Electronic training collars can be useful in positive reinforcement training by pairing a vibrate or tone cue with a known behavior, such as recall or eye contact. This is especially useful for dogs who are deaf, cues that are given out of sight/hearing, or for handlers that have a tendency to overuse verbal cues.
The type of collar that’s useful for R+ training is a remote controlled collar that has the ability to vibrate or make noise (“tone” or “beep”) at the press of a button.
Note: Not all dogs are good candidates for R+ e-collar training. Your dog must associate the vibrate or tone of the collar with good feelings. If your dog is sensitive to noises, touch, buzzing, or similar sounds or sensations, they may not be a good candidate for this type of training tool. Similarly, if your dog has previously been trained to associate a shock or stim with the vibrate or tone from an e-collar, they may not be able to be re-conditioned.
There are two main ways you can use e-collars with positive reinforcement! You can either use the collar to cue a positively reinforced behavior, or you can use it to improve the precision of known behaviors by conditioning it as a continuation marker. Your dog can easily differentiate the vibrate from the tone, so you can use each one independently.
Priming the Collar
Step 1: Pairing
First, we need to pair the e-collar with food! If you have ever used a clicker before or conditioned a “Yes!” marker, this will feel very familiar.
Because the vibrate or tone could be a bit scary, we are going to start very slow. Before using the collar near your dog, familiarize yourself with the remote and collar and the different levels of vibrate and tone.
You will need: collar & receiver, remote, your dog, high value treats, an area without distractions.
- Turn the remote on, and adjust the tone to the lowest level. Turn the collar receiver on. Ensure the batteries are fully charged.
- Hold the collar receiver in your hand.
- Press the tone/vibrate button for one second, then immediately feed your dog a treat.
- Repeat the press-feed sequence until your dog perks up and looks at you when they hear the tone/vibrate.
During this phase of the training, your dog might be a little concerned or confused about the tone or vibrate – that’s okay! Look for stress signals like lip licks, look-aways, yawns, whale-eye, tucked tails, or any other signs that your dog is unsure. If these behaviors continue after a few reps, or if your dog walks away or avoids you at any point, stop the training immediately and reach out to your trainer for more information on how to proceed.
If your dog seems a little unsure but is quickly gaining confidence and looking curious or excited by the noise, you can proceed! Remember: the goal is to condition the collar to mean good stuff, so your dog needs to be having fun at this point.
Step 2: Wearing
Once your dog has established that the collar and the sounds associated with it announce good things, you can put the collar on your dog.
- Turn the remote and collar on, and make sure all the settings are adjusted to their lowest level. Put the collar on your dog. It should be fairly snug, but does not need to be especially tight.
- Give your dog 5 free treats.
- Press the tone/vibrate button for one second, then immediately feed your dog a treat.
- Repeat the press-feed sequence until your dog perks up and looks at you when they hear the tone/vibrate.
If your dog doesn’t seem to hear or feel the vibrate/tone, try adjusting the level slightly higher and repeating the exercises.
When your dog is comfortable wearing the collar and understands that the sensation or sound from it announces reinforcement, you are ready to use the collar for something a little more meaningful!
Note: The two cues below are not interchangeable. You should associate one concept per cue available to you. Some collars offer both vibrate and tone cues, and some collars offer multiple different tone cues.
Option A: Use a Collar Cue for a Known Behavior
This should be a behavior your dog already knows and is good at. If your dog does not yet know the behavior you want to associate with the collar cue, stop here and go teach that behavior before proceeding.
- Press the vibrate/tone button for one second, then cue your behavior. Mark “Yes!” and reward your dog like normal.
- Repeat the press-cue-behavior-feed sequence until your dog anticipates your verbal cue and does the behavior when they feel the collar cue.
Option B: Use a Collar Cue for Improving Precision of Known Behaviors
For some training goals, precision is essential for success. Improving precision using only differential reinforcement can be challenging and is often complex. You can use your collar as a “keep going” marker to communicate that there is reinforcement available and a behavior they need to complete in order to earn the reinforcement. As long as the vibrate/tone is going, the behavior is incomplete. Once the vibrate/tone turns off, the behavior is complete.
You can think of the collar cue like a non-directional “lure”, telling your dog that there’s a reward available but not telling your dog what they need to do to access it.
In order for this to be effective, the collar cue must be supported by additional information to direct your dog into the correct behavior. At first, choose very simple behaviors that your dog is very good at. You want them to feel like they are good at winning the “collar game” – this will motivate them to start problem solving when the game starts!
- Press and hold the vibrate/tone button at the same time you cue a well known behavior.
- Immediately when your dog completes the behavior, release the button, mark, and reward your dog.
- Repeat the press&cue-behavior-release-mark-reward sequence a few times with the same behavior.
- Change the behavior you’re asking for to another well known behavior that is incompatible with the original behavior. (Example: if you first did “sit” try asking for a “down” or “touch”)
- Repeat the press&cue-behavior-release-mark-reward sequence with a variety of behaviors.
After your dog begins to understand that the collar cue means there is a behavior to be done and a reward available, you can use this to sharpen behaviors. This can be a useful alternative to luring or using body pressure to fix positioning as it doesn’t require fading a lure and proofing against body position changes. It can be especially useful for cleaning up complex behaviors like precision heeling that rely on specific handler body positioning.
Important Notes
- The vibrate or tone holds no inherent value. R+ collar cues are only as good as the training and reinforcement history associated with them. Make sure to consistently reward your dog!
- Collar cues are non-directional and do not communicate who holds the remote. If you want multiple people to be able to use them, make sure to use verbal cues as well to help your dog respond to the correct person.
- Don’t forget to charge the batteries, and turn both the remote and the collar on! It happens to the best of us 😉
- Be mindful of the range of your specific collar and remote, and the factors that impact it (uneven terrain, blocked sightlines, trees, or other obstacles can all reduce range)
- Positive reinforcement e-collar training is not a quick fix! There are a wide variety of electronic training collars (e-collars) that are advertised as quick fixes for a variety of training problems – from boundary training with invisible fences to anti-bark collars to remote operated collars. These collars are traditionally used by associating undesirable behaviors with scary, uncomfortable, or painful stimuli to teach avoidance of a specific behavior or thing. Aversive-based e-collar training can have an increased risk of behavioral fallout, and it should only be considered under the supervision of a qualified professional.
