If shelter dogs are to be taken for “real” walks, more appropriate equipment, such as flat collars or front-clip harnesses, should be used. (A product with all the convenience and less risk than the slip lead is the martingale variety of the show lead, which can tighten only to a specified point martingale collars are covered below). This means that, like a choke chain, the collar part can tighten without limit, so there is potential for choking the dog.īecause dogs in shelters often must be moved quickly without time for collar fitting, this can be an acceptable brief use. The leash is pulled through the ring to form a slip collar at one end. A slip lead is actually a leash/collar combination, made of a length of nylon or leather with a handle at one end and a ring at the other. These are collars of convenience, often used by animal shelters and rescues, but also often in conformation showing. It’s critical that handlers are taught how to use this tool properly: gently and with great awareness. Doing so can badly injure the dog’s neck or even paralyze him. A handler must never yank or pull hard on the leash, or allow the dog to hit the end of the leash with force when it’s attached to a head halter. Our final reservation has to do with the fact that this tool can be used to severely injure a dog if used improperly. If you try this collar with your dog, be prepared to discover that your dog is one of the many for whom it is not appropriate because it is aversive. In other words, the discomfort of the collar just suppresses the behaviors you don’t like he hasn’t learned to exhibit the behaviors you enjoy more in order to earn rewards from you. You can see dogs who have worn these for years but still try to rub them off every chance they get.Īnother concern about head halters is that they tend to shut down behavior, so you may think you’re seeing a behavior change when, in fact, the dog is so stressed by the head collar that he stops offering unwanted behaviors. Other dogs dislike head halters no matter how much conditioning is done. That said, if the handler takes enough time to properly condition a dog to a head collar, some dogs learn to accept the collars and seem reasonably comfortable with them. While they look kinder to us than prong and shock collars, if they are aversive to the dog, they are not a force-free training tool. Our first reservation about these collars is that many dogs (perhaps even the majority) find them mildly to extremely aversive. A dog who is accustomed to pulling hard on leash with a conventional collar will find that he cannot easily pull while wearing a head collar. This gives the handler greater physical control of the dog’s head – and where the head goes, the body follows. While there are many different varieties and brands of head collars, they all function by moving the point of attachment from the dog’s neck to the dog’s head. Then there are the products we would support the use of, in just the right situation, and in the right hands. Dog Collars for Special Situations: Not for Every Dog The bottom line with all these collars is that they work because they hurt or intimidate your dog – not a good training philosophy. In contrast, we value confident dogs who are willing to offer behavior, something that many dogs who have been trained with behavior-suppressing methods don’t often do. These tools and the old-fashioned ways they are typically used often result in shutting dogs down – not something we want to see in our dogs. And recent studies overwhelmingly support the position that, while old-fashioned, force-based training methods can work, they also come with a significant risk of causing injury ( choke chains are known to damage canine tracheas) and creating behavioral problems, especially fear and aggression. In fact, shock-collar sales reps are quite skilled at convincing their clients that the application of an electrical stimulation doesn’t really hurt, while old-fashioned trainers are equally skilled at convincing these clients that the use of force is necessary to train a dog properly.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |