Hello,
I have a 6 month old Golden Retriever that pulls on the leash as if we were sleding in Alaska. Anyhow, after trying the gentle leader, haltis and "choke" chains, someone recommended the prong collar, which i purchased. I have it fit snug and it works like a charm so far.

My question is, how are correction supposed to be made with the prong collar? For instance, he starts pulling, do jerk/heel and release like the "choke" collar? Or is there a different method??

THANKS!!

my advice - at 6 months old, don't do anything.

let him hit the end of the leash and correct himself. then praise the heck out of him while he looks around wondering what just happened.

and there's no way his loving owner could be the bad guy - cuz you're telling him what a good boy he is right after it happened...

weird.

it won't take him long to figure out that when the leash gets tight, so does that thing around his neck.

you've got a few more months before you worry about correcting him for real. but when you do, it is a very quick POP - never a pull or dragging them.

good luck.

Yep, tried that for six weeks, with no improvement at all. With the prong, i have been giving a very slight quick pop and it's been working, i was wondering if the "pop and release" method was correct, THANKS.

Hi Travis:
6 month old goldens need a lot of patience and exersize. After a long history with dogs, Chroma is my first Golden and I was really thrown by the amount of exersize he needed at 6 months--we're talking about 2 hours a day of activity plus general playing in the backyard etc. If he didn't get that level of activity he was not only difficult to live with he was a nightmare on a leash. I started getting him use to the concept of the leash when I brought him home at 12 weeks. By 6 months we were doing little daily "training walks" down mainstreet. However, if I took him somewhere else he reverted to being too excited. Thie is normal behavior for a six month old dog. It's very easy to get frustrated and start wanting to up the anti in the correction department to get the dog to listen to you--but it's not a great idea. At six months Golden's have "soft" throats, unless you're really experienced with using a prong collar I don't recommend it. Chris gave very good advice. And the bad news is that it's going to take longer than six weeks to develop leash work. This is the time to convince the dog that above all else in life it wants to please you. 6 months to about 2 years are very challenging times, but if you can stick it out working appropriate levels of obedience the end result is really nice. It's also a good age to get the dog in a "fun" sport where you can still build a relationship but the dog isn't quite as confined--tracking is really good for goldens.

EDIT: By 2 hours of exercise I do not mean run the dog straight for 2 hours. Long walks throught the woods or fields where they can adjust there own speed is good. Swimming is also good.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Molly,
ONE of the reasons he pulls is, he is scared of delivery trucks, school buses, motorcycles, garbage trucks, anything on the road that is big and noisy. I live in a beach town, where houses are very close together and there are only two main streets that run through our town. As soon as he sees the main street with the trucks,etc., he starts to bolt. I try to take him to the beach as often as I can, but they don't allow dogs up there, so I have to go there either early in the morning or late at night. We also go to a dog run about a mile away, but sometimes there is up to twenty dogs in there and I get concerned about dog fights that I here about and also diseases from other dogs. We do go, but maybe once a week when it's not as crowded.

Now with the fear of load noises,trucks,etc., I have read and followed some advice. Fro instance, when the dog gets scared, don't console, but act like everything is fine and keep walking. I thought about not taking him up to the main streets because of his fear, but then I thought, thats not right either, because he'll never get over the fear. When we go to the beach, we do some heel work, which he is doing well at. BUT when on the street, he does not care about anything i say to him, he is petrofied. When I but the prong collar on, he is still nervous but does not pull after the first correction.

If there any other suggestions, I'am all ears <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> .

Thanks again.

I would ditch the prong collar for dealing with this right now! I have first hand experience.

I live in Chicago where there is the EL (elevated train). One day when my dog was a pup, we got stuck (delivery truck in front of us, an argument on the street -- long story) under the EL when a train went by overhead. I have lived here for 10 years, and still when that thing roars overhead you think the world is caving in on you. After that experience (he was probably 4 mos. old), he did not want to come within 50 yards of the EL, and if we did, he would freeze, shiver, try to bolt, the whole thing. I tried to distract him with treats, toys, acting like a fool, anything -- nothing worked. Frankly, my bad for having him in such an overwhelming situation, but it happened. As an aside, nothing wrong with this dogs nerves -- other than the EL. He is not gunshy, has flown in commercial planes, small planes, had planes landed over him, deals with buses, cars, horns, freight trains,thunder, fireworks, strangers of all appearances, you name it -- this is a city dog who gets exposed in a day to more than many dogs see in a lifetime -- and not a hint of a problem.

