The Top 5 Ways We Use an E-Collar

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Welcome to Off Leash and Unfiltered Trigger Warning. I'm Kati Peppe, delivering the Truth in Dog Training.

00:30 — Kati introduces Diamond K9 Dog Training in Biddeford, Maine, specializing in off-leash obedience, behavior…

Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Off Leash and Unfiltered. I am Kati Peppe, owner of Diamond Canine Dog training in Biddeford, Maine, and we specialize in eco training both for off leash obedience and behavior modification. So helping people stop all of those pesky, unwanted behaviors like barking and jumping, getting into the trash and more serious stuff like leash reactivity, different types of aggression, uh, resource guarding, you know, separation issues and love doing in-depth state of mind, work with dogs that are really anxious, nervous, and fearful. Uh, we also offer puppy training. So that's who we are and what we do.

And this podcast is our way of sharing everything that we're doing every day with you guys, everything that we're doing with the dogs, everything that we're talking about with our customers every day, and just getting that information out there for the people that are looking for it.

'cause this stuff is really hard to find. The Internet's full of garbage and we're really, really passionate about, um, helping those that are trying to help themselves, that are trying to find the right information. Internet's just full of lies, um, and ignorance and, and all of everything in between <laugh>. So, um, so hopefully you get something out of this podcast that you find useful. Um, and today I wanted to talk about my favorite tool and a tool that we're using in all of our training programs with dogs that are over six months. And for some of you that have been listening and have listened to my other stuff, you might be sick of hearing about the e-collar.

Um, but it's just a fabulous, fabulous tool and it's obviously, uh, been super just demonized by people that have no idea what they're talking about. Uh, people that just, they don't have an open mind, so they won't even consider it and you're really missing out I think most of the time.

Now, do you have to use an eco for everything? No, of course not. But here's the thing. Ultimately in the end, nothing you teach your dog is going to be super reliable around distractions unless you have some kind of accountability or at the very least you have a physical way of intervening and influencing their behavior. And that might be plenty doable on a leash, but what do you do when there's not a leash <laugh>? So that's one of the biggest reasons that we find this tool to be so, so amazingly valuable, um, to us and to our clients, is because it gives you that physical communication even when you don't have a leash.

So it's an amazing safety net, even if your dog is really well trained, just in case they make a bad decision because any dog could, uh, you just never know what's gonna happen.

Reality is just crazy and chaotic and unpredictable. And so this gives you a safety net. But today I wanted to talk about all the different ways that we actually use the e-collar because I think a lot of people have this preconceived notion that there's only one thing we can do with it, and that is just shock the dog, right? Like really high, really uncomfortable like punishment. Um, and that's just not true. Now, we certainly, we certainly can do that and we definitely do do that. So I'm not here to tell you that, oh, we never use it that way.

It never hurts. Like it's never uncomfortable. Um, there are trainers out there that will say that there are trainers out there that probably use it that way, and uh, for the record, they're wrong <laugh>. So you certainly can do that, but it kind of defeats the purpose.

So, um, but there's so many things that we do with it besides just that, right? My point is you can't leave that element out of your training. You just can't, right? Like I said, there needs to be accountability at some point for all of the things you teach your dog. And so if you're never willing to make your dog a little uncomfortable, then what's gonna make their behavior reliable, right? Nothing. 'cause you're in a tug of war with the environment and you're gonna call your dog back or whatever the case may be, and your dog's gonna say maybe in a minute, maybe later, I got stuff to do right now.

Um, because there's really just no reason for them not to, right? But if they know, if they believe that there is an uncomfortable consequence for doing that, then you're gonna have a much safer, much more reliable dog, it turns around and comes back to you.

05:00 — Dogs become safer and more reliable when they understand that ignoring guidance has an…

And of course there's a right and wrong way to teach that, but my point is that accountability does have to be there. We do absolutely, um, use it for that. But I wanna talk about all the different things we can do with an eco that you might be missing out on if this isn't something that you've considered before. So first of all, let's talk about, let's just kind of start from the beginning and how we build the language of eco with every dog that comes through here. So generally speaking, every dog that comes through here, we're introducing them to their e-collar by putting that eco on, making sure it's well fit.

