Pinch-Prong collars

**Arazante** · 02-20-2007, 01:09 PM

One of my friends had a question about these collars. Do they emit any kind of pain or physical stress to the dog? Do they emit more pain/stress to smaller dogs? Are they intended for all breeds and what makes them more (or less) effective than a normal collar? She wants to know if they train dogs through small amounts (or large) of pain rather than verbal commands.

**celtechfarms** · 02-20-2007, 01:27 PM

Ohh, nice, I have been bashed so many times for using these collars on my two dogs, sadly due to misinformation.

Prong Collars, seen below are collars with two prongs facing in on your dogs neck. The prongs when a dog pulls close in on one another, giving the dog a quick pinch to the skin. Most dogs will yelp, my rottie ignores them, my shepard is a perfect angle when he has one on.

The collar does not truely hurt your dog, it is a pinch, like pinching the flesh on your own neck, and discourages the dog from pulling. Dakota use to pull me down the road, with a prong collar, he pulls once, as if testing it, when he feels the pinch, he immediatly stops pulling a walks great on it. Mind you the night the dog came rushing out at my doughter he ignored the collar completely to try and stop the other dog.

Its actually a great training device and does not harm the dogs trechea (sp) the way buckle or choke collars due. You have to make sure you wear it on your dog properly, Leerburg has a great artical on how to wear them, and use them properly, they should not be on 24/7 but rather put on just as your going out, when my dogs see us getting out the prong collars they run to use excited because they know they're going out for walks.

The collar can go on any size of dog, just make sure you by the right sized collar for your dog, small for small breed dogs and large for large breed. However they are not for all dogs, I suggest if buying one, buy from a store you can take your dog to and try it on them. I have heard of one dog that had agression issues and took the collar as a direct threat to his status and launched of the ground snapping at his handler, after all it does pinch the neck, the one area dogs attack when fighting.

And most importantly, the collar should not be a substitute for obediance lessons, your dog still needs to know his manners, and though our dogs are both trained, Dakota still attemps to chase transfer trucks and motorbikes, so I would be in big trouble without it and Jade just out right gets too excited on walks, we actually do a combo of gentle leaders, which I hate, and the prong to keep her at our side when things get exciting.

Also, some shelters consider prong collars to be inhumane, but go to your local K-9 unit at you police station, these dogs are handled with a prong collar at all times. Your police are not going to use inhumane methods with their dogs, this is a well respected training tool by most obediance trainers, even my own trainer, who believes it is a good tool, but not a way to get around training your dog.

**Arazante** · 02-20-2007, 02:57 PM

Thank you. :) We both had wondered in particular because she and I were watching an episode of "The Dog Whisperer", where a Jack Russell Terrier barked and ran around everytime the family turned on their motorcycles. Ceasar used a prong collar, turned on the motorcycle, the JRT ran at it, then yelped when it pulled on the collar. Ceasar said it was because of his hand motion and that he was repressing the dog's urge to do what it wanted, but I suspected it was because of the collar. My friend had been curious if she would get the same effect on her dog, which is a big mutt, probably with a staffy mixed in, or if her dog would ignore it. So we wondered if there was a difference in the effect between sizes of dogs and whether or not they were better or worse than normal neck-collars.

Thank you for the information, though. :D Not sure they'd be my personal collar of choice (I prefer a harness), but I can see why police would use them.

**kerryclair** · 02-20-2007, 07:02 PM

I discourage the recommendation in using these collars. Like Celtech said, they can be a great training tool, just like a shock collar if that is needed - IN THE HANDS OF PEOPLE THAT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING.

Sadly the facts are that most people that have dogs DON'T know what the heck they are doing, read something that talks about these types of collars or shock collars, go out and buy one and think it will solve their problems. I have rarely seen a person use these devices correctly. Instead it seems to be that it is mostly the ignorant pet owners that wind up dragging their dogs around with these things...or shocking the hell out of them when the dog hasn't even been trained yet. Sometimes training aids in the hands of the ignorant becoming the sole source of training....and not an "aid".

In Celtech's situation, she is an experienced dog person, she knows what she is doing, her dogs are trained and she uses this as a training AID. It assists her in working with her dog.

In this case I see no problems, but in most cases, working in a shelter, seeing the people on the streets, people that read these posts on the internet, should NOT be getting chock collars and pronged collars.

Just my two cents...

**kerryclair** · 02-20-2007, 07:04 PM

Let me also add that I don't want people to NOT recommend these or discuss them on the forum....I think most of the people here are awesome pet folk and already KNOW the stuff I am saying above, and it is a non issue and this is a good subject for us to talk about, and discuss....but for the lurkers or the people that are going to buy a shock or promg collar with no experience, I strongly suggest you take your dog to an obedience class and learn some things first. Learn first how to work with and communicate with your dog.

**celtechfarms** · 02-20-2007, 07:40 PM

I must add myself, that I never ever put one of these collars on my rescues, infact it was in my adoption contracts that both pinch collars and head halters were not to be used on any dog adopted from me. Rescue dogs can have so many hiden issues that a prong collar could bring out in the split second it is used. To put a prong collar on a rescue dog is asking for trouble, a submissive dog could end up scared for life, a dominent dog could turn deadly violent. I only ever placed these collars on my dogs because I raised my two and knew them both since they were pups and knew basicly how they would react to them.

I have heard horror stories of people putting these collars on dogs 24/7 and the dogs are rescues with open sores on their necks and no fur where the collar lays, seriously, if you wore something that rubbed the same place day in and day out that would happen to you too, which is why I said you can't leave them on. Kerry is very right, if you don't know what your doing, its the worse thing you could use, just like halties, if you pull your dogs head around fast and hard your going to seriously hurt your dogs head, if not snap their neck. So is a prong collar a dangerous object if it isn't used right.

I love the prong collar debate, what I hate is someone telling me I abuse my dogs by using them. Don't feel ashamed to use one, anyone who is using them here, they are a training tool and one recognised by many to be a very effective tool in protecting your dog and yourself from issues such as car chasing. I would say that Jack Russel was definitly reacting to the collar, and not to some hand signal. I'm really going to have to get this channel and watch some of this trainers shows, sounds like hes trying to take the credit for work he has not done, I worry about the families left with these dogs they think have been retrained by his actions.