Special Feature: Pets

With fanfare from animal rights activists, big box pet supply store Petco announced in early October that it will no longer sell remote-controlled, electronic training collars for dogs. “Electricity may be critical to powering your microwave, but it has no role for the average pet parent training their dog,” Petco CEO Ron Coughlin said in a news release.

Electronic training collars, are derisively referred to as shock collars and widely claimed by those who’ve never trained a dog, to be cruel and barbaric. And like any tool, in the wrong hands they can be abusive and/or inappropriate. However, they are much more than simply remote delivery systems for corrections as modern ones contain tracking,

BITING THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU

paging and attention-getting features. They use the same conditioning principles as bark collars and invisible fence containment collars, which Petco continues to sell. All these and, in fact, any tool that aids a person in the training of a dog have saved many, many more lives than they have harmed - including many dogs that otherwise might have had to be rehomed or put to sleep.

Whether or not you like or dislike them, use them or not, there is no denying that training collars, including e-collars, are simply tools. Used properly, they have helped far more dogs than they’ve ever harmed. Used improperly, any tool can cause physical damage or worse, even a flat buckle collar. Even sadder, many dogs have lost their homes and even their lives because well intentioned and good hearted Petrainer 998DBB Waterproof Dog Training Collar

owners tried to raise and train them like humans, or failed to train and socialize them at all.

Some of the most recognized pet activist groups like PETA attempt to dramatize an everyday tool and make it seem like a wicked instrument of torture so that—except the minority of the people who understand their use and application—will be horrified and on board with the ban. Shock collar! How dare you burn up your dog in the name of training? When the truth is: there is not one single recorded instance of a dog dying from an electronic training collar. It’s simply not possible, because they cannot deliver enough electricity to even burn the skin much less electrocute a dog, even a small one. There are, sadly, many instances of dogs that died from lack of training. They are euthanized daily in shelters. If you are not comfortable with the whole concept of electronic training collars, no one will ever force you to use one. If, however, you have a difficult dog and using a training collar might mean the difference between taking it to a shelter or training/keeping it, then that collar just saved a life. Bark and invisible fence collars work on the same principles and those devices have saved many families from having to surrender a dog that received multiple complaints for nuisance barking or running at large. Many homeowners’ associations in fact, are so restrictive about the kind and type of fencing allowed that an invisible fence is the only option for containment.

The first clue of manipulation of the emotions of pet lovers are some of the terms popularized by animal rights groups like Guardian and Pet Parent, or the reference to companion animals as “fur kids”. Dogs are not humans and do not learn and should not be trained as humans. Dogs do not do what we want because they love us. They learn because we teach them what we want and we repeat and repeat again and we praise when they get it right. Dogs do not learn from time outs. Dogs do not speak our language— nor we theirs. Within the training community, especially advanced training, there is some disagreement on the use of positive vs negative reinforcement as a canine training tool. Some maintain any negative reinforcement (punishment) should never be used to train a dog. And indeed, some dogs can do fine with basic pet obedience taught solely through attrition and positive reinforcement. But many, especially highly driven working and sporting breeds, learn faster and retain the lesson better, with the use of occasional reprimands, whether verbal or a pop on the leash. Timing is everything— to be effective, a correction must occur at the moment of the infraction and the infraction must be deliberate disobedience of a command the dog has been taught.

Which brings us to the use of electronic training collars. These sophisticated devices

How Much Do You Know About Thanksgiving??

1. Thanksgiving is held on the final Thursday of November each year. 2. One of America’s Founding Fathers thought the turkey should be the national bird of the United States. 3.Macy’s was the first American department store to sponsor a parade in celebration of Thanksgiving. 4. Turkeys are slow-moving birds that lack the ability to fly` 5. Native Americans used cranberries, now a staple of many Thanksgiving dinners, for cooking as well as medicinal purposes. 6. The movement of the turkey inspired a ballroom dance. 7. On Thanksgiving Day in 2007, two turkeys earned a trip to Disney World. 8. Turkey contains an amino acid that makes you sleepy 9. The tradition of playing or watching football on Thanksgiving started with the first National Football League game on the holiday in 1934.

