# 2.25 mm prong?



## Bob_McBob (Nov 15, 2012)

I use a prong collar for training my young male, but I'm finding it almost impossible to get a proper fit. He has a medium length shaggy coat and loose skin on his neck, and fitting training collars is a constant source of frustration. My trainer suggested I try a smaller link size, so I swapped the generic Petsmart "large" (3.3 mm) for a "medium" (3 mm). It's a bit better, but it's still either so loose it sits too low, or so tight the prongs irritate his neck to the point of producing little scabs.

I've read about people using the 2.25 mm size with a lot of extra links in this situation. Would this be appropriate for him? I'm guessing I'd have to order quite a few extra links to accommodate his neck size. I'd like to upgrade to a Sprenger for the nicer construction and middle link with opposing prong directions and I want to be certain I'm getting the right collar.


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## Bob_McBob (Nov 15, 2012)

It sounds like there are some safety concerns using the 2.25 mm prong with a large breed. Perhaps I should just get a 3.25 mm Sprenger and see how it fits?


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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

The only thing I use are 2.5 mm HS prongs. I just add links to fit. 

I never use a prong without a back up DD collar though, because the smaller links can come apart with a large dog.

David Winners


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## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

The main issue I have had with the 2.5 HS is hair likes to stick to it and you have to peel it off slowly. (my dog has lot of neck hair, which I guess I could trim, but the skin is not loose)

Have you considered the regular HS may not irritate his neck if fit properly? The tips of the prongs are smoothed and rounded compared to flat and rough on the pet store ones I have seen.


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## Bob_McBob (Nov 15, 2012)

jocoyn said:


> Have you considered the regular HS may not irritate his neck if fit properly? The tips of the prongs are smoothed and rounded compared to flat and rough on the pet store ones I have seen.


I did consider that, yes. The medium seems to have relatively rounded tips I don't think should be an issue. The problem is that it's either loose enough it flops down and rotates around his neck (which may well the cause of the irritation) or so tight he is pretty much correcting himself every time he flexes his neck muscles. He rarely complains about equipment, but he's visibly uncomfortable spending too much time in it when it's tight. The larger size had an even more dramatic difference between a link.

He has a pretty long sleek body with a big head and small neck. My trainer works with a lot of GSDs and said she's never had so much trouble fitting a collar. I do think I owe it to him to try all the options and get him the best choice if we're doing a lot of work on the prong. I ordered one of the 3.25 mm stainless HS collars to try, and I'll get a 2.5 mm if I'm not happy with the fit.


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

Can you post some pictures? I would think a dog could wear any size prong provided it was fit correctly (right amount of links). The problem I see with using the mini prong and adding a ton of links is the more links you have, the less the correction (spreads out along all the pressure points) so then what's the point? If a normal GSD sized prong collar is too much correction for the dog, it may not be the right tool.


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## Shade (Feb 20, 2012)

I got the 3.25 HS and it works great, took out 2 links and it fits perfectly. I looked at the 2.25 but ended up going with the bigger just to be safe as I was ordering it online and didn't want to have the hassel of returning/ordering again if the 2.25 wasn't working.


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## Bob_McBob (Nov 15, 2012)

I received the HS stainless prong earlier today, and I'll spend some time playing around with the fit this afternoon. I got the black one (23") and removed three links, and it seems to sit okay on his neck. It's hard to tell how comfortable he is since he has some bad irritation from the other collar, and I may have to hold off on serious training until that clears up. The construction and material qualities of the HS are rather significantly better than the Petsmart generic. It's also quite a bit lighter because the martingale chain isn't needlessly thick. The opposing direction "ultra" link seems to help with fitting and unwanted rotation. I'm very pleased with the collar and it's quite obvious why they come so highly recommended.

I also got a dominant dog collar to use as a prong backup. I measured per Leerburg's instructions and came up with 16", which is an exact tight fit where it's meant to sit. This would probably be okay if I wanted to use it for training, but it seems too tight even by Leerburg's standards since there is no loose leader at all. I'll see about swapping it for a 17".


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## Bob_McBob (Nov 15, 2012)

The HS collar seems to be pretty much perfect. I am so impressed by the quality and how much better it works than the generic. The reversing link in the middle seems to make a huge difference when applying corrections, and it just fits without slipping around. I had a great session with my trainer today; I could see her eyes light up when I showed her the new collar before we started


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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

Liesje said:


> Can you post some pictures? I would think a dog could wear any size prong provided it was fit correctly (right amount of links). The problem I see with using the mini prong and adding a ton of links is the more links you have, the less the correction (spreads out along all the pressure points) so then what's the point? If a normal GSD sized prong collar is too much correction for the dog, it may not be the right tool.


I don't use the prong for a correction as much as for communication, but a 2.25mm prong can deliver a very strong correction to a dog. JMO


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