[DarrinGreene]

The commands are well reinforced
The dog wants to avoid a correction
Both
Neither (Please elaborate)

 

[DarrinGreene]

No rhetoric from me - I promise - just curious how this particular group of trainer views it

 

[DarrinGreene]

I didn't really have a prediction so yes.

Some of the comments were interesting.

 

[DarrinGreene]

NEITHER!
This and Capt Jacks post along with the Lardy clip answers this question perfectly.
Other than during collar conditioning commands and e collar are NOT incorporated. Dogs respond to a command due to teaching regardless of the method of correction. If you think the dog is responding because of the ecollar you are not teaching well enough and you need to rethink your whole attitude towards training.

That's not true of all people and it's not the only way to run a collar. It may be what a lot of people here believe to be true. It certainly works but which methodology to choose is by and large an emotional decision on the part of the trainer.

There are a few methods of use that work. Lardy isn't the only one nor the authority on e-collars. He is very accomplished in one venue and obviously has the credibility with that audience but... retrievers are not the only high level competition dog out there. Folk from other venues view the collar differently.

I can do 2-3 different schemes because I've studied many successful competition trainers. There's more than one way to look at things.

 

[DarrinGreene]

Explain why a dog 'improves' after being corrected with a collar (indirect or direct pressure).

Only a dog could explain that but personally - I think the correction distracts the dog from it's previous thought process momentarily and refocuses it on the handler. The punishment aspect then removes the dog's favored option, leaving the handler's wishes as the next best thing to do, ultimately earning the dog a reward. I prefer not to use the collar for mistakes that include effort but take a dog that gets indirect pressure on the here command after attempting to run the bank. He made a decision to do it "his way" indicating a lack of focus/concentration on the handler and he got punished for that decision. Now with that option off the table (he doesn't want to get punished again), he's thinking about what the handler is asking and (hopefully) gets in the water.