Once I took a dog through obedience school. The instructor made it clear the first day he would allow nobody in his class to hit or mistreat a dog. As an example of intolerable mistreatment, he told a story of a student whose dog yelped loudly every time he yanked on the leash – and it turned out the dog was wearing an improvised choke-collar lined with tacks.
In the past few years, I’ve occasionally seen some dogs wearing a kind of choke-chain collar – not improvise, manufactured – made with steel spikes digging into the dog’s neck. These spikes are set at an angle and are not sharp; looked at from the side, it looks as if each link of the chain is simply extended inward into a hook shape and cut off square at the end. I have only seen such collars on dogs of extraordinarily muscular, thick-necked breeds, e.g., bulldogs. Is this “mistreatment”?
It’s called a “pinch collar” and that’s pretty much exactly what it does. The angle of the “teeth” are such that the dog only gets pinched if it pulls away from the owner. With larger breeds, it’s kind of handy until they have enough brains to go with their brawn. A Mastiff pup can be over a hundred pounds at six months, and while it may be a gentle dog, size + enthusiasm can sometimes = big dog with no control.
LifeOnWry has it, a pinch collar it is, never homemade with tacks.
It’s mostly for people to help train their giant pig-headed dogs without strangling them. It’s actually more humane then a choke on a dog that doesn’t respond to the first tug on a choke.
Yes, what Poysyn said: There’s a lot of muscle in those thick necks and a choke collar will tighten up and cut off a dog’s air before he really feels it. Not to mention that a dog that big can potentially pull you down long before you can exert control. The pinch collar just grabs at a little bit of skin (reminding the dog that you’re on the other end of the leash and in control) and it doesn’t tighten.
You can get something that doesn’t choke or have prongs also, in nylon. I’ve seen them before, but I’m not sure if they’re truly an improvement on either a choke chain or a prong collar.
For our dogs, which are big ones, I usually like prong collars. You can’t put it on backwards and end up choking your dog, you can hand the leash to someone else and not worry about them choking your dog, and I feel it’s a faster correction.
That said, you have to be able to adapt to your dog. We had a dog that no correction collar would work at all. He was kind of stupid and thought that when you corrected him for having too much interest in another dog that it was the other dog pinching/choking him, and he’d go from interested to agressive. Threw a buckle collar on that boy, and he was fine with verbal corrections alone.
In the end, I feel manufactured prong collars are more humane than choke chains, though they look less humane and make the dog look more agressive than they are. I’m not sure what the fuck was up the person who lined a choke chain with tacks; that’s cruel.
My family used to have a long-haired german shepherd. He was so big, and had so much hair, that nothing short of a choke collar would even draw his notice.
The effect a choke had on him was less then the effect of a regular collar on a smaller dog.
I’ll agree that pinch collars can come in handy when training.
What I won’t agree with is using them as everyday-wear collars. A larger sized dog came in the clinic to be neutered a while back, and he had one of those collars on. He acted very skittish and jumpy about being touched around the neck, until we took that collar off, then he warmed up and was surprisingly friendly. When his owner came to pick him up, we handed him the collar and told him that for everyday wear, a leather or nylon collar would be better. He proceeded to put the pinch collar back on the dog anyway, and the dog immediately became nervous about his neck again. So I’d say the pinch is unpleasant, at the very least.
A thing to keep in mind is that the pinch collar doesn’t reduce in size, just changes shape. SO the dog isn’t choked. One way it is excellent in training is that absent of any interaction from you, it works in direct relation to the dog. They understand pretty quick that the harder they pull, the more uncomfortable they get.
I’ve also heard that the pinch collars mimic the feel of a dominant dog putting it’s mouth around the throat. They don’t do that to cause injury–they’re just letting the other dog know who’s the leader.
Maybe that’s why our boy made the association that it was the other dog correcting him. I’ve never heard that theory, but it’s an interesting thought. Ours wasn’t a dog-agressive dog in general.
My Norwegian Elkhound/Retriever mix is a very strong dog. I had problems with her pulling on the leash when we were out for walks-- not trying to run after things, but wanting to be ahead of me. My trainer said it was a dominance issue and suggested the pinch collar. (The lead dog in the pack is the one who gets to be in front.)
