Email replying to Gundog Club request to retrain as force free instructor.
Thank you for your offer for which I choose not to take up. The idea that big brother would be forever looking over my shoulder has limited or no appeal whatsoever.
Now that I have had a chance to look more closely at the implications that would result with the change to positive reinforcement I now feel that probably the best course of action for me would be to part company with The Gundog Club.
Without wasting anybody's time unnecessarily I won't be pontificating my personal opinions on the issues that you feel are correct for The Gundog Club and its members at this particular juncture.
However one fact that seems of particular notoriety is the percentage of trainers that remain within your organisation in a force free environment.... 9 out of 47, equating to less than 20% ??... all of which are women,.... but that shouldn't necessarily be of any significance in this liberated PC nation that we've become recently.
Finally I would like to comment on the very title of your organisation. Can you seriously consider that you should be puting yourselves alongside the Kennel Club and what it alludes to in the betterment of all its gundog breeds which are primarily perpetuated through their Field Trials and to a lesser extent working tests. How many Field Trial winners have been trained using force free regimes I wonder, or for that matter even, how many dogs have even entered those competitions?
Maybe calling yourselves The Dog Club would be a more suitable name!
Please don't think I am bitter or resentful... I have enjoyed my long association with your club from its very beginnings and wish you all the best.
Kind regards
Alistair Mackay
P. S.
The only forceful, by your understanding of the term, methods of training that I have had occasion to implement in over 25 years of working with dogs has been by my tone fluctuations and an odd tug of the lead.
I will never consider myself as being unkind or harmful to any animal let alone a dog.
mackay@branxholme.com