Thank you all for your replies. I feel a LOT better now. I plan on buying one and putting it to use. My boy will benefit from it I'm positive. Thanks again.

I wonder what the guys at PetSmart HQ think of their employees making their customers feel like evil heartless <beep>s when they buy their products?

There's a lady at my local petsmart that is always ranting on about how badly those horrible people with service animals treat their dogs, n how horrible it is that nobody's allowed to give the poor dog a cookie even when the dog totally looks like he wants attention from someone.

My solution? Leave my dog in the truck when I go to PetSmart, and go to the check out girl that doesn't seem to care what the heck I'm doing when I go to buy a "questionable" product THAT THEY SELL.

I wouldn't waste my time or energy trying to convince someone that's been stupid for 25 years to change their ways, if someone can be stupid for 25 years, they can be stupid for 25 more for all I care.

HOWEVER: On the plus side, even though they are advocating useless training, I'd rather that someone trains at PetSmart than goes to a worthless trainer that is gonna encourage them to ruin their dog's happy temprement by beating the heck out of it and misusing training tools. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I wish I took my dog to a petsmart training class instead of the crank n yank choke chain trainer I took him to as a puppy, the only downside is that I may not have ended up with the training knowledge, experience and attitudes that I have now. Unfortunately my guilt over having been too hard on him as a puppy means I'm sometimes a little too soft on him now that he's older, but he's a thousand times better in his obedience now than he was even 6 months ago.

Mmm...I helped a couple out who had a very large (looked like a mastiff crossed with a Pharaoh Hound), out of control dog they were looking at signing up for obediance classes at Petsmart. They saw Aussie--who, while not perfect by any means, at least knows how to sit quietly while I look at stuff--I explained about the prong collar and showed them how to use it (and went through the whole rigamarole about it looking like a medieval torture device but wasn't). In about 10 minutes the dog had quit barking his fool head off at every single dog he saw and was sitting. Worked a lot better than the whacks upside the head the guy was giving him out of frustration. I mentioned that the trainers wouldn't let them use the prong in class and would probably try to get them to use a Gentle Leader. Guess what their response was? "They did that already and we tried it. We returned it."

Actually the trainer at my Petsmart is not against them, to my surprise. They just aren't allowed to use them in class, and I didn't get a really good explanation behind that little company policy.

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...Actually the trainer at my Petsmart is not against them, to my surprise. They just aren't allowed to use them in class, and I didn't get a really good explanation behind that little company policy.

Yes this is interesting. I'm gonna have to find out about this myself actually. I'm not sure if thats a Petsmart rule or just based on the individual trainer's rules. Like maybe at another Petsmart, the trainer there might allow the prong. Hmmm... time to do some digging.

National company policy only allows martingales(a glorified choke), head collars, harnesses, and flat collars in classes.

Hi Antone,

You've had some good advice but here's my 2 cents worth.

I am NOT against prongs, in fact I have one and use it on my dog now and again but I have some concerns (which I'll post later today) which may be realted to my use of the prong.

You should consider this though. YOUR dog may not need a prong.

Use of a prong should only be considered if you think you dog actually needs one. This requires you to evaluate your dog in training and walking to see what his responses are to a hard correction on a normal collar first. And as you probably know you should not be correcting your puppy at a serious level until 6 months or later, which your dog is not.

If after that time you think your dog requires a prong for not minding, pulling at leash etc. then fair enough, try training on a prong and you WILL notice a difference.

That said, I do not beleive there to be anything wrong with prong collars as a training tool (I've done a LOT of reading on the subject from both sides of the divide) provided you take proper precautions BEFORE use i.e.

1. Try it on yourself to see what minor and major corrections are before correcting your dog.
2. Start with a very light correction on the prong to see how your dog reacts.
3. Keep any eye on your dogs movement (a lot of people I see don't even look at their dog when going for a walk) when walking with the prong & flat, if he's not walking properly, or has head to one side then there is a proble either with the fitting, your use of, or the dogs neck (that one should probably be in there first).

HTH

John

I've never met a dog that wouldn't benefit from a prong collar, you just need to tailor your corrections to the dog, just because you have a prong on the dog doesn't mean you have to jerk the dogs head off. Even if the dog's self correcting or you're slightly tugging it for a reminder, a dog has far more resilience against a flat collar than a prong, I'd rather tug the prong than jerk the dogs head off with a flat collar.

I quite agree Mike. When I see these hyperactive pit bulls suffocating themselves trying to lift the pavement with their nails that were trained by these happy pappy petsmart trainers... These dogs are heading down the road of collapsing trachea FAST.. All to spare a few moments of instinct satisfying pressure (prong correction).

yelled at huh?
so it's ok to get in your face all jawabi, but using a pinch
is too aggressive?
me thinks this woman mad.
A pinch gets you there faster, with less pain on both your dog's neck, and your's, after numerous nagging ineffective
yanks. Tell her that,if she used one, maybe the pain in her neck will go away, and then she can be as civil as your dog!