Dog question?

[keithdog]

Ok, I have two dogs. Zoey the 3 year old yellow lab and Gretta the 2 year old German Shorthair Pointer. Gretta is a pleasure to walk on a lead, never pulling hard and just walking with me. Zoey the lab however is a real pain to walk. She pulls hard on her leash and can at times try to run which will darn near drag you down the street. We have a collar called the Gentle Leader which fits around her snout, and you attach the lead under her chin. This prevents her from pulling against you and it very effective. Problem is it drives her nuts! She will drop her face to the ground and slide around pushing her back legs, while trying to dislodge this gentle collar. This caused cuts and scrapes on her face. We've tried leaving it on for a couple weeks at a time, and it dont bother her unless there is a lead on it while we walk her. Soooo, I'm thinking about trying some kind of choke collar or something similar to see if that slows her down and reduces her pulling against a lead. I was hoping some folks in here may have some experience with these types of collars, and if so do you have any suggestions? I appreciate any advice you can share. Thanks guys.

[nofearengineer]

Keith, every time I wore one, it irritated my face too.

[keithdog]

Originally Posted by nofearengineer

Keith, every time I wore one, it irritated my face too.

hahaha, well I hope you wern't sliding accross the ground to get rid of it.

[BigBassin144]

Originally Posted by nofearengineer

Keith, every time I wore one, it irritated my face too.

Originally Posted by keithdog

hahaha, well I hope you wern't sliding accross the ground to get rid of it.

And I hope you got a video of it if you were sliding across the ground to get rid of it!

BB

[MississippiBoy]

Originally Posted by BigBassin144

And I hope you got a video of it if you were sliding across the ground to get rid of it!

BB

Amen to that. You'd make millions from that, kinda like the guy from the window rapist news interview....

Keith, we have a training collar for our dog that has been effective. I'm trying to think of how to describe it....

Here we go....it's called a "prong" collar. http://www.google.com/products?q=pro...lar&hl=en&aq=f

Each link has two prongs that point inward to the dog's throat and neck. It looks like something from the Spanish Inquisition, but it's really not bad or painful. The prongs aren't sharp, so you're not doing any damage to their neck. The dog WILL NOT pull against this thing, though. You can't "pop" the leash to correct her, but you shouldn't need to.

[gonefishin3]

i use the prong i have a 2-3 year old chocolate lab also it helps if you roll the dog over every night on its back and train it for dominace ill talk about more later.

[Abbeysdad]

I'm not a dog whisperer, but prong and choker collars would likely be frowned on by yer better trainers.....just like beating a dog with a rolled up newspaper and throwing them outside after they wet to house break.
I think you have to train the dog to heal ... but I'm no expert and sometimes I think our lab trained us and not the other way around !!! She comes in from going outside and sits in the hall looking up at one of us and sure enough, we get her a biscuit. The exception is at night time when I tell her "not every time, go lay down" and she reluctantly stops her mind control stare!

[XIntel007]

A buddy of mine has a doberman who was rowdy and uncontrollable so he tried the nice and easy approach, dominance training, and asking nicely. Then he shelled out the big bucks for the local dog whisperer who trained with them for 12 weeks, 2 sessions a week. At the end of the session the trainer invited them back to her next session.... to show everyone what a disobedient dog looked like. Yep she couldn't break her either. In the end it was the pronged choke collar that did it. Now she walks and heals like she is supposed to on her regular collar. Sometimes you can't spare the rod to save the child....

[bamabassman]

well i used a choke coller to train da KING. started when he was 6 weeks old. i HAD a video we bought at the time, don't ask where it is now since we ahve moved 3 times and it is now most liely lost. but back to subject.......... we used a 14' lead line with the coller. take out the dog, mark off a 30 by 30 SQUARE. using the choke coller and 14' lead line. walk the dog in the square. PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE DOG! don't even LOOK at it. keep hands together at your belt buckle hold ing the line FIRMLY. WALK THE SQUARE FOR 30 MINS A DAY. THE DOG WILL EVENTUALLY GET TO WHERE IT WILL STAY AT YOUR SIDE. getting tired of choking itself running off. after the first week shorten the line. repeat the first step. there is some other stuff that i have forgotten i know. but it only took me about 2 weeks to get GALLIE to walk right by my side. and now he thinks that is where he is supposed to be.lol. even now 13 yrs later, when we go for a "walk" he may get in front of me, but stops and looks back to see if i am "keeping up". he goes slower of course now a days. but he doesn't stray too far off most times.
my sister got a collie about 5 yrs ago, we kept her for a week. they wouldn't take the time to train the dog. i started training her, she was still a pup at the time. within that week i had that dog so very close to being a great pet. then they got her back and didn't continue what i started. so now the poor baby is just a yard dog that is in need of love. IF we could, we would take her. but we just can't.
keith......TIME is what is needed with an animal. spending time and training are what makes great pets. you can do this buddy. 30 mins a day will do wonders. you may enjoy it so much you will spend an hour with them. yeah, i love dogs.

[keithdog]

Thanks for the feed back guys. I really appreciate it. I think I'll get one of those prong type collars after reading all this. I've seen several folks with larger dogs than mine and all are very well behaved when being walked. AND, I'll definately try your training suggestion John. Thanks again!