Sarah
Standard Collar & Leash – For the sake of clarity, this is the collar that buckles or clips around your dog’s neck and the straight standard 4’, 5’ or 6’ leash. These, to me, are must-haves for all dog owners. These are your basic tools like keeping a screwdriver and hammer in your house. Some people may think “Oh we live in a rural area. We want out dog off leash.” Yep, that’s great, and I live in the sticks too. Our dogs are well behaved off-leash, but they must be well behaved on-leash too. Most vets and dog friendly stores will require your dog on leash for them to enter. Many cities and counties have leash laws requiring you dog to be on leash anywhere off your own property. These are just the standard basics for owning a dog in my opinion.
Retractable Leashes – These are the leashes that extend out of usually a plastic handle. Many have a lock feature that allows you to lock the leash at a specific length. I personally despise these things for several reasons, but I will try to share both sides. I know many people with smaller dogs think these are nice to have for the benefit of allowing their dog to explore further away from the especially while the dogs are relieving themselves. Some feel it helps them get control if they have more time to react if the dog takes off after something. One major issue, I see with these is the leash is constantly providing resistance to the dog if it is not in locked mode. With a standard leash, that resistance and pressure tells the dog he is at the end of the line. That is the signal to the dog that he should not pull anymore and should move closer to the owner. In my opinion, these retractable leashes enforce the opposite, “If I pull more or harder, I can go further”. They seem to encourage the dog to pull on any leash more. Our dogs are all large breeds and I have yet to see a retractable leash that I would put against the force of any of our large dogs. We have taken in several smaller recue dog over the years, but even with those smaller dogs, it’s my opinion that the retractable leashes cons, far outweigh the pros.
Harnesses – Harnesses typically strap in front of the dog’s shoulders but lower than the neck and around the chest or belly behind the front legs. There is also a version called a head harness, which I do not have experience with. I will focus on the chest harness for this purpose. These are used in place of or in addition to a collar by some dog owners. Many Police and Military K9 handlers use harnesses while they are on duty. Some of these harnesses are even designed as protective gear for the K9s. Some dog owners prefer a harness to a standard collar especially in cases where the dogs’ smaller sizes tend to enable them to back out of a collar. Owners of stronger breeds may prefer a harness over a collar due to the dog’s powerful pull in prey drive situations. This is personal preference in my opinion. I prefer a collar on my dogs most of the time. I would like to get into more specialized training like Search & Rescue or even Service Dog Training. In these specialized situations, the harness can be a signal to the dog to go into work mode, with the added benefit of they may offer ways for the dog to carry gear or necessities for their task.
Check Cord or Long Lead – This is essentially a really long leash. This an effective tool for teaching a recall command like “Come”, “Here” or a retrieving command like “Fetch”. The length of the lead allows your puppy/dog to get a good distance away from you where you can apply a small amount of leash pressure to encourage them to return in your direction.
Clicker & Clicker Training – A clicker is a small easily held noise maker; it makes a click sound when the button is pushed. The training method associated with the clicker is the sound will be used to mark the good or correct behavior your dog performs. I have found this method works well for higher energy dogs that will give you a correct response, but will move before you can offer a treat, toy or praise. This method also works well when you are working on commands where you dog is not at arm’s length. It can assist in what I call “building block actions” too. This is where you are building on the action little by little to get a more complex response. You initially condition the dog that the click noise means that get a treat. Once your dog realizes that the click means they get a reward, you can use it to mark the correct behavior or response. For example, I used this method with Ruger, our first German Shepherd, because I could git him to sit, but he would move before I could reward him. I felt like I was rewarding the “stand back up” rather than the “sit” because he moved so fast. The clicker allowed me to hone in on that exact moment he sat, and then the treat could follow. The click is the marker of the reward for the dog; the moment he knows he did right and will get the reward. I didn’t use this method with my labs as they were slower paced and I could easily reward the behavior.
Choke or Pinch Collars – This is a collar that tightens around the dog’s neck to correct pulling on the leash issues or quick “check” corrections. The choke collar is usually either a slip style rope or a metal chain. The pinch collar is typically all metal with prongs that put increasing pressure around the neck as it is tightened. These are not my favorite training tool, but I have used them. I tell people this is not a collar that you leave on your dog. This is a training tool to use while you are training your dog and you should know how you use it properly for it to be effective. I have heard horror stories of dogs who wore these as regular collars being strangled because the collar got hung on something when the owner wasn’t around or people who improperly used the collars with too much force and did damage to their dogs trachea. I encourage you to thoroughly learn and research how you properly use this tool before choosing to use it with your dog.
