Pinch Collar- Sprenger or Titan? - Page 1

Which do you prefer, and why.  I have Sprengers but I'm sick of them getting bent or popping off.  Also, anyone use rubber tips on a pinch collar?

Only ever used Sprenger.

Tried the rubber tips on my Boxer way long ago.  He was a knucklehead, and the rubber tips were counterproductive.  Then again, some of that could have been poor timing on my part.  You could always give it a shot, they come off if they don't work.

Apparently I have nothing useful to add to this discussion.  Sorry.  :/

 Rubber tips kill the purpose of pinch collar, don't they?

I don't think they kill the purpose.  Dogs with sensitive skin on the neck, like with thin hair and skin or irritated by metal.

The Sprenger collars are far better than the Titans, in my experience.

As for links popping out--this is a problem with any prong collar, but you can fix it. Get a quick release prong collar (the only safe prong collar anyway), and weave a sturdy leather or nylon strap between the links. If the strap is leather, use a leather hole punch and rivets to secure the strap by bending the strap over the last link at each end and attaching the the bent over parts to the rest of the strap. If the strap is nylon, do the same thing but stitch the strap to secure it. Now the links will not fly apart. The drawback is that you will not be able to adjust the collar size, but every dog trainer should have lots of prong collars in different sizes anyway. Monster Dog Training Equipment used to make these, but I can't find them anymore, so I don't know if they're still in business.

As for bending--you don't want a prong collar with links that don't bend. The bending is a safety feature that prevents the prongs from puncturing the dog's neck. I know a very strong dog who flattened the prongs on the front of her collar with a lunge. If the prongs hadn't bent, she'd have ended up in the ER or dead.

As for rubber tips--fine for sensitive dogs, but you can do the same thing with really large prongs, which have a greater surface area that contacts the skin, so they don't poke as much. The huge prongs look a little silly on a small dog, but, hey, whatever works.

For a tough, stubborn dog that really needs to feel the prongs, rubber tips are not a good idea.

I don't like the quick-release collars, interferes with the evenness of the correction and can possibly pop off if pressed.  I would like to see the collars with the leather in them, I've seen some before but not for sale.

I like the quick-release prong collars because I've had prongs snag on things and the dogs then pulled the collar so tight that the prongs could not have been pulled apart to prevent the dog from choking. Haven't had any problems with corrections, and have never had the snap release accidentally, although it could happen.

I hate all kinds of quick releases.

I use Titan for training, my only problem I've had is the finish flaking off the leash ring and creating very tiny, painful, metal splinters. It hasn't been an issue in some time, so perhaps the manufacturer resolved the problem. I don't care for the Sprenger with the small plate instead of the ring at both ends. As the chain slides through that tiny hole in the plate, it can catch and tear up skin on very short coated breeds like pits, pointers, even labs.

In my experience rubber tips only make the owner feel better. Totally useless. If the dog has sensitive skin, wrap a thin bandanna or cut a wide woman's headband into a cloth tube and feed the collar through it. Prongs are still effective but the metal does not touch skin, which causes reactions in some dogs.

I only had a problem with one HS collar. The release seized up and had to be manually squeezed back shut. Was brand new and never saw water, etc.