Providing Freedom Through E-Collar Training by Larry Krohn: An Honest Review

Two report cards

Providing Freedom Through E-Collar Training

Not recommended

The dog

Method & Welfare

3/10

This is the careful end of e-collar work: low-level conditioned negative reinforcement (apply stimulation, dog responds, remove it) paired with reward and play, not high-level correction or dominance framing. We hold it at 3, not lower, for that care. We do not go higher because the engine is an aversive tool by design, and the course explicitly markets it for aggression, anxiety, and extreme fear, the highest-risk dogs and the application the evidence most strongly warns against.

The human

Teachability & Design

7/10

A well-built instructional product: a clear five-part arc, a real three-day demonstration on one dog with session recaps, explicit session-ending criteria, troubleshooting framing, and a stated focus on educating the handler, which is the real bottleneck. Held at 7 because it teaches a high-stakes tool where handler error means pain rather than a missed treat, and runtime, practice depth, and the fear and aggression content are unverified behind the paywall.

High welfare Low welfare Hard to use Easy to use

Bottom line

This is the conditioning end of e-collar training, taught carefully and clearly by an experienced trainer who leads with low-level stimulation, reward, and play rather than harsh correction. Many owners get fast, reliable-looking off-leash recall from it, and we will explain honestly why. We still cannot recommend it.

The reason is specific. The course markets the e-collar for aggression, anxiety, and extreme fear, which is exactly the high-risk application the evidence advises against, and reward-based training reaches the same recall goals without the welfare cost. Below we point you to the same trainer’s reward-based course as the honest place to spend your money instead.

See the course on SitStayLearn →

This is our review of Larry Krohn’s Providing Freedom Through E-Collar Training, a $79 video course on SitStayLearn. Krohn is the founder of Pak Masters Dog Training in Nashville and Bowling Green, a former federal agent who has trained dogs for over twenty-five years, and the author of a widely sold book on the same subject. He is, by his own framing, a careful conditioner rather than a corrections trainer, and he says his focus is on the human more than the dog. We score every course on two separate axes, one for the dog and one for you, using the same rubric every time. On teaching, this is a genuinely well-made course. On the larry krohn e-collar training review question most readers are really asking, whether the method is one we can endorse, the answer is no, and we will be fair about why before we explain it.

Review basis

What this review is based on

Last checked: June 2026

Inputs we used

• The SitStayLearn product page and curriculum outline for format, price, guarantee, audience, the five-part structure, and the marketed use cases.
• Larry Krohn public material (recorded interviews on Working Dog Radio and IACP Dog Pro Radio, his book, and his Pak Masters site) for creator context and his own description of the method.
• Publicly available learner feedback, of which we found little that is independent of the seller and none specific to this course, read accordingly.
• Our published rubric and research file on e-collars, reward-based training, and adult learning design.

What we do not assume

• We do not claim a personal single-dog field test, and we do not treat promotional book ratings as controlled evidence.
• The content of the marketed fear and aggression lessons ("E-Collar for Aggression or Anxiety," "E-Collar for Extreme Fear") is not visible on the public page. We do not know whether Krohn counsels referral in them or applies stimulation to fearful dogs, and we score what we can verify and flag what we cannot.
• Runtime, video count, practice scaffolding, the exact "working level" protocol, and any feedback mechanism are behind the paywall. Treat this as versioned analysis and expect an update if new evidence changes the score.

Who it is for, and who it is not for

What the course actually teaches

Krohn’s method is conditioned negative reinforcement supplemented with reward. In plain terms: apply a low level of electrical stimulation, the dog performs the behavior you want, you remove the stimulation the instant it does, and you follow up with a reward. He describes this as doubling up the reinforcement, the dog escapes the sensation and gets paid. The stimulation is set at a “working level,” meaning the lowest level the dog perceives, rather than a high level used to startle or correct. The course is built in five parts:

• System setup. Choosing an electric collar, an overview of the training system, and the conceptual framework before any training begins.
• Theory and use cases. The versatility of the collar, special use cases, and a section called “Larry’s Thoughts on Stimulation.” This is also where the curriculum names the lessons we return to below: “E-Collar for Aggression or Anxiety” and “E-Collar for Extreme Fear.”
• Conditioning the dog (Day 1). A live demonstration of the first introduction on a real dog named Loki, including place-command considerations, how to end a session, and what to look for before ending one.
• Progression (Day 2). Building on the conditioned response over a second day, with sessions and recaps.
• Advancing and proofing (Day 3). Off-leash “freedom,” a lesson on “Stopping Unwanted Behaviors,” and a “Don’t Be Afraid to Take a Step Back” troubleshooting note before the close.

There is real instructional care in that arc, and the central promise, “true freedom,” is honest about what owners are buying: safe off-leash reliability. The page also says you will learn to incorporate play and positive reinforcement, which is genuine. But it should be clear that the structural engine of the course is e-collar conditioning, not reward-based teaching with the collar as a footnote. The reward layer sits on top of an aversive foundation, and the “Stopping Unwanted Behaviors” lesson indicates the collar is also used to suppress behavior, not only to call a dog back.

