It may come as a shock to many people, but electronic collars and prongs ARE considered barbaric here, using pain/discomfort to teach a dog is NOT what many of us consider good training.
No, my statement is very accurate and in a way you're proving the point too.
It may come as a shock to you to know we regularly sell prong collars to customers in Ireland and have been doing so in increasing numbers for years, you're trying to speak for everyone as though you know what the masses think, but how well do you really know their views?
As for the pain/discomfort quip, do people in Ireland not use flat collars, head collars, slip collars/leads or restrictive harnesses? They all have potential to and frequently do cause pain and discomfort, more people than you'd believe ignore actual pain and stress and even try to train while the dog is in either or both using this equipment. Simple facts, no suprises here.
my point is on a European forum one cannot be shocked or surprised if people are a little cool about shock collars or pinch collars as they are not considered appropriate tools here, in much the same way as I don't expect to gain much traction here on a mostly American blog where such tools are commonplace.
So, armed with a basic knowledge of a prong collar from t'interweb you're now capable of a judgement of their use and users, and speak for the general dog owning population?
Prong collars are sold in pet shops all across the continent. Pet shops...
The oldest prong collar in the world is in a museum in England, and the patent for the modern production of collars was in the late 19th century in Germany, they're more commonplace in Europe than you'd believe.
What leads people not to believe this is an almost monopolistic takeover of badly informed and very gulliable forum posters on UK forums and Facebook who try to prove to each other on a regular basis just how far up Victoria Stillwells bum they can get and decry everything else as the evil work of Cesar Millan and therefore torture. That's offensive, supressing valid information and open discussion, it's not at all representitive of the dog owning population at large.
it is not considered a training tool here in Europe and thus -rightly or wrongly- it is frowned upon.
Again, you'll find it is considered a training tool here in Europe, what else could it possibly be?
We can all generalise, but sometimes seeing only one side of the story distorts the perception of "everybody".
I'd be confident to estimate that if you go through every forum in the UK over the last 8 years, not just dogs but cats, birds, tropical fish, knitting clubs, washing machine repairs even, and count up everyone who's been against the use of prong collars....... add a zero or maybe even two to the end of that number PER PERSON and that's nearer to how many people bought a prong collar over the same time. I tend to get a different perception
