Every time someone comments on modern e-collars, and I ask what make and model of e-collar that person owns (and please post a picture), that commentator disappears.
Every. Time.
Imagine writing about tree work, and someone sails into the comments demonizing chainsaws (so dangerous, so loud!) and asking why we need them when Americans once used only axes and handsaws.
Would it be unreasonable to ask whether that person owned a chainsaw, ever used a chainsaw, and could they post a picture of their make and model? Could they post a picture of the 80-foot oak tree they felled and sectioned for firewood using only an ax?
Imagine writing about cooking, and someone sails into the comments demonizing microwaves (radiation!) and asking why we need them when our grandparents cooked without them. Would it be unreasonable to ask whether they had ever used a microwave, and could they post a picture of the make and model of microwave, and something that they heated up (and for how long)?
Imagine writing about travel, and someone sails into the comments demonizing cars and airplanes (too fast, too polluting, too dangerous!) and asking why we need them when the whole world once traveled only by horse and train. Would it be unreasonable to ask whether they had ever been in a car or airplane, and could they post a picture of the make and model and tell us where they started from, and where they were going?
To be clear, I am not asking anyone to use any tool to do anything.
That said, if my tree guy shows up with five people only wielding axes, I might enquire if he owns a chainsaw. If he says he is opposed to them, I might enquire whether he intended to charge me by the hour.
Similarly, if a dog trainer shows up to train a dog and owns no leashes, but quotes Bob Dylan (“dogs run free, so why can’t we?”), I might have a few questions.
A dog trainer that does not own a full set of tools is like a house painter without a sprayer, or a boat builder without a chisel and mallet.
Even if the painter rarely uses a sprayer, and the boatbuilder goes months without touching mallet and chisel, the failure to even own the basic tools tells me quite a lot.
I respectfully disagree with this logic.
ReplyDeleteApart from the fact that e-collars are illegal in my country. It would be analogue to saying you are not entitled to have an opinion on gun control unless you have a weapons license and own at least one firearm.
I can understand that with certain dogs and in the hands of a skilled trainer these devices could be an acceptable tool for certain types of training.
The only real life experience I have with someone using such a device was quite the opposite. The bordercollie that had endured the abuse of the moronic (no timing at all, painfull highest setting, as bad as you can imagine) ) application of an e-collar had irreversibly been turned into a nervous wreck. She destroyed her dog with it.
The discussion whether the benefits outweigh the costs is necessary. Disqualifying people from that discussion on the grounds that they don´t use them would be nonsensical imo.
Your premise is that your analogy is valid.
DeleteIt isn’t.
You do not know what a modern e-collar is, or what it does.
A better analogy is that you think my medicine should be replaced with something else. Not only do you not know the medicine, you don’t know the medical issue, *and* you’re not a doctor.
People who have the medical issue may have an opinion, and their opinion is valuable to the extent they have been treated, and it’s more valuable to the extent they have experience with more than one treatment option.