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my boxer was a nightmare to leash train! we tried a halti head harness, a chest harness and a nightengale collar ... none worked. i was this (pinches fingers together) close to getting a prong collar, but thank god we found something that worked. i noticed that she walked a lot better for my husband than she did with me. it was totally a dominance, alpha male (female in our case) thing. i learned how to handle her with better authority and lower my voice, speak in a stern tone when she misbehaved. and when she acted up, i just had to show her who's boss with her it was 'my way or the highway' and she then learned that she was wrong ... it was Mommy's way now!
my boxer was a nightmare to leash train! we tried a halti head harness, a chest harness and a nightengale collar ... none worked. i was this (pinches fingers together) close to getting a prong collar, but thank god we found something that worked. i noticed that she walked a lot better for my husband than she did with me. it was totally a dominance, alpha male (female in our case) thing. i learned how to handle her with better authority and lower my voice, speak in a stern tone when she misbehaved. and when she acted up, i just had to show her who's boss with her it was 'my way or the highway' and she then learned that she was wrong ... it was Mommy's way now!
Wonderful comment here, pinkpocketbooks!
This is a great example of owners better educating themselves on communicating with their dog of what you want and dealing with dominance issues. I hope that other dog owners have ears to hear this that need to. Very true with tone of voice, better authority and consistance. Too many times, owners depend on "things" and other trainers to fix behavior problems so they don't have to use their effort. The reality is they are the key to changing the behavior of their pets. Thanks for sharing!
Just like anything, if it's used properly it will not hurt your dog. A regular collar would hurt a dog more than a prong collar would if the dog was pulling on a walk. My husband and I own three APBTs (as you probably already know.. lol I only say that in every other post! ), Brooklyn is our 1 year 7 month old, 48 pound male, Jayda is our 1 year old, 42 pound female and Destiny is our 10 month old, 38 pound female. Like all dogs, they all had to be trained to walk on a leash. We had tried using just regular collars, harnesses, regular choke collars, choke chains, head collars, etc and nothing worked! The only thing that has worked for us is the prong collars. Also, when we walk them with anything other than the prong collars, I get so upset because they will pull and pull and pull until they hurt themselves! The only thing I can stand to walk my fur babies with is the prong collars. You should have seen me when my husband first brought the prong collars home though! lol! I was so mad and so upset! I thought there was no way in hell we were ever going to put those crazy spike chokers on my babies! Not only would it be cruel, it would also look horrible! I mean, we own APBTs, "pit bulls"! Most people just look at a "pit bull" and assume that it's this man-eating monster, even though in reality that couldn't be farther from the truth! lol! But my husband and I got our dogs because they are the perfect breed for us, we didn't get them because we just wanted a "pit bull" like some people do, you know? We did loads of research to find a breed that fit us, our lifestyle, and our wants and needs as close to perfect as possible, and the APBT just happened to be the breed for us. We don't ever want someone to look at us and our dogs and think that our dogs are mean or aggressive at all, or that we got "pit bulls" to look "tough" or "cool". I just thought that the prong collars would look horrible to other people, and I was extremely worried that they would hurt my babies. Anyway, my husband finally convinced me to at least give the prong collars a try, the deal was that I would walk them, not my husband, that way I would feel more comfortable. Now, our dogs are not big, they are a medium breed, they are in the average weight rang for APBTs. APBTs are supposed to be 35-55 pounds and all of our dogs are 48-38 pounds. So, it's not like they are very big dogs, but they would pull so hard that I really couldn't walk them! They would literally pull until they couldn't breathe! I took our largest dog, Brooklyn, for a walk first. Even before we got to the end of the driveway I knew that these prong collars were a God send! Brooklyn didn't pull at all! No going crazy, no choking and gagging, none of that, just a nice, calm walk! Once I saw that the prong collars didn't hurt my fur babies and they actually worked, I really started to work with them on their walking. At first I just wanted to find something that would help them to enjoy their walks. I wanted something that wouldn't allow them to pull and hurt themselves. The prong caller did that right away, so we decided to make them walk next to or behind us from then on, that way we are in control of the walk, we are the pack leaders and they are following us, not the other way around! lol! All we did was just pull the leash back quickly whenever they started to get