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.
