Prong Collar on a Whale?

I still find myself in shock when I see "experienced" dog trainers using equipment like prong collars, choke chains or even remote collars (shocking) to train a wide range of behaviors.  These pieces of equipment are not needed to train whales, hyena or elephants.  Oddly enough those wild animals respond nicely to clicker training and positive reinforcement.  Huh?  You mean to tell me animals that are not domesticated don't need punishing equipment to learn new things, but our domesticated dogs do.  That just doesn't make sense.

At Wolf Park it was refreshing to hear and see that the wolves are taught through positive reinforcement.  The staff want to make sure that the wolves always have a positive experience when interacting with people.  They even took great care when the seminar attendees entered the enclosures so as not to stress the wolves during our visit.  Wow!  When they have to groom or vet the wolves they also try to make it a fun positive experience.  

Isn't it amazing to look at how wild animals can be trained and handled in a positive way and yet people still depend on punishing equipment to train "man's best friend".  There are still many trainers and dog lover's alike who don't know how wonderful positive reinforcement can work.  My hope is that more and more people will learn about other methods/equipment that build a solid relationship on trust.  If we can train wild animals through gentle methods we can certainly do so with our rock star dogs!  My rock star dogs: Padme, Molly, Franky and Curly would certainly agree with that statement.