Confessions of a Dog Trainer

Listening to Bethany talk about all things dog training inspires me to do better. I am a small business owner myself (fellow dog trainer here!) and Bethany brings me out of my funk and/or burn out. She always keeps things positive and informative. I could talk/listen to Bethany all day!

Shock collars and prongs are banned in my country. So much research supports NOT using them. Please don’t let dog trainers convince they are okay to use. They cause discomfort to dogs, can damage the dog human bond, all vet organizations world wide condemn them. 🥲 if you need to shock a dog or put metal prongs around their next you need more education!

As a trainer with the philosophy of not using fear-based teaching methods, I was wanting to learn more about e-collars to get a better understanding of the other perspective. I put in a good-faith effort to truly understand the talking points behind why certain trainers advocate for the use of these tools. Unfortunately, I found the episodes to be very scattered and unorganized. There doesn’t seem to be any linear thought process in how these episodes are put together. Not only do I not have a better understanding of why e-collars aren’t as bad as every professional, credible animal health and welfare organization claims, the host doesn’t actually seem to know what they’re talking about. I was hoping for some reasons or rebuttals against the multitude of peer-reviewed journal articles citing the damages of using these methods, but there was none of that. I came here to genuinely try to learn something, and I am leaving being more convinced than before that e-collars have no place in animal learning and the human-animal bond. I came with an open mind willing to change my opinion, but that just was not possible after listening to the episode on e-collars. Hopefully someday this person will realize that they’re not actually changing the animal’s underlying emotional state when you zap them for doing normal dog things. It feels like one of those “who’s gonna tell her…?” situations.

So much of our relationship with our dogs, has to do with how we feel about ourselves. Bethany shares how her life experiences led to dog training, and wonderful dog training tips for reactive/anxious/nervous dogs. Love the conversational and casual nature of this podcast.