Prong Collars—The Ultimate In Leash Communication With Your Dog

00:00 — Kati Peppe opens Off Leash and Unfiltered and asks listeners to subscribe.

Welcome to Off Leash and Unfiltered. Trigger warning. I'm Kati Peppe, delivering the Truth in Dog Training.

Hey everybody, this is your host, Kati Peppe. Before we jump in, I just wanted to take a quick second and remind you to hit the subscribe button because that helps us so, so, so much. We appreciate every subscribe and follow, and we have so much valuable information we wanna share with you. So we don't want you to miss an episode. Without further ado, let's jump in. Hey everyone, thanks for joining me today. Um, I thought, you know, it's like when you do these things, you feel like you're talking about the same things over and over and over again.

Um, but I realize that some of the most basic foundational things are honestly what people need to hear the most. It's the things that everybody can use and everybody's missing. And even though it feels sort of repetitive to me, there's almost always some information in there that's new and helpful, um, to other people.

So today I wanted 'em to go all the way back to basic, basic stuff, uh, which is basically how to communicate through your prong collar. So I wanna talk about the magic here, you guys, of the prong collar. It is such an incredible tool, and it gets such a bad rap too. I mean, it is crazy how much hate the prong collar gets. Um, and honestly, I've never, I just, I just can't even imagine walking a dog without it now. I mean, even a well-behaved dog that walks nicely, guess what? We still put a prong collar on them <laugh>.

So, and why do we do that? It's like, well, because it's our lifeline, it's our communication line. And yeah, we're usually, we usually have dogs on an e-collar and like, that's all fine and good, but I'm holding that leash in my hand all the time.

And to me, for that to be a thing that I'm just hanging onto and I can't do anything else with it except hang onto it, is just a gross feeling to me. It's, it's silly. It makes no sense. I, and what if, right? So that's always what we say about dogs is what if, right? Even on the e-collar, you know, we always tell people like when you're off leash, especially in an unfenced area, I don't care how good your dog is doing, that e-collar goes on because what if, and I feel the same way about the prong collar, right?

03:00 — Kati compares wearing training collars to wearing a seatbelt as a precaution.

It's just like your seatbelt in the car. It's like, yeah, you might not ever really be using it, right? But what if, right? So it's there for that. And I find even people that think they don't need their prong collar, they don't use their prong collar, you actually are, there's a million small moments when your dog is on a leash that maybe you don't have to stop and tap your e-collar because you just have a leash in your hand and you can just talk through your leash.

But if you don't have it on there, then you're missing out on all of that. And it's not that you can't do it if you have your leash attached to a different collar, um, but it's not the same and you lose 99% of your effectiveness if you're trying to talk through a flat collar. Um, or maybe we'll say like 90%, right? These numbers are somewhat arbitrary, I'm just kind of picking them. But the point is, you lose a lot of your communication on a flat collar and almost all of it, um, through harness. So if you have a harness furnace, <laugh>, so I'm gonna attach some links in the show notes, um, to some prong collar videos about, you know, sizing your prong collar and how to properly size it, put it on and use it.

So encourage you to watch those if you're not sure, if you're not familiar, if you haven't done it before.

And don't be afraid of it. It's an amazing, amazing tool. And for the record, as a side note, something a lot of people might not know, I used to be anti-prong collar. I wasn't like an activist out there protesting the prong collar or anything. Um, but when I saw it, I mean, my first thought was, oh my God, what a terrible collar. Um, so I don't judge anybody for thinking that, um, if they're just ignorant about it and they don't know, like I was, um, you know, because your, I think your initial thoughts are that it's used to just poke the dog, right?

Like they're sharp, they're often <laugh>, some people will call them spike collars. Um, that's not actually how they work at all. So they're not supposed to feel sharp or spiky to the dog, but they just deliver pressure in a much different way.

