re post #25 - london-dogwalker
hey, walker! :--)
i frankly doubt that any one area of the dogs neck is vastly more-sensitive to pain than another - a matter of inches up or down, does not make the diff in the dog reacting with a flinch, yelp, instant compliance, etc, vs ignoring the stim of a choke or prong, in my many years of observation.
necks are sensitive in general, period.
if the stim hurts in one area, that same level of stim hurts in another.
also, just b/c Cesar happens to use the same adjustment, does
NOT mean it is automatically evil -
- i would bet he also adjusts a body-harness so that it is flat + snug, with minimal roll to either side. so do i -
- so does every trainer or handler i know!
is it a conspiracy?
LOL - no, that is how they are spozed to be worn, to prevent chafing + minimize the chance of pinching flesh.
a martingale collar is not painful, even when flat + snug -- any more than a buckled watchband is painful. i wear my watch snug-enuf that it does not rotate on my wrist, and when i am wearing it, i often have to *Look* to see that its there... since bodies habituate to any constant stim.
the diff between that junction of neck + skull, and the neck lower-down, is that it is narrower. because of the diffs between horse + dog anatomy, we cannot get a collar to sit on the narrowEST area of the neck, in a dog, as the throatlatch of a bridle sits on a horse - we can at best, get within a few inches.
the other valuable diff re that high-point on the dogs neck is that i can use MINIMAL force to control or direct - as i have
mechanically increased my leverage.
by using the upper-end of the dogs neck as the control point, i have simultaneously reduced the DOGs leverage of muscle + body-mech, and improved my own; the dog can no longer throw the entire power of all four legs, lower-neck and torso into re-directing their body against my control via the leash. it is no longer a matter of my using
brute force to control or direct - now i can use finesse. MUCH easier, all around - less yanking or arm straining, more compliance and less resistance!
martingales are called limited-slip or limited-choke; they cannot close to infinity, shutting-off the airway. they can close at maximum only half the length of the short-loop, meaning the dog can only have their airway cut-off if they are *suspended* by the collar, not merely by pressure on the leash, whether the dog pulls or the human pulls.
i also use martingales SIZED to the dog - at least as wide as a vertebra, for safety, so that it is impossible for the collar to slide between vertebrae + injure the spine / nerves, even if the dog bolts + hits the end of the leash with force.
U have probably noticed that skinny slip-collars look like no big deal, after all they are fabric, they are less likely to pull hair or trap skin painfully than a chain-choke, running over the neck as it tightens.
yet dogs react rapidly to a narrow nylon-slip pulling shut - Why?
because the narrow stricture is thus concentrated over a small area, the force is targeted narrowly and is made more painful, as well as burying the slip into the dogs soft-tissue with the force -- which can be very clearly seen on any short-coated dog with a hefty neck, a skinny slip-collar can be an inch or more beneath the surface of the dogs neck when tightened on say a Lab or Mastiff.
a martingale, especially one SIZED apropos to the dog, runs == over == the dogs neck, with any force or pressure distributed across a wide area, and never sinks subsurface or puts deep pressure on soft-tissue.
ergo, while it is highly effective as restraint, it is not painful.
as for the particular
Dog in Question, this dog is a practiced escape artist; they are already adept at stepping or puling back with sudden force, to EXTRACT their head + neck from any ordinary collar.
martingales were designed to stay on *sighthounds*, who have skinny necks without much taper, and skinny backskulls w/o much wedge. the collars stay on b/c the martingale can be adjusted to be smaller than that negligible difference in circumference, between top-of-neck, and back-of-skull.
they were not intended to be worn dangling half-way to the chest, altho for some bizarre reason, even sighthound-owners seem to think this is correct - or gentler, or some such twaddle.
ANY loose-collar, even a martingale, can be
backed out of by dropping the head, folding ears, shaking their head slightly, and pulling their neck + head back as they step backward - a dog who is practiced can perform these gymnastics in an eye-blink, especially if they are frightened or unwilling to go where we are headed - into the house, into the vets office, out of the park, etc.
on this dog, with their prior history of repeated escapes from many collars, a snug + high martingale may mean the diff between keeping the dog on-leash, and having the dog career off at 30-mph under their own sweet will... which is doggone dangerous.
JMO and IME - Ur mileage may vary!
cheers,
--- terry