Prong Collars

Someone called the other day and asked if we would put a prong collar on her 12 week old puppy. I asked her why she thought that and she told me that some of our students had them on their full grown dogs. I asked her the names of those studetns. One was not our student. The other had a full grown Lab.

Prong collars are like power steeering. They make it easier for the owner to handle a dog PROVIDED that the dog has not become immune to the collar. I personally do not prefer prong collars, at least as my first choice of tools because it does not finesse an owner's handling skills. The owner needs to know how to handle the dog without "power steering". Another disadvantage of the prong collar is that they have been known to come undone.

That being said, I am willing to use them when necessary. For example, if an arthritic 100# woman came to us with a 130# Rotttweiler, I would consider it, along with other tools.

It is necessary to assess the situation, the dog, the owner and the needs of each before determining which tool of choice to use.
As far as a 12 week old Golden Retriever puppy is concerned. I do not see any reason to use the prong collar on the dog. If the woman trains her dog now so that we can stop problems from developing she will probably never need to use much more than a flat buckle collar in the future. However, the longer she waits to train her dog, the more difficult it will become and more problems will develop which will need correcting.

Published Sunday, April 30, 2006