Training Collar For Pulling Shepherd

HI guys

I've been walking and training a shepherd mix for over a year now, and he was doing marvellous until today

The owner found his collar taken apart and we can't figure out how to fix it

Now, I opted for the prong collar because my family has kept long haired dogs for (dog) generations now, and I am familiar with it. I taught the owner how to use it correctly, and she is now able to walk this strong dog in spite of a bad hip post-stroke.

Without the guidance that he gains from his walking collar, Chance is again pulling her painfully down the street

We would very much appreciate it if someone could either explain how to fix the collar of suggest a new tool that would allow good communication through the leash

She has ruled out the Gentle Leader, as Chance doesn't like anything on his muzzle

Here's the collar as it is now


And here's the dog


He stands a little over my knee and weighs between 45-60lb......he can pull a 180lb man down the street at a 45* angle, whilst on a choke chain(the collar used before I took over training)

My main concern is communication, not control- he listens if he knows that there's a leader

 

Buy a new one? I didn't think they were very expensive.

 

I gave her this one, and have offered to arrange to get her to a pet store if she can get the money to replace it

My concern is the next month-she's fixed income

It would be best if I can put this collar back together

And I can't keep buying her collars either, I have kids, fish and cats to provide for

 

Gentle Leader! I used it for my German shepherd and when she was younger and still a little stronger, I'd let my 5 year old walk her with it on. It goes on the dog's head and nose and and the idea is that the dog can't go where the head can't. We love it. Some people have questioned if it was a muzzle but she can open her mouth completely up to hold a tennis ball or stick. I recommend it to everyone.

 

Since he's doing so well in training, I don't know if the prongs are even required anymore...so I'm also wondering what other tools would offer a "next step "

 

We use a harness on our dog. Apparently they are healthier for the dog and are helpful if the dog decides to pull.

 

Since we're sharing pictures, this was her, don't let that calm look fool you.

 

We had a harness as well. (She was our first baby and spoiled.) It was great once she got past the initial pulling stage or when it wasn't as dangerous if she did pull (neighborhood is safe, downtown city she needed to stay close).

 

It seems fixable, I think you can do it, and I can see where you'll need to reconnect the links. It looks like the end connector slipped out of place from the last prong, and that's why the chain slipped out as well. Or, the end of the chain slipped out of the D-clip, and it just fell apart. I *think* it can be put back together, but it'll be really hard to explain over the internet haha.

 

I went to the pet store today, and was able to get a good look at intact prongs. The old collar is fixed, and dropped off on the porch, since the owner isn't home ATM. I'll take him for a walk tonight...I doubt he's had a good walk since the collar broke.

I also decided to have a go at convincing the owner to buy a no-pull harness, with the clip on the chest. They might be $34.99, but for that price, they work similarly to the prong, ( movement of the leash reminds the dog to listen to walker)without having to worry about it falling apart again. And it'll be easier for her to get on him too....once he gets the hang of it, and stops jumping around like a lunatic every time I show up at the door XD


As it stands, I have to clip my leash onto his flat-buckle and hold him still for her to collar him to go out because he knows that when I take him it's an hour long walk VS the 'round the block excursions that she's able to manage with her sore hip.

I wish I could train him not to jump....

I'd use the Gentle Leader on my own dogs when I get one, but Chance's owner has ruled out anything that goes over his nose. Too bad too- my current training methods would be easily transferable. I raise the leash to stop him, lower it to allow freedom, and shorten it to keep heel. I know that the pressure is felt at the back of the neck, as with the prong, so it would barely affect his training

 

Good luck!

 

Thanks, I'll need it!

I suggested the no-pull harness, and she says she doesn't want another harness----but her experience with a harness was when he was only a year, untrained, and it clipped at the top, giving him his full power. Perhaps she'll reconsider once she sees how it fits. I can only show her the three tools- Gentle Leader, Easy-walk and prong collar...in the end, he's her dog, and it's her money. I'll train him on whichever tool she chooses

 

Thanks, I'll need it!

I suggested the no-pull harness, and she says she doesn't want another harness----but her experience with a harness was when he was only a year, untrained, and it clipped at the top, giving him his full power. Perhaps she'll reconsider once she sees how it fits. I can only show her the three tools- Gentle Leader, Easy-walk and prong collar...in the end, he's her dog, and it's her money. I'll train him on whichever tool she chooses

It all depends on the harness. What is the effect when the dog starts pulling and where is the line attached. We use a harness that tightens around the breast when pulling.

 

Wow, that landscape!

Gorgeous lab too, I can tell it would be a strong puller.

The harness used in the past was your basic run of the mill cheap thing....gives him full use of muscles

The one I suggested clips at the front and has a martingale type loop, so it will also tighten on the chest if he pulls.

The one thing that I can't train him to do is heel, so I believe that the harness will help me take care of that last bad habit.

