On 21 Mar 2005 17:56:43 -0500, (Melinda Shore) wrote:

Here's a thing about prong collars, and it may be my own
somewhat circumscribed experience talking, but I'm a big fan
of clicker training for easily bored dogs that shut down
when offended, and I've never been in a clicker training
class that advocated the use of prongs. That's unfortunate
especially because they do tend to favor head halters, which
I think are a bad idea for a dog that's apt to bolt.

I agree, and I doubt you'd find a clicker trainer who thought prongs
were OK. The OP should just look for a trainer/class she's
comfortable with, and if it's a clicker class she can just use the
prong collar outside of class as necessary.

One thing that cracks me up with the dogs is that when you
try the "make like a tree" thing that's popular with some
trainers, a lot of Siberians will just lean against the
collar and not back off. You have to get out of it without
the dog thinking it's won, which for us means turning around
and heading in the other direction (and keep changing
direction before the dog has the chance to hit the end of
the leash again). (I'm having a dickens of a time with
Cinder, but now that sledding season is effectively over we
can get back to work on leash manners.)

Yep, making like a tree isn't going to work with a dog that thinks it
can pull a tree out of the ground. I think many people, trainers
included, don't grasp just how hard Siberians can pull, and how
strongly wired they are to pull.

Mustang Sally