The Freedom Tool

Michele and I met at the park again. Holy hell was I nervous. This would be our first E-collar experience. Michele put the collar on Chili. I walked her and she held the collar remote. She wanted to make sure that I was very clear on how to use the collar before she handed the remote to me. The idea was to snap Chili out of her trance before she got to that hind brain state where she started to lunge. It wasn’t about making her screech, it was about breaking her train of thought. That thought being, she must lunge at the oncoming dog. It was working. As Chili would start to tense up, and stare at a dog, Michele would hit the remote and it would break Chili’s concentration. We would tell her to ‘leave it’ at the same time, then ask her to ‘look ’ at me, to redirect her stare. We were making a connection between the collar and the command.

One of the things that I really noticed was the absence of a dramatic incident. In the past when Chili would lunge, it was very stressful. She would be lunging, I would be telling her ‘No’, and giving her corrections on the choke collar, or the pinch collar. She could care less about the corrections so it would prolong the show. It wasn’t pleasant for anyone. I guess the question here would be what is worse, the couple of minutes of struggle, or the zap that takes a second?

Once the connection was made, and after many outings, I started letting Chili off leash more and more. If she didn’t ‘come’ on command, I would use the E-Collar to remind her that she must obey. I would never have thought that she would be free of the leash, but there she was, running and playing and coming when called. I don’t know if this would have been possible without the E-Collar. Thank you Michele.

You might be aksing, “Why does Chili have to come right away when called?” Am I that controlling? The answer to that depends on who you ask, but in this case the answer is safety, of course. Chili thinks she knows what’s best. She is very stubborn and when she gets an idea in her head, it’s difficult to change. This resulted in her being on leash most times and not experiencing life to its fullest. For example, if Chili saw something of interest on the other side of the road, she would just go. Luckily, I always had her on leash. Now, after training with the E-Collar, if she starts to go, I only need to use a voice command to get her back. Another example; Chili loves people. She thinks that everyone loves her, and they want her to run up to them and give them tons of kisses. She doesn’t understand that although she’s a Boxweiler, she looks very much like a Rottweiler and there is a stigma out the there that Rotti’s are mean. So, when she runs up to say hello, it scares people. Not all, but some. After all, some people gather up their children and their dogs, give us a dirty look, and veer away from us when we’re walking. Oh yes, and this is when she’s on leash and just walking along with a happy face. I need to protect Chili from these people creating an incident out of nothing. So, thanks to the E-Collar, I can walk with her off leash, and when I see people coming towards us, I just tell her to come, and she walks off leash at my side and doesn’t go near the other people.

I take my responsibility for Chili very seriously. Everything I do is with her best interest at heart. I’ve learned that there is no easy way, no magical wand, and no fairytale that will make her that perfect storybook dog. We’ve had to work hard for our successes and that makes them sweeter.

The Controversial Collar

While on one of our pack walks, Michele asked me if I ever considered trying an E-Collar on Chili. My immediate reaction was, “NO!” I mean, really?? Isn’t that cruel? I’ve learned through my experiences with Chili that I have to step outside of my comfort zone sometimes. So far, I liked Michele’s style and she is an experienced trainer, so she must have a reason for suggesting this tool. For me though, on this day, that was the end of the discussion. No.

On the next walk, she asked if I’d thought about her suggestion of testing out the E-Collar. I had thought about it. Thought that it was not for me. Why was I so anti-E-Collar? Was it because of my experience? No, I didn’t have any experience at all with this collar. It was because I had already made up my mind without having any facts. The only fact I had was that it would give my dog an electric jolt and that was cruel. Only cruel people use them. Now, if I wanted to be true to that line of thinking, I was already a cruel person. I had used a choke collar on my dog. That “chokes” the dog. Isn’t that cruel? I had used a pinch collar. The pinch, pinches points around the dogs neck when you give it a correction and can do some damage if the prongs are digging into the wrong spot. Isn’t that cruel? I had made up a story in my head about the E-Collar, and people who use it, that wasn’t based on anything. I was doing to them exactly what people do to me and Chili. I think I need to find out some facts first before I make another judgement. Besides, as we all know, you don’t need a tool to be cruel.

So, why did Michele recommend the E-Collar? From her own experience, the E-Collar was the tool that allowed her to give her dogs a better quality of life. Freedom. Better yet, freedom with safety. The E-Collar gave her the power to keep them out of their hind brain and teach them a new reality. To come to her when they feel afraid and stand by her side. She would protect them. They didn’t need to take on that burden any longer.

When it gets to the point where a dog will harm themselves or their owner with their fight or flight instinct, or, when an owner has tried everything else and their lives are being ruled by anxiety because of their dog’s actions. Or, when you dread the walk and you have to build yourself up for it. It’s time for the next step. Although Chili is a great dog, and I never had a worry that she would bite, she would still lunge and make poor decisions for herself because she is so headstrong. She’s a dog, and doesn’t understand that my commands are protecting her and she must listen. Nothing I had tried so far, was working on these issues. This caused me anxiety and kept her from having freedom. Neither one of us deserved that.

Like any other tool, the E-Collar isn’t for every dog. Out of the approximately 4500 dogs that Michele has trained, she’s recommended its use for about 20. As with every other tool, you should get a professional to give you training with it BEFORE you use it. Every tool has the potential for harm if not used wisely.

It was time. After much consideration, I asked Michele if she would show me how to use the E-Collar.

The Pack Walk

After the home visit with Michele from Connective Training I was really looking forward to joining her for a pack walk. I knew it would be good for Chili and I was eager to learn some new techniques. We met at one of the local parks, me with Chili, and Michele with her pack. I will admit that I was somewhat overwhelmed and a little intimidated. After all, she is a trainer, and her dogs were all running off leash, and there I was holding on tightly to Chili trying to show that I had some type of control, which I did. I had worked hard to gain a solid foundation in her training and now it was time to learn something new. Although we’d already come a long way, the one thing that I couldn’t seem to work out was her lunging at other dogs while on leash.

I felt bad for Chili, having to watch the other dogs run free while she had to be walked on her leash. She had pretty good recall but I couldn’t always guarantee that she would come when called if there was something that really interested her. There was also her generally poor greeting style to consider. The pack was well behaved and I was impressed by the control Michele had while at the same time allowing them their freedom to be dogs. Chili didn’t do too badly either. She did lunge some but I think she was also taking in this new situation of being with a pack of dogs, and having someone practice different techniques with her. Michele has a very calming way of coaching you and the dogs and it works. That doesn’t mean she can be pushed around. She stands her ground without being angry, and I respect that.

As we walked and talked it was very clear that not only was Chili going to benefit from gaining a great trainer, I would also benefit by gaining a great friend. She suggested that we enrol in one of her classes. Although we already knew most of the commands she teaches, we both thought it might be good for Chili to work around other dogs. Also, it never hurts to do some structured training with your dog. It builds teamwork and strengthens their obedience.

This was the first of many pack walks. Chili absolutely loves them. Guess what! She doesn’t even try to be the leader. She quickly slides into the pack as if she’d been there forever. She is completely in her element running and playing and taking her place. She’s happy to just be a follower and do as she’s told. I was surprised myself, but there she was, being put in her place by a little dog that weighs about as much as her dinner. Who knew?

Yes, eventually Chili did get her freedom and was allowed to run free with the pack, but it didn’t come easy. It came after a lot of agonizing on my part. There I was, again, being challenged to move outside of my box and my beliefs to consider a new training tool to help give Chili her freedom. It never ends, the challenges I mean.

Albert Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” It was time for change, and working with Michele was the start. After all, I owed it to Chili not to live the definition.