They sent the wrong collar, but....

[Syaoransbear]

There's a good side to the collar, and a possibly bad side.

The collar I ordered was this one:


And I can't find a picture of the one I received on their site or anywhere on the internet, but the one they sent me has a loop like this:


But the two-directional prongs like the one in this picture:


So while I love that they accidentally gave me a prong collar with the two-directional prongs, I don't like the nylon part. For one reason, I wanted the one in the first picture because if the buckle ever came undone, the collar would still be on the dog, just dead-ringed and significantly looser. I already have a safety net in case the prong comes undone, so that's not a big deal if it doesn't work like that.

But I wonder if this collar is going to be as effective as a prong with the martingale feature. Has anyone used a collar similar to the one in the second picture before?

[Chicagocanine]

I haven't used one but it seems like it would work more like a choke collar, meaning it might not work as well if the dog was on the "wrong" side if that makes sense?

[Chris Wild]

Don't have one like the one in the second picture but know some people who do. It doesn't seem to work as well as a regular prong. Yes, much more like choker action, which isn't the way a prong is supposed to work. Corrections need more force to get it to work, aren't as well distributed around the neck, and it doesn't go slack again as quickly.

[gsdraven]

I have tried the one they sent you except not with the new prong style and didn't like it. Like Chris said, it was harder to make a meaningful correction and worked more like a choke or martingale.

[Syaoransbear]

Thanks for the input everyone!

Based on the design, I figured it wouldn't give as good of a correction. It does seem to function too much like a choke collar to properly work like a prong. On the plus side, it's nylon, so it's easy for me to replace the nylon part. I just wish I didn't have to :/.

[wildo]

The one in the second picture has all the same hardware as the first picture. Find a friend who sews and just fix it how you want. It's not hard...

[MaggieRoseLee]

I'd return it and get the one you wanted, or a regular prong collar...

[Syaoransbear]

Originally Posted by wildo

The one in the second picture has all the same hardware as the first picture. Find a friend who sews and just fix it how you want. It's not hard...

That's what I said I intended to do in the above post, except do it myself.

Originally Posted by MaggieRoseLee

I'd return it and get the one you wanted, or a regular prong collar...

I don't want to return it because I can fix it pretty easily, and I don't want to wait a month to ship it there and back and possibly still have the wrong collar. This is the first time I've dealt with this company and in addition to them giving me the wrong collar, they also mailed it to the wrong address, so I'd rather just avoid them from now on.

[jbdarow]

Looking at the first collar, I would be uncomfortable pulling a prong collar over my dog's head -- worried about poking an eye. Of course, I'm probably stating the obvious; you probably already thought about that. It may not be a concern for your situation. But I am stuck imagining putting it on a specific dog I own after he has been watching other dogs work in protection -- and it's now his turn. In case you can't relate, I'm talking about crazy excitement to do the work. "Put that collar on and let's go already, master!" "Is it on?" "What about now?"

[Syaoransbear]

Originally Posted by jbdarow

Looking at the first collar, I would be uncomfortable pulling a prong collar over my dog's head -- worried about poking an eye. Of course, I'm probably stating the obvious; you probably already thought about that. It may not be a concern for your situation. But I am stuck imagining putting it on a specific dog I own after he has been watching other dogs work in protection -- and it's now his turn. In case you can't relate, I'm talking about crazy excitement to do the work. "Put that collar on and let's go already, master!" "Is it on?" "What about now?"

I did wonder about poking an eye too, but the nylon part should expand enough that only the nylon part is anywhere near the dog's eyes and the prongs will hang below when you slip it over. There's still always the option of just taking apart the prongs normally if it's a problem.

I fitted the collar on my dog last night and even if I had wanted the nylon to be this way, it would still need some huge adjustments. The nylon part is too big, about 9 inches long, so properly fitted there were only 5 prong links on the collar. It was basically a fabric choke collar with a few prongs under the chin. It was totally useless, and definitely did not give any sort of pinching correction, just a choke.

At least I have some spare nylon from a coupler I cut in half to make a tab. I knew there was one day going to be a reason why I should keep that piece!