E-Collar – This is a collar with a device attached that responds to a handheld remote the owner uses. Some of these collars deliver a beep tone, a vibration sensation, an electric pulse (some people say shock), and some have all these options. Some even have an anti-bark feature to them. There are a lot of options out there when it comes to E-Collars, and I know there are a lot of polarizing opinions about them in the dog world, so again I will urge you to research and decide whether it is a tool you can use properly. It is a tool that can be used to train your dog for off leash situations. It can be used to correct bad behaviors that happen at a distance. I remember seeing an episode of The Dog Whisperer where Caesar Milan recommends and E-Collar to a farmer whose dog’s job was herding on the farm, but the dog would get dangerously close to the tractor tires. The farmer feared he would run over the dog because it was there were blind spots while driving the tractor. The e-collar allowed them to correct the dog as she got too close to the tractor which taught her the safe distance to stay from the tractor. When used properly, they can be a highly effective tool.
Crate – A crate is a usually a plastic or metal box that fits the size of your dog. Some come in wood to be a more attractive option in your home. A crate can be a huge help when raise a young puppy or even an mature dog that has never been house broken. They give your dog its own space, assist with housebreaking, and keep your dog out of trouble when you are available to monitor it. A puppy cannot chew up shoes, furniture or walls if they cannot get to them. I am a huge advocate for crate training any new dog – no matter what age. I expand more on crate training on this post.
Books & Video – Yes, I am including these as tools! These resources are a wealth of information. I would love to provide you all the information you need to train the most amazing dog ever and believe me, I will keep providing you with as much as I can. I am self-taught, though years of taking in everything I could from others and trial and error with my own dogs and many rescues we’ve taken in and rehomed. There are some amazing books out there. I will highlight some in other posts here. There are also many amazing individuals that share their knowledge though paid videos and even free content on YouTube. There is a wealth of knowledge out there for you to find and work though all kinds of training with your dogs.
Your experience and knowledge of the tools and methods to use is vital, but always remember that every dog is unique. Most dogs may respond the same to one method that has always worked for you, but then one dog may come along that just does not process the same way. We used an e-collar while training our yellow lab, Decker, to learn waterfowl retrieving skills. He responded just as we expected, if he broke to soon or would not sit for a hand signal, the e-collar allowed us to quickly correct the mistake from a distance. We used the exact same methods with Colt, our Chesapeake Bay/Lab cross, and bless his heart, he could never make the association that it was our correction. He would break too soon, receive the correction, just keep going, but on the way back with the bumper, he would run around the spot where he received the correction. It was frustrating and funny to watch him know exactly what patch of grass had “bit” him. We quickly redirected and used a more reward-based method for doing the right action and less correction for the mistakes. That worked for him. Dogs have different personalities, so do not get discouraged or frustrated if what you are doing isn’t working as fast or as well as you think it should. Sometimes you must change it up, but don’t train while you are frustrated or agitated with your dog. They will pick up on your mood, and training will not be fun for you or them.
If training your own dog seems too much for you, there are always good trainers around that can train your dog, and train you how to be the pack leader to your dog. You must be the alpha to your dog if you expect your dog to obey you. If you are local to us in North Mississippi, there is a trainer I have heard wonderful things about, The K9 Consultant. There is also a trainer out of Nashville, TN named Larry Krohn, who runs PAK Masters. I have learned so much from Larry’s training videos that he uploads to YouTube. I enjoy training my dogs, but I understand many may not enjoy the training and just want a well-behaved dog. Trainers are going to be your tool and method then, and that’s okay. (Just an FYI, I don’t know either of these trainers and I can bet they’ve never heard my name before. I get no kick back of any kind from them, but if you decide to use them, feel free to tell them you heard about them from me and that I would love to train along side them for a day and learn more hands on 😊)
I hope this has provided you with information on the many tools and methods at your disposable to have well-behaved dog. If you read this far then give yourself a pat on the back for caring enough to start your research. You do not have to have all the answers all at once. Heaven knows I didn’t and still don’t. I learn something new from each dog I work with. I’ll leave you with this thought – The more your dog knows, the better companion they will be.
