"Before I brought home my puppy, I audited a couple training classes at a popular, "balanced" chain and was surprised when I realized they used electric collars. I wanted to keep an open mind, but my mind was closed by 5 minutes in because the way they used e collars was disturbing. It was a while before I reconsidered the e collar, and I trusted Michael Ellis & Leerburg University for good information. It has been so great to hear a balanced trainer explain humane and practical use an adversive in depth without euphemisms (it's like a tap on the shoulder!), romanticization (it mimics the loving bite of a mother dog!), or dogmatism (it's just communication!).

I believe the most important thing I learned about the e collar is that my dog isn't quite ready for one. I am still excited about the potential of an e collar, but her biggest issue, settling and focusing around competing motivators (particularly in agility and obedience classes when other dogs are around doing exciting things) needs more practice with positive reinforcement. The explanation of how recall training scaffolds, from running from instructor to handler, to leaving food to run to the instructor, etc., was really informative. I also feel like I am walking away with much more respect for the possibility of doing damage with an e collar, ie superstitious associations, and a better idea of how to avoid that, such as using your negative reinforcer first and having the competing motivator essentially remove itself/get less interesting when the dog fails.

I did get confused for a little while with this course. The conditioning phase confused me because I do not use leash pressure to lead/direct my dog with downs, foot targets, or back. I thought I understood leash pressure, which we use for loose leash walking, but as I used luring for those behaviors, I wasn't sure how I could transfer her understanding of leash pressure to understanding the e collar. If I were to send my dog to a foot target, she would be heading towards it before I could put tension on the leash. I used the Ask Cindy feature and Cindy sent me a quick response clearing things up.

Overall, this was such an informative and helpful course."

- Katie Trettel on 06/29/2020

"I recently took the "Electric Collar Training with Michael Ellis" course and I am so glad I did. Prior to taking this class, I was hesitant to add the electric collar to my list of training tools. However, by taking this class I now have the necessary knowledge to use our new Dogtra 280C correctly, and I am confident that I am doing so without adding any unnecessary stress to my dog. The main reason I purchased the collar was to improve our recall. Although my dog has a very reliable recall under most circumstances, she struggles when there are competing motivators. Knowing this can result in a dangerous situation, it was something that needed to be addressed in order to allow my dog the privilege of being off leash. Michael is so knowledgeable and makes things easy to understand. I highly recommend this course to anyone who is using, or planning to use an electric collar. A huge thanks to Michael and Leerburg for helping make our training a huge success."

- Joedy-Lynn on 05/10/2021