I come here confused and upset. My Ultro is now 5.5 months old and I have been taking him to a basic obedience class. Two very knowledgable people have told me to NOT use a prong collar in such young puppy since I don't want to loose his trust among other things, specially if I'm going to do Schutzhund with him.
Well, last Saturday while in class, the owner of the facility asked me why I didn't have him on a Prong collar, when I explained what I had been told, she apparently got offended? (don't know why) and in a very rude tone told me that that was BS and that if I wanted to do it that way I should go train with these people. Needless to say I was in shock and very upset. I would have never expected that from her. I have been going to this place for years now and I train with my older GSD there on a regular basis.
I want to do things right with Ultro, he is great in class, does everything I ask him to do. The Saturday before this past one, the intructor asked to use Ultro as demo dog. I agreed and handed his leash. He told him to sit and Ultro refused. Instead of using treats to guide him to a sit, she started forcing him by pushing down on his butt. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> Needless to say Ultro would not bouch and kept 'fighting' her. She finally gave up, returned him to me and told me he was out of control and to use a prong on him. I have no problems with Ultro and he sits EVERY time I ask him to. I was pretty upset, but when the owner told me this last Saturday, it made matters worse, to the point that I don't even want to go back. The only thing is that other than a difference in when to use the prong collar, I love this facility and the trainers. Now I don't know what to do. Is 5.5 months old too early to use a prong on him? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> I love prong collars don't get me wrong, I use one on my adult dogs all the time. But Ultro is very much still a baby who is just learning all these new commands.

Trainer wants a prong because he didn't do what some stranger asked him to do? I'm sorry, but if you put a prong on him you'll ruin him at this age. Find another trainer that isn't so hung up on herself.

It all depends on your dog. I would talk to (and meet and let interact with your dog) a few different trainers to see what they recommend for him. Five and a half months isn't too young to start getting him used to a prong. I started my dog on one at that age, and she's just fine. You can start out putting it on with the prongs sticking out instead of in if you are uncomfortable. That will help him to get used to you putting it on him, and the way it feels as opposed to the choke chain or whatever you've been using up till now. Then, you can flip it over once he's used to it and whenever you and the trainer are comfortable doing so, and, under instruction of a knowledgeable trainer, you can start to use it the way it was intended.

Have you looked at the page that shows how to correctly fit a prong collar? If not, you need to. It's at http://www.leerburg.com/fit-prong.htm

I have been putting the prong collar on him, but not using it. Just so that he could get used to it. And yes, the intructor wanted me to put a Prong on him because he didn't obey her, she even told me that not all GSDs will work for strangers, and then turns around and tells me that he is out of control because she could not make him sit!!

Carolina,

Don't Listen to your trainer......Like Will said "A dog is not like a tool hanging on your wall where you can just let somebody borrow it".......a dog is only going to work for a person that it respects and has some kind of bond with.

I can't remember who said it, might be Will Rogers, but it goes something like this.
"If you think you are really important, try bossing around someone elses dog."
from what I gather from Ed's excellent training articles, not one training method fits all dogs. My Max was a "soft dog" and needed little harsh correction. Do you have Ed's Basic Obed Vid?. have you looked into "clicker training"? by the by, Max won't take commands from strangers either. I'm not an expert but I've seen what works with my pets.

I started using a prong collar on my female GSD at 5 months. However, I only corrected Roxy for failing to do things that I was CERTAIN she knew how to do. It is unfair to correct a puppy for failing to follow a command unless you are 100% certain that your pup understands the command. You don't correct a pup for ignorance of a command. It sounds like your pup knows the "sit" command and using a slight correction with a prong collar to enforce it wouldn't harm the pup. However, it doesn't sound like you need to do that. If your pup listens to you every time you say "sit", then you don't need a correction. I certainly would never start my pup on a prong collar just because she didn't listen to someone else! In short, my opinion is that she isn't too young, but that you shouldn't use a prong collar just so your pup will listen to the trainer!

Amen to what Stacie said!