Leerburg / Ask Cindy / New / Is it ok to use a prong and e-collar in a very col...

October 22, 2023

Is it ok to use a prong and e-collar in a very cold climate? Should we switch to a slip lead?

Full Question:

Hi Cindy,

We have been primarily using prong collars with our pups since early spring. We live in Canada, and a part of Canada that gets extremely cold.

One of our dogs is a big powerful guy, who we are working through reactivity with. The prong has been a great tool.

I was thinking today that cold metal might not be the best idea in the winter, and I believe a plastic pinch may become fragile in our temperatures as well - probably not good for our e-collar batteries either (can be down to -50 deg C, but normal is -20 for a few months), obviously we wouldn’t walk our dog in -50, but just to paint the picture.

Would you suggest moving toward something like a slip lead or dominant dog collar? We have used a slip in the past with little success. Would you suggest going back to the basics of understanding leash pressure if we switch tools. Are there any other tool options we could look at?

Sorry, that was a long one.

Thanks in advance for any advice!,

Cindy's Answer:

Hi there, thanks for your question. it gets incredibly cold here in NW Wisconsin too, with similar temps to what you get in Canada.

I use my prong and ecollar year around, since we're not out for extended periods of time when it gets that cold I think you should be fine as long as you warm up the tools in between uses and don't stay outside for hours. I do put my ecollar on the charger overnight after using it in extremely cold temperatures.

I hope this helps.

User Response:

Hi Cindy! Big thank you, this did help!

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