The Martingale collar that Zuzu wears daily is by far our favorite for everything but training. Up until yesterday, it was even our favorite for training. Our new class required a choke chain, but she didn't really respond any better with it, and it was ripping her fur, so I hated it. Next, we bought her a "comfort fit" choke chain. It was prettier, but no more effective nor gentle. Fur still flew with every "snap".
Yesterday, while we were out walking in Cuesta park, we came across a lady that we see all of the time walking her two Shar Peis. I noticed that she had a very different collar on them than I had seen anywhere, so I stopped to ask her about it. It was like a Martingale in that it had a loose chain that allowed the collar to shrink to a certain point to prevent backing out, but didn't choke. But, it also had big links with metal prongs poking into the dogs' necks. It looked incredibly cruel! Her dogs are older rescue dogs and one of them is blind, and they are both amazingly sweet, so I really didn't understand the need for such drastic measures.
She laughed kindly and said the collars were very gentle, and not nearly as dangerous as a choke collar. She said with soft tugs, never a snap, she could easily control her two dogs at any time. She said before she decided to use the collars, she saw them demonstrated on children who thought a man was being mean to his dogs. The gentleman took one of the collars off and let the children play with it and pull it around themselves to see that it wouldn't hurt. I was unsure, but Zuzu was starting to be really "pully" and in order to control her on walks, I felt like Jim and I were tugging back way too hard with her normal collar. There was one day when she wanted to get to another dog so badly, that I had to use nearly all of my weight to keep her with me as she would relax, then try to jump away at top speed! So, we went shopping. Again.
We brought Zuzu to a pet store and tried one on her. Then Jim put it around his neck and happily announced that it didn't hurt. I put it on my neck. I didn't like it, but I have to admit that it didn't hurt. So, we bought it.
We walked Zuzu around in Rengsdorf Park with her new collar before dog training that night, and she was a different dog! She was so good! She walked with the leash loose most of the time, but with a gentle pull when we stopped, she would sit. There was no more tugging, just good walking and tail wagging, tongue-out, fun! We had had a good day with lots of Zuzu playing time and training, so it might not have been 100% the collar, but I was at least convinced that she was not miserable and she was behaving, so we stuck with it for the class.
She was great! New commands still confused her a little, and the long sit-stay and down-stays were just entirely too boring for her to tolerate, but the rest of the class was amazing!
Good Sit!
That's not really what I meant by down, but sure, you can have belly scratches.
Heel
Working Sit-Stays and Come, in a line
We trade off during training.
Figure Eights
Hey Mom, look! A Guinea Pig!!
Time to sit while Charlie does figure eights. Poor little Charlie shook every time he got near Zuzu!
Preparing for the long sit-stay. She lasted about 30 seconds each time, before we had to set up again and sit-stay some more.
The long down-stay. "Daddy! I see you up there on the grass. Can I please go with you? This is sooooo boring!!"
We used the collar on our long walk this morning too, and she was so good! We ran into the lady with her Sar Peis and she said we had the collar set right (the prongs just barely touch Zuzu's neck when it's as tight as it can go).
Jim is convinced that her good behavior is the collar. I'm just convinced that she's behaving and I'm not going to change anything right now.
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