We just got our SportDog sd400 about a week and a half ago, and I have thoroughly read the manual that came with it a few times.  We have been putting the collar on her for a few hours a day when doing "fun" stuff (without turning it on or using it) so she doesn't get collar wise.  I've tried the collar on myself on settings 1,2,3,4,5 (out of 8) and its not too bad to I feel comfortable trying it on Joey now.

My question is how we should start using it.  In the book it says to only use it on the lowest setting and do a few COME-nick-COME so they associate the nick with coming, and to only do about 3 nicks in one session and then call it a day on actually sending a zap.  Should we just continue this routine for a few days?  Do you have any other tips?

Strangely although the remote has a tone button, it doesn't mention it in the manual.  I've read people on the forum talk about always doing a tone-nick, so ultimately the dog will know just the tone means business.

The manual is clear that the collar should only be used to reinforce commands she already knows.  She does well with come, heel, sit, stay in the house but its a different story off leash outside.  We've had a couple scares lately where she has bolted and really want the collar to make us feel more secure when shes off leash and ultimately give her more freedom.  I think shes going through a testy teen phase right now and I would like to squash it.  We live in a relatively urban area and really need control when she is off leash. 

I think control off leash (particularly in suburban or urban enviros) comes down to simply reliable recall.  If your dog only listens while on a leash, or while in the house you don't have reliable recall.  Your ecollar can help aid in the training, but can't make your dog listen to and understand you.  As time goes on with my 2 crazy dogs I use stimulation less and less.  I have learned how to apply pressure with voice inflection, whistle commands and pure expectation, and they just somehow seem to get it.  I always have the ecollar as back up in case something goes screwy in their head, but seldom use or need it.  Keep in mind I'm no dog trainer, I just spend a lot of time with my dogs and we kind of get one another.

Thanks bev, tessa and everyone who responded. I think I will basically do what you did then bev. I am going to try to stick to a schedule of leash training everyday (with the ecollar around her neck, not on) for another week or so, then go live with it, replacing the regular collar pop with an ecollar nick. Then, start to work off leash using the ecollar as you are saying bev.

I agree about the tone use, you don't really have time to do tone-nick, when you want immediate response.  I guess I'll have to worry about that later in training.

I searched on youtube and found the vids from tri-tronics to be helpful and concise. Its a lot easier to digest in video form then read about. I am basically gonna use this approach:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KePCGgYVAyM&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMgzUJ-k3ow&feature=channel