And then we start teaching them what it feels like on low levels. We start looking for like what levels they seem to feel right? And so this is really a process because it's not always super obvious when they feel it.

And we're not looking for a level that's uncomfortable, right? So we can't just put it on the dog and like turn it way up, like that's not what we're gonna do. So we have it on very low levels. This is really always in the single digits, and we're just looking for subtle signs that the dog feels it at all. Like it might just be an ear twitch. They might sit down, they might kinda look around that's really common, or kind of glance at the floor or at their neck, right? They're kind of wondering what is that tapping feeling?

Um, and so those are the signs we're looking for that they notice it. But these are gonna be really low levels guys that most humans can't even feel like if you put it on your own skin. Um, so I think that's super cool. And where we go from there is we start doing pressure exercises.

So this can be called critter and I usually refer to it as the Let's go, right? So we start doing let's go exercises where we start letting the dog go to the end of their leash. And we're doing this in a low distraction environment. Okay? So the dog goes to their end of their leash, we turn on this low pressure, the dog kind of feels it a little bit, but they don't know what to do. So we use the leash to pull them toward us and then we shut it off and we just kind of go back and forth doing these slow exercises.

And what we start to see happen usually after just a handful of repetitions, or it might be more if we have a dog that's like really tightly wound and excitable, um, is we start to see the dog will go toward the end of the leash, will turn on the pressure, and they'll turn around and come back toward us without us pulling them.

And that shows us when we start to see that, that the dog is starting to get it, they've already started to see the pattern and they know when they feel this pressure turn on on the side of their neck, they need to move toward us. And that is fantastic. It is my favorite way to start laying the foundation with eco. Um, because right away, right off the bat, we've started teaching the dog that this really low level pressure, um, is something that we're using to communicate with you. It's not something that you have to be worried about.

Um, and when you feel it in this context, we want you to move towards us, which then helps us generalize that over to things like heel and recall, right? Where we want the dog to also move toward us and be near us. And that's where the pressure shuts off.

08:37 — Low-level pressure-release training transfers to sit, down, place, and heel commands.

Uh, so it, it lays a really nice foundation for the eco and it starts teaching the dog right off the bat how they're in control of it, how it's tied to their behavior, and how they are responsible for shutting it off, uh, which is really, really cool and really important. It's a really important piece of your, your foundation. But so that's all, every dog here is typically introduced to the e-collar. Now there are exceptions. Um, for instance, sometimes dogs come in and they have to go into their kennel for whatever reason because we're doing other things and they won't settle in their kennel.

And in that case we might start with corrections. So all these trainers out there are gonna tell you, you can't do that. That you can't correct your dog on an e-collar until they've been conditioned and they understand it.

And you've done all this foundational work. And you know what? It's complete crap. It's complete nonsense. We do it all the time. Uh, when we have a dog that won't settle in their kennel, we're starting with corrections. It's not my favorite, but ultimately it doesn't matter. It's never set us back. It's never caused a problem. Um, and in some cases I might actually argue that it's worked better because then when we move to doing that low level work, I was just talking about, it's a lot easier to tell when the dog feels it because it's not the first time they've felt it.

And you can kind of see them perk up, right? And maybe they are a little nervous because they've been corrected with it, right? A little bit higher, a little bit more uncomfortable. Um, and so they feel it turn on and they kind of go, Ooh, what is that?

Right? Or that thing is back and, but you know, we're on low levels now. And so that's not going to happen. Um, but sometimes it's easier to tell that they're actually perceiving it and that they feel it. Um, but neither here nor there, it just, it's been fine. Like it hasn't caused a problem. So, you know, if you have bad behaviors with your dog that you wanna stop and you feel like, well, you can't do that with an eco because you don't know how to do all the foundational work and all that nonsense. It's not true.

