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Canine Academy Training Method

Thousands of dog owners have mastered basic obedience using The Canine Academy Positive E Collar training method. Through our 30 years of experience we’ve developed a proven e collar training system that promises functional obedience with off leash control.

A Positive Experience Dog Training System

Our positive experience approach is the foundation of our success. Positive dog training uses high-value rewards to encourage high-value behaviors. These rewards can be anything your dog finds desirable: treats, playtime, affection or words of encouragement. When you apply these rewards to basic obedience commands, the commands themselves become more likely to be repeated. Rather than using fear, pain, or dominance to discourage undesirable behavior, our trainers use redirection and praise to encourage replacement behaviors. Further, with enough practice, you’ll imbed the skills into your dog’s muscle memory for a lifetime.

We pay attention to your dog’s entire experience. If they stay on campus, we offer plenty of exercise, mental stimulation and affection. During on campus visits, our expert team will make your pup feel confidently at home. In training sessions, our confidence-building mindset keeps tails wagging while we build skills.

How E Collars Enhance Our Results

We use an e collar in a non-traditional way to produce results over time and over distance. The modern e collar has come a long way from the shock collar training of yesteryear. Old shock collars used electrical pulses to send shock waves to your dogs. E collars of modern times use electronic stimulation (instead of static shock) to stimulate the nerves in a dog’s neck muscles. At low intensities, the dog feels as if it’s being tapped repeatedly on the shoulder.

Traditionally, trainers use the shock collar at a higher intensity. This shock stimulus serves to cause the dog a negative reaction: fear, pain, annoyance. These are punishment techniques, and not the Canine Academy way. While other dogs obey in an effort to reduce negative consequences, Canine Academy happily work for praise.

Positive Reinforcement and E Collars

Canine Academy customers are often surprised to learn that positive experience and e collar training can be complimentary. But our technique effectively pairs the benefits of the two. Our happy customers will attest that you can train a dog for obedience without causing the dog any pain through the e collar. With our Positive E Collar system, we use the collar as a neutral communication tool. And we use just as much collar pressure as it takes to get the dog’s attention. Then we pair the new stimulus with both command and praise. Throughout the training, your dog is never in pain or distress. We take great care through a gentle, positive process to lay the groundwork that the tap the dog feels is a good thing!

Not sure where to start?

Take our behavioral assessment and a member of our team will reach out to discuss how to achieve your specific training goals

The First Steps to Long Term Success

The Canine Academy training method enhances the trust and communication between a dog and their handler. This enhanced trust only improves training outcomes. Your e collar is just another tool in your toolbox, along with your leash, your voice and your nonverbal cues. By using this tool, you can translate your dog’s obedience skills to a distance. More importantly, you can move your results out of just leashed training sessions and into everyday life. Ultimately, this unlocks an even better quality of life for you and your dog.

While training the dog might be the first step, owners can only succeed long term with proper education. As part of each of our training programs, we commit to providing you with the resources that you need to be a dog handler. Our goal is to teach you how to communicate with your dog effectively and how to anticipate potential distractions. And ultimately how to combine basic obedience skills to master any off-leash situation.

Introducing and E Collar with Positive Reinforcement

A slow introduction with lots of treats and praise ensures that your dog associates the stimulus from the ecollar with all the good things that come with positive reinforcement. You can see for yourself in the below videos that the stimulus from the collar is gentle enough to be #nodrama

In this video, Zeke introduces Teddy to the ecollar, and shares with the audience what he does along the way.

In this video, trainers introduce 8 dogs to the ecollar, using praise and treats to reward a recall.

Interested in our Results?

See us put "Highest Standard of Dog Training Obedience" to practice.

Interested in our Results?

See us put "Highest Standard of Dog Training Obedience" to practice.
Before & After Videos

Frequently Asked Questions

The modern e collar has come a long way from the shock collar training of yesteryear. Old shock collars used electrical pulses to send shock waves to your dogs. E collars of modern times use electronic stimulation (instead of static shock) to stimulate the nerves in a dog’s neck muscles. At low intensities, the dog feels the collar as if it’s being tapped repeatedly on the shoulder.

