.
However, things took an extremely bad turn for the worse. Ben went for my husband, did not bite him, but it was serious.

If he didnt bite him, what is serious?
Ive had this countless times in my career.
Usually if the dog wanted to bite, then he would have, so that means, emotionally, he is conflicted, he likes you enough to not wish to harm you, but feels the need to create 'safety distance' between yourself and him.
Which is your pertinent piece of information, and should be starting basis.

due to Ben having had a very bad first 3 years of life where clearly he had not only been kept on a running line in the back garden, but had been beaten, kicked or struck in some way, following someone grabbing his collar and then hurting him.

Your second piece of pertinent information for your working basis.

OH took hold of his collar too robustly, and Ben went for him.

This means you are able to identify a problem and a trigger, and indeed, you had.
So the obvious question here would be, once having done so, why did you not respond to your internal logic, ie, look at alternative handling methods?

In addition to this, he and Tai were having terrible fights, serious fights where Tai always got injured.

How did you address this. What managment strategies did you put in place. How did yourselves and the rescues assess the compatibilities between the dog before taking Tai home.

On top of this, Ben started to run off, having previously been pretty obedient off lead. He never ran away, just ran off.

So if he never actually ran away, I would have to ask the question why you would regard this with the seriousness you have attributed it?
To me, the fact he had issues returning to you, yet never felt the desire to run away from you, means, just as the non bite confrontation scenario, Ben has a strong fondess of you guys which is overriding his baser instincts, and he is instead choosing a more constructive, less harmful distance creation strategy to deal with the fearful situations.
So i cannot understand how you have not identified and appreciated the run off yet not running away also as a positive thing?
And then also used that as your pertinent information to build a strategy from, ie, long lines and confidence building exercises.

Over the last 6 or so months, we have tried everything.

With all due respects, and not meaning to sound influenced by the general tone of this thread, one of the things i learnt in all my years in rescue, is when someone used this very statement, they were often indeed the people, whom conversely, hadnt tried everything.
I knew this, as when I asked them to explain what they had tried, they could not give me specific detailed descriptions, but just generalised adjectives like "you know, training".
So you would understand my radar is high now I have read this.

We have consulted several dog trainers and behaviourists in the area and beyond, and we have explored every single training technique, knowing they would not work, but still desperate to give them a go and succeed.

And in light of my paragraph above, this is just a statement that you have been to trainers and techniques etc, yet doesnt describe whom the trainers were, what the technqies were, how long you tried them, how you tried them, what the schedule was, what part everyone in the family played etc, where the training took place, etc, etc.

Explored every single training techqie is quite a sweepng big statement, can you list them for us?

Did, for example, you try Ttouch, guided walking, ground work, clicker, swaddling t-shirts, cognition training, etc, etc?

We were staring failure in the face –

Only if you view all your aforementioned info as dead stops, i can see actual progress and positive opportunties in what you have told us.
I have dealt with many dogs whom have displayed similar behaviours, and used those behaviours to my advantage, and worked from them as a starting basis and then improved the dogs.


Ben was going to have to be kept on the lead the whole time, a fate that I am afraid I would not inflict on any dog, certainly a dog who had been confined to a running line in the back garden for 3 years.

.....no, Ben was going to have to be put on a long line, then over a time of building up cogntion, then confidence, then training, he would be off lead.
Escpecially as he didnt have a run away recall problem, he just had a vicinity recall problem.
I have dogs that have vicinity recall probs, i use techniques that keep that vicinity practice going, such as "where's daddy", yoddling, etc.

One of the trainers suggested an e-collar. I was dead against it, nobody was going to electrocute MY dog, I would not have done to my dog what I would not like done to myself, etc. etc. However, my husband was adamant, he has done a lot of research and reading up and talked to several people who had used an e collar successfully to train their dogs not to chase sheep – we live in serious sheep country here in Northamptonshire – and as he is the one who does the exercising during the week and the general dog care, and has to go searching for Ben every day when he runs off, I really was not in a position to do much about it. He borrowed an e collar with full instructions and a video and to demonstrate to me how safe the device was, he strapped it round his arm and told me to put the collar through its paces. I used the pager device, which is just a vibration then I used the “stim”, set to the lowest setting. I was very very uncomfortable doing this, as I am terrified of electricity, but he told me to keep doing it until we got to the higher levels, when he shrieked and jumped! I dropped the controller unit and burst into tears, I was so upset, and told him never ever ever to use it on Ben, except on the vibrate. He explained to me that he was just winding me up – he has a very black sense of humour – and it hadn’t hurt at all, it was static electricity not current, just like you get when you touch a metal filing cabinet or your car, but I wasn’t convinced. I was extremely concerned, but even I could see we had no choice, unless we were to keep Ben on the lead the whole time, which is just not an option.

So, last Wednesday, Ben wore the collar. As was his wont, the git ran away into the sheep field (currently empty of sheep) on the edge of the wood. OH did his usual thing of calling, whistling, following him with Tai as fast as he could run, but Ben took no notice whatsoever, so he used the vibrate on low. Nothing. He turned it up to the maximum rumble, absolutely nothing, Ben kept on running. He had the stim set to the very lowest, and so pressed the stim button, nothing. He gradually turned up the level and pressed the button (not continuously, just a split second nip), still nothing. He went higher to 30, 50, and at 50 Ben merely shook his head but kept on running. OH went all the way to the maximum, when eventually Ben screeched to a halt, looked at the dot in the far distance behind which was OH trying to catch up with him, and came galloping back to him! He had massive praise, his Fish 4 Dogs treat, and Mike turned round and walked back out of the field into the wood, and the walk proceeded. Ben carried on doing his thing, until they reached a patch of ground the other side of the wood where Ben always runs off. This day was no different. Mike went through the routine of pager, nothing. Stim on low setting, nothing, until he got up to about 80, when Ben yelped and came galloping back to massive hugs and rewards.

Again, my answer to this account would be:
deal with his cognition issues,
deal with his emotions,
deal with his confidence,
then deal with his obedience training,
in the meantime, use a long line.

In other words, look at the whole picture.

Did any of your trainers try long line training, whistle training, prey drive (toy) training?

He has not run away at all since that day last Wednesday. He is still the same old Ben, still arsey, still grumbles if you try to make him do something he does not want to do, still bounds joyfully round the woods, greeting friends old and new, he is exactly the same dog … except he now comes when he is called.

Theirin layeeth the issues, he is still arsey, grumbly, still, has his emotional congitive problems.
You need to deal with these.

On Saturday, we took Ben, me and OH and Tai, back to these same woods. The dog did not put a foot wrong. He was actually a bit quiet, and I was very worried that he was traumatised, psychologically damaged, and gave OH a hard time. The next day, Sunday, we went to Harlestone Firs on the edge of Northampton, and there was Ben roaring around having a whale of a time, greeting all and sundry, but every time I whistled “Ben! Come!” he would come running back to me, skidding to a halt in his haste to be obedient and get his praise and his Fish 4 Dogs.

And don’t think it is the treats – treats alone meant nothing, he loves his treats, but he loved being a hobo more. Now, thanks to the e collar he has the best of both worlds. I frankly cannot see anything wrong in this, we had an extreme situation, a situation which would have taken YEARS to train the dog out of, during which time he would most likely have been shot by a sheep farmer or got run over. He’s the same old Ben, arsey, naughty, playful, greedy, disobedient … but he COMES when he is called. Not always the perfect recall that you will get from a high obedience dog, but a nice recall which is more than good enough for me!

I will probably get castigated for this, but I am not ashamed of what my hubby has done - I wanted to present the "other side" of the e collar debate. There are very exceptional circumstances IMO when it can be justified.

We have tried everything LS, you know me, I would NEVER be cruel to a dog. It was this, or he would have to be rehomed. And believe me, there are not many people who would have put up with what we have gone through over the last 6 months.