The Good Dog Coach

03/09/2026

Good introduction to e-collars. Here in the UK, you will see livestock wearing containment fence collars now as well, as featured in Clarkson’s farm.

10 QUICK NOTES FOR THE E-COLLAR CURIOUS

I took a few minutes yesterday to switch out the batteries in the Invisible Fence collars (the three red collars at left, top to bottom) and the Petsafe bark collars (the black collars in the middle, top to bottom). On the far right is a round E-Collar Technologies remote control, with two E-Collar Technologies collars below.

Ten quick points about modern electronic collars:

▪️Invisible fence collars are a kind of hot “buster" collar, and they work very well to contain most dogs using a radio-frequency-sending wire running around a perimeter. Invisible fence systems can contain multiple dogs inside a very large area for an affordable cost. After an initial period of training with a flagged perimeter, and the owner working the dog on a leash, most dogs respect the line and rarely challenge it. Invisible Fence collars are nothing more than an electric fence for dogs, mechanically different from what we use for cows, but operationally about the same. Just as you rarely see an electric fence correcting a cow, so you rarely see an Invisible Fence correct a dog after the first few weeks. My working terriers have been behind an Invisible Fence for over 22 years. To be clear, my dogs are on a perimeter wire. I have no experience with the wireless "base transmitter" models, distrust them, and would not install one.

▪️Bark collars operate only when a dog barks, and only when the dog wearing the collar is barking, as the collar needs both noise and vibration to correct. I have three dogs, and one dog cannot set off the collar of the other dogs. Bark collars save a lot of canine lives, as more dogs are sent to death at the pound for barking than any other reason. These things work like new money. The three collars, above, are small Petsafe Elite bark collars. Do not be stupid and get a collar with citronella spray.

▪️E-collars are not Invisible Fence collars or bark collars or "trash buster" collars (not shown), but something entirely different -- a true dog training aid that is capable of sending small "taps" a great distance with perfect timing. These taps can break through a dog's natural attention deficit disorder, remind a dog of what it knows, and mildly "correct" a dog starting a bad, or unwanted, behavior. E-collars do not train a dog; they are simply a powerful and near-perfect signaling tool which, if used at low-stimulation, can dramatically speed up and help "proof" a recall, a long down-stay, and dozens of other common commands. As always, you have to use the tool to train the dog. But does an e-collar, when coupled with a treat bag, make this training quicker, easier, and more assured? Yes!

▪️A modern e-collar is going to cost you over $180, and should have 100 stimulation levels. Do not get a collar that has 5-10 levels of stimulation, or one that is being sold as a "trash buster" collar at a local pet or hunting store. If you have, in the past, used an e-collar with 5-10 levels of stimulation, be advised that these collars are NOT the same as a modern e-collar. Do not get a collar and transmitter being sold for the remarkably price of $50-$60 on Ebay or Amazon. These are Chinese-made collars based on a 40-year old off-patent design, and they are too course and too inconsistent for real dog training. I would recommend looking at an E-Collar Technologies or Dogtra collar, both of which will cost you about $200, and which are worth it.

▪️Do not expect one collar to do it all. E-collars are a bit like dogs themselves; anyone who is selling you one that can "do it all," is selling you one that can do it all poorly. Spend money to get the right equipment for the job, and learn how to use the equipment.
Collars should be tight with the contact points on the sensors placed on the side, or on top of the dog's neck. Electronic collars only work when the stimulus prongs are consistently in contact with the dog's neck. This means that the collar should be tight, and if the sensors are placed on top or on the side, they are less likely to lose contact than if they are on the bottom.

▪️Different contacts are needed for different coats and dogs. Some very long-coated dogs may need some fur trimming, but long and short contacts are sold that work well on most coats. Some dogs may need a contact point made of a hypoallergenic metal -- these are available.

