Day 2: Never Shock a Puppy

This second week in our Never Shock a Puppy campaign, we’re talking about the Top  5 Reasons People Turn to Shock Collars. It’s the last of our foundation posts before we begin addressing each situation in turn and offering alternative training ideas.

We brainstormed these top 5 scenarios amongst ourselves as well as with the team from Humane Society of Boulder Valley and a couple of other local dog trainers who attended a pre-launch meeting, when we were still in the strategic planning stage.

If you can think of other common situations where you’ve seen shock / choke/ pinch collars used, please pop on over there and comment. Lately, it seems 50% or more of the dogs I see when I’m down in town are wearing a one of these collars. Even fairly young dogs, who are just knuckleheads, going for a simple walk …. and I think to myself …. THAT requires a collar like that?

Emphatic Language and Emotion

So far, comments over on the main site have focused on the emphatic and emotional language of the campaign. True … you cannot get more definitive than NEVER Shock a Puppy. True … we’re talking both core values and tools. True … we expected some people NOT to be happy with us.

BUT, one person who agrees with us felt insulted by the first two posts announcing the launch and our overall mindset.

I’m still processing whether it’s the campaign itself or perhaps the actual language/phrasing, etc, that I used in those posts. Goodness knows that as a professional writer I an VERY accustomed to receiving edits (aka NEGATIVE feedback). This is not the first time I’ve been told the language is too DIRECT, too EMPHATIC.

I’m honestly trying to dial in and moderate the emotion when I write those main posts, so it was a real bummer to hear someone thinks we’re squelching things from the get-go. Or, only preaching to the choir.

I am who I am. I believe what I believe, and we’re doing this campaign to try and help some individual dogs have better lives by raising awareness of options. If sometimes it’s heavy on the passion, so be it.

Find the Message That Works for You

What I’d like to encourage anyone else following along to do is to check out the “blog hop” at the bottom of each weekly post on Never Shock a Puppy. There you will find links to all of our Never Shock a Puppy coalition members (and others) who are blogging on that week’s topic.

It’s my hope that with our diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and communication styles that everyone will find someone who “speaks their language.”

Some people write very personal accounts. Some make analogies to workplace or other types of human interaction. I tend to write based on my experiences with Lilly.

Training True “Control” (or at last attention)

For example, once in class, a woman showed up with a young German shepherd wearing a shock collar. Since they are not allowed in our classes, she took it off and everything went to pot … including the dog racing up to Lilly after “getting away” from her handler. This dog was strong. She was pushy. She had a lot of either excited or nervous energy.

People talk a lot about how much dogs generalize (not much, is the consensus), but I’m pretty sure many dogs know shock collar from regular collar. This dog sure did because once it came off … a wild monkey circus began.

I like to think the goal of dog training is that dogs will be more likely to repeat the behaviors we seek in most circumstances they encounter.

I know that critics of positive reinforcement like to talk about dogs who won’t work if you don’t have food, but I’d say the same about dogs who cannot behave nicely without the immediate threat of a shock.

Next Week? Never Shock a Puppy Prize Packages

Next week, we’ll begin taking entries (via comments posted on the Never Shock a Puppy site to specific posts) for the terrific prize packages we have to give away. I hope all of you will hop over there and comment for a chance to win. Seriously. Nice. Prizes.

Donations for Humane Society of Boulder Valley

I also hope you’ll check your budget and consider a donation to our service project to raise $2,500 for the Humane Society of Boulder Valley‘s upcoming No-Choke Challenge (set to begin in November 2011).

I figured out last week that even if just 1/3 of my Twitter followers donated JUST $5 each we would more than reach our goal.

And, for extra credit, if you could alert friends/family to this opportunity to help bring great dog training tools and advice to people, Lilly and I would greatly appreciate it. So far, all but one donation has come from someone I personally know, which is awesome, but we’ll need broader support than that to succeed in our fund-raising goal.

The donation widget will be to your right in the sidebar during the campaign. Just click the donation button on this handy-dandy donation widget to get started! If for some reason you cannot see or use the donation widget, please visit the Never Shock a Puppy Donation Site instead.