TRAINING | FROM PAGE 22

are ideal for advanced training and situations when timing is of utmost importance, such as remote and off lead work. They make advanced training possible for a wide variety of jobs dogs can be trained to do for law enforcement, such as drug and IED detection, search and rescue, accelerant detection at fire and crime scenes and so much more. All personalities of dogs can be accommodated, from bold and confident to soft and compliant; the many levels of stimulation can ensure a very mild and impersonal correction is available for minor disobedience, while a stronger level might be used for a dog chasing a squirrel onto a busy road where ignoring the recall might get the dog killed.

Further, there is no physical way a dog can be actually burned or killed by electronic collars. There are no documented instances of death by e-collar. No electronic collar has enough juice to actually burn, much less electrocute, a dog, even a small one. And all have built in shut off and safety mechanisms.

The bottom line about them is they are very effective training tools when used properly and even if you never have a dog that needs training with one, be grateful for the sake of many of the strong, powerful breeds’ owners that these tools exist as they are certainly a better solution than a needle full of pink juice because of lack of training.

the World War II years (1939–1944). event, taking place every year except during on Thanksgiving has become an annual 26,000 fans. Since then, the Lions game the University of Detroit stadium in front of and renamed) played the Chicago Bears at the Detroit Lions (recently arrived in the city NFL took up the tradition in 1934, when Yale could draw up to 40,000 fans. The ups between schools like Princeton and Thanksgiving, and championship matchfootball games were taking place on 5,000 club, college and high school football today. By the 1890s, more than between rugby and what we think of as the time, the sport resembled something game on Thanksgiving Day in 1876. At Association held its first championship formed American Intercollegiate Football much as old as the sport itself. The newly college football on Thanksgiving is pretty The American tradition of (9) FICTION. meal up with a nap. makes most people feel like following their alcohol, in some cases) consumed, that the large amount of food (not to mention most people eat with the turkey, as well as combination of fats and carbohydrates big Thanksgiving meal, it is more likely the makes many people feel sleepy after a believe turkey’s tryptophan content is what beans and cheese. Though many people other foods, including chicken, beef, pork, is a natural sedative, but so do a lot of essential amino acid tryptophan, which . Turkey does contain the (8) FACT Parade. marshals for the Disney World Thanksgiving where they served as honorary grand two turkeys were flown to Orlando, Florida, the Rose Garden at the White House. The Thanksgiving Turkey presentation, held in and Flower, at the 60th annual National “pardon” to two turkeys, named May President George W. Bush granted a On November 20, 2007, (7) FACT. popular at the time. be performed to the ragtime and jazz music fox trot and the bunny hug, which could all dances as the one-step, the turkey trot, the no instruction, was quickly followed by such step, a simple dance that required little to 20th century in the United States. The twothat emerged during the late 19th and early one of a number of popular dance styles bird’s characteristic short, jerky steps, was The turkey trot, modeled on that (6) FACT. spring reminded them of a crane. because its drooping pink blossoms in the fruit and gave it a name—”craneberry”— The Pilgrims adopted these uses for the other wounds and as a dye for fabric. medicine to treat arrow punctures and and melted fat). They also used it as a of crushed berries, dried deer meat (a nourishing, high-protein combination variety of foods, including “pemmican” Native Americans used cranberries in a country’s oldest farmers’ organizations, Cranberry Growers’ Association, one of the According to the Cape Cod (5) FACT. than their domestic counterparts. They also have better eyesight and hearing at speeds approaching 55 miles per hour. on the ground and fly for short distances reach speeds of up to 20-25 miles per hour are much smaller and more agile. They can slow walk. Wild turkeys, on the other hand, cannot fly, and their pace is limited to a turkeys (the type eaten on Thanksgiving) . Domesticated (4) FICTION (kind of) kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Thanksgiving tradition and the standard launched four years later, soon became a in 1920, but the Macy’s parade, store Gimbel’s had sponsored a parade The Philadelphia department (3) FICTION. Courage.” and “though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Bird,” “a true original Native of America,” the turkey was “a much more respectable the Continental Congress). He argued that eagle (which had earlier been chosen by independent United States than the bald appropriate national symbol for the newly that the wild turkey would be a more in 1784, Benjamin Franklin suggested . In a letter to his daughter sent (2) FACT holiday shopping season by a week. occurred in 1939) in order to extend the month (and never the occasional fifth, as celebrated on the fourth Thursday of the decreed that the holiday should always be Association, President Franklin Roosevelt request from the National Retail Dry Goods thanksgiving. However, in 1939, after a in November as a national day of Lincoln designated the last Thursday (1) FICTION. In 1863, President Abraham

FICTION Answers Thanksgiving FACT or