Wanna hear me yap about dog training? Yay! I have a few controversial takes on dog training, so I wanted to show them. 1. Prong collars and e-collars are not cruelty when used correctly. Choke chains and gentle-leaders/face harnesses are. I use a prong collar to train Ares. If you didn't know, a prong collar is a collar made up of several metal prongs that are interchangeable and usually connect to a small chain. I use this collar as a correction tool; and I use it over a choke chain. A choke chain is the chain part but without the prongs. With a first glace, the choke chain seems so much nicer than the prong collar; but it's not! A choke chain, when tightened, will essentially whip your dog in the throat, usually their trachea. A prong collar, when tightened, evenly distributes the force of the correction to all around the neck, not just on the throat. You also use a prong collar by firmly tapping on the leash, not yanking the crap out of them. I use a prong collar for Ares, but he only ever has it on when he's training. If he's at home? It comes right off. Gentle leaders are a lot meaner than they seem. They are a face harness that hooks around their muzzle and around their head. When you correct your dog, you risk the gentle leader hurting the dog's eyes, neck, and nasal cavities. Not worth it. Just use a prong collar, or a flat collar if you don't want to. E-collars are designed to be used just like a prong collar; give a tiny poke of pain to the dog when they need to be corrected. E-collars are demonized because people use them wrong. They put the shock all the way to the max, which is not how they're designed to be used. They're supposed to be put at a level that your dog will feel but won't wince at. For Ares, that's level 6. For a bigger dog, it could be higher. 2. Dog parks are dangerous if you don't prepare for a fight. Tw: slight mentions of dog fighting Dog parks seem like a nice place to train your dog and socialize them, but it's not. People bring their undersocialized dogs there all the time, which is extremely dangerous for the dogs and owners. My advice is, if you really want to socialize your dog, stick *outside* of the dog park. That way, if a dog sees yours and decides to fight them, there's a fence separating them. You may get some weird looks, but I think some embarassment is much better than risking your dog being hurt for life. 3. Positive only is just as bad as negative only training. This may be worded weird so,,, mb I use balanced training for Ares. I use treats to motivate him and use a prong collar to correct him. If you were to only use positive-only, your dog would be motivated, but wouldn't have anything stopping them from being bad. If you use negative-only, your dog will lose motivation. Balanced is the way to go; it's how police train their dogs. 4. Not training your small dog. Small dogs have the reputation for being mean and unpredictable. That is entirely on their owners for two reasons. One, just neglecting to train them because society thinks that little dogs being menaces is cute, and two, the owners don't advocate for their dog's boundaries. Little dogs need to be trained just as much as big dogs. You also need to advocate for them; if someone tries to pet them when they don't like strangers, you tell the stranger no. If a dog comes running towards yours and that dog's owner says "Oh he's friendly!" You make sure that dog doesn't meet yours if they don't want to meet that dog. It is more cruel to not train your little dog than it is to train them with balanced training. (Also, not throwing shade on people with small dogs. If you have a well-trained small dog, that is amazing!! It's unfortunately common for people to not train their small dog, at least where I'm from.)