in front of us. It sounds bad, and the dog might yelp the first couple times because it startles them, but it definitely doesn't hurt. My husband and I love our dogs as if they were our children, we would never ever do anything to harm them in any way. So, anyway, we just hold them close to us with the leash, we don't hold the leash tight, it's relaxed with a bit of slack, but we hold them close enough to where if they start to try to get in front of us we can correct them right away. All we do to correct them, like I already said, we just give the leash one quick tug and they will stop for a second and then keep walking right next to us. You aren't supposed to pull them back or yank them around, it's just supposed to be one very quick tug, it has to be a pretty hard tug to get their attention and to get your point across, but again, it does not hurt them. With your dog being so small, you will just have to get a feel for it and figure out how hard to tug. The prong collar should make a quick snap sound and they get the point. It really didn't take any training at all once we started using the prong collars. Really, within the first few minutes of that first walk, they weren't pulling at all, and they were walking right next to us like they should! Again, just like anything, if they are used properly, the prong collars do not hurt the dogs at all. We honestly won't use anything else. The prong collars are really the only thing that works for us and our dogs!
I think it's great that you're looking into stuff like this! You are going to be a wonderful dog owner! It seems like a lot of people don't think small dogs need as much training and discipline as medium-large+ dogs, but really that's not true at all! All dogs need the same basic things. They all need to be properly trained, disciplined and controlled, in order to be a happy, healthy, well balanced dog. Dogs are pack animals, they need to be in a pack with a strong pack leader, regardless of the dogs size. If anything, most smaller dogs need more training and discipline than larger dogs! lol! It seems like most small dog owners don't feel like their dog needs to be properly trained and disciplined because the dog is so small, or they feel like they will hurt the dog or hurt the dogs feelings! lol! It hurts a dogs feelings if it doesn't have rules, boundaries and limitations (as Cesar Millan says! ). As far as hurting a small dog by training and controlling it, if you do things the correct way, the dog won't get hurt, you know? Another thing is that quite a few small dog owners feel that their dog isn't a threat, even if it isn't trained, disciplined and under control?! That's also completely wrong! Yes larger dogs can cause a lot more damage than a smaller dog can, but dogs are dogs. They all have teeth, they can all bite, they can all attack, they can all cause serious harm and therefor they all have to be properly raised, trained, socialized, disciplined and controlled. So, yes small dogs are a threat. All dogs are, some just more than others. Not to mention, an out of control small dog can be a serious threat to themselves! Anyway, that's really a whole different topic, so I'll stop now, but like I said, I think your going to be a wonderful dog owner. It seems like your already on the right track and your interested in doing what's right for you and your dog!
Oh, and another thing that is great, if the prong collar doesn't work for your dog, is the head collars, or gentle leaders. We do have a gentle leader for each of our dogs, and we have used them a few times, but the prong collars have worked much, much better for us and our dogs. The prong collars were like an instant fix for us and they have always worked amazingly well. We have never had one problem with them. But the head collars are also really good. If for some reason we couldn't use the prong collars, the head collars would be the next best thing, and for many dogs the head collars work the best. The thing about the head collars is that it normally takes more getting use to on the dogs part than the prong collars dog. The head collars go around the very top of the dogs neck and around the dogs muzzle. It isn't a muzzle though, the dog can still do everything that it normally does. It can eat, drink, pant, bite, etc. Anyway, here's a link for the head collars, or gentle leaders, if your interested. I would suggest the prong collars over the head collars though, but that's just me. Gentle Leader Home (broken link) Like someone else already said, the Gentle Leaders are normally around $30, but all the Gentle Leaders are is a head collar with the brand name. There are so many head collars out there, many are way cheaper than the Gentle Leaders and work just as well. It's all the same thing. We got kind of knock off Gentle Leaders because they didn't have the actually name brand ones at the pet store we go to. They had head collars that were the same exact thing, they came with an instruction DVD and everything. They are the same things as the Gentle Leaders, but we got our for $14.99 I think it was. Anyway, just thought I'd let you know. $30 isn't a lot of money, but we were definitely happy to find the same thing for $15 because we have to buy three of everything! lol!
