In the News: Never Shock a Puppy

Thanks to Kim Sporrer, media maven at Humane Society of Boulder Valley, a few newspapers have mentioned Never Shock a Puppy in articles about the humane society’s No-Choke Challenge. The most recent of which featured a mondo picture of me and Lilly. OMG.

It’s my all-time favorite picture of the girls of Champion of My Heart. We use it as our avatar pretty much anywhere we are online. I just didn’t realize the paper would use it quite so large.

So, to all our local friends and fans, I hope seeing us in living color in your Saturday morning newspaper didn’t give you too much of a shock at breakfast.

Never Shock a Puppy in the News

Here are links to the three most recent articles about the humane dog training campaign with the motto … Never Shock a Puppy … because learning shouldn’t hurt:

USA Today: Pet Talk: Rein in the Use of Choke / Shock Collars by Sharon L. Peters

Daily Camera: Boulder, Longmont humane societies at odds over shock, choke collars by Vanessa Miller

The Denver Post: Push to curb use of choke collars by John Davidson

And, if you missed it earlier, here is the terrific Never Shock a Puppy blog post Change.org did about the campaign when they launched their petition to ask Petsmart to stop selling shock collars. (If you haven’t signed that petition, please do … it’s in our sidebar to the right.)

Never Shock a Puppy: Fans and Critics

With the broader attention of our efforts to make humane dog training the norm (not the exception it seems to be in many communities) come both fans and critics. I get that. Truly.

Our heartfelt thanks go to those who have written such nice notes to us and who have posted supportive comments on the newspaper sites.

As for the critics … well, here are a few thoughts:

When people argue we’re being overly dramatic or misleading, I think, “Well, you’re underplaying the pain involved to justify your actions.”

When people taunt that “real” dog trainers in “real” dog sports must think we’re silly for taking such a stand, I simply imagine all the regular dog families out there who might not know that dog training has come a LONG way in the last 10-20 years and that perhaps punishment as the go-to method isn’t that great of an idea. (And, despite what they may see on TV … the whole dog dominance thing is bogus.)

It’s one thing to know better and do it anyway. It’s another to simply not know how much dog training has evolved and improved … and that there are better ways to train the many dog behaviors we want in our canine companions … including these Top 5 Reasons People Turn to Shock Collars.

When people point to their dogs as being perfectly fine after use of shock  collars, prong collars, or choke collars as proof that the collars are OK to use, I remember the 10% of all dogs prone to fear who would be (and are) ruined by such dog training methods and the other 80% who might not take kindly to pain.

And, those 10% of likely “bomb-proof” dogs who truly will be just fine no matter what you do or don’t do? Well, if you’ve got one, take a minute to count your @#$@# lucky stars … because the rest of us face greater dog training challenges.