Please read before judging or flaming. I’ve seen a number of threads about this topic and a lot of questions, but no one who has tried it (or been willing to talk about it). I wanted to give my full experience for anyone who is interested.

Here is my story.

I have a lot of experience training dogs. My parents train service animals, and I’ve always helped with the process since I was a small child. As a result, all of my dogs that I raised from puppies that I’ve owned myself have been exceptional. They were all trained solely with positive reinforcement and I was quite smug and superior about my dogs and my training ability.

Then I adopted my Anya. We were told she’s a Husky, but when we got her she was malnourished, her coat was freshly shaved, and she was so hungry she actually ate parts of her tail. Now that she’s put on weight and her hair/tail has grown back, I’d say she’s actually a Samoyed.

When we first got her, she had never been on a leash before. She thrashed like a bucking bull, choked herself to the point she collapsed. Inside, she was a menace. She had no idea on how to behave, and would quite literally try to climb the walls. Outside, we had zero control, she had no idea what her name and didn’t know a single command.

I didn’t think much of it. I was a great trainer, duh! I worked hard with her on teaching her basics like sit and down, leave it and go to your bed. She learned quickly—she was desperate for affection and praise—as long as she was inside.Outside, even at 4am with zero distractions, she utterly ignored any attempt at a command. I tried every trick I knew, and no progress.

Beginning to understand I was in over my head, I entered her in a positive reinforcement 10 week obedience class with a very highly regarded trainer.

She was the class disaster. She would do her commands, but would do them on her terms. She barked non-stop, would toddle away when she was bored, and during recalls she would visit everyone else. Our trainer knew we were discouraged, but said if we kept working with her every day, maybe in a year or so she would be where we wanted her.

I burst into tears. I couldn’t take Anya anywhere-she would yank and pull, howl, bark on a leash, even with haltis, Easy Walkers, and harnesses. When we took her to the park or dog beach, she did her own thing and ignored us utterly, putting her in dangerous range when an aggressive dog came in. I couldn’t imagine another year of this—and that’s if it worked.

In desperation, I called a friend of mine who trains police dogs. He listened to my sobbing story patiently, then said, “You can do like your trainer said, and in 18 months you’ll have the dog you want. Or you can do this program I recommend, and you’ll have the dog you want in 4 weeks”.

I actually laughed. 4 weeks? My friend said, with absolute certainty, “your dog will be flawless inside, outside, and off-leash in 4 weeks”.

I didn’t believe him. Husky, or Samoyed, sled dogs aren’t off leash dogs. And Anya was a disaster. And I was such an advocate of positive training, I couldn’t image putting an e-collar. But I was at the end of my rope, and desperate enough to give it a try. The program he recommended was K9 OffLeash. I called, and scheduled an appointment, terrified.

The person on the phone swore they could help me. If I wasn’t amazed, the money would be completely refunded.

The trainer came, was sweet with Anya, and showed me the collar. He insisted I wear it to see what it felt like. I expected the worst—the collar goes from 1-100--, but was seriously surprised when I couldn’t feel it at all until level 20 or so. Even then, it felt like a faint buzz, like a vibrating phone. Level 40 is where I actually felt a jolt, like touching something after dragging over carpet. Level 50 and up is where is actually hurt, but the trainer said he was going to lock the controller to level 30 for Anya—the higher levels are for extreme aggression cases when it’s the only way to break an aggressive dog’s fixation.

He showed us how to properly put the collar on her (and with a proper collar you don’t need to cut the coat), and began the lesson. He set the remote to level 3, which I didn’t feel at all. He worked with her for one hour with us at rapt attention, and I was astonished. She did all of her commands, outside, with kids playing and dogs jogging by. She didn’t show any signs of discomfort-no yelps or shaking her head. She got plenty of praise and seemed to be enjoying the lesson.

He spent the next 30 minutes showing us exactly what to do to work with her in the meantime before our next session.

We spent every day working with it. And took 3 more lessons, once a week.

At the end of just that one month, she was, seriously, a different dog.

She now walks off leash with us for miles every day, never breaking her heel until we tell her she’s free to roam. We take her for runs and she gleefully jogs next to use, ignoring squirrels, people, dogs, even a deer. We took her to the beach and she ran around like a crazy dog, but listened every time we called her to us.