You absolutely can go get one, put it on, get the job done. Um, and this is gonna work for most behaviors. Yes, there are some more behaviors, there are some behaviors that are a little more complex, uh, a little more difficult that you might have to work through that we can't just correct and knock 'em out.

Uh, but 99% of behaviors, like we can just stop that stuff cold, um, with a proper correction, right? But you have to know how to do it. And so we will get into that and I will briefly outline as I have before, how we do that and how I did it when I first got into dog before I got into dog training and I had a really, really terrible puppy. Um, she wasn't a puppy when I put the eco, well, technically she was right, she was an older puppy, so she was probably eight months old when I put an eco on her for the first time.

And our general rule of thumb is around six months or older. So, uh, technically a puppy, but they're ready for more at that age. And so, I mean, when I started with her, we absolutely started with corrections because we had so many terrible and dangerous behaviors to knock out.

So we will talk about that. But so now that I've just told you and filled you in a little bit about how we introduce dogs to the e-collar, I just wanna talk about the different ways we use them. Okay? So the first way we use them is what we were just talking about, right? It's that low level work with the dog. So we're doing those critter exercises, I call it let's go or building your wifi, which means you're building like that wireless communication with the dog so they understand it. Um, and then we do that same exact thing with all of their obedience commands, right?

So every behavior that we're trying to build up with the dog, we're using those super low levels and we're teaching them how to shut it off, right? So we're doing dozens and dozens and hundreds of sits and we're teaching the dog that, that low pressure, it will shut off when you sit.

12:45 — The first use is low-level language, creating clear remote communication through pressure and release.

We do the same thing with the down command. We do the same thing with the place command. We do the same thing with the heel command by teaching the dog. When you come next to my left leg and you're in position, you're not sniffing or anything, the pressure shuts off, right? So these are all low level pressure exercises in the beginning. So we've built a language with the dog now and they understand in various contexts how to shut off that low level pressure. And guys, I just think this is so cool and I can't imagine ever having a dog now that I didn't do this with because it's amazing.

Um, and now I can give a dog a command and if they're a little distracted or they kind of have a mind of their own in that moment, I can turn on this pressure and they're gonna know what to do with it.

And this is, even if I'm across the room, across the yard, I can now influence their behavior. I can turn this thing on. My dog knows what it means and they know what to do with it, and that is awesome. Now, the second thing we can do with an e-collar right? Ties into the first, which is we can start holding them accountable, right? So here's the thing, just turning on that low level pressure, that's not always gonna get your dog to do it, right? So that's how we teach them about the e-collar. That's how we teach them what it means and what to do with it.

But that's not always gonna guarantee compliance. So there are definitely going to be situations where your dog is super distracted, super aroused and stimulated, and they're not gonna notice it or care about it the same way.

So I just saw online today a trainer that described it as when the voices in the room get louder, you also have to get louder, right? Or the person you're talking to can't hear you. And I thought that was a fantastic analogy, right? So as, as your dog becomes more overwhelmed with stimuli, you need to be more intense with your e-collar just for them to perceive it, right? So not, you're not even making it more uncomfortable, even though you're turning it up, they're perceiving it the same way they did before when it was lower because they're aroused and stimulated, right?

It's just they have so much coming in now, they don't notice it, so you have to bump it up or they won't notice it. But above and beyond that, a lot of dogs, most dogs, nearly all dogs are gonna have at least some moments or many moments <laugh>, where even if they do hear you, and even if they do perceive that the eco turns on, they're still not gonna do it.

Why? Because they're a dog, right? Because that's behavior. Because if they don't feel in that moment super motivated to do it, then there just is no reason for the brain to say, Hey, do that thing, right? So we like to think that our dog is like super motivated to please us. And but that's just kind of malarkey <affirmative>, right? Dogs don't even understand what pleasing you means. Um, dogs please themselves because dogs just do what comes naturally and that's normal. It doesn't make them bad. That's just normal, right? And so if your dog has other things going on, other things that are um, kind of controlling their attention at the moment, they're not gonna do the thing that you wanted them to do most likely.

