Met a lovely 5-month-old Lab this morning in a park. Straining on his choke collar, gasping and rasping. I mentioned that I have a great front-fastening harness (we were at the Parkrun so Snowie was wearing his back-fastening harness - thankfully the puppy wasn’t running in the Parkrun!). The response: We’re doing training, he must wear this collar. So I said, It can damage your puppy’s throat, it can cause laryngeal paralysis. Her final interaction with me (she made this clear from her tone Thank you for the information. It sounded as if she’d prepared this response, it was very weird. Made me wonder if the dog school she goes to trained her to respond like this. The puppy was so lovely and I felt so sad for his wellbeing as he strangled himself as he pulled forward. I wish people like her would put on a collar and then pull forward and feel what it’s doing to their throats.
That is sad. All you can do is try to open their eyes a little, however much you'd probably prefer to snatch the puppy and run. The first obedience school I went to with my first Rottie insisted on prongs - in order to attend the class all dogs had to wear them. It was a really recommended school so I went anyway, but put a sighthound (super wide) collar on Duncan with the prong loosely over it and attached his leash to his harness (not the prong). They didn't like that but technically I was following the rules - he was 'wearing' a prong. Only went to the one series of classes I paid for then moved on to something without such techniques. I was kind of hoping in the 20 years since then, all trainers would have ditched the choke and prong collars.
If she MUST use the collar, then she is doing it all wrong! It is not for a dog to strangle itself with! Years ago, check chains were what everyone used at training classes, we were taught to give a quick FLICK DOWN across the back of the neck to check the dog, not pull up under the throat and choke the dog and not let the dog pull and choke itself!
I sat in a vets waiting room listen to a big lab being strangled by its owner on a choker. I sat there winsing. It was painful and big bloke opposite me just looked at me and said yes I know it's tragic. We talked for ages it's seems to me that a lot of us feel the same way about this. It's is getting better. But it's the saddest thing I've ever heard.
Exactly! When I was a child I was taught to use a choke chain in that way for my first puppy, more years ago than I care to remember! I didn't use it for long, though. I thought choke collars were now a thing of the past - as they should be!