At the dog park, instead of rushing to the gate to welcome new comers like the other dogs, she listens when we tell her to come and sits quietly next to us until the dog enters and we tell her to go ahead. This has been a life-saver. When an aggressive dog comes to the park, we are able to get her to come to us immediately and away from the dog. She still plays and romps and is her silly self, she just listens now in every circumstance, the first time we give a command.

No more barking obsessively, no more jumping up, no fixated hunting. Just a sweet obedient dog I feel comfortable taking anywhere.

We have never had to put the collar on past a level 4 (again, on a scale from 1-100). For normal days, we don’t put it on her anymore. We only use it when we know she’ll be in a high distraction area (like hiking in the woods).

In just one month, she want from a maniac to passing her therapy dog test—without wearing the ecollar.

We regularly get stopped by people asking if she’s a service dog because she’s so well behaved. I can’t even tell you how happy I am. I never would have imagined she could do it.

So that’s my story. If anyone has questions, please let me know. I’d be happy to share video/photos of her being awesome

Wow, thank you so much for sharing your story. It really shows the other side of the picture and what ecollars can really accomplish from being properly used. I'm glad that Anya has finally learned to navigate her world and enjoy all the freedoms of being trained can offer.

I myself am considering ecollar training... my boy Caper is not completely unresponsive to positive reinforcement training but he certainly decides when he wants to listen, especially if other animals are around. I would love to see videos of your Anya doing her commands if you could share

I fully admit that sometimes I debate whether this is the right course of action for Koda... especially with the neighbors deciding that getting an outdoor cat was a good idea. I worry about the cat wandering into our yard and Koda definitely suffers from "selective hearing."

I like to think of eCollars as a last resort (as it appears to be in your case). I worry that a lot of people use them because they are simply not consistent in their positive reinforcement training and this is the quicker "easy way out" (not referring to the OP when I say this). I will admit that sometimes it's tempting.

My honest question is, does Anya know when the collar is off? I know you say that you still use it in high distraction scenarios, but does she generally know when it's on or off? For example, Koda loves playing with laser pointers, but he knows where the "red dot" comes from. He will look straight at me and the pointer when he decides he's done. My concern is that Koda would figure out what the eCollar does and he would still ignore me when he doesn't feel like listening and it's not on.

The other disclaimer that I'd like to throw out there is that eCollars aren't a "fix to getting an offleash dog" (again, not referring to the OP, just any newbies reading this thread). I still don't think any dog, especially a husky, will be 100% trustworthy offleash. There is always going to be something more interesting than Mom & Dad that is worth ignoring the collar for. So for those looking to get the trustworthy, off-leash dog they crave, this isn't the fool proof solution. There is no fool proof solution.

However, I do really appreciate hearing a first hand account of an eCollar and that you sought professional training. If John and I do decide that Koda needs this training, that will be our method as well.

Thanks for the thoughtful write-up.

No offense taken, I know eCollars are controversial, and for good reason-a lot of people get them without knowing what they're doing (which can cause a lot of harm), or use them cruelly.

They are definitely not a "quick fix". It still took time and consistency and daily practice on our part. I know our trainer said a lot of people were disappointed when their dog didn't magically learn in one day how to be perfect off-leash, or they didn't practice in between sessions and couldn't understand why their dog wasn't improving. An eCollar is no excuse to stop working with the dog!

Anya does not know when the collar is on or off, which good eCollar trainers work a great deal on, as the goal is for the dog to transition to being completely e-collar free after 2 or 3 months. He recommended we put it on her first thing in the morning, and leave it on her all day, except for when we weren't at home. That way, it was a constant part of her life, and not something she only wore during training time or walks. If you do it only at specific times, the dog can become "collar-wise", but because Anya wears it often, she doesn't think anything of it. So even in heavy distraction times, she listens acutely to us. I just like to have the collar on for if we're going to the park as a backup for my own piece of mind. We haven't had to use it in quite some time.

There is a lot of debate about Huskys and off-leash with this program. My trainer actually has a husky sled dog team, and trained all of them to be reliably off-leash with ecollars. Obviously it depends on the dog (and the trainer/owner) but it can be done.

