[Sophie's Mum]

My girl is always in a frenzy when being walked. She doesn't fight the leash, she just tries to get the sights and smells in, thus she's all over the place and pulling. We'd been using a flat collar until last week when we got a Martingale. Since then she's keeping in check much better than she was.

She's a "soft" 5 month old Golden and aims to please, although she's not quite so "soft" on her walks. The Martingale seems to be doing the trick so far.

Are there people here who use this type of collar? I've been using it by giving light leash pops when she wanders ahead too far, is that a proper way to use it?

Also, it's the law to have her tags on her when we are out and about, but I don't know where they'd go on this type of collar? Should she wear both her flat and her martingale because of this? That's what we've been doing so far.

[zimandtakandgrrandmimi]

I use martingales on reactive dogs.

But I only use them to keep the dog from being able to back out of the collar.

as for tags get one of these. they come in different patterns


http://www.doggie-depot.com/lugrdogmacoc.html

[Sophie's Mum]

Sorry for the naivety here, but what's a reactive dog?

[zimandtakandgrrandmimi]

a reactive dog is one who shows aggression or panic in response to something specific.

I don't use any kind of physical correction at all. ever.


My martingales I size so that when it is at its tightest point, there is enough space between collar and dog that I can fit my pinky

[opokki]

I too use and recommend martingale collars but not to give corrections with. I like their no-slip value, especially for dogs with small heads like mine.

The way I fit them is tight but not enough to cause choking. I fit their tightest point high on the neck below the dogs ears.

[Cheetah]

I use martingales. When Shippo was younger he backed out of his regular collar TWICE. The first time I thought it was just a fluke. The second time, it was right next to a busy street. After that I went and got a martingale. I like that they have a limit to have much they can contract, so I'm not choking my dog.

[rosemaryninja]

As far as I know, martingale collars aren't a particularly controversial topic. They are very useful for dogs who are likely to slip their collars, like reactive dogs (as explained above by Zim; dogs who have fear/anger issues with specific triggers that cause them to try to get far away from/close to the trigger) or dogs with slim necks.

[wvasko]

What's not to like, I just wonder how many dogs have slipped their regular buckle collars and gotten killed. I prefer the nylon with the chain enclosure as sometimes the all nylon does not release as quickly. It never ceases to amaze me the people that come to the kennel and the buckle collars that just hang loosely on dog. Houdini is not needed as these dogs can escape and do a disappearing act in seconds. Adjusted properly it's non-choke, non-back out, it's fool proof and in my opinion a crate and a Marti collar and you are set up with your new pup/dog.

[Sophie's Mum]

Well I can't say that I have a reactive dog, just very busy busy busy when on her walk.

She's never slipped her flat collar either as it's on pretty tight when she wears it. Not tight enought to choke, just firmly.

By the looks of it, she shouldn't really need a martingale, since I'm not using it for any of the above reasons. But it's working for what we want it to do. Teaching her to stay by our side (more or less) when walking. She's a tough dog to walk otherwise. We did the leash popping, the praising, the standing like a tree, the quick turns ect while on her flat collar and it would work for 2 seconds then she'd be right back to her frenzied pulling and not paying attention to where we were going.

So the new collar has helped so far, but now I'm wondering if leash popping will hurt her with this collar. Mind you, they're not huge snaps, more like a reminder pop.