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Howdy folks... thought you might be interested to hear about the conversation I just had with a customer in my wee pet supplies shop. We don't stock chock chains, half choke chains or prong collars or even pet correctors as a rule but my wife had a request from a lady who is into competitive obedience training and she wanted to order 2 half choke chains for her collie pups that are destined for competitive obedience.
We actually had a fight about this because my wife said I'd be stupid to miss out on a sale because of my morals and I should keep my personal feelings out of the business of selling pet supplies. In the end my wife won and we bought in the collars.
This customer has just left my shop with one of these half choke collars and when I suggested there were better methods and said I was surprised that anyone training at that level would need a tool of aversion like that she just wouldn't hear of it. She said she'd heard of clicker training but it's not for her... She said that everyone training in competitive obedience uses these methods etc and when she said that I should get involved in her club to further advance my expertise in training. I told her that if her club is using aversion as a training aid then I think I'm currently more advanced than her club but... well, I don't think she was best pleased
Ours is a very small start up business and I've been proud so far that although we've had requests, I've stuck to my guns and not stocked any of the items above but... from a business point of view I'm confused...
"Oh what gold there is to find when one is blessed with an open mind" - me, not five minutes ago
I wouldn't be without my half check collar to be honest. Rupert wears a regular buckle collar at all times but when out for a walk he's on the half check. Nothing to do with correcting him (in fact the correction based trainers I know consider them useless for the purpose) and everything to do with the fact he can't slip it. If I tighten a regular collar to the point he can't slip it then it's far too tight, the half check I can have at a perfect fit and know he can't get free.
There are people in competitive obedience who don't use aversive methods. They seem to be a minority though.
There are certain things I won't make in the course of my leather work business - I do do half checks but they are made to measure and I encourage people to use them as a martingale collar, ie, tightens only to the same degree a flat buckle collar would, rather than actually tightening to create a 'choke' action on the dog. However, I did recently refuse to make a rolled leather half check, because the customer wanted it SO fine it would have been like a cheesewire.
I won't do anything specifically designed to cause pain, that means nothing with prongs or studs on the inside, nor will I make things that whilst 'supposedly' not meant to cause pain, do - such as crank nosebands for horses (the 'crank' design means they can be done up FAR tighter than normal, pressing the soft tissues under a horses jaw against the bones and teeth).
I think you have to find the line you are happy with, and then s*d what anyone else thinks. I don't buy the 'its just business' line - I have to sleep at night and square things with my own moral compass - that is more important to me than 'a sale'.
People CAN misuse anything they like, they could buy a dog lead from you and then use it to beat their dog with - so for me I draw the line at things designed to intentionally cause pain (whether they are typically advertised as such or not).
