walking and pulling

[tnsteelerfan]

Hi everyone and hope you are all doing great! I have a question when i walk Brody he pulls me along and walks me. Do any of you use choker or prong collars or gentle leader. Brody is now 8 months old. He is the most well behaved and obedient dog except for walking. As I am typing he is trying to lick my face!!! haha

[Big Dogs]

When we work with dogs we usually use a version of the choker or prong collar but it is more about the technique than it is the collar. How is he with his other commands like sit, down and stay?

[tnsteelerfan]

oh yes he knows down, sit, come, lay down, drop, I am just wondering if prong and choker are mean?

[Sue J]

I don't think a prong or choke collar is mean. The human holding it can misuse it though then it becomes ineffective or worse yet in the wrong hands it can become mean. IMO it is important to know how to correctly fit and use any training tool. I agree with Big Dogs, it's more about the technique. Have you thought about a harness? Jett pulled and the harness helped but still wanted to go head down for a while. I used "watch me" and treats to get the head up. I also tried out a gentle leader which worked pretty well but I personally preferred the harness. We're weaning off it now. There are lots of tools out there, ya just gotta find the one that works best for your dog and comfort level.

[Dobs4ever]

People have a hard time understanding the difference between discipline and punishment. It is never mean to discipline child or dog - it saves their lives and makes them a good citizens. Punishment on the other hand can have a back lash which turns a direction you do not want to go, especially cruel or inhumane punishment.

I would rather use a prong (I would not use a choke can do too much damage and does not work as well as the prong) than have a dog pull us into the street and get run over. The prong collar has been referred to as power steering for dogs.

The reason we have so many delinquent kids today is because parents did not discipline them and teach them respect for authority. I think we have seen the results of that and same with dogs. Untrained and disciplined dogs are the very ones that turn into problems later as they did not learn respect for authority. Sometimes that means you have to resort to discipline via a wonderful tool called the prong collar and in some cases the e collar.

I am not in favor of the e collar for training heeling exercises etc. That tells me the trainer does not know how to properly motivate the dog for correct behavior but especially for males an e collar tells them - do not blow me off and take off. When I call you to me I expect you to come and YES I can enforce it if you want me to. After all it is their choice. That is the only thing I use it for and only if they insist I go there.

All the dogs I have seen trained using he e collar for heeling exercises are very nervous anxious dogs. That is not what I want. I want a confident dog that is on the edge because it is so excited to perform it just barely contains itself not scared to perform. I like a happy confident dog.

[tnsteelerfan]

Thank you so much for all the info I used a gentle leader last night he did well but i could tell he did not like it! will keep working on finding a better fit for Brody.

[Ahzuz]

Thanks for the infos