forwarded in plain text for Vilma:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > German Shepherd that had been trained on a prong collar. The owner had been told > this was the way to go but I think he was very inexperienced and the dog had > suffered quite a lot. A great deal of patience and love used to try and get him > right again. Poor dog! But I would say this has to do w/ the trainer, not the training tool. One can also be quite abusive to a dog w/ your voice and/or hands....that doesn't mean that voice and hands are bad tools, just incorrectly used tools. The worst cases of "down" dogs I have seen have been those trained (jerked around) w/ a choke collar by someone who thought he/she knew what he/she was doing. Damage to the trachea is also a big concern w/ choke collars. Also, we can agree to disagree. We can politely discusss the merits and drawbacks of training methods. Ex: While I personally don't like or recommend choke collars or invisible fences/electronic collars for training, it doesn't mean there aren't some people/dogs who do fine w/ them. And sometimes my personal preferences (clicker training and a buckle collar, head halter or pinch collar - in that order) aren't always the right choice either. The DOG will tell you. Listen to him -- watch his ears, tail, body language. To be a really good dog trainer, you want to have lots of "tools in your tool chest" as one well known trainer told me....then you have many options for each individual handler/dog combo. Vilma Briggs (Kistner) Mt. Gilead, OH U-UD Mocha Java Slurp, UDX, HIC, TT Ch. Brighteye Expresso Bean, UD, NDD, TT U-CDX Our Little Buddy, UD, NA, TT Thirdtym's A Charm, CD Hob Nob Clouds In My Coffee (puppy "Perc") and foster Bernerboy: Brew/Bruin (Pat Long's dog 2B) ________________________________________________________________________________ Check any e-mail over the Web for free at MailBreeze (http://www.mailbreeze.com)