The collar doesn't stop things from being more interesting than me. It just cuts through their focus/adrenaline to remind them they need to be good. If you do practice with them (you start ecollar training with no distractions, then slowly build up), it's a reflexive thing. We were on a walk the other day, and a fox darted in front of us. Anya took one step away from my knee and I told her to heel (I was too slow to even hit the button on the remote) and she reflexively moved back in place. That was my "Oh my god this really worked" moment


Obviously not for everyone, but for anyone who feels like they've run out of options, it is something I would recommend. I've met a lot of people at the park who are at their end and are planning on rehoming or chaining their dogs outside 24 hours a day, and I do recommend this to them before they reach that point.

And I'll definitely post a video soon of Anya-we're going hiking this weekend, so I'll take video then. My trainer is actually using her in a highlight reel, since she was one of his more dramatic examples.

But here's a few sample videos from K9 Offleash (who I used. I don't work for them, I'm just a very happy customer!)

A Husky/Malamute mix, before and after:



Very aggressive boxers, before and after:

Thank you for sharing. I have considered this to move along Loki and his cat training. He is much better, listens to leave it, and ignores them the majority of the time but will still walk after them too much when they go out of sight (leave it works but we need to repeat at times). Other times he tries to hop on them and give them kisses when he wakes up and such. If I pursue, do you think I could just call police departments in my area and ask for them to recommend a trainer? I think ecollar is pretty normal for police dogs.

^Most police departments won't know where their dogs come from-most counties purchase them from a special kennel through their procurement departments, unfortunately.

I would just Google and check out reviews. While my friend recommended K9 Offleash, I did plenty of research-they have thousands of 5-star reviews so that convinced me.

I know in Wisconsin there's a similar program called That's My Dog-but as I haven't used them, I can't say if they're good or not.

Thanks for posting this!

We went to Offleash K9 in Northern VA too and had great success! I seriously would be lost without their guidance. They showed me the correct way to train my dog and since going I've had 3 of my friends sign up with the Offleash program. It's completely amazing and could not say enough great words about them. My dog's are better canine citizens because of them and knowing my dog's behave is such a relief!

I will never go back to normal training, this is bullet-proof training in my opinion!

Hayden_69 wrote:

Thanks for posting this!

We went to Offleash K9 in Northern VA too and had great success! I seriously would be lost without their guidance. They showed me the correct way to train my dog and since going I've had 3 of my friends sign up with the Offleash program. It's completely amazing and could not say enough great words about them. My dog's are better canine citizens because of them and knowing my dog's behave is such a relief!

I will never go back to normal training, this is bullet-proof training in my opinion!

LOL. Kelly, if I didn't know you on the forum for so long, I would have assumed this was spam.

I don't think any training is bullet-proof though. I'm sure there are dogs out there that this wouldn't work for-- just like positive reinforcement doesn't work with every dog either. Each dog, each trainer is different.

 I thought it sounded a little commercial, but honestly that's how I feel. Hayden was the biggest asshole before training! I had him in several group classes and private trainers and it didn't make a difference. I hate to say it, but I had zero control over him and now he's great! Before, he would scare people and was shy of everyone, now he's a social butterfly and people actually like him. It changed him in a way, because now he actually respects me and if affectionate and such a sweet dog. Our trainers were so down to earth and literally had Hayden listening like a pro by the end of our first lesson. It was suppose to be an hour and lasted over 2 hours.

True, it's probably not bullet-proof for all, I was just speaking off my personal experience

I can see the lure, but definitely not for us.

Ecollars are not the be-all end-all which is how they are touted.

So do you eventually phase it out?  Once you use the ecollar to divert them from doing X, is the trick to wait until they are not longer attempting to do X and then you no longer use it?

EDIT: sorry, I just reread everything and saw that the goal is to get them to be without the collar.

I guess to rephrase my question in terms of what's going on beneath the surface, I am just curious about the DRIVE to do X and whether or not this training eliminates it or simply allows you to terminate it on the spot as a form of control.

So a Husky typically has a strong drive to chase prey and run after it.

The claim with this training is not to eliminate that drive through corrections but rather to allow you the handler to terminate the acting on the drive in the moment, yes?