How to explain ecollar training to a Force-Free trainer?

You know, l get messages about how ecollar trainings are cruel and lectures on how positive reinforcement can teach everything, all the time. You won’t see them on my Facebook comment because l will just delete them all.

There was a time when these messages would depress me. It made me feel very bad that we were doing so much to help all these dogs and working so hard to achieve all these transformations yet we were constantly being judged very unfairly and being attacked in a very harsh manner by people who clearly did not know how to do what we do and could not achieve what we could.

Then one day, l realized it was impossible for them to see what we see because it would be like trying to explain to a stone age person how electricity works!

We know electricity can help us to cook, to see, to clean, to drive…but a stone age person’s understanding of electricity is limited to only lightening.

They think electricity is very dangerous because lightening is very frightening to them. They don’t know electricity can be used in many other positive ways. Lightening is all they know! Being scared is their reflex reaction!

It’s not that they are being mean and nasty to us. It’s not that they don’t appreciate what we do. It's just that their understanding is too limited and biased. They simply cannot comprehend!

One day, when they are ready to come out of stone age to pursue an education in the modern world, we will talk.

But until then, l will ignore them and spend my time in helping dogs and families to obtain real results. I am sorry but l cannot explain the benefits of electricity to a stone age person.

Picture credit: Le Moustier Neanderthals (Charles R. Knight, 1920)