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I teach when on leash, always use leash pumps before ecollar, if both are on.
BUT, if the dog doesn’t respond to 2-3 pumps (whatever takes about 1 second) escalate quickly to ecollar.
Ecollar is always on the lowest level that the dog definitely would prefer to avoid for the given situation.
I found by doing this, even a relatively mild phase 2 collar like a starmark becomes more motivational through classical conditioning and greatly reduces the need to use the ecollar around high distractions when on leash.
In general it is a great way to get clients to not rely as much on the ecollar and free up a hand.
New situations, when dog having impulse control issues, etc.. It usually becomes obvious when it is better to skip the leash pumps.
Very similar rules to the charted command structure, except the leash pumps basically follow similar rules as the “no”.
With trained dogs that are honestly trying, I found it just about eliminated ecollar use on leash in vast majority of situations (WHEN a phase 2 collar AND ecollar is on). If you watch any of my group classes I have uploaded, clients rarely touching the ecollar when dogs are on leash following those rules.
I believe a disciplined handler who is very aware of when a dog is disobeying vs honest mistakes and is super good command structure (including “no”) and understands avoidance training can skip the leash pumps on leash and only use ecollar and probably technically use ecollar just as little, but for the clients who are usually far from perfect I found the rules above work well, and dogs get saved a lot of stim when just a pump will work.
