Archive for the ‘choke collar’ Category
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Eighty percent of the time Ace does well on a flat collar, especially when it’s just the two of us in our own neighborhood. He’s even OK with no leash at all, because it forces me to be more in tune with him. What I’d like to work on is the other 20 percent, when the mutt is either strangling himself or continuously sneaking ahead. His worst leash behavior is when someone other than me tries to walk him, especially an inexperienced person. He can also be pretty bad if another person or dog is walking with us. That’s when Ace decides everything is a race. I took him on a five-mile race last fall, and he made it his goal to pass every person in front of us that we possibly could. Let’s just say I ran faster than I would have without him. New and interesting places are another challenge, like a park where he wants to run and sniff. I often take my mutt out in the country where he can safely be off leash. But I’ve made the mistake of letting him run ahead because he always comes back when I call him. Since I’ve given him too much freedom, now he wants to run ahead all the time. He’s heeling pretty well off leash in the photo above in western North Dakota, but that’s because we’d been walking all day and making the mutt carry his own food and water. The main reason why I want my dog to heel in all situations is so I can bring him to more places and have him under control without depending on a certain collar. This challenge will force me to be consistent with Ace and to get out and walk him in new areas so he learns to heel reliably no matter where we are. We just moved across town, so already Ace will be walking in a new neighborhood. I plan on walking him with both his flat collar and choke collar on this week so I can switch his leash from one to the other as needed. I’m hoping I won’t have to use the pinch collar or Gentle Leader at all. I use the words loose-leash walking and heeling interchangeably. Loose-leash walking can mean walking without pulling, but to me it means the dog should walk without pulling and remain at my left side, not in front. In what situations does your dog need work on loose-leash walking? This is day one of my 30-day challenge to work with my dog on loose-leash walking. Click here to see my other 30-day challenge posts.
I’ll go first: The two collars I recommend are the Halti and the prong (or pinch) collar. Every dog is different, and there is no collar best for all dogs. But for the average medium or large dog, the best training collar is the prong collar. With a quick leash pop as a correction, the dog learns not to pull. Of course, it takes a lot of time, patience and practice to get to the point where the dog heels reliably, but the prong collar is a good tool to use to get to that point, especially with powerful dogs. The prong collar is similar to a typical training (or choke) collar, but it is more effective. With my mutt’s short, smooth coat, a regular training collar constantly slips to the thickest part of his neck where it is useless. The prong collar remains high on his neck and rarely needs adjusting. Some people will say prong collars are inhumane. Personally, I think it’s inhumane to have my arm ripped off. Still, I know many people have issues with the prong collar and will not use one under any circumstance. Other dogs pull so bad even with the prong collar that they could hurt themselves. That is when I recommend a Halti. Haltis are basically the same as Gentle Leaders. Both are head collars that minimize a dog’s pulling. Even for the worst cases when a dog pulls no matter what, the pulling is less noticeable when the dog wears a Halti. The problem with Haltis is dogs will go right back to pulling once they are on a regular collar. For some people, that’s OK, they just depend on the Halti and use it all the time. I don’t want to depend on any kind of training collar, so I switch back and forth between the two kinds while trying to use a regular, flat collar as often as possible. For what it’s worth, Ace prefers the prong collar. Although he tolerates them, he hates Gentle Leaders and Haltis because having something around his muzzle makes him feel restricted (or shall I say under control!). I don’t think he even knows when he has his prong collar on. What collar do you think is best for dog training? Email your dog-related question to me at Lindsay@thatmutt.com, and I’ll post it for others to answer. Click here to read all my weekly question posts.
There are two things about the Halti that make it slightly more effective than the Gentle Leader (pictured below): The Halti has an extra strap leading from the nose to the neck. This keeps the other strap from pulling to the side or up into the dog’s eyes, which happens all the time with Ace and his Gentle Leader. The Halti also has another strap that clips onto the dog’s collar. This is a good safety for really strong dogs or dogs that manage to wiggle their nose out. The Gentle Leader only attaches to the leash, but certain models of the Halti attach to the leash and the collar. Ace has never gotten his Gentle Leader off, but I’ve known other dogs that have. It would be nice to have that added attachment to the collar. Abby over at Danes Down Under recommended the Halti a long time ago, and I didn’t get around to trying one until last weekend. Above is her great dane Chelsea modeling it for us. Ace is reluctantly modeling the Gentle Leader below. Besides the slight differences I mentioned, the Gentle Leader and the Halti are basically the same. I refer to both as head collars, and they serve the same purpose. They are tools to teach a dog not to pull, and they make it a lot easier to walk and control a dog if he does pull. Head collars fit over a dog’s muzzle like a halter on a horse and snap behind the ears. Most dog owners could benefit from using a head collar with their dogs. People find them more humane than choke or pinch collars because they don’t tighten around a dog’s neck. I use all types of collars with Ace, but the head collars work well when I bike with him because he can’t pull me. Even with a pinch collar, he can easily pull if he tries. I also have him on a head collar when I take him to certain places where I have a harder time controlling him such as stores that allow dogs or public dog events. The only problem with head collars is that untrained dogs will go right back to pulling when they’re on a normal collar. Of course, this is also true with choke collars. Many people have asked me if my dog can still open his mouth with a head collar on. Yes, he can. These are not muzzles. He can bite, pant, drink, eat, drool, you name it. What kind of training collar do you use?
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