Choke chain broke during training

[mleun481]

We were at a training session with our 1.5yr old male GSD the other day when the welding on one of the rings came off. We only had the chain for about 2 months so I'm surprised this happened so soon. We just gave him a correction (not a hard one) for barking at someone walking past us. Luckily we were not far from our car so we turned around and brought him back.
The trainer gave us that chain and I guess the quality of it wasn't so great. We're going to get a Herm Sprenger one instead. Has this happened to anyone else?

[Caledon]

I don't use one so I do not have any experience with them.

I have been told a story about a choke chain breaking that I will share as it left an impact on me. It was during a training class many years ago, when choke chains were the popular choice. A woman gave her rottie a hard correction and one of the rings broke. The chain did not fall off but tightened and the broken ring caught on the chain, while the chain was pulled tight. The dog almost lost his life if it were not for the fact that the trainers just happened to have tools on site and were able to cut him free.

[mleun481]

That would be scary. I'm glad that didn't happen. I'm going to try the Herm Sprenger Neck Tech martingale prong collar as well.

[LuvMyDog_Worldwide]

The strength of a collar is usually judged by the welds, but it's the quality of the metal and the way its processed that really makes the difference, use cheaper metal and you can have the strongest weld but the failure will always find a weak point in the metal itself. A better quality metal will bend first to disperse the energy before it fails like the crumple zone in a car. A low quality metal will simply be too brittle and break, the metal under the break will most likely look like a lot of small beads. That's usually because the strength in the metal is only from being tempered without being reheated afterwards to soften the material and allow a degree of bending. As with anything, the extra processing costs money and that affects the price you pay at the checkout. To be honest, it's only when things like this happen that the extra $10 for a better made chain suddenly doesn't seem to be appreciated

[GatorDog]

I have had the same problem with some prong collars that are not Herm Sprenger brand. I only buy their products now, and haven't had a problem since! The only thing that I've heard about the neck tech collars is that if your dog has a longer coat, it may be tough to get a good correction from the collar. I just use their classic prong collar and it works wonderfully.

[mleun481]

We got the Herm Sprenger Neck Tech martingale style collar and it works pretty good. I had to remove a few links, which do not come off easily. Its easier to give a correction than with a choke collar and it looks nice too.

[Catu]

Yep, pretty common. One of the reasons you will barely see someone recommending one of those around here.

[Lucy Dog]

I've found you get the best results with a correction from a prong collar. MUCH better than any choke collar I've ever used (which was a long time ago). I highly recommend you try one if you haven't already. Preferably a Herm Sprenger.. they seem to have the best quality equipment.

[NewbieShepherdGirl]

That happened to us when Sasha pulled really hard because she heard fireworks. I had never been more scared in my life.