A question about those Training collars, sometimes called "Choke chains"

[GreatDanz]

Gentle Leader has a harness now that works GREAT for controlling large and giant dogs.  Here's a picture: http://www.pawmark.com/en-us/front.html

It works for Mickey and he's 193 lbs.

[Moni]

I agree, Halti's and GL's work great too.  Especially if you start using them while they're young.  Different collars work good for different dogs.  Tenchi loves his Halti and gets all excited and wiggling(picture that!  lol) when I take his out.  Ask Ang, he was on leash with his martingale collar and I took out his Halti and he got all spazzed.  Silly boy!  However he gives the exact opposite reaction with his prong, head down and pouty face.  Mojo is the exact opposite, hides his head for the Halti, but stands there fine for the prong. 

Wow!  Mickey's even bigger than my moose!    I'm not sure exactly how much he weighs, but I'm guessing like 160ish because he's trying for a runway model figure.    lol  Though he has been gaining weight now that we've switched to Evo.

John,
I like your prong a lot better than the one I have. 

[GreatDanz]

Yea, Mick is huge, he's not as tall as Java (39" and 165), but his bones are twice as thick. 

The Gentle Leader I posted is not a head harness, it's a body harness.  I can't use head or neck collars on Mickey.

[BabsT]

I use pinch collars for both my dogs

[Moni]

Yea, Mick is huge, he's not as tall as Java (39" and 165), but his bones are twice as thick. 

The Gentle Leader I posted is not a head harness, it's a body harness.  I can't use head or neck collars on Mickey.

Oops, sorry about that.     I didn't click on the link just saw GL and automatically picture the head halter.  Thanks for pointing that out.    I haven't tried that out yet, but have been considering it.

[GrumpyBunny]

We were using a body-type harness with Ranger - I think it is called the Sensa-tion Harness, or something like that.  He did pretty well on it, but still would pull very hard (we are still training "walking nice") and would sometimes rub to try to get it off. 

But, just the other night, I was pulling out his leash, and his old pinch-type collar fell out of the cupboard.  I felt that I got good results with it, but we stopped using it after his trainers at the Humane Society told us to get it off him...  and I was never quite comfortable with the "cruel" perception some people have of it.  But, I figured I would give it a shot and see if I really noticed a difference. 

First off, when he saw the prong collar, he danced with excitement like he has never danced for the harness.  He walked great on it that night, never acted uncomfortable and very rarely pulled.  It really wasn't even like he pulled, and got the correction of the collar tightening and stopped pulling - it was just more like he rarely went to pull in the first place. 

Overall he just seemed much more happy, calm and comfortable with his old prong collar, so I guess it is back to the prong for us....   

[4everblu]

I think they missunderstood what the behaviorist told them, when she gave it to them she probably said, "have her wear this.. " but forgot to say "when you are walking her" So that's why Lily's parents just didnn't take it off.

BTW,  My mom had Polio, too.  She is now 75 years old.  She has post polio problems, and recently fell and broke her hip.
She has a huge orange tabby cat who is at least 15 y.o.
The cat uses her house for a potty.    She won't give him up though, she loves him, even though he is ruining her home, and nobody want's to visit her because it's smelly)

~LOL sorry that's probably more than you wanted to know.

[Summer]

Just something someone pointed out to me at the dog park.  If a dog has a prong collar on at doggie play group and you need to grab him because there is an issue (hey it happens) you can actually skewer your own finger on the prong.  It happened to someone I know.  It was awful!

[brigid67]

I heard the pinch collars should not be used on any baby younger then 6 mos.  So I won;\'t even try it untill then.  I will probably have both the pinch and the body halti on.  In a dog park situation I would take the pinch collar off...and just use the body halti

[Willow]

Yes, that's correct.   You should not use a pinch collar on a puppy younger than 6 months (or until their permanent teeth come in), and a puppy/dog should never have a pinch or a slip (choke) collar on while playing with other dogs. 

Many years ago when I started training, everyone just left the slip collar on their dogs all the time.     One day when I had my dog out playing with the neighbor dog, my dog got his bottom jaw under her slip collar and couldn't get loose!   He was choking her, of course.  The neighbor lady and I tried to get them loose, but couldn't, so in a panic, I ran home as fast as I could and got my husband.  He took one look, grabbed our dog, flipped him over, and they came apart! 

Fortunately, neither dog was hurt and it was a good lesson for us.  I never forgot it and it could have easily turned out tragically if my husband hadn't been home and immediately saw what the problem was! 

[GR8DAME]

I also will not use a pinch if the pup is under 60 LBS.
Stella

[brigid67]

I remember when people would leave the metal slip collars on all the time.  My mom did with our dogs.  And they all went to training class...I guess then she was never told.