▪️Modern collars come with vibration, as well as electronic stimulation, and many come with a tone feature as well. It is a common mistake to think vibration is less intrusive to the dog than a low-level stim (it's not), or to think a tone feature is absolutely necessary (you will mostly be working your dog within sound of your voice). In fact, a low-level stim given to a dog that knows what it means is so effective and gentle that a change in direction or activity is all the notice a dog may give that it has received any signal at all.

▪️It's a TAP, not a Zap. While an Invisible Fence collars gives a powerful and very aversive ZAP, and a bark collar will send a much less-strong static correction, a training e-collar set at the correct level is giving no more than a one-finger tap. Though there is a "boost" feature, which can send a stronger corrective signal, actual dog training is done with the collar set so low it merely taps the dog -- it's no more aversive than a single finger lightly touching the dog on the neck or on top of the head.

▪️Any tool can be abused, and too often are. When it comes to dogs, leashes are probably abused more than any other device, as dogs spend a lifetime getting "yanked and cranked" by owners who never embrace a training regime based on good timing and consistency. Can e-collars be abused? Absolutely. In fact, if you insist on not reading directions, not going to YouTube to watch competent professionals instruct on modern e-collar use, do not take a dog training class, do not spend a few hours with someone who has trained a dog with an e-collar, and refuse to read a book or get on an e-collar training list-serv or Facebook group, you are probably going to do more harm than good with your e-collar, at least initially. But, of course, the same can be said about a leash. The good news is that most humans who spend $200 on a modern training collar actually want to train a dog. Step One in that training is to understand that not all collars are the same, and that getting good tools for the right job is essential.

▪️Karen Pryor, the great maven of pure treats-based clicker training, kept her own Border Terrier behind an Invisible Fence. It seems she figured out that they are quite humane. And yet Ms. Pryor looked down her nose on modern e-collars, even though she herself admitted she could not take her own terrier off-lead in the woods for fear of it running away! Indeed, her earlier Border Terrier ran away from her in the woods and was killed by a coyote. All I can say is that she should have used an e-collar, and she should have asked a real dog trainer how to use it.

05/08/2026

I did not make this decision lightly, but it was the responsible thing to do.

The current forecast for Saturday afternoon is 27 degrees acc to the Met Office so the decision has been made to cancel the Fun Dog Show at this years event on Saturday. The rest of the show is still definitely on!

We truly are sorry but we do not want to put any dogs at risk and we feel sure that all dog owners will agree.

We would still love to see all dog owners on Saturday of course!

17/07/2026

If you’re interested in or confused by “the science” of dog training and the use of e-collars in particular, this is a very good read. There’s more behind the social media slogans and organisation headlines.

It's time we revisit the Great Shock Collar Debate.

I have sat on this forever. I would occasionally drag it out, toy with it, put it away and vow to finish it 'some day'.

Well, it's done. All 3800 words of it. Here's a teaser, just to get your blood flowing...

The positive-only training community loves science. They love it so much they've become remarkably selective about which parts deserve to see daylight.

Let's talk about that "science."

The primary study behind virtually every e-collar ban campaign in the United Kingdom (and everywhere else), was commissioned and funded by DEFRA, the very government agency seeking evidence to support an animal welfare policy restricting e-collar use. Officially, the grant was awarded to "provide scientific evidence on which to base animal welfare policy." That's an entirely reasonable objective. It also creates the unavoidable appearance that the policy question was asked only after the policy direction had already been chosen.

To the researchers' credit, they produced findings that have been cited for well over a decade. Less frequently mentioned is the fact that the controlled experiment found no significant difference in cortisol levels between the e-collar and non-e-collar groups. Cortisol. The physiological marker of stress. The thing science typically relies on instead of feelings.

The inflammatory findings that continue to fuel headlines came from a pilot phase of the project that evaluated methods no competent professional trainer would employ, using levels of stimulation no competent professional trainer would recommend. Somehow, that became the evidence for banning the tool rather than condemning incompetent application.

Then came China et al. (2020), now treated as holy scripture by anti-e-collar campaigners. Scottish Parliament debates, British Veterinary Association lobbying materials, animal welfare fundraising campaigns; all leaning heavily on a paper that was formally peer-reviewed and then methodologically dismantled in the very same journal that published it.

