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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Jean is a graduate of Animal Behavior College and teaches basic obedience using positive motivation training techniques. She is a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers and has been teaching family dog basic obedience for three years. Jean is also a graduate of Northeastern University and is the co-founder of pupforum.com.
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[Edit]
1/24/2005
Can you tell me if you consider the prong collar too harsh, does it really hurt, or - as one is told -
it only nips the dog like his mother would when he misbehaves. Thank you Kevin Sadler Land
of the OZ. (yapyap, Outside the US)
Have you tried on the prong collar? I can tell you it doesn't tickle. And I've never seen a mother dog
give a nip that surrounds the puppy's entire neck, cutting off their breath even for a moment.
Too harsh does depend a lot on the dog. It is not too harsh for a 250-pound Mastiff, but
definitely for a 4-month-old lab.
I have two major problems with the prong collar. One is that it only tells your dog what
NOT to do. He must continue to guess what it is you want after the pinch. The second is that
it requires you to have leash in hand to communicate with your dog. What if you were not holding
the leash?
Most people do not have their dog on a leash twenty-four hours a day.
Truly, you need a dog that knows how to behave off leash as well as on. It takes extra work to
transition a dog that has learned to behave with a prong collar on over to behaving without the
prong collar on. Why bother with the transition? Find a way to communicate with your dog that
does not require a constant leash from the start. Teach your dog to tune into you, not the collar.
You've already got relative control over a leashed dog. It is more important that you can control
your dog from across the room, field or street.
I have seen dogs that are very well trained with a prong collar. I can't say they don't work.
But, I have also seen people misuse the prong collar and only manage to confuse and hurt their dog.
To me, using the prong collar to train is comparable to a schoolteacher using a ruler to smack a
student's wrist when he misbehaves. It's just outdated and there are much more useful alternatives
out there.
I have a papillon who will be 4 in January. I have had her since she was 9 months old.
She has been very "normal" up until the past year to year and a half. She start
ed squealing
and squinting her eyes if you moved suddenly or lifted your foot. She started crying when
she was picked up. It has gradually gotten worse to the point now I can't hold her without
her crying and acting very fearful. She is very hesitant about taking treats from my hand-
she wants to but squints and squeals when she reaches for it. No one has ever hurt her- I
have taken her to the vet many times thinking that there is something wrong with her-
she's had x-rays and blood work but the vet can't find anything wrong with her.
She can act playful and roll around, flipping in all directions without crying but if someone or
another one of the dogs makes a sudden movement, she cries. She has always been very close
to me, wanting to sit with me when I'm sitting. Now I can't get her to come to me. I go to
her and pick her up and she cries. This is very frustrating to me and breaks my heart.
I hope you can help. (carly, Arkansas )
Sudden behavior changes do not happen without reason. There must have been either some brief
but influential event in her life, or some medical reason for the change.
Are you certain that she can see clearly? Has the vet checked her eyesight specifically?
Have you noticed if she's using any of her other senses more than before like scent or touch?
If the reason is not medical, was there any period of time when something may have happened
to her when you were not around? Is it possible someone accidentally stepped on her or dropped
her at a kennel or groomer? If this could be the case, do you coddle and coo to her when she shows
fear? If so, you may be encouraging the fearful behavior. The best solution to almost any
situation where your dog shows irrational fear is to laugh and play with her as though you are
having the best time of your life, and she should be too.
Fran has written an article about dogs who appear to have been abused who really have just been a
little too coddled. You can read it
here
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