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Old December 9th, 2003, 05:10 PM
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melanie melanie is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2003
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I use a choke chain, but from your descriptions im not sure if our version is the same as yours. our choke chain is a rather thin chain (around 1cm diameter) and just slips over her head (she is a shepherd X). when we went to dog school (a few years ago now) it was the done thing, but i have a bit of a theory that the muscles in the area where it pulls are very strong, although i do notice her fur in that area is coarser that the rest of her (she is ver soft). but she has never shown any pain reactions ect. we usually only pull it when she is not paying attention or if there is a fight as it is a great way of controling her. If she is not paying attention to me and tries to pull (very rare these days) i just let her go out from me about 1meter and then just turn and run the other way, the chain doesnt hurt it just helps me get her moving, this is a very effective way of reminding her of what we are doing. but we have nerver used a regular collar for walking, just the chain. and i notice if i try to walk her with anything else she is naughty and ignores me as the chain is part of the routine and she knows it, i think it may be the sound and the way it sits that forms part of the routine. I have seen some people do the most cruel things with a choker though, some people see it as trainiing but havent gone to school to teach the dog any different. and if you use a choker NEVER leave a dog tied up with one as they can do just what their name indicates, choke them. but when she hears that chain she gets ridiculously excited so it cant be to bad
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