The positive-reinforcement group trained at a different time, in an entirely different location, under entirely different trainers. On the very day the paper reported its "critical" statistical findings, the professional e-collar trainers had been replaced by the owners themselves. That is not a trivial methodological footnote. It fundamentally changes the interpretation of the results.

When reviewers asked the authors to explain this discrepancy, they couldn't.

A standard Bonferroni correction, one of the most basic statistical safeguards against false-positive findings, would likely have eliminated the reported statistical significance altogether.

Curiously, none of those details appeared in the press releases.

Then there's the Schalke study, perhaps the single most abused citation in the entire debate.

Anti-e-collar advocates invoke Schalke as proof that electronic collars cause stress. What Schalke actually demonstrated was something entirely different. Dogs receiving predictable, contingent, properly timed stimulation showed no significant increase in cortisol. Stress appeared only in dogs subjected to random, unpredictable stimulation.

In other words, the study condemned incompetent application, not competent professional use.

It is genuinely remarkable to watch people repeatedly cite a paper that undermines the very argument they believe it supports.

Apparently, reading beyond the conclusion has become optional.

Then, in 2024, Clive Wynne, one of the world's most accomplished canine cognition researchers at Arizona State University, published a randomized controlled trial examining predatory chasing behavior.

Dogs were divided into e-collar and food-reward-only groups.
Every dog trained with the e-collar stopped chasing after one or two sessions.

Not one dog in either food-reward-only group stopped chasing after six full training sessions.

Not one.

The only adverse welfare indicator observed was a brief vocalization during the initial stimulation. There were no lasting welfare concerns and no physiological evidence of chronic stress.

Strangely enough, very few people in the positive-only community seem eager to discuss that study. It suffers from one fatal defect. It produced the wrong answer.

The response was not another randomized controlled trial demonstrating superior results.

It was commentary, position statements from a Polish Behaviorist organization, objections, even an unpublished manuscript.
Wynne eventually published a formal rebuttal pointing out that much of the positive-reinforcement literature used to criticize his work is built upon correlational and quasi-experimental designs that cannot establish causation.

In other words, the very methodological standard his critics demanded of him is one their own foundational literature routinely fails to satisfy.

Apparently methodological rigor is only non-negotiable when someone else's conclusions are inconvenient.

Then, in late 2025, something even more awkward happened.
The president of the American Veterinary Medical Association publicly stated that e-collars can, in appropriate circumstances, be used humanely.

The American College of Veterinary Behaviorists immediately objected.

The AVMA did not retreat.

The issue went to committee.

There remains no settled institutional consensus.

That is an extraordinarily important fact because much of the public messaging surrounding this issue leaves the unmistakable impression that every credible veterinary authority agrees e-collars are categorically cruel.

They don't.

There is an active, unresolved disagreement at the highest levels of American veterinary medicine.

You would never know that if your understanding came exclusively from advocacy organizations.

And that brings us back to the crowd that never misses an opportunity to tell everyone else to "educate yourself."

The irony is hard to miss.

They'll quote studies they've never actually read, repeat conclusions they've never bothered to verify, and dismiss contrary evidence without ever engaging it. Once they find a paper that appears to support their position, they're done. They never make it to the published criticisms, the statistical problems, or the later studies that complicate the story. Those pages might as well not exist.

That's not skepticism.

That's not science.

It's confirmation bias masquerading as science.

Science doesn't stop where your confirmation bias begins. Either the entire body of evidence matters, or none of it does.

If you're going to invoke science as the final authority, then have the intellectual honesty to read all of it.

Not just the parts that make you feel morally superior.

Come at me, bro.

Link to the entire post is in the comments.

13/06/2026

This!

***The Importance of the Heel Position ***

The Number One Reason the Heel Position Is Probably the Most Important Thing You’ll Ever Teach Your Dog;

When people think about dog training, they often focus on recall, tricks or off-lead freedom. Whilst all of those things are important, there is one skill that underpins almost everything else: the heel position.

