FCI prohibited equipment (overreach?)

[JanS]

Since every top IGP competitor in the U.S. has "probably" used tools that are not legal in Europe, and in the world of internets, "probably" everyone has been filmed training sometime in their life with an e or prong collar in use, then that could lead to a ban of almost every American from trialing overseas.

And I personally find that rule BS.

 

[Nordika]

I think this is all about banned tools for training, nothing else. Someone submitted videos of Shield K9 training videos using tools not legal in Europe, so FCI banned him for that reason.
As previously discussed, FCI announced that anyone can be banned from competing if they used tools to train that are not legal in the country where the trials are, even if they are legal to use where that competitor came from. Very similar to crop & dock FCI rules: even though it's legal to C/D here, you still cannot compete with a C/D dog there. Now they are saying the same for training tools, even when the tools are left at home or if you never used them on the dog competing. Since every top IGP competitor in the U.S. has "probably" used tools that are not legal in Europe, and in the world of internets, "probably" everyone has been filmed training sometime in their life with an e or prong collar in use, then that could lead to a ban of almost every American from trialing overseas.

How many top competitors in IGP are force free, or positive only? here is the crux of the need to eliminate all competitors that don't adhere to their mantra. Aside from the US, there are also Europeans that do and have used this banned equipment, they are at a much greater risk than just being banned from competing.
They banned protection training in Austria, though recently overturned due to technicalities, it's likely to resurface again.
In Germany, new animal welfare ordinance (the Tierschutz-Hundeverordnung), introduced by former Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner, came into force on 1 January 2022. It explicitly prohibits the use of prong collars, e-collars, and "pulling collars" (Zughalfter) — devices used by police handlers to signal the end of an attack on a suspect.

The practical impact was immediate: Berlin's 130-strong police canine unit was pulled from active duty. Police spokesperson Thilo Cablitz confirmed they were "currently unable to deploy a section of our service dogs." Stephan Kelm, vice-chair of the Berlin police union (GdP), said: "We are completely open to innovative training methods, in which it is not necessary to inflict pain. But right now we don't know of any." He warned of "severe consequences for domestic security" if no alternative was found.

The broader legal framework (the Tierschutzgesetz, Article 3) prohibits training that causes "significant pain, suffering or harm" and applies to all dogs, including police and military working dogs.

The "suffering" and "harm" is fairly open and arbitrary. Decades ago the animal rights activists claimed that keeping a dog in a home was causing suffering and harm, because they claimed that a dogs natural state was a street dog, village dog, feral and free...(these people are completely nuts btw)

Sadly, I think that people don't readily realize that the goal of the animal rights activists is not to remove your training tools, it's to remove your dogs, to remove your rights to own or keep any animal, period. They have an agenda and a lot of useful idiots doing their work for them, and they will continue to chip away at our rights, piece by piece and bit by bit. Beware the laws cloaked in animal welfare verbiage.