Here is this issue again. In a month Anton will be 6 months and I will be taking him for obedience class, actually it's called a leadership class (the school and this particular class was recommended). After the registration I have recieved the class info and discovered that the choke chains are required during the class. I really don't know if it's a good idea since in the past I had a bad experience with using a slip collar on my other dog Yana.
Anton is a great puppy, extremely food motivated. When he starts pulling just a simple stop and telling him 'slow' works. I informally teach him attentive healing with food and he's doing wonderfully. I don't even need to pop a leash on him since the distractions to food or toy (sometimes) and watch me command works very well with him. His worst habit right now is getting excited and barking if we are too close to another dog (not just passing by but if two dogs are waiting and close to each other) and it's excited barking, not fear. Again, ignoring and redirection works so far, and I have a very happy puppy with me right now.
I was thinking to reserve the prong collar and corrections for later times after he absolutely knows what is expected from him, and here it seems that they teach obedience using the choke. I have done that with Yana so I know it works but I am afraid I will destroy the bond I have with my puppy right now and kill all the fun of learning new stuff for him. What do you think? Am I too paranoid?
Anton is a great puppy, extremely food motivated. When he starts pulling just a simple stop and telling him 'slow' works. I informally teach him attentive healing with food and he's doing wonderfully. I don't even need to pop a leash on him since the distractions to food or toy (sometimes) and watch me command works very well with him. His worst habit right now is getting excited and barking if we are too close to another dog (not just passing by but if two dogs are waiting and close to each other) and it's excited barking, not fear. Again, ignoring and redirection works so far, and I have a very happy puppy with me right now.
I was thinking to reserve the prong collar and corrections for later times after he absolutely knows what is expected from him, and here it seems that they teach obedience using the choke. I have done that with Yana so I know it works but I am afraid I will destroy the bond I have with my puppy right now and kill all the fun of learning new stuff for him. What do you think? Am I too paranoid?