Hello!
I have a 3-year-old pit bull who is very strong and loves to tug my arm off on walks! In result, I haven't been able to walk him because my hand swells up from holding the leash so tight. My friend told me to check out a prong collar for him since I have tried leash leaders, chock chains, a harness, and training classes to teach him to heal by my side. None of them worked until I used a prong collar. I was hesitant at first because I feared it would hurt him but when I saw a night and day difference I was excited to be able to take my dog on walks again as he deserves. Although, I bought one at Petco which was extremely hard to take off and on because you had to push the prongs together to remove the collar so I bought one at PetSmart that had a clip which was very easy to take off and on but the prongs were too loose/flimsy that they unhooked while walking my dog and he broke free. So I'm back on the search for a new prong collar.
Any recommendations on a prong collar that has the clip option that is durable and reliable?
Thanks,
Monica
My advice would be to ditch the prong and work on teaching him to walk nicely. Pitties are notorious for habituating to punishment (aka punishment callous) and the number of pitties I've seen hauling their owners around impervious to the prong digging in to their neck.... Yeah, he'll get used to the prong too.
And as you've seen, a good yank will pop it off, so prongs aren't the safest either.
I'm just going to climb up on my offended platform and have a rant so fair warining
One, as the owner of a very large, powerful dog who's probably got a good smattering of pitbull in him, it pisses me off to no end that a dog's size is used as an excuse to use certain tools. When my children were 6, they could walk both our great danes (and the aforementioned pit bull mix) on a loose leash with plain flat collars. In crowds, at a parade, wherever. It's called training.
Pit bulls are no different than any other dog, and are often much more trainable than many breeds. No reason a pit bull can't learn how to walk nicely on a leash.
Two, the above said, I'm sick to death of prongs being labeled as the height of cruelty while people still slap on head harnesses with no desensitization, or allow their dogs to pull for years on a slip lead, then wonder why all these gun dogs end up with laryngeal paralysis and thyroid issues. Not related to chronic micro injuries to all that delicate neck tissue? Hrm... Prongs by comparison are far less dangerous to the dog's well-being.
Do they hurt? Yes. That's why they work. It's the exact same principle as putting a bit in a horse's mouth and attaching reins to it. If the dog pulls he feels enough discomfort to motivate him to stop pulling. You release the pressure on the leash, dog figures out how to make the prong not hurt. Used properly, they basically just sit there on the dog's neck and don't hurt, and mild pressure lets the dog know we're turning this way or that way.
Bits operate on the same principle. Just sitting in the horse's mouth they don't hurt. Horses learn quickly to respond to mild pressure. Some horses who have been yanked on their whole lives have mouths of steel. Same happens with dogs and prongs. Hence why other ways are so much better.
Are they the height of cruelty what need to be banned? No. Not IMO.
Three, I'm also sick to death of people with zero experience with a tool having their "OMG how cruel can you be?!" shock and outrage hissy fit. *waiting for the embedded collar pictures to pop up.*
If we're going to educate people on better ways, which I'm all for, we have to not lose credibility by sounding like ignorant furbaby parents who have no clue. Way to completely tune out the message.
I have successfully talked hundreds of owners out of prongs (with gear swap booths at dog events) but you don't do it by starting out by attacking the owner who is probably only doing the best they know to do. When we know better, we do better. Let's help people know better with information instead of judgement.
I can't honestly say I've never even seen a prong collar for sale in the UK let alone anyone use one...
You probably have and didn't realize it. I don't know about in the UK, but in the US more and more people are simply choosing to cover their prongs than deal with the judgement, merited or not. Once on, it looks like a regular martingale collar.