Here's a picture of our male APBT, Brooklyn, wearing his prong collar for a nice long nighttime walk on the beach. I'd say he looks pretty happy, no pain at all!
hehe, give it to PBM to use lost os colorful smiley faces to express her post! Whew!
A good way to hide the prong collar is to get a nice bandana or something to tie around the dogs neck. This will cover it up somewhat and make your pitbull a little more pleasing to the eye to people. I myself own pitbulls and I put a bandana on them just to try to dress them up a little. Makes them look a bit less aggresive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PitBullMommie1206
Just like anything, if it's used properly it will not hurt your dog. A regular collar would hurt a dog more than a prong collar would if the dog was pulling on a walk. My husband and I own three APBTs (as you probably already know.. lol I only say that in every other post! ), Brooklyn is our 1 year 7 month old, 48 pound male, Jayda is our 1 year old, 42 pound female and Destiny is our 10 month old, 38 pound female. Like all dogs, they all had to be trained to walk on a leash. We had tried using just regular collars, harnesses, regular choke collars, choke chains, head collars, etc and nothing worked! The only thing that has worked for us is the prong collars. Also, when we walk them with anything other than the prong collars, I get so upset because they will pull and pull and pull until they hurt themselves! The only thing I can stand to walk my fur babies with is the prong collars. You should have seen me when my husband first brought the prong collars home though! lol! I was so mad and so upset! I thought there was no way in hell we were ever going to put those crazy spike chokers on my babies! Not only would it be cruel, it would also look horrible! I mean, we own APBTs, "pit bulls"! Most people just look at a "pit bull" and assume that it's this man-eating monster, even though in reality that couldn't be farther from the truth! lol! But my husband and I got our dogs because they are the perfect breed for us, we didn't get them because we just wanted a "pit bull" like some people do, you know? We did loads of research to find a breed that fit us, our lifestyle, and our wants and needs as close to perfect as possible, and the APBT just happened to be the breed for us. We don't ever want someone to look at us and our dogs and think that our dogs are mean or aggressive at all, or that we got "pit bulls" to look "tough" or "cool". I just thought that the prong collars would look horrible to other people, and I was extremely worried that they would hurt my babies. Anyway, my husband finally convinced me to at least give the prong collars a try, the deal was that I would walk them, not my husband, that way I would feel more comfortable. Now, our dogs are not big, they are a medium breed, they are in the average weight rang for APBTs. APBTs are supposed to be 35-55 pounds and all of our dogs are 48-38 pounds. So, it's not like they are very big dogs, but they would pull so hard that I really couldn't walk them! They would literally pull until they couldn't breathe! I took our largest dog, Brooklyn, for a walk first. Even before we got to the end of the driveway I knew that these prong collars were a God send! Brooklyn didn't pull at all! No going crazy, no choking and gagging, none of that, just a nice, calm walk! Once I saw that the prong collars didn't hurt my fur babies and they actually worked, I really started to work with them on their walking. At first I just wanted to find something that would help them to enjoy their walks. I wanted something that wouldn't allow them to pull and hurt themselves. The prong caller did that right away, so we decided to make them walk next to or behind us from then on, that way we are in control of the walk, we are the pack leaders and they are following us, not the other way around! lol! All we did was just pull the leash back quickly whenever they started to get in front of us. It sounds bad, and the dog might yelp the first couple times because it startles them, but it definitely doesn't hurt. My husband and I love our dogs as if they were our children, we would never ever do anything to harm them in any way. So, anyway, we just hold them close to us with the leash, we don't hold the leash tight, it's relaxed with a bit of slack, but we hold them close enough to where if they start to try to get in front of us we can correct them right away. All we do to correct them, like I already said, we just give the leash one quick tug and they will stop for a second and then keep walking right next to us. You aren't supposed to pull them back or yank them around, it's just supposed to be one very quick tug, it has to be a pretty hard tug to get their attention and to get your point across, but again, it does not hurt them. With your dog being so small, you will just have to get a feel for it and figure out how hard to tug. The prong collar should make a quick snap sound and they get the point. It really didn't take any training at all once we started using the prong collars. Really, within the first few minutes of that first walk, they weren't pulling at all, and they were walking right next to us like they should! Again, just like anything, if they are used properly, the prong collars do not hurt the dogs at all. We honestly won't use anything else. The prong collars are really the only thing that works for us and our dogs!
