Should I use the vibration rather than the stim on my remote training collar?

The following question was sent to me over the weekend by Josh, a member of the TMD online training community.
“Robin, I have been watching the videos and reading the articles in your online training program.  Many current e collars have a vibrating function.  I was wondering what your thoughts were to use the vibrating function for all the taps as opposed to the stimulation.”

This is a great question so I thought we should explore the topic a bit.

The pager or vibration function is an option that many remote collar manufacturers include with their e-collars. The sensation is very similar to the vibrating function offered on most cell phones or the buzzing sensation of a personal pager. An off center mounted gear/weight combination rotates which causes the unit to shake, creating the vibration effect.

There are some dogs who do quite well with the pager as a replacement to the stimulation taps. However, there are also some that are actually startled by it and some are down right freaked out by it.

Then there are also dogs who totally ignore the sensation. I’ve witness dogs who show absolutely no visible sign of awareness to the sensation at all. I swear they could sleep through it!

So this is where the challenge lies. If we understand the idea that we need to train with a level of sensation that is *just right* for the dog in question, how do we achieve that with a sensation that is not variable? For some dogs the pager is Too Low, for some Too High. Even for the dogs who are reasonably successful with the pager training, the limitation of not being able to adjust the volume in times of either low activity or high distraction seems less than desirable to me. My preference is to work with a tool that has adjustability so we can finely tune according to the dog’s needs.

I do understand that our human perceptions can get in the way of embracing the idea of stimulation over vibration. We humans usually have years of conditioning and warnings about electricity. We are, at the least hesitant and perhaps downright fearful of it. Images of the electric chair, cattle prods, lightening bolts and all the warnings about not putting our fingers in the outlets have lead us to believe  electricity is painful and dangerous.

So it certainly seems logical to most that it would be more fair or humane to use the vibration rather than the static pulse. If we  would rather feel a vibration and not a shock, wouldn’t the dogs also have this same opinion if they could speak for themselves?

The conditioning and fear builds up an idea in our mind about what the stimulation must certainly feel like. However, anyone who has been to a physical therapist or chiropractor for treatment with a TENS unit has had a different experience all together. An experience of electricity and static pulse that is completely safe and not painful at all.

So now consider that the dog’s have not had those years of conditioning. They have no preconceived notions about the e-collar. Their *opinion* about the sensation they feel is going to be formed by their learned associations with the experience.

When training a dog with an e-collar my goal is to always be at a level that is just right for the dog in question. If I have no adaptability to change the sensation, how can I be assured that I am not too low or too high for that dog’s physical sensitivity? Those who remember the little terrier, Ryan, in the first Just Right video can recall the big startle response he had to the pager. Could that response be considered more humane or fair than the rest of the training where the stimulation was used?
There are situations were I find the pager very helpful to the training though. So let’s not leave the impression that it is a useless feature. Not the case at all. Once the dog has been collar conditioned I find that the pager can be a great way to teach a special cue. For instance, it can be associated with a “look at me” behavior. This is particularly useful for deaf dogs. If the dog can be cued to look at the handler, the person can then use other hand signals to communicate to the dog what is expected next.

I’ve also used the pager function for many police handlers who need a silent recall signal for their dogs. When working in an environment where the handler does not want to announce his presence, the pager can be the perfect signal taught as a *return to me* cue.

For those dogs who truly find the pager highly aversive, I save the use of the vibration as the *emergency button*. If the dog is rapidly closing in on the cat or about to cross the street after a errantly thrown frisbee, the pager may be just what the doctor ordered to stop everything in it’s tracks.

I’ve also known trainers who have conditioned the pager as a yes marker for their dogs. I personally have not done a lot of playing with this technique but there are trainers who have done it and it has worked well for them.

Most often I find the pager valuable as a minor interrupter for behaviors like whinning or compulsive licking. Assuming that the pager is just enough of an annoyance to the dog it can be used to subtly interrupt those behaviors that you want to diminish without the need of adding a verbal command.

Once again, as I write this post I realize the true versatility of this tool.  So many options as long as we take the time to learn about them

That is my .02 on the subject. How about yours?