Petco says “stop the shock” and has decided to stop selling the low quality, remote collars they carry.

I say “good riddance” to those crappy systems, but not to high quality systems that are available through companies like E-Collar Technologies that, in the hands of professionals, who know how to properly train and use them are saving dogs lives on a daily basis.

But seriously… Things are heating up in the dog training world!

While this is an important conversation, you should have all the facts.

Some say… “Shock collars have been shown to increase fear, anxiety and stress in dogs… “. The same could be said of any tool (even a leash) used improperly.

A good trainer doesn’t increase these issues. The dogs come to us already with these issues and we work to alleviate them.

First of all, the e collars they sell in Petco or Petsmart are crap. The consumer who walks into a pet store to buy a crappy, low quality remote collar system without knowledge of how to properly use one or without help from a professional could certainly impact their dog in a negative way, but so does owning a dog and showering it with love and affection but not training it, not setting boundaries or creating structure. This can yield the same or worse fear, anxiety and stress and even result in the death of the dog. Remote collar dog training is not just about correcting bad behaviors. It’s so much more.

Hundreds of thousands of dogs are euthanized yearly because they are ill mannered (because they were showered with love and affection but weren’t trained. Love and affection are easy, training

takes effort and dedication). Euthanized because they jump too much, bark too much, fight, bite, run away, get hit by a car, pee and poop in the house, get into something harmful, have to have a surgery that the owner is financially unprepared for etc.

Yes there are many ways to train a dog and remote collar training is one of them, and If you’ve never owned a dog that needed another level of training such as remote collar training (not that you can’t use them to train all dogs, because you can) than you can’t speak to this.

Many a dog’s lives have been saved and are happier than they’ve ever been as are their families because of remote collar training. Would you rather those dogs be euthanized?

And by the way, 90% of training with a remote collar dog training program is positive reinforcement! But nobody talks about that of course. When training a dog, most of what we do is positive reinforcement. That’s how we teach dogs good behaviors such as sit, down, place, come, heel, kennel etc. But you must stop the negative behaviors as well.

Negative behaviors that can kill a dog such as counter surfing, trash diving, digging under or jumping over fences and many others can all be stopped with remote collar training. Can these behaviors be stopped without the use of a remote collar? With some dogs yes, but not all. So that begs the question, what about those dogs? What would you have us do with them??

What’s more inhumane? Allowing these behaviors to go on? Euthanizing the dog? Why not just stop the behavior with remote collar training?

High tech, high quality remote collar systems and professional training results in a happy well-balanced well-trained ALIVE dog.

In the many years I’ve been in business, I have worked with hundreds of clients who have been through dog training at Petsmart and Petco (or were currently training there when they reached out to me), only to realize that their methods are not working for the their dog. I also continue to have many clients referred to me by TRAINERS at Petsmart and Petco.

I’m not saying that there aren’t some great trainers that work at Petsmart or Petco, but the methodologies that they use can only take a dog so far and certainly don’t work with all dogs.

People feed into the belief that all dogs can be trained by 100% positive reinforcement, force free methods, no corrective measures needed, because wouldn’t that be wonderful?  If that were the case, that is what would be happening!!! Just ask the owners of the dogs who have tried those methods with no success.

Because it sounds so much better than the fact that WE DO sometimes have to correct our dogs. WE DO have to share consequences. WE DO have to set boundaries. We cannot reason with the dog. It is not a human being. Mother nature herself corrects and shares consequences with animals of all kinds. Just because a dog lives in our home does not mean they are exempt from the rules of nature.

Not to mention, people live with behaviors in their dogs that would not be tolerated by other dogs if they lived in a pack in a natural environment.

Overexcited, over aroused, pushy, bratty obnoxious, demanding behaviors would not be tolerated. In fact it wouldn’t ever get to that point because at a very young age the adult dogs would be teaching the pups appropriate behavior. And yes, corrections would be involved! Here is a great example of a mother dog correcting her pups for unwanted behavior…watch and learn, it’s a beautiful thing to see mother nature in action… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHBe0jT6S3U

People seem to think that their ill behaved, out of control, or even mildly disobedient dog is as happy as it can be. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The bar is low for what a well balanced dog should be.

There is a movement out there trying to brainwash people into believing the fact that we should never say “no” to our dogs, there shouldn’t be consequences for their negative actions. And if they don’t know how to live within this realm of everything being positive then there must be something wrong with the dog. So we throw them away, let them harm themselves and others or worse, we euthanize them!

These people are on a mission to take away the training tools that allow us to get these dogs in a better state of mind so that their families can keep them and live together happily and peacefully. Do not let this happen! Trainers and owners alike, stand up! Speak up!

Petco says…