# Sophie's first day on a prong!



## SophieGSD (Feb 6, 2012)

Haha I HAVE to brag about this. She did SO well today, for her first day with a prong collar. She only tried ONCE to pull, and very quickly realized that it wouldn't get her anywhere, and I think today was the best walk I've ever had with her. She was always well-behaved before, but today she was excellent! Didn't pull, lunge, bark, or anything! Took her to the "Chattanooga Chew Chew Dog Park" and let her and my mom's Husky, Aviee, run around and play for about an hour, and then we walked around downtown Chattanooga with NO problems!

While at the dog park, Sophie listened every time I said "Sophie, come!" I even had her jumping some of the little agility props on command! I couldn't believe it, she was like a totally different dog! =D

I was really iffy on the prong collar at first, but after seeing how well she did on it, I love it! I did my research on how to properly use it so not to cause injury or discomfort, put it on her, and WOW. HUGE difference! And I only had one bad stare for it! I overheard the woman ask her friend "Aren't those really abusive?" but didn't care enough to correct her. With people like that, best thing you can do is let them think what they wanna think, and go about your business.

Anyway, that's my brag for the day. XP Hope y'all had as good of a day as I did!


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## OriginalWacky (Dec 21, 2011)

I wish more people would take the time to learn about various methods used to work with dogs. A prong collar can be abusive if used incorrectly, but so can any other collar, and most any other tool you might use. Just because I haven't (so far) needed a prong, doesn't mean that I'd never use one (in fact, I have one from a previous dog that came with it), and I wouldn't call somebody putting one on their dog abusive. 

Anyhow, great that you had a lovely day with your gorgeous girl!


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## SophieGSD (Feb 6, 2012)

I agree. I used to think that prongs were only for absolutely uncontrollable dogs or people that just didn't want to train their dogs, so they put an obnoxiously strong collars on the dogs to subdue them. But then I did research, and realized that a prong collar is like a bit on a horse. (I deal with and train horses as well.) When used properly, it's an amazing tool that gives you the utmost control. But when used incorrectly, it's a harsh tool.

But thank you!


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