I am currently puppy raising (as in raising for someone else) a sports prospect GSD. This dog is from a long line of sports and working lines.
Lots of drive. Lots of desire to bite and hang on. Lots of drive. . Fairly 'hard'. Tons of resilience. Easily frustrated but does. not. quit.
I will tell you bluntly and clearly, simply, and directly that
A-) This dog is not like my border-collie things. It does not do things just because I told it to. It does not respect, trust, or want to work with me just because I exist and have thumbs and I have had to slow my roll and learn some new stuff.
B-) The thing this dog needs to have to work with me is not punishment, much less a shock collar. It needs a relationship with me and to know, trust and to be able to predict me.
I COULD use brute force/punishment without breaking the puppy.
Or I could learn the puppy, let the puppy learn me, build a relationship and do just fine.
Guess which one I'm going with? GO ON. GUESS.
I won't guess. We all know you are the quintessential expert on all things dog training.
Most agility trainers do not use e collars for training. A few do. Again.. it is not the tool it is how you use it.
That said, in agility the obstacles are where the drive is placed and it is very different than IGP or AKC Ob and I appreciate that. What is even more interesting is that the drives required for a good IGP dog are often the same drives required for an agility dog. A lot of GSD breeders PREFER their puppies go to agility homes. Just an FYI. And there are good reasons for this that have nothing to do with IGP.
Again, a tool is only as good as the person handling it. Results count too. As WVasko used to say, "If kissing the dog on the butt got results he would have been the best dog butt kisser on the earth."
I will say this.. hard dog or soft dog.. that is not the criteria for the tool.
I have known dogs that, once in fight drive, actually escalate their fight if corrected by ANY means at all. These dogs are GREAT patrol dogs in tough places... they are not good sport dogs and usually not good pets.
I have seen hard and soft dogs.. and e collars used on both but in different ways with success. It is how and when and how much. You need to know.
The biggest issue with the anti e collar group that I see is that most have never seen one used correctly. They all believe you "fry the dog." If you are doing that, then you are doing it wrong. And.. because they don't know how to use one they all believe it will result in the dog cowering to the ground.. and, if that is what happens you are doing it wrong.
My current dog and the dog before him both were exposed to e collars. In each case the collar was used very differently because the dogs were very different. Last dog? Levels were much higher and this dog very very low... can't go any lower.. and it is used as a reminder. ANY pressure, be it voice, hands, collar correction or even NRM can result in a poor outcome. ANY pressure at all needs to be countered with 3x higher reward.. or you lose the dog.
Here is a general question not just for Cpt Jack (and I know it depends on the dog and the sport):
How long are your training sessions (focused obedience or Agility)? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? an Hour???
If I am training something new (e collar on but not ever used) my dog is toast after about 5-10 minutes including a LOT of play breaks. If I am practicing and polishing something known it is rarely more than 10 minutes actual training and the other 10 minutes are reward breaks. Sometimes reward delivery and giving the reward back is the entirety of training (so the dog knows he doesn't always lose the reward). This is obedience training most of which is parts and pieces. The dog sees the entire routine only in a trial.
Protection training length is determined by a skilled decoy. Rarely more than 10 minutes.. due to the energy consumed by a dog in very high drive.
Regardless of what you are training, you want to go off the field or out of the ring with as much dog as you had going in.