This topic always comes up in one form or another, but lets talk about training collars and French Brittanys. First I have a background in working with extreme drive working dogs. Stubborn dogs. Powerful dogs. Dangerous dogs. So when we are talking about French Brittanys or Epagneul Bretons, we are talking about very soft biddable dogs by nature at every age.

The tools many people want to know about are Prong or Pinch collars, Electronic or shock collars, choke chains or choke collars, sometimes called slip collars or slip leads, Haltis and the list goes on and on.

I am not saying those devices don’t ever have a place, but I am telling you, you simply don’t need one for training a French Brittany to walk on a loose leash. Especially a young puppy. You simply teach them to walk on a loose leash with motivation and reward instead of trying to force them or compel them through mechanical devices. These are tools only for very experienced hands. Just like in horsemanship I meet very few people who should have reigns attached to anything other than a snaffle bit or side pull headstall on their horse. They lack the timing and fine control. It is the same with corrective collars. I meet very few people who know how to use one correctly. And so help me if I ever come across anyone jerking hard on a leash attached to a pinch collar that is one a soft dog or a puppy, I guarantee I am wrapping that sucker on your neck and giving equal tugs and jerks until they understand. I don’t judge people for what they don’t know, but when they have been made aware. Check out this article by Dr Ian Dunbar: https://dogtime.com/reference/dog-training/1530-dog-training-walking-on-leash-dunbar

I can take even very stubborn dedicated leash pullers and fix that horrible habit in under ten minutes almost all the time with just a flat collar and a six foot leash.

So I will be the voice of dissent against whatever your other “trainers” or buddies have told you. That is not the path you need for loose leash walking.

Pinch collars were designed to get through the long coat of a German shepherd to communicate a training signal to the dog, but with the end goal being off leash heeling not walking with a pinch collar the rest of its life. Here is a quick snippet of a video of me heeling off leash with a very high drive and quite dangerous Shepherd that I had never used a pinch collar on at all. I never had a shock collar on him either.

https://youtu.be/ANtin9RFu-0 

Choke chains are so much more dangerous than people understand especially for dogs with hairy necks. The collar can close down and get stuck in the dogs hair and choke the dog to death right in front of you and at your hand… Choke chains and the like are made only to be thrown away they have no place on a dogs neck or anyone else’s they have no business or purpose in Training at all. They take away a dogs ability to breathe. I promise they are not in a learning frame of mind when that happens. Take this example. If i tell you to be quiet and you talk back for example and I quickly submerge your head under water, tell me what are thinking in that moment? Are you thinking “man I shouldn’t talk back!” Or is your only thought how to get your next breath of air? I assure you for both you and the dog it is the latter. And what are you willing to do to get your next breath? The answer is anything. Whatever it takes. There is no limit to what you would do to get that breath. It is the same for a dog. That is why many very high drive dogs injure their handlers when they receive what is ultimately a bad correction.

If you want to hear it from a real expert check out Dr Ian Dunbars technique, and yes this is being done with a high drive Belgian Shepherd and it is not done with force and compulsion

The idea is to teach your dog to walk on a loose leash, not to compel them to do it with fear, force, or intimidation.

Some people for whatever reason need to have mechanical advantage over the dog. That is fine if you have been trained to use a tool and can do so well, and do it with the end goal of being loose leash walking without a control device, but always it is easier to just start young and do it right instead of creating a problem you later have to fix.

So disagree all you want if you want folks but I think if you have an open mind about the conversation you will see where I am coming from and agree we shouldn’t ever have to compel through force and mechanical advantage an EB puppy. If you think you have the exception, bring it to me and I will show you how to get that puppy or dog walking in a loose leash in under ten minutes with a flat collar.