Help - I seem to have collar confusion!! Max who is four months old and nearly 20kg and getting very strong. We are attending puppy training classes and trying to get to grips with walking to heel but he strangles himself when I tighten the lead to make him walk beside me and my muscles in my left arm are getting as big as Popeye's!! I have so far tried him on a harness which was ok but he managed to bite through it so decided that was probably a waste of time. A friend of mine who has 2 labs and they are both working dogs suggested a rope check chain of which I have one but too scared to use it so I bought a half check chain on the advice of another friend. I have just googled how to correctly use it and found loads of negative stuff!! Any advice please would be very much appreciated
Re: Collar confusion!!! Hello there I think that the best thing to concentrate on is teaching him to walk alongside you properly, it's probably not much to do with the collar (unless for some reason, the particular collar you have is upsetting him). There is a fantastic round up of the information available here: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/?p=4739 I think it's best to stay away from any kind of choke device (I think including rope slip leads - if that's what you mean by a rope check chain?) until your dog can walk nicely. I swapped to a slip lead once I'd made good progress on walking with a loose lead, and my dog does prefer them although I use a flat collar often too as I don't want him to only be ok on a slip lead. I don't use them myself, as I thought it better to keep on with the walking nicely training and was able to drive to off lead areas in order to do this, but I know some people have found front fastening harnesses a life saver while they worked on walking nicely. Front fastening harnesses pull the dog round towards you when he pulls, so stopped his forward motion.
Re: Collar confusion!!! Thanks - maybe I will have to get another harness and try that again. I used the half check for the first time today. I didn't have it on tight. When fully tightened it is only as tight as his flat collar but he did seem to pull less. I know the ideal situation is for him to walk on a loose lead but we seem so far off that at the moment and he is getting pretty strong!
