Choke Collars

[Guest Anonymous]

I am hearing that choke collars are not the way to train a dog. I am trying to see if a choke collar can cause the trachea to be crushed.

[Lord_Pik]

What are you training your dog to do with the choker?

If it's for heeling, the choke CAN be used effectively, if you are very careful! You need to make sure that you correct the dog BEFORE he gets ahead of you, and then immediately loosen the chain. After all, the real purpose of a choke chain is for the noise, not to inflict pain on your dog. If you find you have a dog that is too fast or strong to correct without hurting him/her, you should switch to a halty, gentle-leader, loopy, etc..perhaps a martingale.

[yellowlabsrule]

I've always used a choke chain and never had a problem. It's actually required in 4-H and lots of obedience classes, but you need to make sure you put it on correctly so it's a slip collar. Before you put it on, make sure it forms a P.

[Nancy B]

[quote name='Sparky']I am hearing that choke collars are not the way to train a dog. I am trying to see if a choke collar can cause the trachea to be crushed.[/quote]

Hmm, having Dobermans I'm concerned about neck injuries since we have wobblers in the breed. (Cervical/neck instability) I don't use chokes at all. Likewise, I won't use a head collar....Halti type thing. If you have a driven dog in a breed with the potential problems Dobes have, the last thing you want to do is put them in something that could "snap" their necks around if they hit it running.

I do use a prong collar. It looks like a torture devise but, it's actually a lot more humane than a choke....safer for the neck too. I do not use a prong for a prolonged period. I never had to use one on my bitch. I think my boy went through about three weeks where he needed it.

I train mostly with positive methods, clicker training. Whitney was taught to heel offlead with a clicker and does a beautiful job. Mason OTOH, found it more rewarding to go visit (lunge) at other dogs in our class than assume the heel position that he'd learned at home. The prong cured him of the lunging but the clicker taught him the correct position.

Mason now only wears a flat buckle collar. The key with whatever you choose to use for training (choke, head collar or prong) is that you need to use that equipment to train the dog to walk nicely onlead. You don't want to continue to use it for the rest of the dogs life, just during the training period.

[DogPaddle]

Any device should be used with care, they can all cause problems, make sure you have instructions on proper use.
Nancy wrote:
[quote]The key with whatever you choose to use for training (choke, head collar or prong) is that you need to use that equipment to train the dog to walk nicely onlead. You don't want to continue to use it for the rest of the dogs life, just during the training period.[/quote]
Excellent point. We are getting there with Kavik, he will now walk nicely without his halti if there are no distractions, we are still working on the distractions. We tried the correction chain with Tyr as he hates the halti - no amount of wearing it or treating him when he wears it has worked. I found the correction chain also worked to train us when to correct and pay way more attention to where the dog was so we corrected at the right time. Our trainer suggested a lupi for Tyr so we are using one or the other right now, we are a little worried about how the lupi will effect Tyr's hip, we'll see.

[courtnek]

Every dog is different - chokes and prongs dont work on mine because they pull excessively, and just strangle themselves. The head collars work for me, but wont work for all dogs. Mine dont lunge, so the head collars work ok. As mentioned beofre, use whatever you pick only when training.
Don ever leave a choke or a slip collar on when the dog is unsupervised, They can literally strangle themselves if it gets caught on something.

Good luck!

:D

[Guest Anonymous]

Choke collars are called Choke collars because they are meant to CHOKE. You are all kidding youselves to think you are doing anything else wtih them. If you think they are not cruel, then I suggest you put one on your own neck and yank it.

I further suggest you do a seach on the internet on the internet under: choke collars hurt dogs. There is much documentation by professionals that clearly explains that chokes can and do harm dogs in many ways.

It's sad that people use these forums to base decisions that affects animals lives. I did not see one vet or professional respond to this. So the person that is asking the question is just getting "discussion" by uninformed people that use chokes. Naturally, anyone that uses a choke is going to say something positive.

This is a sad commentary on what people resort to for "information"

Here is a link from the SF SPCA

[url]http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:CsRDcSk9bQ4C:www.sfspca.org/behavior/dog_library/choke.pdf+how+choke+collars+hurt+dogs&hl=en&start=3&ie=UTF-8[/url]

[Lord_Pik]

HOW SAD - I, in fact, do not use a choke chain. However, IF you use a choke chain, and correct at the correct time, don't yank on their neck, and immediately release, the NOISE becomes a deterrant.

I agree that if misused or misunderstood, choke chains can and do hurt dogs, which is why I said it takes a very careful owner to use one properly. I myself know that even if I correct and release, Tyr will pull until the cows come home and I -- to avoid hurting him -- would have to let go of the chain, thereby defeating the purpose of having a training session completely.

[DogPaddle]

My vet suggested a choke or correction chain so long as my trainer would teach me to use it correctly. My trainer does teach proper use of correction chains, martingales, lupis, gl/haltis but not prongs as he has no experience with them. Any tool can be used incorrectly and cause harm, if you want to treat train your Malamute (a natural puller) to heel you are going to have one severly fat Mal in most cases. You have to use the tool correctly and yes many people don't. I do not like using the correction chain on Tyr for the reasons Pik stated but I do recognize how it could be valuable, like I said I found it did more to teach me when to correct than anything else and I apply that to some of the other heeling methods I use.

[DogPaddle]

It has just occured to me to wonder if Sparky and How Sad are the same person. Maybe I'm just :stupid: though.

[Prairie_Gurl]

I trained my GSD and Shadow on a choke chain, and it works great if used correctly. They are suppose to catch the dog's attention... not hurt him. They're great for training to heel and stay even, but not ment to teach your dog to stop pulling on a leash, or like agility or anything like that. They don't work very well on some types of dogs, however. Like, my husky's fur is too thick... the choker does nothing for him. So, I do positive rehinforcement training with him instead. I have no bad thought about either method when used correctly. There are things that you can do wrong with a choker, but you can also do things wrong with PR method too... like give the dog TOO MUCH treats at the wrong time. As long as you use the choker correctly, it is a great training method.