Kyle and Marie, my son and daughter-in-law, were here this weekend. We spent Saturday at a unique kind of reunion … folks who had adopted Border collies through the rescue group where we found our dog Ben. It was a sea of black and white, with one Golden Retriever pup running around as well. I was talking with one gal who was talking about her dog, and when she mentioned the electric perimeter fence she used to contain her dog in her yard at home, she lowered her voice. “Is that a no-no around here?” I inquired. “Yes,” she said. “Most folks around here don’t like any remote or electronic collars.” The clear message was that those tools were abusive.


Many tools and training aids can be beneficial or detrimental, depending on how they are used. I fought the concept of buying an electric collar when I first purchased it for Reilly three years ago. But after she stopped traffic twice by running into a busy street, ignoring my calls even though she knew exactly what I wanted, I decided a light negative reinforcement was preferable to being road kill. I also purchased a collar that has a positive and negative tone with no accompanying shock; it gives me great flexibility in training.


One of the most often heard criticisms of Nancy Thomas’s methods is that they are “too punitive” or “too mean”. If the structure part of Nancy’s methods is used without the nurture part, that criticism might be true. But anyone who has ever met Nancy Thomas or heard her speak knows that she is the most nurturing woman on the planet. Used correctly, her methods are very, very effective and most certainly not abusive. It is, however, critical that the nurture aspect and positive reinforcement are part of the overall approach … just like it is critical that I am sure my dogs know what I want from them before I employ the remote collar.