Thank you for the reply! If you have any pics, that would be great!

Yeah I saw on Ed's site how to properly fit the prong collar. I havent used it yet, but I didnt realize that it needed to be so high up towards the ears.

If I didnt know anybetter, I would have put it down where a regular collar is usally at.


The location you mentioned to measure the neck...is that the normal place for all neck measurements or just the prong collar? I would assume just the prong collar as most other collars dont ride that high.

Thanks again!

You're welcome. I'll get the pics off my home computer tonight and post them tomorrow for you.

The reason this collar must be fitted high up on the neck is because:

1) if it isn't fitted to the circumference of the dog's neck just behind his ears (the smallest neck measurement the dog should have), then it can slide down. When it slides down, and you give a correction from the side or front, then you can potentially pull the collar back up on the dog's neck. This not only can cause irritation of the skin as the collar slides back and forth, but your correction isn't as good because the collar has too much slack in it.

2) The top of the neck, just behind the ears, is the part of the neck with the least amount of muscle - meaning that your correction doesn't have to be as hard because the dog is more sensitive up there. If the collar rides low on the neck, when you give a correction, you're fighting muscle and end up having to give a much harder correction to be effective. A dog's neck is the strongest part of its body.

You'll probably see a lot of people who have prongs on their dogs, but they are so loose that when the leash is tightened, the rings meet. Having the collar this loose does nothing but cause the prongs to jab into the dog. When the collar is fitted correctly, it works better; it looks better (because the actual prongs are harder to see since they aren't dangling); and it just makes things easier.

I may have confused you in this post, but it'll make sense when you see the pictures.


Make sense? I can show you better with my pictures.

Ok. I got the pictures and put them on a web page for easy viewing. They are at: http://www.angelfire.com/tx6/shrinercpa/prongpics.html

Have fun!

WOW!! Thank you so much for taking the time to do that!
That gives a good understanding of how it should and should NOT be worn.

I see what you mean by the bigger prong collars. I believe the one that I have is an XL and the prongs do stick up on his neck. I think a large would be better. His neck isnt THAT big.

Hmmm.

Again thanks for the pics!

I forgot to mention that the loose skin will cause the collar to slip down just a bit when a correction is given. I have that problem with my dog. However, IF it is properly fitted when it is first put on, then a little movement is okay. Unlike a flat collar, you should not be able to fit any fingers between the prong and the dog's neck. It should be snug, but not restricting.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you!

Kristen

I'm not sure if you guys would recommend this, but I was unable to get prong collars to stay around my dogs neck with the adjustments provided by removing links. I took a zip-tie and cinched 2 or 3 of the links on each side in the part of the collar that goes to the ring where you attach a lead, to tighten up the collar a bit it seems to work pretty well for me.

Originally posted by Curtis Tiffany:
I'm not sure if you guys would recommend this, but I was unable to get prong collars to stay around my dogs neck with the adjustments provided by removing links. I took a zip-tie and cinched 2 or 3 of the links on each side in the part of the collar that goes to the ring where you attach a lead, to tighten up the collar a bit it seems to work pretty well for me. Please explain how you can't get the collar to fit right?? Unless you have a extra large link collar on a Chinese Crested I can't picture not being able to fit it correctly.

I think you misunderstood what I was saying (or what I didn't describe properly). =) The collar would stay around the neck, but not at the level it was supposed to.

I'm using large size links on a great dane. The zip tie pulled in enough slack and the collar now fits more snug around the dog's neck and it doesn't slide down very much. You asked about the 1/2 links earlier, this is how I was able to fine tune the circumference of the collar.