In my opinion, teaching your dog to walk calmly and attentively by your side is one of the most valuable things you will ever do. It doesn’t just improve your walks. It changes the way your dog experiences the world.

The Legal Reality;

In the UK, Section 3 of the Dangerous Dogs Act states that it is an offence to have a dog that is dangerously out of control. Many people assume this only applies to aggressive dogs, but the legislation goes further than that. A dog can be considered dangerously out of control if a person reasonably fears that it may cause them harm.

Think about how different a dog looks when it’s walking politely in heel compared to one that’s dragging its owner down the street, barking or lunging. A solid heel position instantly communicates that your dog is well-mannered, trained and under control. To members of the public, that matters.

Give Your Dog a Job;

Many unwanted behaviours such as pulling, lunging, barking and overreacting to the environment stem from a combination of genetics, life experiences and the freedom to repeatedly practise those behaviours.

Dogs are constantly processing the world around them. Every sight, sound and smell can influence how they feel and how they respond. If a dog is left to make its own decisions on every walk, it will often become overly focused on the environment rather than the handler.

The heel position changes that. It gives the dog a job to do.

When a dog is focused on maintaining position and paying attention to its handler, its attention shifts away from everything happening around it. Instead of being consumed by the environment, it becomes engaged with the task at hand.

When the Environment Fades Into the Background;

Something remarkable happens when a dog has purpose. The environment becomes less important.

Dogs that are fearful, reactive or overexcited are often highly tuned into everything around them. They notice every movement, every dog, every person and every sound. Their attention is constantly being pulled in different directions.

When a dog is genuinely engaged in a heel position, many of those distractions lose their significance. The dog is no longer looking for guidance from the environment. It is looking to the handler.

This makes potentially challenging situations much easier for the dog to process.

Evidence From Working Dogs;

One of the best examples of this comes from search and rescue dogs. During major disaster responses, including the aftermath of 9/11, dogs were able to work in incredibly stressful environments filled with noise, confusion and danger.

Yet many of these dogs showed remarkable confidence and focus. The reason wasn’t that they were immune to fear. It was because they were on purpose.

Their focus was on completing a task that had been heavily reinforced through training and reward. The environment faded into the background because their attention was fixed on the job in front of them.

The same principle applies to pet dogs. Whilst your dog isn’t searching for survivors, a strong heel position provides purpose and direction, helping them navigate the world with greater confidence and stability.

Why We Prioritise Heel Work;

At Unleashed, we run monthly pack walks for our clients. Every month we change the environment, increase the exposure and challenge dogs in different ways.

What always stands out is how positively members of the public react when they see a group of dogs calmly walking in heel. No pulling. No barking. No overarousal. No tension on the lead.

Sadly, society has normalised dogs frantically pulling, zig-zagging and reacting to everything around them. Calm, controlled walking has almost become the exception rather than the rule.

Yet it is one of the clearest signs of a dog that is comfortable, engaged and under control.

The Bigger Picture;

Teaching a solid heel position isn’t about creating a robot. It’s about giving your dog clarity, guidance and purpose.

A strong heel position improves communication, reduces unwanted behaviours and helps your dog make better decisions in the real world. It allows them to focus on you rather than becoming overwhelmed by everything around them.

Most importantly, it creates a stronger relationship between dog and handler.

Final Thoughts;

A strong heel position helps keep your dog under control, improves public perception, reduces reactivity and gives your dog a meaningful job to do.

More than anything, it helps your dog better understand and navigate the world around them.

That’s why, if I could only teach one thing to a dog owner, it would be this:

Master the heel position.

Because a strong heel position doesn’t just build a better walk. It builds a better life for both you and your dog.

