Girl and Dog

We had our second obedience class tonight.  We worked on “stay,” “wait,” and “walking on a leash without pulling.”  Georgia is three, and I’m very embarrassed to say that she still pulls on her leash.  I feel like I’ve tried everything.  We’ve tried the Gentle Leader*, the Easy Walk harness* (easy walk–yeah right), a regular choke chain*, and a prong collar*.  I would like to have a dog that doesn’t need any type of corrective device and will walk calmly in just a flat collar, but unfortunately Georgia is not (yet) that dog, and for her safety and mine, I need something to help control her so she doesn’t end up in the middle of traffic or long gone after a squirrel.  She is just too strong and can literally drag me around.

Our first trainer recommended the prong collar, and I was initially opposed because obviously it looks like some sort of torture device and I assumed (as most people do) that it was some type of cruel and unusual punishment dreamed up by someone too lazy to properly train his dog.  The trainer explained that actually it was a more friendly alternative to the choke chain.  With a choke chain, you run the risk of damaging your dog’s windpipe because of the way it puts pressure on the neck.  Also, if not positioned properly on the dog, it won’t release automatically.  Frankly, a choke chain did nothing for Georgia other than CHOKE her.  She coughed and hacked and pulled just as hard.  (I know that choke chains can be used correctly and work for many dogs, so I am not criticizing choke chains, but Georgia was not one of those dogs, so we had to explore alternatives.)

A prong collar works by pinching the dog’s skin when they pull.  It obviously causes some discomfort, ideally enough to make your dog think twice about pulling, but it is not painful or harmful if fitted and used correctly.  After trying the prong collar, I realized that it was not at all cruel since it barely fazes Georgia at all.  It gives me enough control that we can walk safely, but she is absolutely not in any pain or even discomfort.  Much of the time, the collar hangs loose, but when she pulls (which, okay, is actually a lot of the time), it tightens and reigns her in a little.  The prong collar does help with Georgia’s pulling, and it works the best out of everything I’ve tried, but up until now it really has not been enough.  Georgia has been walked on a leash for her whole life, and no amount of “correct and release” seemed to get the point across.  Clearly I haven’t been getting it quite right.

I am not a trainer (which is why I am attending a class taught by someone else), so I can only repeat what I was told tonight.  I’m just a girl who loves her dog and wants to be able to walk her safely without having my arms pulled out of the sockets.  So far, tonight’s tips seem to be working for Georgia, but I think we need a few days to practice before the results will really be in.

We are still using a prong collar, which this trainer recommends as well, but instead of large size prongs, we switched to the size prongs you would expect to use on smaller dogs.  It is still long enough to go all the way around Georgia’s neck (with a slightly snugger fit than before–apparently her old one was too loose which was part of the problem), but there are more prongs in contact with her neck which is supposedly more effective.

The idea of this technique is that your dog will correct itself and decide that walking with a loose lead is more enjoyable than getting pinched.  If your dog isn’t a major puller, you can use other types of collars.  Two people in the class with little dogs just used regular, flat collars.  One person used a martingale collar.  I think the method is effective no matter what type of collar you use as long as it provides enough correction that your dog realizes it’s not supposed to be pulling.

What you do is tie a knot in the leash which you hold near your hip.  To give you some perspective, the knot in Georgia’s leash is about 15 inches from the end that I hold.  Her leash is six feet long.  You just hold that knot firmly by your hip (I had to use both hands–like I said, Georgia is strong), and the dog learns that if it stays within that zone, it can walk with a loose lead.  If the dog starts to pull, it helps to change directions.  When Georgia tugged, she essentially corrected herself.  I didn’t have to jerk the leash or anything like that, just held on firmly and kept the leash in the same spot so that the prong collar tightened if Georgia pulled.  If you have other family members, it’s important that everyone holds the leash in the same spot so that the dog learns a consistent boundary.

It took about 10 minutes, but Georgia did seem to catch on.  Pretty soon she was walking next to me and paying attention when I changed directions.  She was by no means perfect–and I didn’t expect her to be.  Her bad habits have been three years in the making–but there was definitely some improvement.  Now it’s just practice and consistency.

*All of the collars mentioned are for TRAINING purposes only and should not be left on the dog unless it’s supervised.  Many dogs have strangled in a choke chain when the ring falls through the boards in a deck or catches on a fence.