And just because they feel that eco turn on that doesn't mean it's gonna work. It's not magic, right? So those are the moments where we do start to make it a little more uncomfortable, right?

16:52 — The cold-to-hot protocol holds the button while gradually raising intensity until the dog prioritizes…

And we have a gradual process for that where we will go, we will do a protocol, what we call cold to hot with most dogs. And it looks a little different for every dog. Different dogs respond differently to different things. But I love this protocol because instead of tapping your eco right, at a, a level that doesn't work and then letting go and then turning it up and tapping at a higher level and then accidentally freaking your dog out, right? Or coming in hotter than you meant to and they're vocal, um, which by the way, not a huge deal.

It happens if that happens to you, you don't have to panic <laugh>, right? But the cold to hot really helps you avoid those situations. So especially if you're in like a social setting and you're a little self-conscious of things, um, this is a great protocol because it helps you find exactly the level you need to motivate your dog without getting all that stuff right, without getting the bad reaction.

Um, so when we do that, what we're doing is we're holding the button down, it's at a lower level, and while we're holding the button down, we're slowly turning it up, up, up, up, up. And we're just watching the dog, right? And when we get to a level where we see the dog has a reaction, we see that they care, we see that they've decided to prioritize us, right? Then we let it go and we get the behavior right? And if they change their mind again, we can turn it back on. Um, but that's a great protocol.

So that's another way we can use it to influence behavior, right? How else do we use the eco? Um, and for the record with that protocol, like the other way to do that would just be tapping, turning it up, tapping some more, right? So just trying some different stuff to see what gets the behavior.

And we call that phishing. And so that's, those protocols are usually the messy middle, right? So we're laying that low level language with your dog and then we're moving to that middle phase where we start bumping things up to get their attention, to get them to prioritize us. And then we move into the final phase of tracing, which I wanna talk about now, which is where we really start proofing things and we really start holding the dog more accountable. Meaning there is a higher consequence now for non-compliance. And this is the phase of course that nobody likes, right?

It's no fun. Nobody wants to quote unquote hurt their dog. Um, and people seem to think this is, and this is the most damaging thing because of all the information out there, people seem to think it's not necessary.

But I can assure you if you want reliable behavior from your dog, it's necessary. And almost everybody asks us when they'll be able to move away from the e-collar, right? People are obsessed with taking their e-collar off or at the very least not being super reliant on it, which I agree. I don't want you to be super reliant on it either. Um, like I said in the beginning, it should become more of a safety net, right? And so, but people get stuck in this pattern of having to rely on it very heavily and using that button all the time, every time they ask their dog for anything.

And this is the reason why. It's because we're really uncomfortable turning it up and sending the message that it's, there's an uncomfortable consequence now if you don't comply, right? Because I know you know this command and I know you know how to do it and I've given you tons of time and tons of practice and we've done all this rehearsal around distractions and I know you can do it now. So if you stay stuck using those middle methods, right, where we're just trying different levels and we're fishing or we're doing kind of cold to hot and we're looking to see what level gets the dog to do it, um, if we stay stuck there, then the dog never graduates, right?

They never move into a phase where you just say something and they just do it.

Even if there are distractions. Some people I think don't even think that's possible, right? But it's because they don't try. So you have to be comfortable at some point saying, okay, this command, we're now moving out of all this initial training and patterning and influencing and now we're gonna move into expectations, right? You have to raise the bar, you have to raise the standard, you have to expect your dog to listen to you, right? And that doesn't mean that there will never be a confusing moment for them. Um, or just a moment where maybe they do need a little reminder.

Um, especially if you have them in a situation that's extra challenging, something that they haven't practiced before, um, that they're not used to, that you know is new and extraordinary in some way, then sure cut them a little slack. Like there's nothing wrong with that, right?

21:57 — Staying at moderate influence levels creates permanent button nagging instead of dependable compliance.

