My Training Journey

I started off as a food-based “clicker trainer,” and was convinced that I would never use one those “torture devices” otherwise known as “shock collars.” Then I had a session with a new client and her two dogs that changed my dog training path.

The dogs were out of control crazy on walks, barking and lunging at everyone and everything. It was going to take quite some time to work with them, first separately, under threshold, gradually upping distractions, then working both of them together. After I explained this to the owner, she told me that before she moved to town, she had a session with a trainer who used a remote training collar with her dogs.

I was up front with her, and told her that I have never used one before, did not know much about them, other than what I had been told, and would like to feel it for myself.

You see, for all that I was against them, I had never felt one or seen one used appropriately. And guess what, the people who were using them effectively weren’t coming to me for training – they didn’t need me!

So she put the receiver in my hand, and went to push the button – and I dropped the receiver like it was a hot potato… but she hadn’t touched anything. I thought it would hurt, and that is what I was expecting and had prepared myself for. A painful feeling, a taser.

I picked the receiver up again, and held it while she pressed the button. And guess what? It didn’t hurt. I barely felt anything. The sensation was like a TENS unit at the doctor.

I asked her for two weeks so I could learn the proper way to use the collar and incorporate into our training.

This was years ago, and it was hard to find any information online.

This is why, today, we make sure we put out a lot of information on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, our website and our blog. I talked with some of the best trainers who were using the remote collars, and we came up with a game plan.

I was excited to try this new tool for myself, and picked up a remote training collar from one of the local pet stores to try it out. It was terrible!

I found out there is a big difference between a “cheap” remote collar and a good remote collar. For that reason, we will only use good remote collars, our preferred brand is from E-Collar Technologies. I returned the pet store collar and ordered a good collar online. When it came in, I first used it with Jedi, my German Shepherd, and was amazed at how quickly she responded. Then, I borrow dogs from my friends and incorporated it into their training, and we were very happy with the results.

After the couple weeks of learning and experimenting, I had the second session with the two dogs whose owner had introduced me to the remote collar. A week or so later, she could walk her dogs, together, without any problems.

Her goal was taking her formerly reactive and aggressive dogs to a dog park. Within the month, we had them at one of the local dog parks and also in a dog daycare.

These results happened in only 1 month! 

By incorporating the remote collar into our training, we saw results in weeks that would have taken months and maybe years.

For the next couple years, I continued experimenting with the remote collar. For dogs who were not getting the “regular” training we were doing, I would approach the owners with the idea of trying the remote collar with their dog. I was getting fantastic results with all different types of dogs and all different behavior issues.

When I came out as a balanced trainer who uses a remote collar as one of the tools in my toolbox, I received backlash from a couple of people in the community. However, these huge changes I was making in my client’s lives – and the hope I was giving to people who thought their dog was beyond help – were worth the few negative comments, which were from people I had never even met.

Freedom was actually started before Dogmanship, it was my first experience with the effectiveness that is the foundation of Dogmanship, the pressure (button on) and release (button off). For more information on this type of training, check out another of our books – Dogmanship – which goes into detail on those methods.
-Victoria