I keep seeing everywhere that a collar is supposed to fit just behind the dogs ears. It seems that my dog has pretty much a straight neck, meaning that no matter how tight I make her collar, it still falls down to her shoulders. Would it be better to just let her regular collar rest low on her neck and use a martingale or some such for walks?
She's a rhodesian ridgeback/pitbull mix best I can tell. (Looks mostly ridgeback to me but has some hints of pitbull in the face, like the inset on her forehead.)
P.S. I check the collar frequently to make sure that it stays adjusted for two fingers to fit in between, especially if the dog is growing or changing weight.
Melissa Thom Webboard User Reg: 12-04-2007
Posts: 2781
Loc: Upper Left hand corner, USA
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Hi Barry,
Welcome to the board. Often times I use the buckle collar for ID only.
I then have a secondary collar for my few dogs that require more of a training collar for walks either a martingale/showlead for the toys or a prong for my lab. A properly fit prong should work well for your dog. You can also get one of those dog whisperer collars if you don't feel comfortable with a prong collar.
Reg: 12-15-2007
Posts: 143
Loc: New Zealand, Auckland
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Hi Barry, part of the reason to have a collar fit just behind the ears like that is because they have less pulling power when it's up there. Having it down on the shoulders means they can put their whole weight behind it.
So if your pup isn't a puller I wouldn't worry about it too much right now. My dog has very similar neck shape and hair to yours and no amount of tightening is going to get his flat collar to stay up there. But if you have something like a prong collar it definitly should sit up behind the ears, it totally defeats the purpose if you let it sit down on the shoulders.
Yeah that's what I was wondering if I should just use a second collar for walking so I don't have to worry about where her flat collar sits on her neck.
At the moment I can't get her to be still long enough to get a prong collar on her but I can get her to put her head through a regular (ie martingale) collar all by herself so I think I'll just use that for her walks.
Her flat collar should sit low. If you put a flat collar behind the dog's ears, you will restrict her breathing (as well as make her very uncomfortable).
A *prong* collar goes up behind the ears. Prong collars do not and can not restrict a dog's breathing. A dominant dog collar could, but is only used during training and is not left on the dog 24/7. No training collar should be left on an unattended dog.
If your dog doesn't pull, you do not need a second collar. Just clip the lead to the flat collar in the low position.
If she does pull, then yes, use a training/prong collar. If you use a prong collar remember to use a backup collar (dominant dog collar) as well.
My dogs know that if I can't get the prong collar on them, they don't get a walk. They learn real fast to sit still. I just stand there and wait, collar in hand, for the dog to settle down. If it doesn't, collar and dog get put away and we try again later.
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Collar question.
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