But the problem is most people, they cut their dog slack all the time and the dog just knows that, right? And so they know, yeah, they know you're gonna follow through and get the behavior. They know that about this eco business, but they don't know, they don't believe that it's going to be truly uncomfortable not to listen to you. And that it's always gonna be that way. And that really is the key. If you don't build that expectation with your dog, if you don't build that standard, if you don't teach them, you now have to listen or it's an uncomfortable consequence, eventually a really uncomfortable consequence, then they just won't.

Right? And you'll be stuck nagging your dog with that eco all the time, which isn't the end of the world. And it's like if that's all you can get comfortable with, then do it right?

But just expect that that's gonna be your life forever, right? That's not gonna go away. Um, and I don't make that rule. That's just a fact, right? That's just what the dogs have taught us. Um, and it makes sense, it makes total sense when you think about it. Um, and it influences them in the moment. But because it's not that uncomfortable, it's not that concerning. Um, it doesn't create long-term change. It doesn't create a dog that next time goes, oh, I better listen, right? There has to be a real consequence for that. And so ultimately that's how we polish up all of the training in the end.

And you know, usually when people come back to do like a follow-up appointment after they're bored and trained, that's the precise conversation that we're having. Not that we don't tell people that when their dog goes home.

Um, but it's a learning curve. I mean it's a lot of information people have to take in at these go home lessons and they have to go home and kind of let the dust settle and get all this practice and get comfortable even using the equipment. And so we don't expect people to be there when they come back. Um, but doing that follow up lesson with them really gives us an opportunity to have that conversation and to explain why they're needing to use it so much and how it's super easy to start to move away from that.

And that's it. So eventually you just have to up that consequence, right? Which kind of is a nice segue into our next piece. So we can also use it for punishment, okay? So most of the time with those obedience commands that I was talking about, right?

We're building low level, then we're just influencing their behavior by motivating them. Um, and then we're making it a little more uncomfortable. But eventually we wanna treat non-compliance. No, I just had to correct my own dog. <laugh>, we wanna treat non-compliance. Um, just like any unwanted behavior, right? So when I say unwanted behavior, what do I mean? I mean jumping up on people, getting into the trash, excessive barking, chewing the furniture, like anything that your dog does that you don't want them doing ever, those are the things that you need to implement a proper punishment.

And so the obedience really it ends there. Like that's how you finish your obedience training is you treat non-compliance just like an unwanted behavior, which is what we're gonna talk about next, right? But with the obedience piece, you can see what a long process that is. We have to go through all these different phases.

And the reason for that is because we're trying to teach your dog how to do something and how to respond to something, right? So your dog is actually responsible for performing an action. So that takes a lot more rehearsal when it comes to just unwanted behaviors like I just mentioned. The trash, jumping, barking, chewing furniture, all this stuff, digging holes, harassing the cat, which is what my dog was doing, <laugh>. Those are things that we take the complete opposite approach, right? You don't have to go through this big long training phase. Now you've got a tool where you can simply mark that behavior with a no Take notes guys.

This is the important piece. Your no has to happen while your dog is doing that behavior or just proceeding the behavior. So in other words, you know, your dog is winding up to do the behavior.

26:37 — For jumping, mark the behavior before or during the act, never after the dog…

That's a fine time to say no. Okay? So for instance, you have a dog that jumps on somebody, okay? Someone comes through the door, your dog starts to approach them, he's got his bouncy wiggly self and you know what's coming next because it's what he always does. You know, he is going to jump. You could say no before the dog even starts to jump on the person. 'cause you know they're about to, that's a fine time to do it. But you can also do it as they're in the act. That's fine as well. What you can't do is you can't say no after the fact.

If they jump up and then they get down and you missed it, then you missed it. Mr. <laugh>, okay?

But so you're gonna mark that behavior with a no and then you're gonna follow that up with a high consequence on your eco how high, high, much higher than anything you've used before. Why? Because theoretically for things that you want to eliminate, you really can't be quote unquote too high. Now does that mean we need to put it on a hundred and hold the button down for five seconds? No, not necessarily. For some dogs it might. It might, right? But let's say your dog normally works on like a nine 10 and that seems to influence their behavior.

