Re: Choke/prong collars

A collar that is "tight" enough to ride on the top of the neck, isn't tight at all.

I can fit three fingers between my dog's collar and her skin.
Its only tight in the sense that it doesn't slip to the bottom of her neck. Consider how "tight" your watch is, to keep it from sliding around. No constriction involved- just removing slack.

A prong that is too loose isn't correcting the dog through the intended action- a quick "pinching" of the dog's skin around the neck. Instead, its akin to grabbing and yanking on a hula-hoop while someone is standing in it- you aren't squeezing them with the hula hoop, you're hitting and jerking. Hitting and jerking anything in the neck, is going to cause injury.

A properly used collar, be it a prong, or a choke, works by applying pressure to the *back* of the dog's neck, not the throat. A properly fitted prong collar doesn't even have prongs near the dog's throat, they're on the back of the neck.

The correction is administered through pressure to the back of the neck, which contains a considerable amount of nerves. It is not given through "choking" the dog. The pressure is designed to be sudden and brief.

 Quote: Aaron Myracle

A properly used collar, be it a prong, or a choke, works by applying pressure to the *back* of the dog's neck, not the throat. A properly fitted prong collar doesn't even have prongs near the dog's throat, they're on the back of the neck.

Wait, you mean I'm doing this wrong? Now before I read the Leerburg's page on how to fit the prong collar I did have it about midway on the dog's neck instead of right up under the chin. But looking at their Properly Fitted Doberman pic, even with most of the chain on the right, only maybe one prong is on the back of the dog's neck, so it doesn't look like it is really pinching the scruff to me... And if I can fit even two fingers between the prong tips and the dog, the collar slides down her neck at first shake.


The officer's dog didn't look at all like it was about to attack that betta fish; it really just looked like it was sniffing the floor.
My problem with chains on my lab is that she dashes to the end of the lead or spins in circles until the collar is very tight. I'll just be standing there, and she's trying to strangle herself. Can't pop a correction if the collar is already as tight as she can pull it herself.

Her main problem is low attention span and not enough exercise. I've just recently moved into my own home with my own yard (yea!) but still need to put up a fence. She'll pop off obedience commands with no problem, but the second she isn't receiving a direct command its like someone bounced a superball. There is only so much energy they can burn off wrestling around boxes in the living room. I can't be too hard on her for having so much energy and really having to go at 7am when we get up, but some days I just have to put the pinch collar on her to keep her from jerking me off my feet bouncing everywhere sniffing every spot of stray cat urine and toad outside. Takes some of the pressure off me holding the lead as I have bad knees and she can really jerk me around sometimes.

The more I think about it, I may need to get her a collar with the medium links instead of the large. I'll check when I get home today. That did clear up some about the way that's supposed to fit, thanks. I was a little hesitant to buy a smaller link as I had her on a smaller gauge chain collar for a week. One day as I was just leaving the house with her, she took off after a squirrel and the collar snapped when she got to the end of the lead. Not having an outdoor fenced place to practice recalls, her recall isn't very good outside and off leash.