British talk show host questions Cesar Millan

[codmaster]

Originally Posted by selzer

Uhm, Codmaster, I am from NE Ohio and have lived here all my life. I see prong collars every day. they are even on tiny little dogs. Yes, trainers here in NE Ohio encourage the use of prong collars and will fit dogs with prong collars. It is pretty much the norm here. The police dogs have prongs, people training dogs for the ring often start with prongs.

I generally feel that I am bucking the system and the people on this board by NOT using a prong.

NE Ohio - a fine interesting place to live where I spernt a few years many years ago around the Wooster/Akron area and kept and showed GSD's way back when!

Prong collars are a great training tool when used properly - just like a clicker can be a fine training tool when used properly

Do all of the police dogs in NE Ohio wear prong collars while working? THAT would be most unusual from the areas where I have seen working canines.

Some people may not have your skill with handling large powerful dogs (like GSD's), and may need the additional control that a properly used prong collar can offer.

[selzer]

I never got the hang of a clicker. I know I have one some place.

I don't know if the K9s use them when they are working, but they certainly do when they are training. I have seen them, even on old and retired k9s, they use the prongs regularly.

Years ago I had a trainer put a prong on a dog and show me how to do a good correction. That was a one day seminar, and by the end of the class hour, the dog was doing better. I had another trainer take the same dog, and demand removal of the prong, and use of a halti. The dog HATED the halti, and kept slipping it to boot.

Eventhough I am not a fan, nor a user of prong collars, which trainer did I have more respect for? Which trainer is more respected in the area? Which trainer did I show with, and did I place under a judge when she did not? And at another show did I place with two dogs, two venues, when she was NQ'd. Ah, yes. use or non-use of certain tools does not make you a good or bad trainer. I think 95% of the dogs in my current trainer's classes use prongs, and that trainer is by far the best trainer I have worked with thus far, but I don't use a prong in her classes, and she doesn't push it.