Regarding the controversy about the misrepresentations aired by the AKC representative on Fox and Friends last Saturday, I just sent to following to Fox & Friends. Lets see if they say anything on the program. Last Saturday on Fox & Friends Weekend, a debate about dog shock collars was aired. The fact is that Gina DiNardo, the American Kennel Clubs representative, grossly misrepresented the American Kennel Clubs position on the use of such collars and, in so doing, mislead all of your viewers who do not already know the truth about such collars. Yesterday, James Crowley, AKC Executive Secretary, sent a letter out, apparently to all those who participate in AKCs performance events, as I do. Mr. Crowley said, On Saturday morning, AKC agreed to appear on Fox & Friends to discuss our thoughts on the use of e-collars for pet training, a buzzed about subject triggered from the release of a recent study. The AKC has never called for a ban on e-collars. The AKC supports choice in training methods, as well as trusting the experts. Our thousands of field trial, performance and companion participants are the experts, those with the training experience and knowledge to obtain AKC titles on their dogs. It is our opinion that when placed in the informed hands of professionals, e-collars are an appropriate and effective tool for training dogs that are not only well behaved in the home but also competitive in the field. In fact, listed under the heading “Training Collars,” our position in support of e-collars as it pertains to AKC events, dog clubs and professional trainers has not wavered since it was adopted by the Board of Directors in 2001. When we accept national media opportunities, we see them as a chance to talk to the nearly 57 million dog-owning households across the country who may not know about AKC’s resources and offerings. For better or worse, the vast majority of those owners will face struggles at the most basic level of training, not the complexities of handling performance-level dogs in the field or advanced companion work. When we appeared on Fox & Friends, it was our intention to speak to those novice owners who are seeking the best methods to create well-trained pets. Those methods do not include misuse or overuse of e-collars at the hands of amateur owners, an opinion with which I’m sure any dog expert can agree. AKC maintains its encouragement of positive reinforcement techniques for those beginner owners. We continue to support the training techniques used by our experienced, responsible, and dedicated performance and companion competitors, and we apologize for not making that distinction clear during Saturday’s segment. Mr. Crowleys statement of the AKC position is in stark contrast to the statements that Ms. DiNardo made on your program. Among other outrageous, incorrect and comments offensive to thousands of experienced dog trainers who properly use e-collars (shock collars as Ms. DiNardo referred to them), she said, ...and there are better training methods than using shock collars. Shock collars can cause stress, distress, sometimes pain. Used inappropriately, they can prevent dogs from even being receptive to other training methods in the future and in a worse case scenario the dog might even become aggressive, so we believe in using positive reinforcement as a training method. At no point did she say anything consistent with AKCs position. No one can dispute that e-collars are not appropriate for use by the inexperienced (or the irresponsible), but Ms. DiNardo didnt say that and, in fact, didnt say anything even remotely close to AKCs opinion that when placed in the informed hands of professionals, e-collars are an appropriate and effective tool for training dogs that are not only well behaved in the home but also competitive in the field. Instead, the impression left with the uninformed public by Ms. DiNardo is that AKC is totally opposed to the use of e-collars, that they are cruel and that, by extension, anyone who uses one is being inhumane. AKC should PUBLICLY correct the damage to the reputations of thousands of highly competent and experience dog trainers. I believe it is also important to Fox News credibility to address Ms. DiNardo having mislead your viewers and AKCs real position regarding e-collars. Respectfully, Don Smith Meglyn Retrievers []
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 10:51:19 +0000
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