[micdobe]

What is okay is whatever you want it to be, however you want her to walk. Personally, I let my dogs walk in front of me and sniff the roses or whatever, as it's part of the enjoyment of the walk for them. If I want to train them in obedience, then they have to heel next to me.

I don't know anyone who would use a prong collar on a puppy that young.

 

[micdobe]

What I would do is train the dog. If you rely on the prong collar only, you will always have to use it. In that sense the dog is never trained. The "tree" method will work faster if you use treats. I don't stop whenever there is just "tension" on the leash, but if my dog lunges ahead and jerks me with him, then I stop short and he can't reach that tree or whatever he was trying to get to. Then when he just looks at me, I use a bridge word, which serves the same function as a clicker but I don't have to actually carry a clicker with me. I used "Ja", since it was a word the dog never heard anywhere else, and as soon as he made eye contact with me, whether the leash was loose or not, I said Ja, and then gave him a treat. Eventually he learned that was how to get the treat and would immediately look at me, then he started coming toward me to get the treat, which made the leash loose, so as soon as he ate the treat we started again. This worked relatively fast for me, but all dogs are different.

 

[micdobe]

Martingales and harnesses are not training collars. In fact, harnesses are designed to "encourage" pulling rather than discourage it. That's why they're used in pulling activities. So to say you 've tried those two things is not to say you've run the gamut of training aids. They're not designed for training.

I have used a prong on two dogs, one a 9 month old puppy and one an adult. Both were negative experiences. The first one never completely got over the training problem caused by the prong, despite years of work. The other dog injured his throat when he learned to simply ignore the prong and pull into it anyway. So I am not a fan of them. So far I have managed without them with my current young dog.

IMO they are suited to small people with very large and hairy dogs, such a st bernards, who wouldn't be aware of an owner's correctins any other way, but that's it.

Use what you want as you will of course anyway, altho you're using it now and you are apparently still having a problem.

 

[micdobe]

Excuse me, but you asked for advice. YOU said the dog was still pulling you. However, I will not respond to any further questions you have, that should make you happy.

I used the prong collar on the advice of trainers, the first time was nearly 30 years ago, the last time about 8 years ago. I was sharing my experience, which was negative. That is known as learning from one's m istakes, as opposed to being perfect from the beginning and never making a mistake.

 

[micdobe]

What I SAID was if someone *relies* on the collar to do the work for them. According to you that is not what you did. So I "respectfully" disagree with your comprehension of what I wrwote.


" have to respectfully disagree with that statement. I used to a prong collar in training my dog to heel on walks. He will now heel with a flat buckle collar or even with no collar at all. And I'm a first-time dog owner with just 2 months and 3 days of experience under my belt, so it's not as if I'm an expert trainer. The collar made me a lot better than I would have been without it. In the early stages I was afraid I could never wean my boy off it, but it just took cosistency and patience."

 

[micdobe]

Yes you are missing the boat. Spare me the "drive" and "level 3" "stuff".

That's now what the people asking the questions are doing, nor are they IMO abusively training their dogs in bitework. I will remember not to reply to you again either.