Two collars...
Something to be said for this. With a leash the dog pulls, we pull back, they pull harder. Oppositional reflex is very real with dogs, and that cycle of pulling just escalates.Also, this might be a crackhead suggestion, but I personally have had better luck teaching my dogs to walk nicely beside me OFF LEASH (in an enclosed area, obviously) before adding the leash, rather trying to teach them not to pull. Pulling seems instinctual when on a tether so teaching the command without the leash, then adding the leash once it's learned, has been more efficient for me personally.
Um, ok- look, I don't try to boss anyone around about how to train their dog, but this is one type of thing where I definitely will. Those collars can tighten to an unlimited extent. They have been known to kill dogs who get their collar caught on something, cause over-aroused dogs who ignore the tightness to pass out... and often cause irreversible damage to the trachea even of dogs who respect the chain corrections. I still encourage you to try an approach that does not put your dog at risk of injury.UPDATE: found a check chain in my bag of tricks and that thing has worked miracles. He can't back out of it, it's aversive enough to stop him from pulling, and it won't pop open like prongs sometimes can. He's still A LOT of dog to handle but he's improving a whole heap. He's now neutered and that's also helped a lot. My goal at this point is to be able to walk him to the end of the street without having to correct him, and to that effect I'm keeping him at a strict heel because he thinks he can do what he likes on a loose leash.
He gets off-leash running time at a fully fenced dam. Walking is specifically for one purpose: to train him to walk nicely.
If he couldn't slip the martingale, then I'd say it WAS effective.He completely ignored a martingale, we have one that fits him and he couldn't slip it but it was completely ineffective.
This. Exactly.If he couldn't slip the martingale, then I'd say it WAS effective.
In my opinion, the end goal is not for the dog to heed the device, as one might expect with a choke or prong collar, but rather for you to embrace the fundamental principles of the training itself as a means to achieve success.
Or, I suppose in plain and simple terms, stop expecting the device to do the work for you. Train with your brain, as the old saying goes.
The first dog I ever took from a shelter pulled me down flat on my belly in the parking lot (martingale collar). She wasn't big, a small Rottweiler bitch. I learned my lesson that day and never again took any dog from shelter except in a pinch collar. Sometimes potential harm to the human has to be factored in, but episodes like that carry a risk to the dog too. If I'd let go, who knows what would have happened. We were in a parking lot right by a road.He's also pulled me over twice in a flat collar, which is why we moved away from them.