A traditional method of training a dog not to pull on the lead is to use a choke chain. The idea being when the dog pulls, the chain will tighten around the dogs throat causing pain, so the dog will be less likely to pull. It works. I have seen many dogs trained successfully to walk on a loose lead using this method, it is still widely used and advised by professional dog trainers around the world.
Is it a nice way to train? Of course not. No one is denying you can easily train a dog to walk on a loose lead using a choke chain, it doesn’t require any skill. But training through fear and punishment is never a nice way to train for the dog or the owner.
A dog isn’t meant to walk in a nice straight line by our side, we decide this. So I feel it is up to us as the dictator of this rule to use the most ethical and rewarding methods to teach our dogs ‘we like it when you walk by our side’ so they feel happy and rewarded for walking with us, rather than fear what we will do, if they don’t comply.
There are many fall outs when we use pain inflicting equipment such as choke chains. For example, your dog see’s another dog and pulls toward to say hello. The chain goes tight and crushes their throat. This could plant a small seed in the dogs mind.. ‘every time I see another dog, bad things happen to me.. Hmmm.. next time I see a dog, I might bark or react to get it away because I don’t want this pain to happen to me when I see you’
Even resilient dogs can become accustomed to the choke chain. It loses effectiveness over time, so owners will have to yank the chain harder and harder for it to have any effect. If this stops working, they may resort to prong collars (don’t even get me started on those).
I do not judge owners for using them, especially since such a large audience of owners have seen popular television dog trainers promote such methods. It comes down to education and knowing there are better methods out there. So if like me, you feel there are better ways to train by rewarding our dogs for walking beside us, rather than forcing them to, please share this post.
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