 

sassymomma I have an 85 pound husky that I rescued who thought I was a sled. I use the gentle leader on my maltipoo but that didn't cut it with him. Then I tried the lead from the chest harness which was better but still left me soar after walking and I have a bad shoulder. I finally broke down and got the kind of prong collar you have and it is the best thing for him.

I think you are doing a great job and already have the best training collar/harness tool especially considering the owner physically can't handle the pulling.

I don't have any advice for you though, I'm sorry.

 

I have a year old black lab. The only way to get him to walk nice and proper is the prong collar fitting correctly right at the top of his neck. Anything less than that and is a a terror to walk.
I fully stand behind prong collars when used correctly and recommend them to people with large, stronger breeds.
I see lots of people trying to get regular harnesses for their huskys/goldens/great danes because they don't like the pulling and "choking" the dogs do to themselves. Prongs work well, especially if the owner cannot physically control them without it.
Maybe the Easy walk if you really want to go away from the prong, but I find keeping him on a very short lead helps him walk well

 

I've heard plenty of vets say front clip harnesses can cause bad things to happen to dogs, and they're also very uncomfortable. I think the best front clip harness though is a balance harness or perfect fit harness. How about a Thunderleash? I've used them for pulling sheperds before. Treat training is even better though, one of my neighbors has a huge dog that pulled terribly even with a prong collar but it completely stopped with a little treat training

 

You can train a dog not to jump. It's called impulse control.

 

Freedom No Pull Harness is what's been recommended to me by a couple trainers.

 

Wow, that landscape!

Gorgeous lab too, I can tell it would be a strong puller.

The harness used in the past was your basic run of the mill cheap thing....gives him full use of muscles

The one I suggested clips at the front and has a martingale type loop, so it will also tighten on the chest if he pulls.

The one thing that I can't train him to do is heel, so I believe that the harness will help me take care of that last bad habit.

What I understood of the therapist that operated Bliss there are two things important for an harness.
1 The attachement ring should be above the shoulders. The more placed backwards, the more the dog starts to pull.
2 The breastbone functions like a kind of brake. When some pressure is put on the breastbone the dog slows down.

 

This explains the premise of the harness that I was looking at then.

The clip is at the front, between the shoulders- so that if the dog gets ahead, the martingale loop tightens the harness on the breastbone. As long as the dog is beside you, the harness is nice and snug, but not tight. there was another no-pull harness with the clip behind the shoulder, but without taking it out of the box, I couldn't see the premise of the design

When I place his collar for walking, I place it higher on his neck- the lower it is the more he pulls. Take control of the head, you control the dog. This was the mistake being made with his choke chain- the last walker placed it low, close to the shoulder. Although, knowing how dangerous the choke chain is, I'm somewhat glad- Placing it properly would have done serious damage to his larynx, as he paid it no mind, and would have pulled anyway. I only walked him with that thing a couple of times before I replaced it myself with the prong- which spreads pressure evenly around the neck, rather than allowing a pulling dog to strangle themself.

 

sassymomma I have an 85 pound husky that I rescued who thought I was a sled. I use the gentle leader on my maltipoo but that didn't cut it with him. Then I tried the lead from the chest harness which was better but still left me soar after walking and I have a bad shoulder. I finally broke down and got the kind of prong collar you have and it is the best thing for him.

I think you are doing a great job and already have the best training collar/harness tool especially considering the owner physically can't handle the pulling.

I don't have any advice for you though, I'm sorry.

I have a year old black lab. The only way to get him to walk nice and proper is the prong collar fitting correctly right at the top of his neck. Anything less than that and is a a terror to walk.
I fully stand behind prong collars when used correctly and recommend them to people with large, stronger breeds.
I see lots of people trying to get regular harnesses for their huskys/goldens/great danes because they don't like the pulling and "choking" the dogs do to themselves. Prongs work well, especially if the owner cannot physically control them without it.
Maybe the Easy walk if you really want to go away from the prong, but I find keeping him on a very short lead helps him walk well

I've heard plenty of vets say front clip harnesses can cause bad things to happen to dogs, and they're also very uncomfortable. I think the best front clip harness though is a balance harness or perfect fit harness. How about a Thunderleash? I've used them for pulling sheperds before. Treat training is even better though, one of my neighbors has a huge dog that pulled terribly even with a prong collar but it completely stopped with a little treat training

Thanks for the input guys- I just noticed these opinions, which must have been buried when I followed the thread over the phone. Choking was an issue with Chance, before the prong, and has not been since- really, the only thing I haven't been able to train is "heel"...which could be simply be because the owner walks him loose-leash most of the time. He stops at corners, can wait while I have a conversation without yipping and barking, and is generally a good boy now...so I'm quite impressed with his development. Especially considering that I'm not a trainer, and took my own tips from Ceaser milan, and what I recall from my dad talking about his dog's training lol

When I started walking him, he would just drag you down the street, and you didn't have much say

I'll take a look at the Thunderleash- I've heard of it, but don't know anything about it

 

Caesar Milan uses quite a lot of very outdated philosophies.

