Is my 8 month old GSD too young for a prong collar? I read on this thread where pups shouldn't be trained with a prong collar. I'm thinking a prong collar is the only way to get him to heel. He's constantly surging ahead...to the point of where his leather collar is choking him. When I pull back on the leasth or give him a pop with it, he only slows down for a split second and then it's off to the races again. Any suggestions would be most welcome.
If you're just wanting him to have manners and walk around the neighborhood, use a prong. If you're wanting to teach him formal heeling, for competition, that's a whole different story.
IMO, no training collar should be worn 24/7 by any dog for a variety of reasons. Prong collars can get snagged and cause injury to the dog whether he is loose or kenneled or crated.
With my own dogs, the training collars go on in the morning before we go out for a walk and come off 1 to 2 hours after we are done walking or training for the day. Even if we are just going for a ride in the car to visit someone, all the collars go on before we leave the house... my dogs associate collars with doing something fun, they may not even have a leash snapped on every day but the collars go on so if I need them they are ready...beats fumbling around for a collar after the fact. I have noticed a lot of people (both beginners and experienced) wait til the dog has made a mistake without a collar and lead and THEN decided to get the prong and leash out to correct the dog... they then wonder why the dog is wise to the equipment. :rolleyes:
Thanks for the reply, Cindy. Do you think my 8 mo. old GSD is too young to wear a prong collar when we go for a walk? He's not a lot of fun to take walking because he strains so hard against the leash. Also, when you remove the prong collar, do you replace it with a leather collar? I know these seem like ignorant questions but I'm new to dog training and I'm trying to learn as much as I can. I dearly love my dog and I want what's best for him. Sometimes, however, I could just "kill" him because he makes me so mad when he doesn't obey my commands. Maybe the prong collar will be the answer.
Thanks, Michaela. My prong collar should arrive today. I ordered it from Leerburg. I've been training him for two months now. He's learned the sit, down, stay commands pretty well. He does much better with them when he's somewhat tired. He's got such high energy and drive. It's just amazing. I know I'm just scratching the surface with him. I only hope I'll be able to help him reach his potential.
Butch - when you start your "heel" trg try and do it in a familiar, not too stimulating area - like your backyard until he gets familiar with what the idea of the exercise is. I start my Siberians and Alaskan huskies at a about 12 weeks on a flat collar, as by 8 months they are starting harness trg and can ski me down the driveway if they are not taught early to walk in a somewhat controlled manner on a leash. I find a more boring area helps them learn to focus on you and then once they got the idea you can move onto the street and more interesting and distracting areas.
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