I don't want you using a nine 10 for this. I don't want you using a 20 for this, right? So because this is an unwanted behavior, it's a behavior you're trying to eliminate, you're trying to put it to bed, you're trying to knock it out and using those lower levels that are quote unquote just enough. If you can see me, I'm doing the air quotes, <laugh>. If you see the video, um, they're not enough. Even if they're enough in the moment, they are not enough. I can guarantee you I've been doing this long enough that I can tell you

If you don't make it clear, right? If you're too hesitant, you're too soft, you're too afraid, or you just think, Hey, Kati doesn't know what she's talking about, I'm gonna do it my way, right? And you're not gonna turn it up 'cause it's not fun. No one wants to do it. I don't blame you, right? I take it for granted because we do this all the time and I know, I know exactly how it's gonna go. I know it's gonna happen after and I know we're all just gonna move on and things are gonna be better.

But people don't know that and they don't know it until they do it. I have a sore throat <laugh>, I take a, I take a sip of my tea. Boy that raspberry tea is potent <laugh>.

But that is how you will have the best success eliminating behaviors. And I do harp on this one because I think it's obviously it's the one the people have the hardest time with, right? Because it's the one that's the least fun. It's the one where we do have to make our dogs really uncomfortable. This is the one where it does hurt, right? It doesn't cause harm. It's not gonna injure your dog or damage your dog in any way, but it's gonna hurt for a second and uh, they're gonna be fine. But what's gonna happen is they're just not gonna do that behavior anymore guys.

So there's really nothing more frustrating 'cause there's so much crappy information out there on the internet and so much bullshit and baloney about how to stop unwanted behaviors and none of it works. And people do it and like they waste time, they waste precious time with their dogs and with their families and just doing stuff that isn't going to work and they're putting in all these hours and weeks and months and it doesn't work, right? And we actually know how to stop this stuff and stop it fast and stop it safely. It's effective, it's efficient, it's safe, no harm done and everybody can move on and start cementing better behaviors.

And there's really nothing more frustrating than having that knowledge and passing it on to people and seeing them not use it, right? And seeing them three months, six months, nine months down the road still quote unquote working on it when we're talking about something that can be knocked out in five freaking minutes or less, right? That's just <laugh>.

It's really frustrating. And it's like I'm not mad at people like, it's not that I'm mad at them, but they have, they've imprisoned themselves in their own little torture chamber where they have to push the button constantly and maybe they're making their dog a little uncomfortable, right? Which makes them very uncomfortable and they're gonna have to do it all the time forever because they're just not willing or able to get the job done. But in most cases, it's not something you're going to have to do very often if you do it correctly, right? Dogs come in jumping all over us, we knock that out in the first couple days.

It's like, no, it might not be a one and done, right? Because your dog has to figure out the pattern and they gotta go, oh, it's uncomfortable when I jump on that lady. It's uncomfortable when I jump on that lady. It's uncomfortable when I jump on that guy. Geez, it must be when I jump on anybody, right? And then it's gone. It's done. They don't, don't do it anymore. And so one of the things I like to really pass on about stopping unwanted behaviors is the more afraid of it you are, the less meaningful your correction is, the less likely it's gonna stick, right?

You're gonna have to do it more frequently and for a longer period of time to achieve your results. And you might never achieve your results.

33:14 — Using corrections too weakly can build tolerance, making the behavior harder to eliminate later.

And you might also kind of desensitize your dog to it in the interim, right? If you're really too low, you might just be building up your dog's tolerance to it and then you torture yourself more. 'cause you're gonna have to turn it up even more where you can just turn it up, get the job done and be done with it. And after you do this a couple of times, hopefully you'll see your dog's fine, your dog is fine, they're not traumatized, they don't hate you. Just none of that stuff happens. Now let's just say it did.

Let's just say you did have a dog that got freaked out and like became scared of you know, whatever the guest coming in the door or you or their kennel or whatever it is. So what I know people are going, oh my god, what do you mean?

So what? Like, that's exactly what I'm afraid of. That's what I don't want to happen. I say, so what? Because you can't act like dogs can only make one association and then they're stuck there. Dogs can learn a new association just as easily, right? So what do you do? Put your dog on a leash and bring them back out to whatever the thing is that they're now quote unquote worried about. Now by the way, this almost never happens, especially if you said no at the correct time. Almost never. But if it did, that's what you would do.

And a good example of this is like the underground in invisible fences. Sometimes people will have dogs that they go out, they get shocked by the fence and then they run into the house and then people say, oh, my dog won't go back outside. Or my dog won't leave the porch now because they got such a bad shock from the fence.

And it's like easy to fix, easy to fix. Like really put your dog on a leash and bring them out. Now you might have to do that more than once, right? Because the fence uses a very meaningful consequence and it does stick, but you can still teach your dog to overcome that, right? Even a proper punishment like that, you can still te you can still undo that learning. Put your dog on a leash, bring them out, they see it's fine. And I'm not telling you to coddle your dog and soothe your dog. Those aren't the things we do to help a dog gain confidence.

Quite the opposite. Just be quiet, be neutral, be confident yourself, um, and just lead your dog around, lead your dog through the thing they think is scary just to prove it's, it's fine. And guess what I would say in even in the worst cases within a few days, your dog's gonna be over it. They're gonna be over it, right? But what happens is people give in, they give up and then they make up the story about how their dog was forever traumatized by the fence. Um, and it's just not the case. We just didn't know what to do,

Right? But really, like I never see this happen. Like when with the e-collar training, I never see it happen. Especially if you're saying no at the right time. Um, but if you had a really sensitive dog or a dog that's wired kind of different and like something like that happened, that's what I would do <affirmative>,

36:35 — Keep a leash attached during early work so the dog can be guided instead…

Right? One similar thing that we have seen happen sometimes is someone doing their eco training and they don't have their dog on a leash like they're supposed to, especially when they're like at home in their living room. You should still have your leash on 'cause you have to give your dog guidance, you have to show them what to do. And so they're turning on their eco and it's low at this point in time, right? But the dog just goes to their kennel and like lays down because they just don't get it. They don't know what they're supposed to be doing, right?

It's not because the dog is freaked out or traumatized, they just don't know what to do with it yet, right? And if you don't have that leash on, then you can't show them. And so they just leave <laugh>, right? They just say, well I'm gonna go take a nap. This is weird and frustrating. I don't know what to do. Um, and then people again, they make up the story about how their dog is, you know, traumatized, damaged, depressed, moping, um, when really the dog just needs you to show them what to do and they should be on a leash right in the beginning until they fully get it and then the leash can come off.

But that takes time and repetition.

Um, so how many dogs have we seen get traumatized and freaked out and like ruined? None. Fucking none. Like it just doesn't happen. Um, but so those are most of the ways we use the eco, right? So there's so many different things we're doing with the eco. Now let me describe another scenario with another thing we do with the eco, right? Let's say we have a dog who's a little excitable and we have them on place and then someone comes to the door or we just, you know, we have guests over or something's going on, right?

The cat walks by and maybe they're really a little too into the cat and we see them perk up, right? They perk up a little too much. Those ears are up and we go, well, we want the dog to stay calm. We know this is a trigger scenario for him. So instead of letting him escalate and get more excited, we can use a low to moderate tap to remind the dog to settle,

Right? It's not even high, it's not super uncomfortable, it's just like a tap on the shoulder or maybe a firm tap on the shoulder, right? Just kind of depends on the dog that says, Hey, don't forget you can't get all excited like that settle. So it says a little reminder, bring the arousal down and if you're really consistent with this, then they start to follow suit automatically on their own and not go into that overstimulated overexcited state and you don't even have to tell them anymore, right? But so it's a fantastic tool to catch your dog really early in those cases and just remind them to settle, right?