 

I don't know much about the different collars but I would definitely check on amazon.com. might save you some money. We have a jack Russell and a bloodhound mix. The bloodhound mix just walks right with you the jack Russell just doesn't get the idea lol. We used to have a 120 pound shepherd mix and a two year old could take him for a walk. I miss him.

 

Caesar Milan uses quite a lot of very outdated philosophies.

I honestly didn't pay much attention to his philosophies- My concern was in finding actual train methods that could be put into play.

I don't quite understand his method of "claiming space/dominance" with that sound he makes, and poking the dog.... so I simply walk into the space that I want to occupy...Chance gets the idea, and moves along... it works better than hauling on his leash if he's pre-occupied with a scent and won't continue with his walk. I step into the space that he's sniffing, and he moves aside, then we walk on. I can tell him "walk by" to pass interesting objects, dogs and cats now...got that from my dad. And I learned that he's sensitive to vocal cues, so I tell him "whoa" at corners, rather than relying on the leash to stop him. I'd love to get him to the point where he's mostly vocal, and I can put on some rollerblades or take him out on the bike- he'd love a good run!

I do find that some dogs are just more dominant/have leadership qualities than others, and that the "lead dogs" don't tend to like to let others walk in front. I thnk that Chance is one of those. He listens great, but gets agitated if the whole family is on a walk and he's stuck in the middle of the "pack"

 

Tried the bike route once. A bunny rabbit was all it took and I crashed lol

 

You can condition an attention marker, positive marker and negative marker. Also condition a positive interrupter. For my dog, these are his name, a clicker or a yes, an uh-uh, and a vocal click/kissy noise. He works for half of his food every day with training. He eats breakfast. Every thing else he works for. He's aggressive, so he has to be separated from the other dogs to eat, get a chew bone, etc. He currently eats his breakfast from a slow feeder bowl. I'm about to switch that to a puzzle feeder and/or frozen stuffed Kongs. And we're about to start working on conditioning for nail care.

 

Oh, I do that

I click anytime I'm about to make a change and anytime he gets distracted from his walk. I also have a warning sound for when rules are broken

 

He listens great, but gets agitated if the whole family is on a walk and he's stuck in the middle of the "pack"

Our dog didn't like to walk in between people. We walked her on our right side and when my husband and I would go out we would end up that the person walking her would be on the right so she could go to the bathroom without crossing in front of one of us. Next thing you know, if you tried to walk her with her in between people she would move around the person to be next to them, even if they weren't walking her. I used to walk her with the kids in the stroller and she would walk next to the stroller, always on right though. Until the day she died she never would walk on the left side or in the middle. Dogs are funny, sometimes they develop a habit that we don't even realize we taught them!

 

The owner has decided that she will replace the current collar with another prong collar

She's also so impressed with my family's work with him that she offered my daughter an official position as dog walker twice a day. She's thrilled to be chosen as the official walker, and trusted with her new responsibilities

 

You can put that prong collar back together as well as buy additional prongs to increase the size/etc. Very easy to search online how to put the links back together.

An alternate suggestion and controversial for most people is the shock collar. Ultimately I do believe this to be a last ditch effort when all other methods fail. I have a 4.5 year old APBT who has severe impulse problems. I have been through 4 dog trainers...and have over 20 years experience with the breed/other dominant breeds. The issue is not exercise, diet, environment it is him...and honestly sometimes the issue truly just is the dog. Dogs like people can have mental illness. My dog can go from dead asleep to manic is 0.2 seconds flat, he cannot settle for very long periods of time, and has never learned to appropriately respond to stimuli. This is believed to be a frontal lobe brain deformity by the vet or some combination of bad breeding/genetics.

Anyway, he would drag me down the street with a prong collar....no pull harnesses and head things are ridiculous and of no use. He just really does not care how bad he pulls and minor discomfort from these items was not enough in most situations. However the shock collar has improved his quality of life and our quality of life. When he is manic or pulling like crazy we give him a beep, time to respond, if behavior persists, a vibration, if behavior persists then a low level shock. It has taken a handful of high level shocks and now the most he requires is a low one. It is slowly teaching him to respond appropriately. He also does not associate me with the correction and is associating his behavior with the correction...so this is proving to be effective. It is also a miracle tool in the house as before we could not get to the door for him trying to tear it down if someone came unexpectedly.

 

I don't believe that chance needs one, but I recall that my dad had a particularly dense retriever with whom he resorted to the shock during the "stay in the yard" part of training

He used "invisible fences"-buried wires around the perimeter, with flags marking the property line. If Charley crossed the line he was shocked.


Unfortunately, charley was dense, and needed a really strong collar before he caught on

It was that or tie him up all the time though, because they were in the country, near a highway- couldn't afford him to wander too far