10/06/2026

Whenever I see someone asking "can someone recommend a dog trainer?", I don't simply put my name down. Because I don't know if I am the trainer to solve their problem. I always ask questions first: What do you need help with? Are you looking to improve basic obedience, start a specific sport with your dog and do you have a behavioural problem that needs sorting? Because if you want to do agility, gundog work, bite sports or personal protection, I will refer you to another trainer. Too many trainers will pretend that they will take on any dog for any type of work But you can't tell me that you'll help that reluctant retriever as effectively as the specialised gundog trainer that deals with this day in, day out.
Always speak to the trainer and ask to speak to previous clients who had similar issues to yours. When you speak to previous clients, you don't want to hear "what a nice person" the trainer is. You want to hear how "transformative" and "life-changing" the work with the trainer has been. How their relationship with the dog is better and the quality of life has improved for everyone around, including the dog. If the trainer doesn't have previous clients with dogs of similar breed with similar issues who are willing to speak to you about those life-changing transformations, then that trainer is not the right one. Keep looking, there are plenty of us about.

SO YOU NEED A DOG TRAINER

One of the first things people want to know is what you do for a living.

You're a doctor? Fantastic. What kind?

You see that matters.

Both a dentist and a proctologist are doctors, but they work on different parts of the alimentary canal. If you need medical attention, it's a good idea if the doctor is looking in the right hole!

You're a lawyer? Awesome. What kind of lawyer are you? Criminal, drunk driving, divorce, bankruptcy, employment, tax, estate? You "do it all"? Right. No more questions need to be asked on that score, as far as I am concerned.

You're a plumber? Terrific! Do you put in high pressure boilers or work on nuclear reactors? Do you install gas lines or do you stick to water pipes on new construction? Do you do old house rehabs?

Or are you really a plumber at all?

That last question is an interesting one, as about half the time when you call a plumber you do not actually get a plumber; you get "Joe the Plumber" which is to say a plumber's assistant whose specialty is snaking toilets, unclogging sinks, and maybe putting in a new garbage disposal or swapping out an old hose bib.

What's this have to do with dogs?

Simple. If you are looking for a dog trainer, and someone presents themselves as such, I urge you to ask a few questions.

What kind of dog trainer are they?

Ask that question, and you tend to get a philosophy answer. "I'm a positive trainer." "I'm a balanced dog trainer."

Right. But what do you train dogs to DO?

Ask that question and you may get a puzzled look. If so, ask if they are training dogs for shutzhund, truffle hunting, agility, or go-to-ground?

Are they training dogs for doggy dancing, obedience competition, or herding?

Are they training bird dogs, sled dogs, hunting terriers, or running dogs?

Are they training bomb disposal dogs, guard dogs, or drug-sniffing dogs?

Are they training circus dogs or therapy dogs?

These kinds of simple questions tend to knock most self-styled dog trainers on their ass because they don't do any of that.

So what DO they do?

Well, that depends.

A lot of self-described "dog trainers" are little more than trick trainers. They can teach a dog to walk at heel, or to sit when you come to the corner, or retrieve over a barrier. They can teach a dog to carry a basket, or to get their own leash.

But is that the kind of thing you need done? Will any of this fix "the dog problem" that brought you to this trainer's door?

Probably not.

Trick trainers, and the folks who teach "basic obedience" are a bit like the "personal trainers" down at the gym.

If you go to a gym and tell them you need to lose weight, they're going to push you to sign up for a gym membership, and they're going to get you running, weight lifting, and doing squats.

That's all good stuff, but science has shown that those activities actually have very little to do with the problem that brought you to the gym in the first place: losing weight.

You want to lose weight? Eat less, and make sure what you eat is mostly vegetables. About 80 percent of weight loss is due to changing what you eat, not exercise.

But if you go to a gym, and tell them you need to lose weight, they are not going to say "this is not the place for you." After all, the business of a gym is signing people up for gym membership, and that is what they are going to do whether that is the right remedy for your problem, or not.

To be clear, there's nothing wrong with getting fit and tone, and there's nothing wrong with a dog learning classical obedience training. That said, obedience training is probably not going to solve your critical and urgent "dog problem" any more than doing squats, leg lifts, and bench presses alone is going to solve your 40-pound weight gain since college.

So what IS your "dog problem"?

