Many people refer to prong collars as “power steering” for your dog. This is all fine and good, but you should know how to handle your power steering.
To start with, just putting a prong collar on your dog and not understanding that it is a collar that must only be used for corrections is starting out on the wrong foot. So many people expect the tool to work all by itself without first learning how to use it. As if by some miracle the dog will feel the collar and say, “Well, now that I have this collar on everything is clear.” It doesn’t work that way.
Since this is not an article on the proper use of the prong collar (I will hopefully get to writing that soon), I’ll keep this post short. I do feel it is important to address a very important aspect of the prong collar. Many people think that the prong is a great way to curb aggression in a dog. Certain dogs will respond to a correction with a prong collar and settle while others will be pushed further into drive. That is to say, there are certain dogs that will become “more aggressive” when you yank on the leash attached to the prong collar. This aggression can be focused on the other dog (or whatever the dog was showing aggression toward in the first place) or it may be back at you the handler.
If you are going to use a prong collar, I suggest you do some research on your dog’s temperament and see which way it drives him. It is also very important to properly fit a prong collar (it should sit high up on the dogs neck and not drift down toward the bottom of his neck). I see people remove prong collars from their dog’s neck by pulling it over their heads. There is no way a prong collar, properly fitted could pull over a dog’s head. And lastly, the collar should be used on a loose leash, not a taut one. If the dog is pulling on the leash, train him not to pull on the leash (with or without the prong collar) and then use the prong collar for other corrections. I expect dogs to walk on a loose leash first and foremost.
If you’re one of those people who falls for the gimmicks of head harnesses or body harnesses to teach their dogs how to walk properly, you might be reading the wrong blog. Teaching a dog a behavior is exactly that, Teaching. The gimmick will not teach him, it’s only a cruel way to restrict the dog from doing what he wants to do. The key is to “teach” the dog that what we want is in his best interest so that he will follow that path irrelevant of the collar he wears.