So that's another like low to moderate tap use. Um, or if your dog's in the kennel and they tend to be kind of the anxious type and they're a little like pacey or they're just standing up and staring at you, right?

We can use low to moderate taps then without saying a word and get, get the dog to settle and they lay right down. It's just fantastic tool to help condition your dog to settling in the context where you want them to settle automatically. And most dogs, eventually they do. It's great. So that's getting into some of the more in depth stuff, right? Like we, and we teach the double down or the relaxed command as I used to call it, where we teach the dog when they, if they're in a down and they feel that low stem come on, they just put their head down, they rest their chin on the floor and it just helps to relax them,

40:10 — The “double-down” teaches dogs to rest their chin on the floor and enter a…

Right? If you have a dog like we had a German Shepherd that was really uncomfortable around children, right? We could go out, we could do exercises with her, we could put her in a down, sometimes she was on place and if we saw her starting to track kids with her eyes, right? Or starting to fixate on kids, we could use again, low to moderate tap to just get her to take her eyeballs off those kids. And I can't tell you how huge that is. So that doesn't sound like much. But what happens when you start doing that is you start teaching the dog how to be in the presence of these triggers that make them uncomfortable and not pay attention to them.

Because guess what? The dog can't mentally really focus on something that it's not looking at. And it was brandy new to this dog that I'm thinking about. It was brandy new to her to be in the presence of kids that were making noise and running around and not stare at them and get all upset. And so just think about the impact you can have on a dog's state of mind by now. Having a tool

That you can actually gently pull their attention off from a trigger that makes 'em uncomfortable. And now you can actually have them rehearse lying calmly in the presence of this trigger. I mean, it's amazing. Um, and that's kind of why we love doing that in depth type stuff with the dogs, um, that come through here when they need it. It's really, really rewarding. Um, and you get to see a dog that just really transforms and really becomes more confident and more comfortable and more relaxed, right? And less anxious. Um, and it's just huge, huge. So those are most of the ways that we use the eco guys in our programs.

Um, hopefully you found that interesting or helpful in some way. Um, but it's just an amazing, amazing tool and if it's something that you're afraid of, we do also offer a course online. Um, it's just a $99 course and it basically gets you started using the eco and conditioning the dog on those low levels like we talked about.

And then after that, it takes you all the way through teaching the place command with it from start to finish so you have a reliable place command. It's a great way to get your feet wet, uh, with the eco and you can buy that course on our website at Diamond Canine dot com. That's D-I-A-M-O-N-D-C-A-N-I-N e.com. Um, and it's called 10 Days to a Great Place. I really think it's a great course for people that have been thinking about eco but are a little nervous about it or don't wanna make a big training investment right now.

Maybe it's not even in the budget. Um, fantastic, fantastic course. You do need to buy the eco and you do need to buy the model, um, that we talk about, which is the eco technologies mini educator or the micro educator. Um, any of the eco technologies, ECOS really would be fine, um, because those ecos give you that flexibility we talked about and they go from low to high, they go from zero to a hundred.

So even the callers like Garmin Sport Dog, they're really good callers, but they're much hotter and they can't do that low stuff that we're talking about. Like what I was just talking about, pulling that dog's attention off from the kids. I really couldn't do that with this dog on one of those collars because it would've, it would be too hot. So it wouldn't be gentle, it wouldn't be, um, mild like we want it to be in in those situations, right? It can do the higher stuff, but it can't do that really low whispery gentle stuff.

So that's why we use this unit. Um, we love Eco Technologies, they're phenomenal. Great company, good service. And, but check out our course on online if you, uh, if you're interested in trying out Eco and can check out our stuff on social media too, we're on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and of course we have this podcast and we would love to hear from you and your suggestions, your ideas, any questions you have, you can send them to me at Kati at Diamond Canine dot com. That's Kati at Diamond Canine, C-A-N-I-N e.com. Would love to hear from you.

And, uh, that's it guys. Thanks for joining me today and I look forward to next time I.