Today's blog is sort of like a continuation from a few days ago (Head's up). I was driving home from the grocery store where I had purchased some chicken and pork for my dogs. As I drove down the street I noticed a woman with a young Golden; the dog was probably around 7 months old judging from it's lean build. The owner was frustrated, I could see that right away. The dog was pulling and as she crossed the road she was quite obvious that people were watching. She tugged and tugged to no avail. The youngster kept pulling. It was difficult to see how the dog was connected; I strained to see the collar under the hair and finally saw that it was a soft choke that was all in one with the leash, sort of rope material.
The woman was clearly not enjoying herself; funny how common it is to see a yank trainer growing angry because of the lack of results from the yanking. I watched her cross the street and go down to the right. She left my range of vision so I watched her in my side mirror. With her frustration at it's peek she stopped and pulled the choke up around the back of her dogs ears; right in the soft spot. This soft spot is where many trainers; including ones who are on television tell you to put the collar. This spot is one place that a collar should never sit. It lacks the large muscles that surround the neck further down towards the shoulders. I hate to see when people pop it up to this spot; especially when delivering strong yanks.
Dogs being dogs they quickly become accustom to yanks. Most get so use to receiving them that the owner soon has to resort to stronger and stronger yanks. This yanking motion can be very dangerous causing serious damage to the dogs neck, I have written many times about how anger seems to be connected to yank training or conventional choke collar training. Typically the level of anger grows at an exponential rate when in public. "People are watching" is a common concern from many owners; oddly enough the concern of people seeing them yank away on their dog's neck is not a concern.
If someone who does not understand dog behavior has only received a training education from a conventional trainer then it makes a great deal of sense that they don't see anything wrong with yanking away.
Please don't yank on your dogs neck.