Dear Petsmart: Don't Shock a Puppy

If you take a class at Petsmart with your pup they'll fill you in on how effective and scientifically proven progressive positive reinforcement training is.  They only offer positive classes.  So you'd think they're firm believers.  But when you look at their shelves you see them supporting the ownership of other, less effective, less kind things like shock collars... for puppies.  Why are you selling those?!  People might buy them!  You're enabling the shocking of puppies! PUPPIES! <whimper>

Cruising the web I found this cool little petition.  I've added it to the right side of our blog here and copied the letter as it will be sent to Petsmart below.  Please take a read and decide for yourself if you will sign.

Greetings,,

PetSmart's training program is very clear in advocating for positive training methods, stating on the website: "Learning should not be painful or harmful and many of the 'old school' training techniques were based on using pain or the fear of pain to get dogs to respond. Clearly this is not how we train at PetSmart."

Yet just down the aisle from the training centers, your stores sell a variety of electronic collars designed to shock dogs and puppies, that anyone can buy without experience or instruction in how to use them.

Veterinary behaviorist Dr. Karen Overall wrote, "Shock is not training -- in the vast majority of cases, it meets the criteria for abuse." She cites both personal experience, with patients exposed to shock being much more likely to end up euthanized for behavior than dogs trained with positive methods, and research that has shown that the adverse effects of shock collars continue long after the collar has been removed.

The Association of Pet Dog Trainers warns that electronic collars can result in trauma to your dog. Shock collars can cause physical injury ranging from burns to cardiac fibrillation, as well as psychological distress. A simple malfunction can result in nonstop shocks being administered to the dog.

Your trainers wouldn't use shock collars in their classes. I urge you to make your product line as humane as your training philosophy. Please set an example for the industry by no longer carrying electronic collars.

Thank you.

[Your name]