It was so effective that today, all I have to do is carry it in my pocket and show it to her if she starts pulling on the leash.
Yeah, it hurts a little when you “pop” them, but it hurts a hell of a lot less than them jerking the leash from your hand and getting hit by a car.
My wife and I had our doubts when it was recommended in odediance school, but we put the collar on ourselves to see what the dog may feel, and it was really far more comfortable and humane than we expected. It causes annoying discomfort, but doesn’t choke.
Ours wasn’t a big dog at all either, but was a chronic “leash puller” on walks to the point of choking with a normal collar. Ol’ Pinchy provided just enough discomfort to dissuade her from constantly pulling on the leash.
Our lab mix ignored the lack of oxygen produced by the choke chain. She respects the pinch collar. She only wears it when she’s going outside on the leash.
Aw, I was all ready to defend the utility of the pinch collar, and I see that everyone agrees with me!
I will say this, though. When I was a young child, we got a schnauzer puppy. This dog learned VERY quickly, and even learned to heel properly with only our in-house training.
When we got a Springer/Border mix last February, I was vehemently against the pinch collar, and even against the choke collar. When we went to obediance school, the instructor suggested a pinch collar for our dog. I was aghast. I decided I wodl go in a small increment and get the choke collar.
It didn’t work. Apparently my dog got the Springer need to range ahead (hunting instinct) of the master. this resulted in the (relatively little) dog pulling my wife. The Border side of the geneaology brought him willfullness and the smarts to exercise it.
I caved and went to the pinch. What a difference. In training, I equated it to driving a Yugo with transmission problems vs. driving a new Lexus. The dog listened better, was corected much more easily, and to my mind, hated the prongs less than the choking feel of the collar.
I am 100% behind the pinch collar for hunting breeds, large dogs, or any dog that responds poorly to the choke. I only let Newton wear it during specific training periods…never as the normal collar.
carnivorousplant…I’d be interested to hear if Ms. Plant concurs with my trainer’s thoughts on hunting breeds and the pinch as a collar of first resort.
In the hands of knowledgable trainers, collars and leads are merely signalling devices, never tightened for more than a split second. A knowledgable trainer will always use the least amount of compulsion to get the dog to show the wanted behavior, and then immediately reward.
I never allow novice trainers to start out with a prong collar. Most novices tend to use leads and collars as restraining devices, and not training devices. Once they learn how to properly signal the dog, then I will allow them to move up, if necessary, to an appropriate collar. Prong collars, properly fitted and of the correct size, have their places. Once the dog is trained it is irrelevant which coillar is used because the dog will have learned never to pull on a lead.
Again, really, it is the skill of the handler and the dog itself that determine what equipment needs to be used.
We did the same with our dog (100 pound German Shepherd). The darn things look downright mean so we put it on ourselves (ex-wife and I and no, nothing kinky) and it is not all that bad. If in the store you can put one around your forearm to get a sense of it…nothing beyond uncomfortable when it tightens.
That said it drew frowns from some people who would see it on her in the dog park because it really does look evil.
My Norwegian Elkhound Gizmo, like Lissa’s elkie/lab mix, is physically strong for his size, in addition to being headstrong. When he was about 9 months old, we switched from a choke/slip collar for training and walks to a prong/pinch collar, based on a recommendation from my dog trainer. Gizmo went from pulling so hard on the leash on walks that he gagged, to pulling almost not-at-all - in one session.
I tried the collar on my arm first, and it pinches. That’s about it - didn’t hurt, just got my attention. Worked the same on the dog.
One of the advantages of a prong over a slip is that it’s literally impossible to hang a dog with a prong, since it will tighten only so far and that’s it. So even with a hard correction, there’s a limit to how far the collar will tighten. I think it’s easier to adminster a correction with a prong, too.
My dog is almost 12 now, and he loves the prong collar, since he knows when I get it out we’re either going for a walk, or we’re going to have a training session (which means TREATS). When I bend over to put in on, he puts his neck in and leans.