Monday, March 28, 2011

Unfair Training Method?

I recently attended a dog event along with some other dog trainers. One was, what I call, an "electric collar" trainer. This person brought along a dog they had trained. It had the collar on, and the handler had the remote control in hand. I saw that every time the dog strayed more than a few feet from the handler, the dog got a zap. The dog looked very insecure, tail tucked. I've seen a lot of well trained dogs over the years. This wasn't, in my opinion, one of them. The obedience wasn't precise, and the dog looked distressed, and I believe the corrections were unfairly applied. I am not a fan of the method that dogs are forced to stay within a few feet of the handler otherwise they are given a shock. This is a popular method with a lot of electric collar trainers. I think it is garbage. Judge for yourself sometime. Watch truly obedient dogs at an AKC obedience or hunt test trial. Then watch a dog "trained" this other way. I'll let you make your own conclusion. You already know mine.