T
his section of the site deals with some people who are against the use of the Ecollar. Anyone who's been around Ecollars longer than a few minutes, knows that there are those who strongly oppose their use. Almost universally, those folks have never seen a modern Ecollar, have never seen a dog trained with modern use of modern versions of the tools, and have never felt a stim at the level that they can first perceive.Often they believe as fact, many of the myths, misconceptions, urban legends and sometimes outright lies that are told about the tool. Often they repeat them in efforts to scare people away from using Ecollars. I've argued with some of these folks from many countries around the world, including the UK, Australia, many countries in Europe, Canada as well as here in the US. They spout the same nonsense no matter where they're located. Some of them go so far as to call anyone who uses the tool, lazy, ignorant, stupid, abusive and worse. I've talked to some who call Ecollars "Tools of the devil," and one who called it "An instrument of Satan!" Sometimes these people have fiscal interests in other methods of training, usually the so-called "kinder gentler methods," but sometimes they're merely pet owners who think that they're saving the world. Often they achieve the level of religious zealots, in their efforts to scare people away from Ecollars.
The first article, called "Response" deals with an article on Karen Overall's website. Ms. Overall is a Vet who is quite vocal in her criticism of Ecollars. The only problem is that she knows little, if anything about modern use of the tool. Ms. Overall cites as the science against Ecollars, a study done in the Netherlands by two researchers. The study is entitled, "Training dogs with help of the shock collar: short and long term behavioural effect." It was accepted for publication in 2003. There's a link to the full study at the end of my article. The study examines only high level stim use of the Ecollar, and therefore does not apply to modern use of the tool. That fact does not stop Ms. Overall from citing it. Ms. Overall creates what she calls "From the Horses Mouth," allegedly a conversation between two trainers who are discussing Ecollars. One of them cites some of the myths and lies that I refer to in my article on this site on that subject. CLICK HERE, to see that page of myths on this site. (Use your back button to return here). I think this conversation is a figment of her imagination.
The second article, called "Another Response" deals with a blog by David Ryan, a police K-9 instructor in the UK. His blog is the text of a presentation he gave before the Scottish Parliamentary Cross Party Group for Animal Welfare at the Scottish Parliament on 13th September 2006. It's full of the myths and misconceptions that are commonplace in the UK, where there is little knowledge about modern use of modern Ecollars. And Mr. Ryan not only believes, he repeats many of the myths and lies about Ecollars, in an effort to scare people away from their use. I commented on Mr. Ryan's blog, but as might be expected, he deleted those comments, since they don't agree with his views.
The third article, called "Schilder Comments" looks at a scientific study done in the Netherlands entitled "Training dogs with help of the shock collar: short and long term behavioural effect." It is one of the worst pieces of junk science in existence.