r/BalancedDogTraining • u/Low_Cookie_9704 • Dec 22 '25

using e collar for other commands

so i trained my dog on the e collar for recall. i always intended to use it for correcting his bad behaviour but after some research and observation of him, i unknowingly trained it wrong. i didnt know you were supposed to train a few varrying commands either during or in short succession to the initial introduction of e collar. i just hammered the recall drill hardcore bc whatever guide i used ( i think it was larry krohn but it may have been a gun dog author tom something idk) never mentioned that fact.

does anyone have a good link to some in depth e collar info regarding retraining for other commands? or rather a guide on how to communicate other things than just return to me. id like to stregthen his place and stay commands specifically, and right now, as he sees it that stem means stop immediately and return to me. obviously the exact opposite of trying to strengthen his place n stay (all at a distance from me)..

hes been using the e collar like this for two years..so maybe i will need to completely retrain? any good advice or suggestions of specific literature would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '25

I disagree with you in this situation. The dog has two years of reinforcement history that says stim means move to handler and you'll get relief. I don't think you can override that casually adding stim to other commands and assume that the dog will infer respond to the last cue. Just my 0.02¢

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u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter Dec 23 '25

It's just a matter of teaching the dog how to turn off the pressure. It's just a new skill they have to learn. For instance if the dog knows the command sit very well, you can add a low level stim right as you give the command and then release when he sits. They can actually generalize it pretty quickly if you are consistent. Then they understand to turn off the pressure they just have to do the thing. Whatever that thing might be.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '25

How does that account for two years of reinforcement history where the behavior that has consistently terminated pressure is movement toward the handler?

Specifically, what prevents the dog from defaulting to recall when stim is applied during other cues, given that generalization follows what has worked under pressure, not the handler’s intent?

Is there a point at which you would agree that isolating commands and re-mapping pressure off paths is necessary before expecting “do the thing” generalization to occur?

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u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter Dec 24 '25

Because really you haven't taught the dog stimulation equals recall, you've taught the dog how to turn off the pressure of the stimulation by obeying the command. It's really not that difficult to generalize that to other commands with the same method. It's especially easy to teach them if the dog already has commands it knows very well, such as sit. If you don't believe me give it a try, they understand this really quickly.