Traditionally trainers use the shock collar in negatuve reinforcement. Here, the trainers apply the collar at a higher intensity. This causes the dog a negative reaction: fear, pain, or annoyance. The dog seeks to avoid behaviors in an effort to reduce negative consequences. This is not the Canine Academy way!

Not before they’re ready! We want to ensure that our expectations of each dog are developmentally appropriate. For dogs under 5 months, that means they don’t have the energy or brain power to hold commands for minutes at a time, respond reliably through distractions, or work at distances.

For all of our puppy curriculum, we use leash and treats only, without the incorporation of an ecollar.

Positive experience dog training uses high-value rewards to encourage high-value behaviors. Anything your dog finds desirable is a reward: treats, playtime, affection or words of encouragement. When you apply these rewards to the process of learning basic obedience skills, the skills themselves become more likely to be repeated.

Positive experience training doesn’t ignore undesirable behaviors. Instead, we use basic obedience commands to redirect away from those behaviors, and reward successful redirection with praise. For example, if your dog is barking out the front door, you may call your dog to a come; here they cannot see out the front door or be tempted to bark and have earned praise for successfully executing a command under distraction.

Ultimately, enough practice will embed them into the dog’s muscle memory for a lifetime.

Canine Academy customers are often surprised to learn that positive reinforcement and e collar training can be complimentary. Our happy customers will attest that you can train a dog for obedience without causing the dog any pain through the e collar. In our Positive E Collar system, you’ll use the collar as a neutral communication tool. And because the collar is a communication tool — and not the reinforcement itself — we use just as much collar pressure as it takes to get the dog’s attention.

At Canine Academy our training enhances the trust and communication between the dog and their handler. In turn, this improves training outcomes. The e collar enables the handler to communicate at a distance that other stimuli (voice, leash pressure) cannot. Using the e collar as another tool in your toolbox, along with your leash, your voice and your nonverbal cues, you can translate your dog’s obedience skills to a distance. This freedom unlocks an even better quality of life for you and your dog.

Yes! But it depends on how you use them. An intense static shock is obviously an unpleasant experience for any dog. However, our positive ecollar training method relies on a very low level stimulus. Because the level is just enough for the dog to notice the new stimulus, the dog feels no pain. Our dog obedience training teaches the dog that the stimulus means good things – not bad. Like Pavlov’s bell, an ecollar paired with a treat can have pup’s mouth watering in a few days.

Modern ecollar systems allow the dog handler to carefully control the level of electrical stimulus that to dog experiences, which allows the use of an ecollar in conjunction with positive reinforcement dog training. This joint training methodology can produce faster, more consistent results that allow dog and owner to communicate reliably at a distance. However, because every dog is different and you’re introducing a new sensation, an experienced dog behaviorist should be involved in the process. An experienced dog handler can set up an ideal environment to test the dog’s communication threshold. They can also see subtle body language that helps to understand the dog’s emotional state.

A dog of any age can be trained using positive reinforcement basic obedience training. The method to train an adult dog is not dramatically different than that used to train the puppy. The major difference is that many adult dogs have developed habits that are a nuisance to their owner. A dog trainer can help you control your dog’s behavior, communicate effectively with your dog, and build your dog’s confidence. This can reduce dog reactivity and symptoms of separation anxiety, as well as reducing unwanted behavior.

Many dog trainers use basic obedience methods – that means teaching the dog a small set of commands to help them know exactly what to do. A good trainer will also help you to become a confident dog handler. That means you’ll learn how to use those commands together to navigate your dog through any situation. To make sure you reap all of the benefits of professional dog training, make sure your trainer has experience with your dog’s breed and temperament, and that your trainer uses positive reinforcement training. Also, it’s critical to ask your trainer how they will prepare you to be a better dog owner.