Dogs and Pinch Collars - Good idea?
I was never a fan of the pinch collar for dogs other than those massive Bull Mastiffs and some of the larger breeds. It was always my opinion that if the dog was more powerful than the owner than I could see them being warranted. It just seemed to me that otherwise it was unnecessary, maybe a little cruel and, well, they just look mean. Maybe I’m a bit of a softy. All that changed, however, when we got our Border Collie. A little 25 pound Border Collie!
Our dog, Ned, was very excitable as a young dog. All that energy in the breed just boiled over making him near impossible to walk on a lease. We worked with him, walked him, trained the heel command…everything we could think of and read about. He would stay nicely in heel like a good little dog until something caught his attention like another dog, a squirrel, a bug, a leaf blowing by or pretty much anything under the sun. We had been taking him to Puppy Training class (which I’m no longer ashamed to admit) and after the 5th or 6th week the trainer, a great lady by the way, asked the question, “Have you considered using a pinch collar?”
Walking our Border Collie on a leash was like flying a kite in high winds. He was all over the place! The trainer explained that it does not “hurt” the dog and the pinch collar was not used as a “punishment” but more as a corrective and training device. As young puppies dogs are often corrected by their mothers and other dogs with a quick nip to the neck. The pinch collar mimicked this behavior letting the dog know that they were acting out of sorts. My wife and I were, at that point, beyond frustrated and agree to a trial run with the pinch collar.
The trainer slipped the collar over his head sort of telling us about how it worked. As our dog sat their another dog walked close by in the training area. Ned, true to form, bolted off after this dog and, upon coming to the end of his leash, let out the most ear splitting YELP I’d ever heard! My wife and I instantly both felt like the worst dog owners on the planet. Luckily our trainer was right there and quickly explained that, first of all, the dog was more surprised than hurt and secondly that he was fine. A quick check of Ned confirmed this. She went on to explain that with a Border Collie, due to how quickly they learn new things, he probably would not repeat that mistake twice.
Boy was she right. From that instant on Ned never again would run around like a maniac on the leash. He very quickly learned where the end of the leash was and settled down into heel very smoothly. We have never “yanked” the leash to make the pinch collar work as, as soon as Ned feels a little pressure fro the collar, he slows up a little bit. We only had to use the pinch collar for training purposes for about 2 months. After that we went to a normal collar and he has been great ever since.
As you can tell I an now a huge fan of these collars for training a puppy, especially a Border Collie puppy. We quickly learned that the metal ones can rust easily (especially when exposed to salt water at the beach!) and we’ve had a few occasions where the pinch collar comes apart when Ned shakes out his fur (even after bending the prongs a bit with pliers). After doing some searching we found a Plastic Training Collar
Hi,
In line with your post I’ll take the opportunity to mention something that I just took knowledge about on TV; this only proves that we should see less TV….
Someone was talking about a colar that gives a shock when the dog barks. This way the dog will learn that he shouldn’t bark because will get a shock.
What do people want dogs to do ? To talk ?
Maybe they saw that movie from George Orwell where animals could talk, but then again some people who can talk think like “animals”.
Take care,
José
Jose,
Thanks for stopping by and for the comment! We’ve been pretty fortunate on the barking side with our dog..he’s never really had a barking problem to speak of. I did get a chance to “play” with one of those bark collars a few months back. I held it against my hand and had the owner activate it on the medium setting he used for his dog. It was a decent shock; not painful but it got defiantly my attention. I’m not sure how it would scale with my body mass vs a dogs size but, in my non-expert opinion, it did not seem bad.
Anyone else have an opinion on bark collars? I don’t have any real experience with them…
Hi Bill,
I hope that you don’t mind using this space to answer back.
It’s not just a matter of being painful or not, it’s about not being natural.
Dogs are supposed to bark and creating a “condition” this way doesn’t seem right to me.
It reminds me of parents who are against giving a tap (when adequate) on a child but use psycological “threats” to condition them.
I prefer to be down to earth and believe that sometimes technology is not always the best option.
Kind regards
José
Jose,
Ahh! Now I understand the point of your first post…sorry…I looked at it from a different angle. I totally see what you are saying now.
And no, I’m glad you’re using the space to reply! When I started this site I never expected anyone to see it at all let alone actually take the time to comment- I’m thrilled actually.
I’ve had a far bigger response to the site than I’d imagined and look forward to more discussions!
Thanks again and I like your blog as well!
Bill