Uh, No.

rouen

rouen

Experienced Member
A little bit of a rant.
Yesterday at the store a woman came in and asked for help selecting some supplies for her dog. I asked what she was looking for and she said "I need a harness and some kind of collar, like a prong." All the while standing there holding a little Border collie puppy. I just wanted to shake her! :mad: A prong on a 7 week old puppy? Uh, no. My reaction was probly a little dramatic but she listened to my advice. She ended up buying a step in harness and a new leash. I hope I'm there the next time she comes in cause everyone else would bend over backwards to sell her a prong, or worse. A few days ago our assistant manager wanted to sell a shock collar to a guy trying to get his dog to stop jumping on kids. He also got the dramatic wince :eek: and a brief explanation that he'd be teaching the dog that kids mean pain and may learn to bite them.
Rant over.
 
tigerlily46514

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
aw geez. GRRRRRRRrrrrrr.
I'm so so so glad, that YOU were there, Rouen, wow. Also, why is a 7 week old pup NOT with his momma. (if this pup is from a breeder, i mean).
Rouen, you should probably print up lil business cards, "Help For Stupid Pet Owners" or something? to pass out to the most stupid of customers that you see ?
 
tigerlily46514

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
wow, i just realized,
if this owner is THAT frustrated already,
at only SEVEN WEEKS OLD,
can you imagine this person in about 5 months or so?
with all the normal puppy stuff,
like nipping,
whining,
chewing up shoes,
housetraining maybe not yet perfected,
not listening,
lotsa barking,
eating her cell phone,
not coming when pup hears his name for 100th time that day,
pulling on leash
etc
etc
etc.

she has no idea what she is in for when she went for a baby dog, does she....oh, the poor baby.

and a border collie, too. If this owner is NOT interested in training,
why oh why did she choose a border collie....
 
Pawtential Unleashed

Pawtential Unleashed

Experienced Member
I work as the trainer at a local Petco and although I am against many of the corporate policies - we have finally seen a huge swing in the right direction this past 9 months in the training department. All training has turned to verbal marking/lure/capture finally and we just did a collar and lead reset two days ago in which ALL CORRECTION COLLARS - PRONG, CHECK, SLIP AND EVEN MARTINGALE, were removed from the product range forever!!!

GO PETCO for coming into the light!
 
rouen

rouen

Experienced Member
Lisa, thats where I work! I'm a trainer in training, but I know more about dogs and teaching than the guy who's teaching us. :confused:
I was pointing out displacement signals from a 5 month old puppy to one of the other girls and the guy was completely ignoring them and blaming the puppy for being "stubborn."
Our training has a ways to go, leash pops and mild(vocal) intimidation still occur regularly. I laugh when he proclaims the classes as "positive." :cautious:
I did slightly suggest a martingale to the woman, I see them as a lesser evil and far better than a prong. I use them for Dingo and Dasy, only due to the fact that Dingo can slip a normal collar.

Tigerlily, I think handing out cards might get me fired for conflict of interest, although if I didn't work there I'd consider it. I think she was mainly looking for a prong under the instruction of her boyfriend who she claimed has had many dogs and trained them himself. She seemed like a first time dog guardian herself, or inexperienced.
 
rouen

rouen

Experienced Member
I suppose thats the issue with a huge corporation, it's about the money and that's it. :oops:
One of our managers sold a woman two hair saver choke chains today, claimed them to be "indestructible" (true a dog cannot chew through the chain part). I wish we carried Lupine stuff, they replace anything chewed, broken or otherwise. :confused:
 
bekah1001

bekah1001

Honored Member
Okay here is a small little rant. I went to Petsmart to get a disc, a hard plastic one because I really want to get into more disc tricks and play more fetch but they had NONE. Only rubber ones! And they had a training session going on and all I heard every ten seconds was AHAH! I don't know if they use a collar correction but I hate using AHAH
 
bekah1001

bekah1001

Honored Member
I do have a rubber disc it's great for having a quick game of fetch and tug but the hard plastics ones are lighter and fly easier.

And the Ahah noise does take the fun out of it for the dog. If the dog does something slightly wrong he gets 'yelled' at instead of having the dog try again and figure it out for himself.
 
rouen

rouen

Experienced Member
Lol, Bekah. You reminded me of the old trainers our Petco had. They had no clue, it was sad. I'd go in for dog food and leave with a head ache cause they used the clicker to either correct the dog or as an attention getter. I never could tell which. They'd literally stand there and click until the dog did something then they'd Ah ah or give it a treat. Even I was confused as to what they were trying to do.
 
tigerlily46514

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
Dogcrazy, or Dogster, i'd totally let either one of you train my dog,:) in a heartbeat. Or Bekah, probably any of the other amazing young ppl around here, (too many to list, i 'd accidentally leave one out) who i do think ARE smarter than many "pro" trainers....
 
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