be. And what we owe to them— we kind of keep them in our house, we expect them to live in our society and do all this stuff that we expect them to do and go to coffee shops and go to pubs. But we have to make sure that we're— we ever give a bit of give and take there, we have to meet their needs and do the things that they need, um, in order to give them a full life. I've been told by other trainers my dog will never be off lead. He's a reactive terrier. Thoughts? I think they're wrong. Have you ever used an e-collar before? Have you ever done any kind of reactivity training before? I would be eager to know what, what it is that you've tried with those other trainers before, or they just said he's a lost cause, not for us. Um, if you've tried stuff with other trainers, let me know what it was that you tried. Um, I'd be interested to know. And If they have ever worked to get that dog off lead using an e-collar, or they just wrote it off, or maybe they were trainers that don't use tools, so that's why they said the dog can't be off lead. Um, let me know a little bit more about that. But like I've said before many times on this chat, Obviously reactivity is what we specialize in. We exclusively work with reactive dogs, and we've seen many, many, many, many dogs come through these doors and come out on the other side living freer, happier, better lives. So if you would want to have a little chat with us, then use the, use the link in the chat box. Book on a call with one of our team, um, and just let's just see like what's going on there. Talk to us about what you've tried before, um, talk to us about where you're at with your dog, how long it's been going on for. All this kind of stuff is really important information for us to know, and, um, hopefully we'll get to work with you and get that reactive terrier non-reactive and off lead. We actually had a lovely reactive terrier here last week, and all of the trainers fell in love with, um, fell in love with him. And he went back home and has been going on lovely walks with his owner and all of the places that he used to be reactive to, with all the triggers that he used to be reactive to. If you follow us on Instagram, you'll have seen his story on Sunday. No more, no more reactivity, and off lead safely enjoying life, doing terrier things, getting in the sniffs, getting in the long grass, being a dog, all the good stuff. Um, okay, let's see if there's any more questions in here. Let me know if you guys have anything else that you wanted to ask, if you're Bored shitless of listening to my waffle, pop a question in the chat. We still got time to talk, so let me know if you are here, if you've been here the whole time. If you're in— if you're enjoying listening to my waffle, let me know. If you want me to answer your question, get it in the chat before the— before YouTube times us out. Um, my dog is already really anxious Couldn't e-collar shut him down? No. Well, technically yes, if you went to the wrong person, um, or if you tried to wing it on your own and you didn't get it right. But again, like I was saying before, it is an amazing thing for building confidence in an anxious or a nervous dog because gives them freedom to explore. It teaches them that There are some things in life that you find hard, but you're strong and you're capable and you can work through it and you can come out on the other end and life can actually be better. So no, if you work with someone responsible to help you, to help you train e-collar, then no, it won't shut your dog down. Um, is there an age when a dog is too Too old to learn e-collar? No, it's that age-old myth, eh? Like an old dog can old dogs learn new tricks? That's the one. It's nearly six o'clock. I'm living on a diet of cream soda right now. Hashtag not an ad. No, not too old to learn e-collar. Obviously, if your dog has a rehearsal of ignoring your current recall cue, then I would think about changing that up. But absolutely never too old. Just start afresh, um, and get that dog off lead. Get these dogs off. Get them out there living their lives, being dogs. Our reactive German Shepherd went to a board and train, not YCA. We were told he should never meet people or be off lead. Does this mean he's one of those Do you assess the dogs before boot camp? So yeah, we only work with dogs who we genuinely think that we can help because we do have that money-back guarantee, um, in that you pay your deposit to book onto one of our boot camps or one of our courses. You don't pay your remaining balance until you get to the end of it and you're like, yeah, I'm happy, that training worked, I'm where I want to be with my dog. Um, in terms of like never meeting other people, like, is your shepherd's beef with people? Uh, because that's the thing about reactivity is like when— and the reason why it gets worse depending on what the dog's beef is with people or dogs or whatever it is You try and manage the reactivity by keeping them away from the thing, but that never teaches them how to react in the presence of the thing. So then those things become novel because they don't see them a lot. So then the reactivity often gets worse because, yes, you've managed it, but when they see that thing, it's still really novel. So they have a big overreaction to it because it's not just like, oh well, I see that every day. Um, yes, uh, he reacts to everything— people, children, dogs, plastic bag. Okay, so from the very, very little, not really anything I know about your dog, there may be a ceiling in terms of how social your dog will ever be, but you can absolutely get that dog to a point where they can tolerate being in the presence of people, children, dogs, plastic bags without having a full-blown meltdown about it. Um, ideally, you— we would work to resocialize. So within our boot camps, it's really important to us that we— you'll hear a lot of a lot of trainers out there