The method read: 3 out of 10

We will be fair before we are critical, because Krohn has earned it and because the honest case for his method is the whole point of writing this well. Low-level e-collar work, used as conditioned negative reinforcement, can produce fast and reliable-looking off-leash recall. The reason is not mysterious: escaping a mild, predictable sensation is a powerful motivator, and a dog learns the contingency quickly. Krohn is on the careful end of this practice. He emphasizes finding the lowest perceptible level rather than correcting hard, he layers in reward and play, he says he does not even like being known as the e-collar guy, and his stated focus is on educating the handler so the dog is not damaged even when the training is imperfect. If someone is going to use this tool regardless, they are genuinely better served by this conservative conditioning than by a careless trainer cranking the dial. We credit all of that, and it is why this is a 3 rather than a 1.

Here is why we still hold the welfare line, and why we do not score it higher.

So the math is straightforward. The tool is aversive by design, the controlled evidence says it is not more effective than the reward-based alternative, and the course points it at the most vulnerable dogs. The reward layer and the careful conditioning lift this above an alpha-and-correction product, which is the 3, but the engine and the marketed use cases keep it well below the line where we could endorse it. We are not calling the method abuse and we are not calling Krohn a bad trainer. We are saying the evidence gives you a route to the same off-leash freedom without the welfare cost, so the costs here are not ones a reader needs to accept.

Why this is “not recommended” and not “niche only”

A fair reader will ask why we do not file this as Niche only, the way we treat skilled, persuasive courses whose method we cannot endorse. Low method paired with high teaching usually earns that narrow, eyes-open label, and there is a real candidate audience: an experienced owner who is going to do e-collar work no matter what we say, and who would be safer learning Krohn’s careful low-level conditioning than a harsher trainer’s approach. We thought hard about that.

The welfare cap is what decides it. This course does not simply teach a contested tool to people who already want it. It markets that tool for aggression, anxiety, and extreme fear, the highest-risk population and the exact dogs the evidence says should never be its first-line treatment. A narrow recommendation, even a heavily caveated one, would route some balanced-curious reader toward putting an escape-based aversive on a frightened or aggressive dog, and that is a line we will not cross to preserve a tidy quadrant. When the marketed audience includes the most vulnerable dogs, the badge is Not recommended, and the affiliate link follows that verdict rather than the other way around.

The teaching read: 7 out of 10

On instructional design this is a well-made course, and it is worth saying so plainly. As we argue in why most online courses fail, the binding constraint is rarely the dog. It is whether the course changes what the human does. Krohn aims directly at that. His stated focus on educating the handler is the right target, and the build reflects it.

The structure is strong. A clear five-part arc moves from tool selection and theory into a real three-day demonstration on one dog, which is demonstration over lecture, the thing our rubric rewards most. The sessions come with recaps, there are explicit criteria for when to end a session (“What to Look For Before Ending Your Session”), and there is honest troubleshooting framing in “Don’t Be Afraid to Take a Step Back.” The course also does the unglamorous safety groundwork, collar choice, proper fit, and finding the working level, that a responsible treatment of this tool requires.

What holds it at a 7 rather than higher is twofold. First, this is a high-stakes tool, and the cost of the handler error this very format is prone to is pain or fear, not a missed reward, which is a real ceiling on how high a self-guided e-collar video should score on teachability. Second, the depth is unverified: runtime, the number of practice reps, any spaced practice plan, and any feedback or accountability mechanism are behind the paywall, and so, critically, is what Krohn actually teaches in the fear and aggression lessons. If those lessons counsel referral rather than stimulation, we would say so; we cannot see them, so we score what is visible and flag the rest. As built and as visible, this is a solid, well-sequenced instructional product, and the 7 reflects the craft, not an endorsement of what it teaches.

Is it worth $79

If you are a committed e-collar user who wants the careful, conditioning version of the craft taught clearly, $79 with lifetime access is a fair price for the production and the demonstration quality, and Krohn is a competent teacher of it. But that is the narrow case, and on our rubric the method keeps the course off our recommended list regardless of how well it is taught. For most readers the better question is not whether this is worth $79, but whether reward-based training would reach the same off-leash goal without the welfare cost. The evidence says it would, and the same trainer sells a reward-based course for the same price.

Who should choose differently

If what drew you here is a reliable, happy off-leash dog and a clear way to communicate, you can pursue that with reward and play rather than stimulation, from the same trainer, on the same platform.

If you have already read other e-collar courses on this platform, it is worth knowing where this one sits among them. It is markedly more careful than the harder-correction e-collar products we have reviewed, including Nick White’s e-collar recall course, which we also decline. The low-level conditioning and the reward layer are why Krohn’s method lands at the better end of a category we still do not recommend. None of these courses clears our welfare line, and the reward-based alternative above is the one we would buy instead.

The verdict

Providing Freedom Through E-Collar Training is the careful, conditioning end of e-collar work, taught well by an experienced trainer who genuinely tries to protect the dog and educate the handler. We respect the craft, which is why the teaching scores a 7. We still cannot recommend it. The method is built on an aversive tool that controlled evidence shows is no more effective than reward-based training for recall, and the course markets that tool for the fearful and aggressive dogs the evidence says should never be its first treatment. That holds the method at 3 and the verdict at Not recommended. If you want the off-leash freedom this course promises, you can have it without the collar, and we have pointed you to where, from the very same trainer.