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AKC push to ban e-collars

78K views 275 replies 109 participants last post by  Fall Flight 
#1 ·
The VP of AKC was on Fox and Friends this morning talking about how bad e-collars are. There was a guy trying to talk about the benefits of the e-collar but he was for the most part talked over. Get ready folks.....it's coming.
 
#3 ·
Saw it. Terrible, the freaking VICE PRESIDENT of the AKC calling them shock collars, talking about how treat training is better, and I'm pretty sure she said several National champions have been trained without it. I don't know about other breeds but I'm not sure a single NFC has been trained in the last 20 years without one?
 
#4 ·
More than 20 years..........

let AKC know they are wrong.
 
#10 ·
I wouldn't waste time with that, Performance Events probably horrified. If you are outraged enough to respond write a personal letter to the President of The American Kennel Club rationally detailing the problem and the potential damage to the bottom line at AKC. Up next the use of live game, it's coming!
 
#9 ·
I didn't see the interview but this doesn't surprise me at all. It's the direction our American society has been going in for years now which is that if there is anything that might cause an ounce of pain even if it is meant for good then it is bad and wrong...in a nutshell, it's just another part of the "wussification of America". Several years ago I was talking about my dog and the e-collar with an employee and she told me how mean it was for me to use it. I told her the story we've all heard about how she was right, and that I should let her only obey me whenever she felt like it so the next time she was running toward the street she could run right through my call and get killed. She changed her mind really quickly after that.
 
#12 ·
May be a bad comparison BUT....look at the Adrian Petterson situation.....for what we know as of now, he spanked his child with a switch and four days later there was still some sort of mark. Hell, when I was a child, my parents and grandparents would've been on death row if this was "child abuse". In the south, this was/is the norm. Petterson said he grew up in TX where that's the way you disciplined your children (paraphrasing). My brother and I, all our friends, etc seemed to turn out alright with this form of punishment. When they stopped paddling in the schools, my father went to all of my teachers and told them, if he needs it, wear his butt out. Most teachers were scared to but the coaches didn't mind giving me what I needed. I spanked my oldest, with a belt, in my front yard for disrespecting my wife/his mom several months ago. Had a neighbor call the law. Law shows up (old classmate that currently helps me part-time when he's not on duty), kind of laughs it off and then goes on to tell me to be careful bc who knows what might happen if a different officer shows up. That was several months ago and to my knowledge, my son hasn't disrespected my wife/his mom since.

It's not surprising that we will soon be unable to use "force" to keep our animals safe and obedient.......especially when you look at the fact that we can't discipline our own children the way we were disciplined.

Stepping down off my soap-box now........GO DAWGS beat the cocks!!!
 
#17 ·
Doubt it, but you can keep hoping
 
#16 ·
Are we sure this is an official AKC stance and not a misguided representative?
 
#18 ·
What we do know is that it was the VP, not a nobody. Additionally she said CGC is all positive, not the way I teach!!! UGH! Just another reason to bail as an evaluator.
 
#96 ·
Wow! They didn't even let that poor guy finish or respond and all she kept doing was interrupting. I laughed at her comment about dogs not minding being on lead in a park...hah! They're dogs...they want to explore and sniff and pee on everything, they don't want to be on lead. Stupid people representing the dog world is what we have here :rolleyes:
 
#31 ·
Positive training has its place--but IMO anyone at that level ought to know that for the average dog-owning household, getting reliability through positive-only methods is far too technical and time-consuming. Idealogical purity ==> dead dogs.

Sigh…and to think at one time the Prez of AKC was a field trialer and Rex Carr client….

Amy Dahl
 
#65 ·
Do you really want the AVERAGE dog owning household to be using an e-collar? It is my understanding that in un-trained hands there is plenty of opportunity for abuse and that mis-using an e-collar can ruin a dog as surely as using one correctly can help one.
 
#44 ·
It's not the AKC banning them that should concern you.

If you read the link posted to her bio she is an "assistant vice president" and "assistant executive secretary". Any guess how many assistant VP's an organization like AKC has? Any guess how important a assistant vp who is also an assistant executive secretary is in an organization that size? Translation she is not that important and is probably not the opinion of AKC on this. I could be wrong, but I would bet there is going to be some backlash that will bust her down to just assistant secretary.
She was called a VP. Doesn't really matter what her real title is, the casual pet owner is going to consider her someone "in the know" and give her opinion merit...especially when she uses terms like "we" meaning that she is speaking for AKC.
Its unenforceable. They can do what they want. I'll keep my collars.
Ask folks in countries that have banned them if it is enforceable.
 
#37 ·
Look at this recent article in the Washington post on a recent study in England. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...tronic-shock-collars-might-distress-your-dog/

The conclusion was "Though the collars are efficient, the study concluded there was no consistent benefit to using electronic shock collars that would outweigh the negative effect on the welfare of any misbehaving mutt"

This is a moral, not scientific judgment, which raises suspicions of the objectivity of the investigators.
 
#50 ·
Just a couple months ago I brought up the fact that this stuff was on the horizon here in Canada, and as I understand it, it did gain some ground in Quebec, however it was somewhat pushed aside. No doubt we are facing some serious issues regarding the use of collars both sides of the borders. Maybe we should all band together and form some sort of Retriever/Gun Dog association to promote and give us as trainers a stronger voice in the downward spiral of misinformation and political correctness we are all facing.

We would have to try to get NAHRA, HRC, UKC, Dogtra, Garmin, etc. All on board with it though. Personally I wouldn't know where to begin to start that sort of thing, but i'm tossing the idea out there...
 
#59 ·
I just sent the following email to these people at the AKC: jdm@akc.org, dvl@akc.org, pcm@akc.org, dbs@akc.org, gml@akc.org

"As an owner of 4 dogs who have competed in AKC performance events for 10 years I am extremely offended by the idea that the AKC finds ecollars inhumane. I am just beginning to enter AKC Hunt Tests...next weekend is my Golden Retriever's debut in a Junior Hunter test. I am also planning to enter him in Field Trial competitions next summer. Most, if not all, serious hunt test and field trial competitors routinely use ecollars. Many obedience competitors routinely use ecollars.


I would be more than happy to work with you to show you how ecollars can be one of the most effective, humane and reliable tools for training dogs.


My expectation is that there will be a correction to this inane pronouncement and that Ms. Dinardo will be coached on how to deal with future media appearances so as to not to alienate a large portion of the AKC customer base."
 
#62 ·
People it is Fox news for Pete sake :(
 
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