Just signed up and wanted to say "Hi" and
introduce myself. My name is Lou
Castle. I'm a retired police officer and
a former K-9 handler/trainer/instructor.
Most of my work these days is with Police Service and SAR dogs. I have a few private clients. My favorite topic to discuss is the Ecollar,
often a very polarizing topic. I also
like discussions about drives, as I use them in most of my work. I've been training dogs since 1979.
Doing a search here reveals that my name has been brought up
a fair amount, usually in discussions about the Ecollar. Sometimes it's favorable and sometimes not so
much. I do notice that when it's the
latter, that I'm often quoted out of context so that the true meaning of what
I've written has been lost.
So's you know, I
mostly use the Ecollar in my work, but I also use just about every tool and
method that exists for training a dog. I
realize that any tool can be misused.
Any tool can be abused. And no
tool is idiot proof to the right idiot.
I realize that some tools are better for some things, and some dogs,
than others. Often I go right to the
Ecollar, rather than use other methods because my clients, especially in the
SAR and pet world, have tried those other methods and not met with success with
them. I'm often the last stop before the
shelter or the dog being PTS.
I'm known as a problem solver, fixing problems that owners
and other trainers have created or not have been able to solve.
I've developed methods that use the Ecollar to stop dogs
from chasing cats and that stop dog−to−dog aggression that do not impact other areas of their
lives/work. I use the Ecollar at the
lowest level of stim that a dog can feel for this work and all my basic
training.
Looking around the forum I see that this one is typical of
many forums on the Net. There are some
people who use the Ecollar. Some who are
neutral on it. And some who hate the
tool. I hope to help those who use the Ecollar
now, convince some of those who are neutral that it's a good tool and to
educate some who hate it about how modern versions of the tool are used with
modern methods. I doubt that I'll change
any minds of the last group, but that's not part of my agenda. All I ask for, is an open mind.
If you haven't already noticed, brevity is not my strong
suit. lol
Again, Hi to you all, Lou