In early February, the long-awaited Chameleon® IV and CTT® 4 entered the market. Today, we will take a look at this innovation from the perspective of a user, a dog handler who utilizes EO every day in the modern NePoPo® system. Therefore, I won't delve into technical details but rather attempt to explain in layman's terms where the greatest benefits of this novelty lie.
First and foremost, it must be emphasized that what all dog trainers desire from any training tool is simply for it to serve us and give us exactly what we expect from it. We don't want to deal with things not working, imperfections, or wishing it did one thing and not another.
And this is actually the main feeling I have about the new Chameleon® IV and CTT® 4. I simply don't have to worry about anything. The product serves me and does precisely what I've always wanted. It is a high-quality and incredibly stable product.
New production of Chameleon® IV
The Chameleon® IV features a new manufacturing process. Without delving into detail, the first thing I noticed is that the new Chameleon® IV is sturdier. For example, with previous versions of the Chameleon® collar, there were occasional instances where bending the collar would result in the CMS (contact detection system) not functioning, or the same would occur when the hand was too close to the steel cables between the plastic islands. This is now a thing of the past thanks to the new manufacturing technology of this collar.
Simply put, you turn on the collar, and it just does exactly what it's supposed to, allowing you to do whatever you want with it. You can bend it in various ways, hold it anywhere. It's as stable as a rock!
Radio communication between the collar and the remote - monitoring correct skin contact
The biggest innovation in the 4th new series is the radio communication between the collar and the remote, where the collar sends information to your remote. You can set how often this happens. I've been using the 5-second loop the whole time. This means that every 5 seconds, my collar sends information to my remote. The information the collar sends includes several aspects - correct connection, good contact of the collar with the dog's skin, collar temperature, and more.
However, what you will use a lot and one of the main reasons you'll consider the 4th series is continuous contact skin monitoring.
If you take E-collar training seriously, knowing that your collar has proper contact with the dog's skin is absolutely crucial. If you don't have it, which is the case for 90% of dog handlers who use E-collar, you often either have no stimulation (which is not desirable from a canine perspective at that moment), or undesired overstimulation (energy from the collar electrode jumps to the dog's skin), which is even more undesirable from a canine perspective.
With the Chameleon® 4 series, this problem is completely eliminated because the collar provides continuous feedback.
In practice, when I'm putting the E-collar on the dog, the collar still communicates whether it has contact or not through flashing LED lights. Additionally, it indicates on the remote's display or through audible alerts on the remote, so I just need to listen to the tone on the remote after putting the collar on. If no tone is heard - I have contact. Anytime during training when contact is lost, the remote alerts me with beeping and vibrations. Perfect!
At the same time, this function provides feedback on how difficult it is to find contact and how often it's lost during training. With Malinoa, I lose contact about once every 3 weeks for a few seconds, just need to recheck, and I have contact again. So when putting on the collar on neck of the dog - no problem finding contact. With GSD, it's a completely different story; it's quite a challenge to find contact even when putting on the collar on neck of the dog. Often it takes longer than 2 minutes (CMS in previous versions only searched for contact in the first 2 minutes after turning on), which was a problem in the past, but with Chameleon® IV, it's no longer an issue. However, once the collar is properly fitted, I might lose contact again only about 1-2 times every 14 days. It's important to understand that we're talking about the Chameleon® collar, whose design and contact types are designed for proper contact.
In other words, with a classic E-collar without CMS, it's impossible to have consistent contact. Finding it and not losing it. Yes, in 90% of cases, dog handlers working with E-collar don't have contact!
Battery
Impact on battery life? One might think that the 5-second feedback loop would drain the battery. Well, what's the impact on the battery? I haven't noticed any. I still calmly recharge the collar or remote once every 14 days.
One of the new features of the 4th series is that the collar goes into standby mode after turning off the CTT®4, and when turning on the CTT®4, the collar turns on by itself. However, this standby mode consumes quite a bit of battery, so in my opinion, it's only suitable for a short transitional period. 19.2.2024. -with new update this is not issue anymore. Stand by mode doesn't take too much energy.
CTT®4
On the display of the new CTT®4, you can now see a range of information: signal quality, collar temperature, collar connection, collar contact status with the dog's skin, etc. Everything is absolutely clear and intuitive. Another useful new feature is the locking of the rotary button for selecting the strength of the impulse. Therefore, it can't happen that the impulse increases on its own, for example, in your pocket.
The option to choose the brightness level of the display is great for sunny days.
Doggify App
With the Doggify app, you can change collar or remote parameters. What I use is personalized impulses. So, I set the strength of individual impulses according to myself. No other collar in the world can do this. And yet, I use this feature really often even with clients. In simple terms, level 5 is too weak, and level 6 is too strong. So, I set level 6 to have a strength of, for example, 5.2.
What I use almost daily is the rising or decreasing stimulation, where I can set limits (from - to) and the speed at which the impulse moves. The rising mode is great for "correction," and the decreasing mode is even better for negative reinforcement, where I often use a decline from 6 to 4 with a speed of 50ms, where individual strengths 6, 5 and 4 are still personalized.
What I would like to see in the future is the ability to see the original impulse strengths in the app (to have a better idea of the strength because default strengths are already ingrained in people) and then user profiles saving. Which I would need when one collar is shared among multiple dogs. So, the settings for each dog would be saved, and this setting would only be switched in the Doggify app.
SSC - Constant Sensitivity Stimulation System
SSC is a patented technology ensuring constant sensitivity stimulation. The dog feels the chosen level of stimulation differently depending on external conditions. With E-collar without this technology, the difference can be up to several levels! In the morning, it feels level 3 like 4, in the afternoon like 2, and in two days like 7. And so on. Therefore, the SSC system is a necessary technology for fair, reliable, effective, and animal welfare-friendly training with E-collar.
The SSC system measures skin resistance 20 times per second and sends this value to the microprocessor in the collar. There, there is such a calculation that the collar itself adjusts the output to the collar so that the chosen level 3 is always felt as 3 by the dog.
Without this technology, modern E-collar training cannot be done, low-level stimulation cannot be used, and the NePoPo® system cannot be used.
Summary
Chameleon® IV and CTT® 4 give you exactly what you want from a collar and actually more than you need as a dog trainer. You have everything in one package.
- Reliable collar that lasts a long time
- Collar and remote with long battery life
- Convenient wireless induction charging
- FingerKick - ring control without the need to hold the remote in your hand, the possibility of connecting multiple FKs
- Two different levels or forms of stimulation available at one time
- Ultimate skin contact control whether the collar has contact with the dog's skin and if the collar doesn’t have contact - immediate alert
- The ability to personalize individual impulse strengths
- Constant feedback on connection status, battery status, and more
- Design that is unobtrusive and increases stable contact and minimizes the chance of necrosis
- Advanced stimulation modes - rising and decreasing stimulation (ability to set limits and speeds)
- Guaranteed constant sensitivity stimulation thanks to SSC
Chameleon® IV and CTT® 4 are therefore a necessity for anyone who takes modern training seriously and is at an advanced level of E-collar canine skills. Lower versions always take away something from the advantages that are important in every point.
