Prior to the intrduction of these pronged chains to CONTROL the dog good trainers used patience and love to gain the dogs confidence resulting in obedience. Some of the best trainers today use ‘clicker’ training and achieve remarkable resulsts.
They use a clicker like the old toy ‘cricket’ snapper and small treats as rewards!
My dad could walk up to a totally strange dog and make friends with it at once!
Some got it, some don’t!
Used correctly, they’re great. A regular training collar (“choke chain”) is actually a pain in the ass to use correctly. You’re NOT supposed to choke with it, you’re supposed to give it a quick pop when you’re administering a correction in response to a specific transgression. In order for it to work well, it has to be seated correctly on the neck (much higher then most people usually put them) and oriented correctly (the end that you clip the lead to needs to go over the top of the neck around under). A prong collar doesn’t have those problems. Easier to size, easier to put on, and always in the correct position to use.
I tried one, before moving on to a Gentle Leader (head halter), for situations where I needed more control then a plain collar could give me. I was worried about it hurting, so I put it on myself and tried it out (I have a big dog :)). I didn’t think the sensation was any worse then a regular training collar: Much more accute and sharp, but not as severe. It’s not as bad as it looks, because there’s a lot of prongs and they distribute the force evenly.
BOTH collars can be used incorrectly and can harm the dog.
You’re probably thinking of a Martingale collar. They’re most commonly used on narrow-headed dogs (especially sighthounds: greyhounds, borzoi, etc.) , where regular collars have a tendency to slip off over the head.
My Rottie was the same way. She wore a nylon collar with the “breakable” buckle (in case it gets caught on something they won’t choke, it’ll break apart first) and the prong collar “out in public”.
She had the sweetest temperment, but was very much a dominant personality Rott. On a leash, the prong was the only collar* she ever respected.
Choke collars? The couple times I tried em, she’d ignore em completely and pull with all her weight ahead…and choke collars can damage and eventually collapse the dog’s trachea if they constantly pull on it.
I spent alot of money on her training, and even the trainer couldn’t get her to respect any other collar.
Since she weighed as much as I do (we both weighed 135 pounds), there’s no way I could have walked her without it. For that matter, with the strength in a Rott’s chest, I’d put good money on the fact a far larger man couldn’t have held her back if she wanted to go. (On top of the fact that we trained her to pull a cart…her pull strength was incredible. She had zero problem pulling 2 or 3 9-10 year olds in a cart…odd or not, we never had a problem with her obeying in cart-harness pulling, but attempts at using a harness on lead were completely futile. The trainer and I chalked it up to “working dog brain”. In harness she was “working”, leash was “playtime” shrug )
Whereas when she was on the prong, she was on a perfect angel. I’d take her to PetSmart for a “treat” (she loved going there…people who want to pet her, all those neat smells, and other dogs to visit with? Oh boy!!), put her on the prong, and I wouldn’t even need to hold the leash. I could drape it over the cart handle in a loose slipknot and she’d heel perfectly.
I know it looks cruel…even I was reticent at first. But honestly, used properly…it can be a godsend. (and far safer than choke collars, imo. As I mentioned above, dogs who continue to pull on a choke can damage their trachea)
There’s also slip-lead collars, but they work on the same principles as a choke collar.
Sort of–unlike a regular collar (and like a Martingale), a slip lead is limited in how much it can tighten. You can’t strangle a dog with a correctly sized slip, but you can with a choke collar.
(I was thinking of this kind of slip lead; it occured to me that you may have been thinking of the one-piece rope choke-and-lead-in-one type things).
I knew a Dalmation who wore a pronged collar. She was the dumbest thing on four legs. She would have cheerfully strangled herself on a normal choker without slowing down in the least. She wouldn’t even notice it happening.
I like head collars better than pronged collars though. Head collars work more like horse halters. I prefer to use clicker training than dominence techniques. The head collar (if necessary) keeps the dog focused and looking at the trainer while you teach it specifically want you want it do. Using a clicker & a head collar you can teach a dog, “Yes, do THIS.” OTOH the prong collar only really says “Don’t.”
Meant to include this link to an example of head collars on dogs.