I think it's great that you're looking into stuff like this! You are going to be a wonderful dog owner! It seems like a lot of people don't think small dogs need as much training and discipline as medium-large+ dogs, but really that's not true at all! All dogs need the same basic things. They all need to be properly trained, disciplined and controlled, in order to be a happy, healthy, well balanced dog. Dogs are pack animals, they need to be in a pack with a strong pack leader, regardless of the dogs size. If anything, most smaller dogs need more training and discipline than larger dogs! lol! It seems like most small dog owners don't feel like their dog needs to be properly trained and disciplined because the dog is so small, or they feel like they will hurt the dog or hurt the dogs feelings! lol! It hurts a dogs feelings if it doesn't have rules, boundaries and limitations (as Cesar Millan says! ). As far as hurting a small dog by training and controlling it, if you do things the correct way, the dog won't get hurt, you know? Another thing is that quite a few small dog owners feel that their dog isn't a threat, even if it isn't trained, disciplined and under control?! That's also completely wrong! Yes larger dogs can cause a lot more damage than a smaller dog can, but dogs are dogs. They all have teeth, they can all bite, they can all attack, they can all cause serious harm and therefor they all have to be properly raised, trained, socialized, disciplined and controlled. So, yes small dogs are a threat. All dogs are, some just more than others. Not to mention, an out of control small dog can be a serious threat to themselves! Anyway, that's really a whole different topic, so I'll stop now, but like I said, I think your going to be a wonderful dog owner. It seems like your already on the right track and your interested in doing what's right for you and your dog!
Oh, and another thing that is great, if the prong collar doesn't work for your dog, is the head collars, or gentle leaders. We do have a gentle leader for each of our dogs, and we have used them a few times, but the prong collars have worked much, much better for us and our dogs. The prong collars were like an instant fix for us and they have always worked amazingly well. We have never had one problem with them. But the head collars are also really good. If for some reason we couldn't use the prong collars, the head collars would be the next best thing, and for many dogs the head collars work the best. The thing about the head collars is that it normally takes more getting use to on the dogs part than the prong collars dog. The head collars go around the very top of the dogs neck and around the dogs muzzle. It isn't a muzzle though, the dog can still do everything that it normally does. It can eat, drink, pant, bite, etc. Anyway, here's a link for the head collars, or gentle leaders, if your interested. I would suggest the prong collars over the head collars though, but that's just me. Gentle Leader Home (broken link) Like someone else already said, the Gentle Leaders are normally around $30, but all the Gentle Leaders are is a head collar with the brand name. There are so many head collars out there, many are way cheaper than the Gentle Leaders and work just as well. It's all the same thing. We got kind of knock off Gentle Leaders because they didn't have the actually name brand ones at the pet store we go to. They had head collars that were the same exact thing, they came with an instruction DVD and everything. They are the same things as the Gentle Leaders, but we got our for $14.99 I think it was. Anyway, just thought I'd let you know. $30 isn't a lot of money, but we were definitely happy to find the same thing for $15 because we have to buy three of everything! lol!
Here's a picture of our male APBT, Brooklyn, wearing his prong collar for a nice long nighttime walk on the beach. I'd say he looks pretty happy, no pain at all!
I did give up, when walking 2 dogs, on the flex pull! They were old so, pull me, and why! There best friend, always would walk, with his dog, and did carry treats! Anyway, why not, at the age of 12 plus!
If they are happy, me also! This young 9 year old I did try the choke collar, however, did retire it!
We had training etc., did retire that also! She is calm, and in her open door crate, till I go to bed! Then, up, behind pillows she does come!
