Judy L, a Karen Pryor Academy graduate, e-mailed me the story below. In some respects, it's not surprising but it's the first time I've heard of this level of misrepresentation. Likely it's happening more than I'd care to believe though. On the bright side, going to the trouble of misrepresetation is a sign of our success in reaching people!
August 2009
"I was at a Starbucks a couple weeks ago, and there was a lady with a young mixed breed, very hairy, dog sitting outside having a coffee. Of course I struck up a conversation with her about her dog. She was mentioning some issues she was having with the puppy and I said "Your dog would do great with clicker training." With that she picked up a shock collar controller from her lap and told me that she is clicker training her dog. My first response was, "that is not a clicker." She answered "why yes it is." After several minutes of talking with her about her training program, she told me the trainer she is using told her this 'controller' is also known as a clicker. After a few more minutes of conversation I convinced her that the controller she had was not a clicker. We had a lovely conversation about training, and she was quite disturbed that she was misinformed about the clicker. She has signed up for one of my classes and immediately took the shock collar off her dog."
PS Judy updates that the pet owner is now a regular client, much happier and much relieved! (To say nothing about how her dog must feel!)
