Collars

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Update 5th April 2007 - Help to get shock collars banned.
If you would like to help get these dreadful collars outlawed please sign the e- petition calling on the Prime Minister to get them banned.

Prong Collars, Shock Collars and Choke Chains

Prong Collars
What's this page doing on my website? You might well ask. It follows a posting on the Canine Forum expressing horror at someone selling pronged collars on ebay. I checked out the items and sure enough these horrible collars were blatantly up for sale. I tried to report it to ebay but only succeeded in getting error pages so I posted my concerns in their discussion forum and in the All About Dogs group. Within minutes the replies started to come back and several people said it is illegal to sell pronged collars in the UK. One person also said they had reported it to the RSPCA and that it would be investigated. The kind people on the Canine Forum were also shocked and one person there reported it to the RSPCA. They also recommended writing to an MP. Unfortunately I believe these "collars" are legal in the UK although they have been banned in Australia.

Update on shock collars - 26th May 2006 - If you want to help ban electric shock collars the Kennel Club have issued the following press release - "KENNEL CLUB ‘CALL TO ACTION’ - PLEASE HELP TO BAN ELECTRIC SHOCK COLLARS"

Shock Collars
Amongst the replies I received was one from a desperate dog owner who was considering buying a pronged collar but had decided not to in view of the postings. The person went to ask if a shock collar was OK as she could not train her dog. She had tried a halti but the dog struggled so much that the halti cut its face. I wrote back immediately with a quick guide on how train a dog not to pull on the lead without resorting to any kind of shock collar, pronged collar or choke chain. Nowadays you can buy training harnesses which are based on the same principles that I used to stop Jamie pulling. These offer a gentle restraint across the chest and they work extremely well even for big strong dogs.

Shock collars are not the answer to pulling dogs. They are meant to interrupt bad behaviour but in fact they deliver a shock to the dog which can be painful and frightening and sometimes downright dangerous. If you're not convinced have a look at this.

Choke Chains
When our cocker spaniel Tilly developed glaucoma we took her to the vet. The first thing the vet asked was "Have you used a choke chain on this dog?" I hadn't but I was shocked to learn that they can cause glaucoma. Back in the eighties, when Barbara Woodhouse was all the rage with her choke chain methods everone thought it was alright to use this correction. In fact our local obedience club bought choke chains to hand out to people whose dogs had only flat collars. I know that dear Barbara Woodhouse would never, never have done anything to harm dogs but I feel that training methods have come a long way since those days. I know I would never ever use a choke chain again.

If you want to do agility you will need basic obedience (I can almost hear howls of laughter now from my fellow club members). OK, Jamie isn't perfect but I know how to stop him pulling and he's a big dog. (26kg). If you want to know how I trained him please visit this page

For those who can't get their dogs to walk at all on a lead there's also a very kind method of curing lead shyness.

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