I was enjoying a nice walk on the trails yesterday with Blossom and another lab and saw a woman with two dogs. One looked a lot like my old girl Kailey (shepherd x) and I pet the dog and we talked about it being a rescue and her age. The dog was off leash and seemed to be relaxed, so when I saw the plastic looking collar on the back of the dogs neck and thought it was a prong collar, I didn’t say anything as much as I am not a fan of them. I was enjoying my walk and I didn’t want to get into a discussion on prong collars. Then when the woman got a head of me I saw the remote in her hand, yes….it was for a shock collar. Then I saw her do what I see uneducated remote collar people do, continuously shock the dog for not complying to a command. Seriously?!

The dog was walking nicely, and the woman wanted the dog in heel instead of sniffing (why at this moment in the walk, I don’t understand). She kept repeating “heel” and the dog kept walking and sniffing, so much for it working right? The dog was only a foot or two in front of her on an off leash trail, with no other people and yet it suddenly became important to have the dog in heel.? Meanwhile the dog is throwing calming signals that she doesn’t even understand, but a shock is something that she does understand.

Then she grabbed the dog by the collar(she was gentle so I give her that) and repeated the words sit and then had to use her hands to get the dog into a sit. She wasn’t using the shock collar at this point because her hands were full, not that it was working anyway. She then continued onto another trail with the dog in heel. I should have said something, I kicked my self for not saying anything, I usually say something…..why didn’t I say something? I think that I was having such a nice walk with my dogs that I didn’t want to get into any conflict.

The dog wasn’t appearing to obey the shock and perhaps it wasn’t working. I have had nice discussions with people that use these devices in the past and I have had shouting matches as well. Since the woman and I had chatted nicely before I noticed the e -collar, and she was further ahead of me when I noticed, it made it easier to not say anything. Argggg……..I should have said something! Perhaps a smile and “do you find that collar really works?” And see how she responds? But no, I sniff the ground, look the other way, blink my eyes, lick my lips, shake my body, yawn and stretch…………argggg, I should have said something!