saying you want to get the dog to neutral. I just want my dog to be neutral. Or like people jumping calls and they're like, I don't care about the dog being friends with everyone, I just want my dog to be neutral. But if you think of your dog's sociability in terms of like 0 being right down here, absolutely hates other dogs, doesn't want to go near them, doesn't want them in their space, 10 being up here where all they want to do is be in the dog's face and they want dogs around them all the time and they get so frustrated when they can't get to them. We get them back to neutral, but especially for a dog like yours who— well, without seeing it, it's hard to say, but wherever the reactivity stem from, if you only ever get them to neutral, they're only ever one bad interaction away from tipping back the other side of that scale. So Ideally, we would work to resocialize around people and dogs and counter-condition around plastic bags, um, so that your dog knows that behavior is no longer on the table. You're not allowed to do that thing anymore, but I'm going to show you that being in the presence of people, children, dogs is not world-ending. You'll be just fine and you'll come out on the other side alive. Also, you don't need to do that thing because nothing bad was going to happen. Um, so yeah, they might not be like the dog that just goes into the pub and can't wait to get pet by everyone. Like, there is an element to it of recognizing who your dog actually is, but getting them to a place where they're okay with that rando that stood in the queue with you at The coffee shop, just not even asking and putting their hand out and petting your dog. Unfortunately, that's the world that we live in, and those people are out there. Those— you will get rushed by an off-leash dog at some point. Life will throw you a curveball, and our aim is to get your dog comfortable with that not being the end of the world, and knowing that if it is something that they are uncomfortable with, they don't need to react. you will help them. Um, so yeah, in terms of like where your dog can get to, there may be a ceiling on it for sure, but, uh, in terms of like never meeting people, I don't know about that. Get on a call, Alison. I would like to talk to you. Links in the chat. I would love to chat with you about where you've been and where you're up to and what you're struggling with. So get, get on that call list and let's talk. Um, can you recommend a decent winter coat for a dog? Even though Oz spends 99% of his time wet because of swimming, he hates the rain and sulks to go out in it. Lol. I don't know if that is a Coat issue, Helena. I would say that is a getting your dog used to being out in the rain and it not being the end of the world. Lots of people have this problem. They're like, oh yeah, no, they just hate going outside. They won't go to the toilet in the rain. They don't want to go for a walk in the rain. They suck. Ozzy likes to play. When next time it's raining, go out and play with Ozzy in the rain. Show him through association that that thing isn't actually that bad. Um, get him out there, do some things, go for a nice walk somewhere he really likes in the rain, go down the beach in the rain. It's horrible for you, but— oh, that was a fly went across my camera then. I thought a ghost walked by, but it was actually a fly. Um, Yeah, go down the beach in the rain. It'll be really shit for you, but it'll be nice for Ozzy. And if he gets super cold, then fine, but get him a coat. Help the boy. I'm not saying you should make your dog freeze to death, but also he needs to know that a bit of rain isn't going to end his life. And get, get less sulky about it. Go out there in the rain and have fun. Go and play. Go and do something nice. Go and do something he enjoys. Um, but hashtag not an ad, I use Non-Stop Dogwear for both my dogs. They have a raincoat and like a winter coat because they're both— they both get shivery and cold when it's rainy and freezing wet. Um, they're really good quality, but they are a bit spendy. I'll text you, but Non-Stop Dogwear. Can I even recommend stuff on YouTube? Don't know. Have now. Hopefully this doesn't get cancelled because of that. Um, okay. Uh, Thank you, good to know. I've been emailing YCA looking to start boot camp in October. Oh, amazing, great. Well then you must be a good fit because otherwise we wouldn't have said yes. So I would love to know how you get on. So once you've been in October, hop back on one of these lives and let me know where you got to. Um, how you got on with your boot camp and the new life that you'll be enjoying afterwards. We'd love to know about that. That'd be lovely. Um, okay, any more for any more? Because at any point now, usually YouTube just cuts me off because we've been going for an hour. So I'm gonna say going once, going twice, Going thrice. Okay, nothing else there. I hope I got to everyone. If you have questions that you wanted to ask, then come back next week. I be here. That was really nice. Really enjoyed chatting to everyone. Thanks for getting super involved on the chat. It's always nice to know that people are actually here listening to me waffle on for an hour. Enjoy the rest of your week. It's actually raining here, which I am. thrilled about. Uh, me and Sam got here this morning like a pair of giddy children, excited that we weren't going to have to start boot camps at 6 AM this week and we could actually start at normal time at 10. So really lovely. Also, lady with the sausage dogs, you don't have to worry about the heat. You can just go out and live your life with your dogs. Don't need to think about any kind of enrichment or getting up early like I told you you had to. You can just get out there and walk your dogs. All right, have a gorgeous rest of your week and thanks for joining. And like, rate, share, subscribe. Bye, guys. How do I end this? There we go.