No, she can not jump that high, so I do help! Some days I do miss the wild one! Other days, how sweet it is! My thought is, how did life go on so
fast, when this dog really, does a down, and the stay? Yes, they did get off easy on that also! The Boxer we had, was around 2, and never did pull,
he was a real neat dog! However, time does go on! Also the Boxer is a great dog!
Last edited by maggiekate; 04-23-2009 at 10:21 PM..
I always tell my clients to never walk their dog on a regular buckle collar, period. In my eyes, buckle collars are for IDs only. Gentle Leaders and Halti's work very well if you train the dog the accept them. They will throw a fit the first time one is put on, and probably the next few times after that. But they make training to walk properly on a leash SO much easier.
Otherwise I recommend some kind of harness. I personally don't like to use pinch collars or choke collars. It works well for some, but like someone else said, they can cause permanent damage to the trachea. Same with a buckle collar on a dog that pulls and lunges.
Keep at the 180's! It took my Golden about a week of them to FINALLY learn how to do a perfect heel. Now, he is a great walker....and if he happens to forget all it takes is a couple 180s and he is right back by my side!
Good luck!
Last edited by OctoberMoon; 04-24-2009 at 04:42 PM..
Reason: Apparently I can't spell :-P
I've always used a regular choke collar for leash training until I had to train my pit-lab mix (the Alpha female mentioned in other posts).
She is incredibly strong and loaded with energy, she was very hard to leash train. We finally graduated to a pinch collar like the one you bought.
The pinch collar did the trick and I don't know what we would have done without it. We only used it for a while (a few months) and then we were able to go back to a regular choke collar.
They look far worse than they feel (yes, we tried it out on our arms before putting it on her).
If the regular choke collar doesn't work, then I'd try the pinch, but I'd say try the choke collar first .
GREAT ADVICE.
Professionals have advised me thusly: the prong collar will, OVER TIME, cause a dog's trachea to collapse! I'm not sure about the choke chains - I didn 't ask specifically about those.
I only used a borrowed prong collar on my dog ONCE. I might consider using it a few more times, for 10-minute training periods ONLY. But right now, although it's slow going, she is making progress with regular exercise (about 2 hrs/day) and quick tugs to her nylon collar.
There;s no need to hurt..yes I said HURT your babies with prong devices that pinch, squeeze and dig in to the dogs throat. Those who have tried it on their arms I suggest they use it on their throat and ahve someone give the correction. You may not be aboe to see through the fur all the bruising that goes on under there.
The sensible harnes sworked for us the minute I put it on my little Schnauzer puller.
i've always had a difficult time walking my 100lb pitbull until i started with the pinch collar. now he walks perfect on the leash; walking right beside me and never pulling.
a few suggestions when using the pinch collar:
-if your dog starts pulling, turn around and walk in the opposite direction or in a circle...this tells the dog that you are in control, not them. it will take a while but your dog will get the clue
-hold the leash in your left hand and if make the dog walk right next to you..if you are walking ahead of them, it also shows that you are in control..
-if the dog walks ahead, dont tug back on the leash...tug to the side
I'll tell you want works for me. This goes back to my horse years. I have seen people fight and fight foals teaching them to lead. Don't. Tie them, let them fight in a safe place. Let them learn the can not out pull the halter.
Now, fast forward to dogs. I tie them as puppies and young dogs, in the house short periods of time. Let them pull and fight and bark. They learn they are not stronger than the collar. At least they think they are not. LOL
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with her it was 'my way or the highway' and she then learned that she was wrong ... it was Mommy's way now!
My husband and I own three APBTs (as you probably already know.. lol 
I only say that in every other post! 
The only thing I can stand to walk my fur babies with is the prong collars. 
All dogs need the same basic things. They all need to be properly trained, disciplined and controlled, in order to be a happy, healthy, well balanced dog. Dogs are pack animals, they need to be in a pack with a strong pack leader, regardless of the dogs size. If anything, most smaller dogs need more training and discipline than larger dogs! lol! 
prong collar.
.