The most common issues are lack of recall, leash pulling, leash reactivity, jumping on visitors and family, jumping on furniture, mouth biting and nipping, separation anxiety, crate anxiety, chronic barking, and fighting between two dogs in the house.

How do you solve those issues?

One word: Punishment.

Punishment sounds like a heavy word, but it's not. It's simply a negative consequence, i.e. it's the OPPOSITE of a food, toy, or play reward.

Punishment can be so light that a human cannot even feel it, and it is never violent or injurious.

But many dog trainers don't know much about punishment, and some visibly recoil at the word.

If you are presented with a dog trainer that does not know how, or when, to punish a dog, you are dealing with a trick trainer. These are fine people, but they are not going to solve your chronic or critical "dog problem" in a timely manner.

Instead, they are going to address the chronic and critical problem in an oblique and inefficient manner. And from their perspective, why not? Efficiency is actually counter to their business model. As soon as your critical dog training problem is fixed, your need for a "trainer" may abate, and payments may soon stop. Who wants that? Not the dog trainer!

Here's a simple test. Give a dog trainer a common problem like not having a reliable recall, barking, leash reactivity, or jumping up on guests. Ask him or her how they will work to solve that problem in a quick and efficient manner. What would they do to stop that behavior NOW? How will they PROOF the behavior so that it remains solid?

If they go off in a wild diversion about needing to get to "the root of the problem" or "starting with basic obedience" or "pack behavior" or "dog psychology," they are probably not the trainer you need to address the serious and immediate dog problem you came to them to resolve.

To be clear, getting a dog to "lock in" a behavior can take time and repetition. Some breeds and some individual dogs are more biddable and phlegmatic than others.

That said, getting a hard-wired dog to stop a self-rewarding behavior is not rocket science, and it is rarely achieved with a clicker and a bag of treats alone.

If your prospective dog trainer only knows one side of the two-sided coin that is real dog training, I advised holding on to your money and keep looking.

25/05/2026

Our dogs have had no time to acclimatise to this heat. Dogs die in these temperatures. Please don’t risk it!

☀️ YOUR DOG DOES NOT NEED A WALK IN THIS HEAT. ☀️

They need to stay alive.

We are seeing far too many dogs being dragged around parks, pavements and fields in temperatures that can KILL them.

Let’s be blunt.

By the time your dog is collapsing, vomiting, unable to stand, drooling excessively or struggling to breathe… the damage is already happening.

Heatstroke is not “a bit overheated.”
Dogs DIE from this - Dogs have died in LEAMINGTON from heatstroke!

And even the ones that survive can suffer organ damage for the rest of their lives.

Your dog panting heavily is not funny.
It is not them “loving the sunshine.”
It is their body desperately trying not to overheat.

If you are sweating in shorts and a T-shirt, why are you forcing an animal wearing a fur coat to walk on boiling pavements?

NO dog has ever died from missing one walk.
Dogs HAVE died because owners ignored the heat.

So please stop:

❌ Marching dogs around retail parks
❌ Throwing balls until dogs collapse
❌ Taking dogs on walks in midday sun
❌ Walking dogs on scorching pavements
❌ Assuming water alone prevents heatstroke
❌ Leaving dogs in cars — even for 2 minutes.

If it is hot enough that YOU are uncomfortable — it is too hot for dogs to exercise safely.

Walk them at sunrise.
Walk them late evening.
Or don’t walk them at all for one day and use enrichment toys and ideas off the internet.

Because we can promise you this:
The guilt of skipping a walk lasts minutes.
The guilt of carrying your dog into an emergency vets surgery lasts forever. 🐾

(*And before the Tesla owners start writing essays in the comments 😅 yes… we know your dogs are sat in ‘Pet Mode’ with air con, mood lighting and probably watching Netflix. We’re not talking about you.🙄)

13/05/2026

Skilled trainers don’t learn reward based methods further down the line. That’s where we start. Then we add other things on top.
These arguments just show that these “trainers” weren’t good trainers, lacking the skill and understanding to using both reward and aversives skillfully.