My dog was out of control, lunging terribly on his lead, so our training instructor recommended using a pinch collar. Now, when he is wearing the pinch collar, he behaves like an obedience champion. When he is not wearing the collar, he has little or no self-control. How can I teach him to behave as well on his regular collar as on his pinch collar?

I Don’t Like the Pinch Collar

Dear Don’t Like the Collar,

Try putting both the pinch collar and a regular collar on him, using two leads. Then start off on the pinch collar, and switch to the regular collar after a few minutes. If he starts to lose control, revert to the pinch collar. Once he is able to do an entire walk or class (with distractions) on the regular collar, switch to only one lead on the regular collar, but still keep the pinch collar on him so that he will think it is still active and so that you can switch back to it if you have to. If he messes up, switch the lead to the pinch collar, then when he settles and starts behaving properly, switch it to the regular collar. Keep switching it back to the pinch collar until he gets the idea that he cannot get away from it. Eventually, he should be behaving on the regular collar just the way he behaves on the pinch collar. Then you can remove the pinch collar.

You can also switch him cold turkey to a slip collar (others call them choke collars but if used correctly, they are slip collars). You do not ever jerk the dog, you jingle the collar to get their attention. The only jerking is done by the dog as it goes to the end of the lead. When that happens, you are most sympathetic and say,"Oh you poor dear, what happened? are you all right?" The dog does realize that he jerked himself and he learns to pay attention to you and where you are going so he does not go in the wrong direction or too far ahead or behind and jerk himself. I wish I could explain it better. It works like a charm and I have watched an experienced trainer take many dogs off of pinch collars in a few minutes of training.

Good luck,