Bill Hillmann's e-collar method
Well, I bought a half-hour phone consult with Bill Hillmann. (BTW, seems like a very nice guy. Doesn't talk down to you or anything. And his wife Mary is as sweet as she can be.) I got some specific questions answered. He confirmed some of my thoughts but also gave me a lot of new things to think about.
Let me say up front that this whole journey with Ram Jet Rocket Dog has taught me that there isn't just one way to skin a cat. There are a thousand. And the dog you had in front of you a month ago is not the same one you have now and your dog's learning needs will be different a month from now.
My challenge right now is pretty darned specific. I need to teach RD to be incredibly excited, but absolutely under control. I've been working with the dog-behaviorist on some of this. What Bill and I talked about is totally consistent with what the behaviorist and I have worked out. Bill uses the e-collar, the other doesn't. But the dog is learning the same thing. The concept is... When you see that thing you want most in the whole world (retrieve, food, toy, going for a ride...) you quickly turn your full attention to your handler because she is the one that will let you have it. The behaviorist's angle is to keep the dog from going over threshold. Bill's angle is grabbing the dog's full attention while they're up and excited and getting them to fully attend to you. His is more specifically about the retrieve. (He calls it "the game.")
So, Bill uses the e-collar. That's reasonable for field training because so much of it happens hundreds of yards away. Not the only way to train, but certainly a helpful tool. But he does NOT use the heat, he basically uses it to touch the dog, to tell the dog "Yes, that's it. You're doing it RIGHT. Keep doing that." That is a radical departure from the way we imagine the tool being used. Not... STOP, BAD DOG. But YES... GOOD DOG. In his method, you use a setting that is perceptible to the dog, that's all. He says use a 2 (on a tritronix/garmin) I'm finding that's a bit much for RD, I think she needs a 1 high.
So, while I'm out sick, unable to get into the field and train on birds with my group (and this asthma may hang on for quite a while... not going to be a quick fix) we are relearning "the game" and working on calm, focus and productive excitement.
Most of the controversy over e-collars (much of it caused by groups with an agenda) revolves around the notion that there is only one way to use it, and that's punitively. That's why they call it a "shock collar." But in this clip he addresses his alternative method. I'm starting to employ his method and finding it very interesting to watch RD's response to it.
The electric collar used as Positive Reinforcement = Magic - YouTube