Hi trainers. I have a young (11 month) Catahoula Leopard Dog male. His fur is single-coated (like a Dobermann). I have a prong collar for him, but like so many on here I can't seem to get it right! If I put it on correctly like it says on the website, it will only stay up there for a few minutes (1 or 2 corrections) and then slide down. If I take one link off, it's too tight and not only can I barely get it ON, he shakes his head and scratches at it like it bugs him.

He is a hard dog. When we go on walks he pulls like a draught horse. Corrections with a prong only stop the pulling for a moment or two, then he pulls again. The prongs don't seem to affect him. I want him to walk nicely without pulling my arm off.

I have the basic obedience video but the method Ed showed with Dayma, doesn't seem to work with my dog.

Any suggestions? I didn't want to use a Gentle Leader because I really hate those things, but seeing as how I'm not very successful with the prong collar, is it time to try something new?

Your pince collar should fit tightly, right behind the ears. If it can slide down the neck, it's too loose. Your should not be letting the dog pull while he is on the pince, you are defeating the purpose of the collar. What is it you are trying to do? Are you talking about long loose easygoing walks or ob type work? If you are trying to just take him for walks, use two lines, one on the pince & one on a regular collar (flat or fur saver). If he starts pulling, pop him with the pince collar & at the same time use a verbal command (slow down, or whatever). Don't mistake an enthusiastic dog with a lot of energy for a hard dog! If you are wanting to do ob type fussing, then just use the pince, but put in lots of about turns, left turns, right turns & so on, & keep your sessions short & sweet. If your dog is high energy, you may want to toss the ball for him a few times before you go on a nice stroll to get the kinks out of his system!

Get a prong collar with smaller links. The correction will be harder and the fit will be more accurate.

Angela, do they have any dog obedience schools or training clubs (NOT PetSmart...) there in Sarnia, where the instructors teach owners HOW to use the equipment & give the commands, etc. -- Sounds to me from all your various posts that you could probably use some "hands-on" assistance, eh <:-)

I have bull breeds too, and prong collars don't fit them properly either. I'm wondering if someone should design them for dogs with thick necks <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Do you know what about turns are? Do those with the prong on, hard and fast and catch him by surprise. Repeat till he gets it. If you have a wooded area, practice it there because it looks ridiculous and I know I wouldn't want to be seen doing that in public <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Whatever you're comfortable with.

P.S. I'm not a trainer.

Does the dog know what it is suppossed to do? Have you trained it to walk properly in a non-distrating place? Or are we giving advise to unfairly correct the dog?

As far as fitting on a bully, if the dog has loose skin on it's neck you can pretty much forget it and plan on adjusting the collar regularly. The micro's work great for my bullies that have tiny necks. The one dog with loose skin needs her collar adjusted every hour or so that it is on her.

Barbara, Big Dog Boutique sells snap on martingale collars for bullies. I don't believe flat martingale collars are worth anything for training, but if it's a collar design you like, these collars are great for bullies.

I haven't gotten the big dog boutique collars. The martingale is supposed to be a "humane" choker - which is completely ineffective. The original martingale collars are used on sighthounds so the dog doesn't slip out of the collar.

I LOVE the blocky dog collars --- but my dogs are too small to wear them. Think jack russell terrier on stilts. I use the hemp collar and micro prong (both from leerburg) for the smaller dog and an agitation collar (from leerburg) with the larger dog.

I teach the dog to come to heel ("flip") and then look up ("look"). I use food at first, later a ball on string. Then I teach heel once step at a time with food on ech step. Then bring it outside, then switch to ball for distraction and food for accuracy.

I really like teaching flip first and making it the most practiced and most rewarded command. I can walk with the dog offleash and give the flip commadn every 3 - 4 stepps to get a relaxed heel. I bring out the ball or food to get it precise.

This is a new thing for me and I'm loving it. You can start it with an 8 week old pup, or an adult. It's really just what is on Ed's Competition Heeling DVD (which is my very favorite Leerburg DVD) The difference is I train a flip (left) finish first and use it to keep the dog in position.

The dog I'm working with is just moving from my house to the road outside and the distraction of a highway. He does it when going to discing "playdates" and when training in various deserted parks. I hope to start taking him on neighborhood walks soon.

I used to do the prong collar and surprise the dog thing with every dog. I did some major damage to a dog this way on some bad training advice. It was awful. I don't think I'll ever be able to do it again.

I need a sturdy collar for mine and I feel safer with the buckles. On one occasion one of my dogs broke the metal clip on the leash. The whole head broke off the body of the clip. I had looped her leash on the post of the front deck while I was doing yard work and called her name, not realizing she was going to come charging like a bull and break the metal. I don't know if I'd chance a collar that snaps on.

I like your method, especially the way you combine various OB commands to make it work. I wouldn't try the about turn on my nervy dog, but for a strong dog that was difficult to reach when excited about a walk, I liked it. I'd never heard of the method you described then. I've also used it to curb reactive dog aggression. Having the dog as a small puppy pretty much eliminates the need for the about turn for heeling though.

Good luck with the dog you're working with. I'm sure he'll be out and about in all kinds of distractions in no time <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

My question is also in this thread...

Search was not really helpful

I know the prong needs to be tight... but when I take the link out so it fits tight, my dog starts to wheeze audibly as I put it on, but once I get it on, he breaths normally, and I can just get a finger under the chain portion of the collar.

My dog seems to be slowly learning to walk, but when I verbally correct him "Slow", he twitches his head to the left, as tough flinching through a correction. It seems he expects to be corrected, but still likes to walk at the very end of the leash, with the leash almost tight. Doing 180 degree turns really doesn't help either, because he knows that we will be turning around again in a minute and he will try to dive in front of my knees to get around and go back in the original direct. I have varied the distance I walk when I do a 180, and it seems to be helping.

I give him a slow, and he slows, and flinches, but when I praise him right after, you can see him speeding up and taking the slack out of the line.

Thoughts?

pat