{22sept2012: prong collar}

People have expressed concerns about our use of a prong collar on Darwin, but we have good reason for using it. Before we moved to Singapore we were worried of Darwin being in a place that was not as dog friendly as Seattle. We had been experiencing problems of Darwin barking at people who approached her to say hello. We'd be out, on a hike, on a walk, at the park, etc, and someone would come up to us and ask if they could say 'hi' to Darwin. We'd say yes she's friendly, and as they'd approach she'd start barking. It was not in a vicious or aggressive way, but it made even dog people nervous (a 130lb dog barking would make anyone nervous) and we were sure it'd scare the daylights out of non-dog people. Also while she's a decent walker on leash (we were using a Wonder Walker Body Halter) she also would sometimes still pull with the harness on. We also heard from Darwin's holistic vet that using the harness a lot was not good because of the way it would rub against her shoulder muscles.
We wanted to correct the barking and work on her leash walking before we moved so we went to a trainer in Seattle. Kristie, Boo's mom, had nothing but good things to say about the trainer she's used, Steve at Nitro K-9, and we've seen how well behaved Boo is so we contacted him. His training method uses prong collars and part of the training was showing/teaching us the correct way to use it. 
At our first evaluation meeting with him we told him our concerns and he did a quick bit of leash work with Dar.
{hanging out waiting for our evaluation}




He noticed she was little gimpy (her back had been acting up again in the last couple months before our move and we had been back to seeing the holistic vet for acupuncture and chiropractic work) and mentioned that part of her barking at people could be related to her being in pain.
Because of her gimpiness he broke up her training sessions into six 30minute sessions rather than three hour long sessions. 


Due to the craziness that comes with moving we ended up missing our last session but still feel we were able to learn a lot from Steve and were able to address the main concerns we had about Darwin being in Singapore. She no longer barks at strangers who approach her (the few that do here) and she's also stopped barking at dogs who bark at her while we're out walking. She's also a much better walker with the prong collar. Every so often we'll switch back to her "pretty" collars but if she starts acting up we'll go back to the prong collar for a refresher.
I used to look at prong collars and think they looked really mean and cruel (ok really I'm still not a fan of the way they look) but after learning the correct way to use it I have to say I am amazed at how well it works. I don't think it's something you should go out and buy and use on your dog without the correct training first, but I think once you are taught the right way to use it it is quite an effective tool.