Dog Training Collars & Behavioral Effects
Dog Training collars such as choke chains and prong collars were developed as dog training tools. The key word here is training; they should not be used long-term as a collar for your pet. Dog training collars provide a physical consequence if your pet pulls or lunges on the lead. If your dog has been wearing one of these collars for more than a week and is still pulling or lunging, then this particular tool is not working! In fact, it’s most certainly working against you and creating new problem behaviors.
POSITIVES
Most dog trainers, myself included, aren’t fond of these collars because there are better, pain-free tools available. Yet, for the sake of objectivity, they can work on certain dogs. Some dogs respond instantly to a physical consequence and when a timely, physical correction is provided, the behavior exhibited at the time of correction stops immediately. If your pet has been wearing one of these collars for more than a week with no significant behavioral change, then this type of collar will not work.
NEGATIVES
Physical Damage
Any collar that tightens around the dog’s throat can cause physical injury. Serious and irreversible injury is common in dogs that wear these collars long-term and continuously strain on the leash. We have seen dogs that are literally choking on the end of the leash when they are in an over-excited state. The throat and neck are quite sensitive, and scar tissue quickly develops from repeated bruising of the muscles and ligaments. Scar tissue deadens feeling in the area. Dogs lose their sensitivity when this occurs and can literally choke before they feel the pain of their actions. Aside from the choking risk, permanent damage is evidenced in labored or noisy breathing, a “goose-honk” cough, and frequent dry coughing.
Many dogs, especially small and toy breeds, will suffer a collapsed trachea from these collars. It does not take a lot of pressure to sustain an injury of this magnitude.
Emotional Damage
Most people don’t realize that the use of some dog training collars actually INCREASE the behaviors they are trying to correct and CREATE a whole new set of problems. Dogs learn by association. If they’re wearing a choke or prong collar, which provides painful corrections, they will associate the object they see or the environment they’re in at the time of correction as negative. This creates fear and fear creates aggression. If your dog pulls or lunges when another dog approaches, the physical response to that behavior is a collar that tightens up, providing a physical correction. In a short period of time, your dog becomes conditioned to react negatively every time he sees another dog. When you apply the psychology, it looks like this: see another dog = get excited = correction = pain = negative association. (I’m afraid of other dogs because I get hurt every time I see one.) The next time the dog sees another dog he’s going to recall the negative memory, become fearful and offer a negative or aggressive response. This formula applies to any other object or situation in which the dog is being corrected.
Creating Fear, Creating Aggression
Dogs that are improperly trained are punished more in the presence of children and other animals than in any other situation. Physically punishing your pet around children or other animals creates fear resulting in child-aggressive and dog-aggressive behaviors. Once learned, both behaviors are enormously challenging to unlearn.
BETTER CHOICES
While your dog is learning to walk on a leash, our dog trainers recommend using tools such as head halters or body harnesses. These tools are pain-free for your pet, eliminate pulling, and allow you to change your pet’s problem behavior without the risk of increasing it. Like all dog training tools, these are intended for temporary use. The best choice is to train your dog to walk properly on a leash and a professional dog trainer is your best tool for that.