I asked a well regarded trainer how to deal with his fear of the EL. He told me to put the prong on him and do rapid fire obedience under the EL. The dog had to learn to pay attention to me in all situations and had to learn that he would have to "deal" no matter what. Well, I should have gone with my gut, which told me that this was nuts. But, this guy had a great reputation, so I did it for a couple weeks, few minutes a day. As you can imagine, the problem got worse.

So, I discussed the issue with another trainer who confirmed my gut. First, using the prong in the scary situation gives the dog not just one problem (the EL), but now me and the collar are a problem too. For your purposes, that is why I would take the prong off. He already has a negative association with that road, and the prong is certainly not helping and might be making it worse. Also, rapid fire obedience for a pup is nuts too -- but that's not your issue.

I now have him to the point where he gets truly excited to be near the EL. We started about 100 yards away, a distance where he could see the EL, but was not scared. I gave him treats as obedience rewards, played ball, gave him a Kong filled with peanut butter -- anything he liked. The next day, we moved literally 2 feet closer. This was a long slow process, because once the fear hit, that was it -- he would not play, take treats, anything. It was critical that I continue to move him forward, but not into the "fear zone." To this day, I give him a couple treats as we approach the EL and then a couple more when we are under it.

I would take the same approach. Start at a safe distance, take baby steps, make being near that road pleasurable. Then make be on one corner pleasurable, then 10 feet further. Sometimes just sit with him, and give some treats.

Don't console him! Just try to make the treats interesting, move them around, stick them under his nose, drop them, whatever you can do to get his attention off his fear, and then treat him. Think little successes.

Adam,

Thanks, thats alot of good tips that I have not tried yet. It's pretty strange, today my wife and I took him to the "fear" area twice today and he was PERFECT, he walked to heel, trucks blazing past and all. We don't know if it's just coincidence, but we were thinking maybe it was because both me and my wife were there, as opposed to just one of us walking him.

We will try again tomorrow, only adding in some nice treats and a kong <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> .

THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE.

Hi!
I have been working with my dog with choke collar for 9 months. Then I realised that corrections with this kind of collar does not mean anything for her for she's strong rott. Few days ago I started to use prong. I read in Ed's article how to fit it and it fits fine. But it seem that my corrections are not strong enough because I'm scared of hurting her. Example:
we are walking and another dog approaches. I don't want her to go to that dog or even look at him (because we are working or passing to other side of the street so we have to move quickly), but she is constantly turning her head. I give her correction with 'no' and she looks at me (I tell her 'watch me')but the next second she looks right back at that dog! I know it is not good to give corrections few times but how do I know that the correction is hard enough? I see that she knows this is different than choke but to be honest I'm a little bit scared of hurting her. There's no one around here where I live who can show me the level of correction because this is not a very popular way of correcting dogs, if you know what I mean.
Thx!

Maria

Maria,
I am also using a prong on my first dog. One thing that really helped me (my trainer told me to do this) is to put the prong on your thigh and try it on yourself. It helped me alot with the corrections. My GSD is very soft so it doesn't take much for him to pay attention. Now my little griffion is very hard, so it takes alot more for my 12 pound dog than my GSD...LOL. It is very hard to judge the level of correction when you are just starting, beleive me, I give wussy corrections all the time...LOL. But somehow in the end it all works out, it just may not be the fastest route, but maybe the happier route. I get Koda's attention with his favorite toy or a hot dog. And praise praise praise when he looks at me, if he looks away I say "NO" and he looks at me again. Inside he will watch me until I say OK, but we haven't worked up to the distractions outside yet, but we are working on it. I hope this helps some, I know what you are going through because I am going through the same. But prongs are wonderful tools, I couldn't handle my GSD without one. He will someday out weigh me so it's a must! He already weighs more than 1/2 of what I do. Without the prong he would be pulling me all over the place and could easily get away and chase that rabbit. Good luck

Christina

Originally posted by Christina Miller:
put the prong on your thigh and try it on yourself. It helped me alot with the corrections. I went so far as to put it on my neck, I grabbed the rings in my finger and gave it some real good tugs. It was uncomfortable, I'll say that--but not unbearable. Doing this definitely took away many of the questions I had on the prong and how it felt to the dog.