choke chain harmful? - Page 4

LOL, Fawndallas!  I first bought a prong when I adopted an 85 lb. 3 year old male GSD that had spent most of its life on an 8 foot chain tieout. He'd never been walked on a leash, but by the end of a 3 day weekend on the prong, was walking as if h e'd been doing it all his life.

I was able to graduate him to a flat collar after a few months, but occasionally, he, too, would go into an 'I'm not listening' phase, and I'd put the prong back on him.

The transformation was remarkable! Suddenly, without needing to do a single correction, I had a perfectly behaved dog again! 
It was like, "Oh, oh, mom's pissed off at me! I'd better mind my manners!"

I just got it.

Yes, the quick snap is scary simple. I am very hesitant to rely on it.

I can either tie it up and just make sure that it never opens, and open and close the prong links to put it on the dog.

Or I can use an additional lease/collar set. Use a slight longer lease hooked up to the buckle collar worn low in the neck. I will tie the other end of the backup lease to my body.

The D-ring is also very scary thin as well. I am hesitant to rely on just the D-ring as the live ring.

The D ring is fine, never seen one of them broken. But use a choke chain rather then the flat collar. The flat is just going to interfere with the pinch where the choke will barely be involved.
Just don't put a lot of trust in to the quick release. Because they are not sturdy. It's designed for old people that have arthitis of the hands, not the safety of the dog.
I'm not sure if you can wire the clip shut.
But heck you might just put it on and the dog go "Oh crap" better mind my manners and never had to engage it at all.
Fry

 

All collars have special uses and are used for specific purposes which may or may not be intercangable . 

Choker ( slip collar) : Humane and natural if used properly. Pressure is evenly distributed around the neck .  It is  a quite more difficult to use properly then pinch. 

 Proper use requires snap on leash from lose leash  and not pull(!) Pull makes thing worse  and is ineffective and does not correct the dog. If you pull the dog pulls back and is thus winning and you are losing ground.

Intensity of correction should be tested by gradual increase and depends on  sensitivity and pain threshold of the dog.  It is not the strength but the technique which makes this work.  

Uses: Usable for teaching in learning faze of +/- training, restraining, security in  and correcting , pp training when used in conjunction with flat collar.    There is "right " and " wrong " way to put a collar on in a slip way. Learn what they are. One chocks all the time and the other relesaes as it suppose to. Funny in Europe the  "ritht" is what in US is "wrong" and vice versa. 

To use collar as a nonslip device is beetng the purpoese of the chocker and you can then use non slip collar instead. 

Danger: Because the collar is slip collar it can ultimately kill your dog if the dog gets into trouble in one way or another.  Do not leave  choker on the dog of unsupervised. Do not tie the dog and then leave it unsupervised . NEVER!!!! 

Pincher ( limited slip) : Same as choker,...Humane and natural ( simulates dominant dog's bite on the neck well)  if used properly. Pressure is evenly distributed around the neck. Pinch is  not as difficult to master the technique then choker. Less intensity is needed thus it is more effective.  

 Uses not too good for learning faze of the training but good for corrections in conditioning in conditioning faze ( after learning) of the training. Also used in corrections in PP training.  Many put the collar to snug on. and then dogs is always aware that the collar is on . This in my opinion is incorrect  because if the collar is removed the dog "knows" that the collar is off and will tend to not  listen. I prefer the collar lose so that you can barely pull it over dog's head but not any loser.  That will make dog  feel the collar only  during correction. Dog will" forget" that the collar is on and will make similar mistakes as if the collar would not be on. That is then  transferred into times when  the dog does not have collar and will thus listen better during the times when the collar is off. 

If you think that pinch or choker is too painful for the dog then put these collar on your forearm and snap on it same way as you would during training. You will be surprised that the pain is very mild or really it is not there but you will feel only a discomfort. That is  what the dog should feel during correction. 

Another use is instead of flat collar in protection training where you can reverse the collar ( prongs outwards)  which makes the collar quite comfortable. 

Pinch with teeth in usually ( there are some exceptions) must not be used during pp training as a main collar holding a dog (like flat collar) nor as a secondary collar ( like choker). Pinch could be used in pp training with separate leash or short traffic leash for correction purposes. 

Also it may be used in some behavior modification systems. 

 Danger:  Pinch  may get caught on fences or in the kennel. Pinch is less dangerous then chock because the slip is "limited" 

Flat ( or round)  collar( non slip) counterintuitively   non slip is by its nature probably more injurious then pinch   or choker. The reason it that if the dog bolts into lose fitting narrow collar then the jolt on his windpipe is akin to karate chop. 

Uses: To hold the tag. For us to grab the dog when needed in everyday life or pp training where it should be used in conjunction with choker. This collar would be on the dog all the time. 

 Danger: In critical situation the dog may be able to slip out if the collar is not tight enough when we are trying to hold onto the dog. But then it is too tight for everyday life. Thus practice technique on loser collar where  when you grab the dog you twist it a little and thus the collar is more snug . This lose collar is then there to be slipped by the dog when he get himself into trouble and get caught on something. However this lose collar is dangerous since if the god is on leash on such collar then the dogs often learn to back out of such collar and get lose and bite someone or get hit by car or such. That is why I like to combine non slip collar with choker. 

Collars are subjects of many heated discussions and laws and other BS. In the end they are tools and useful tools at that if used properly and dangerous if abused or used improperly in ignorance. 

 Prager Hans