Should Dog Training be Regulated?

Regulate Dog Training! Stop the use of aversive dog training tools.

This is the most common chant among R+ Dog Trainers.

This is also one of the biggest discussions that are held on social media platforms and are generally initiated among treat trainers. If dog training isn’t being performed the way R+ dog trainers do it, then it isn’t right. Aversive dog training tools are bad. Great, you’re up to speed.

Now…

Should Dog Training be Regulated? And should aversive tools be banned.

Let’s take a closer look from a wider angle.

There are several different tools that can be used in dog training. Some of them are listed as aversive. Here’s a quick list of the top 6.

• Food. Yes, food is absolutely a tool.
• Slip leads.
• Toy work. Such as balls, flirt poles, and tugs.
• Prong collars
• Choke chains.
• E-Collars.

They all serve an individual purpose and all of them can be used in conjunction with each other.

Out of that list of 6. Only 3 have caused dog training deaths on a large scale.

• Food. Yes, this is the number 1 cause of dog deaths. Starvation!
• Slip leads. Which can cause asphyxiation which can lead to death.
• Choke chains. Which can cause severe damage to the trachea or also asphyxiation.

Out of these 3 methods that have caused a dog’s death, is where you will find a non-experienced dog trainer. Each day becomes very noticeable in a dogs appearance when a dog trainer is not feeding them. And it’s very easy to spot an inexperienced dog trainer using a slip lead or choke chain because most of their movements are large jerky movements or knee jerk reactions to a dogs negative or unwanted behavior through the entire training process. The problem with this is most inexperienced dog trainers use these methods behind closed doors and it’s not apparent to the general public until it’s too late. It’s really about the proper use of the tool being used.

So what’s left?

Prong collars and E-collars.

If you search up prong collar dog deaths, you’ll find some articles but none of them are directly tied to the prong collar. It’s mostly speculation and it usually goes back to the choke chain that was used before hand.

And if you search dog deaths, by e-collar. You’ll find many large popular dog training e-collar outfits that have killed a dog but none of those dogs died from an e-collar. Those deaths came from starvation or asphyxiation.

E-collar dog training is one of the safest tools that can be used on a dog. In relation to what causes a dog’s training death, E-collars can’t kill your dog. Most people don’t know that there is no electricity that passes through an e-collar.

So why do e-collar trainers get a bad rap? Plain and simple, inexperienced dog trainers who misuse or don’t know how to effectively build a dog’s confidence while teaching commands can destroy a dog’s personality and happiness they naturally bring. Some inexperienced and/or experienced dog trainers only use the e-collar as a punishment tool. Which is cruel.

So should we regulate dog training? Should we ban aversive dog training tools?

If you’re looking at it from a stand point of solely keeping dog’s alive. Then yes. Any person who wants to pursue R+ dog training should have extensive training before they can train a dog. If a person plans on using R+ methods in their prong collar or e-collar process, then yes there should be some type of regulation. This is only looking at it from a very narrow view point. And it would be foolish to make this very large impacting regulation. Especially when you consider the large amounts of dog shelters that are listed as kill centers which euthanize dogs due to over population or dog aggression.

Some cold hard facts. Many of the best dog trainers in this world were either self-taught and/or trained under someone else. Many of these dog trainers went on to create their own business and some were able to grow it on a large scale. They never stopped learning. And many have implemented new ways to make training better and more effective for both the dog and their owner. Which includes the invention and use of the e-collar.

Other reasons not to listen to the clamoring R+ dog trainers to regulate dog trainers and ban tools they have listed as aversive are; Both the military and law enforcement use these aversive tools in their own programs. Many local law enforcement agencies have moved away from training their own police dogs due to the high rising cost and expertise needed to keep high quality dog trainers and a pool of potential dog candidates. They also moved away from this and allowed private outfits to train their dogs to remove any liability they would have been responsible for if a dog washed out of their program and/or any training deaths or accidents that can occur. It’s not realistic to regulate private businesses and not city/state/or government agencies.

If dog training is regulated, that opens the door to regulate every business owner who dreams of running a restaurant, salon, customer service agency, etc. The list goes on and on.

This is a large reason why local agencies need solid proof of dog abuse and neglect. The training needed to make law enforcement and military dogs is tough. And many of the people today make wrongful allegations based on their own preference of how a dog should be treated.

We live in a world where anyone can train their own dog and self proclaim they are now a dog trainer. Dogs are very much like people. They all have their own personalities, their own set of skills they are really good at, and their own baggage they either learned on their own or were taught from a past dog trainer or owner. It would be silly to entertain these self-proclaimed dog trainers wanting regulation. Mainly the dog trainers with no body of work who may have taken some classes and trained their own dog but have no real experience of working through a lot of different dog behavioral problems successfully.

Should Dog Training be Regulated and Should Aversive Tools be Banned?

No. They should not. Leave your thoughts in the comments.