So it's a novel sensation compared to the flat collar. It's a lot more noticeable. So your dog will be a lot more responsive. And then if you combine that with actual leash handling skills and you know how to handle your leash, you now have an incredible level of communication and control with your dog. Um, which, who wouldn't want that? So let's talk about why the prong collar is magic. Um, okay, so first of all, it's affordable. Whoops, <laugh> just smacked my microphone right outta my mouth here. It's affordable and accessible, right? So a lot of folks, it's like they're just going down this dog training path and not everybody can afford to go out and get an e-collar right away.

Um, I still recommend that you do whatever you have to do to save for one. And if you have to do the training yourself, just do your research.

Don't be afraid of it. So a lot of trainers out there try to scare you away from that, not me. DIY is fine. You just have to have a consistent plan and stick to it. You have to know what it is you're trying to do and how to do it and then go do it. Um, but that's not what this episode is about, right? My point was no one really has that excuse when it comes to a prong collar, right? Because they're much, much cheaper than an e-collar. It's still pricey for a quote-unquote collar, right?

Um, it's more than your typical, like, flat collar or martingale costs. Um, a good prong collar is probably gonna cost you about 40, 45 bucks, um, maybe even a little bit more. Um, if you want any of the special features like a, you know, a, a, a quick-release buckle, um, those easy buckles or, uh, if you want a special color or something like that.

07:00 — Kati prefers Herm Sprenger collars, describing other brands as clunkier.

But, uh, we like the Herm Sprenger brand. But, you know, the truth is any brand will get the job done. There are reasons that I don't like other brands as much, even though they tend to be cheaper. And I have used them in the past and I've used them with my clients' dogs in the past. They're not my favorite because I find that they tend to be a little bit clunkier. Um, they don't really constrict and release as smoothly. I find that the tips on the prongs tend to actually be a little bit sharper on the other name brands, um, or on the generic ones, uh, things like that.

So we buy the Herm Sprenger. The tips are nice and blunt on those, and they tend to have a really good constriction and release. They're very smooth. Um, and it's just, it's just a good quality collar.

So that's what we recommend. But if you can't afford that, um, if you're really on a tight budget right now, it's like, then just get any prong collar. It doesn't have to be the same brand that we use. However, it is really important that it is sized properly. Almost everybody puts them on too loose. They buy prong collars that are too big. So let me explain just real quickly, I don't wanna spend a ton of time on this, but what we're talking about when we talk about prong collar size. So when you buy prong collars, they are sized by millimeters usually, and that is the thickness of the links that are in your prong collar.

It has nothing really to do with how long your prong collar is. Um, it has to do with the thickness of the links, right? So the smaller one that we use is 2.25 millimeters, and we actually will use that on small dogs, medium dogs, and sometimes even large dogs.

If they have, um, a, a slender neck and really sleek fur, um, like the Vizslas and the Weimaraners, they, they will sometimes stay on a 2.25 even though it's a big dog. So we like the small collars and we'll use them, um, until we feel like we really have to size up. Um, however, on some of the chunkier dogs <laugh> or the more muscular guys or the really large, large breeds, we will go up and use a 3.0 millimeters. We never use anything bigger than that, right? So again, that's talking about the thickness of the links.

We only have two sizes that we use that's 2, 2 5 or 3.0 and that's it. Those are the only sizes we use. I don't care how big your dog is, you don't need something thicker than that, okay? And the thicker your prong collar gets the clunkier it gets when you try to use it for communication.

And that is part of the reason why we like the smaller ones and we like to use those for as long as we possibly can, um, on dogs that are on as many dogs as we can. But we'll size up if the, if it's a large dog. Um, but yeah, that communication is obviously critical and we find that the thinner the metal, the more communication you get out of it, um, in most cases, right? But you don't wanna be putting a 2, 2 5 on a super big dog, especially, um, if they are reactive or do have behavioral issues or, you know, a lot of drive and intensity or something like that.

Because you gotta keep in mind too, the thinner your links are, the easier the metal is to bend, right? And you don't want your dog, like, getting, getting away from you and that sort of thing.

Um, and you don't wanna break your collar. Obviously you spend money on, it's an investment. You don't want, you don't want those links to get bent. So yeah, so, but those are the two sizes that we use, okay? Um, you can get those with a quick release or without, um, I don't like to use the quick release personally. I always just use the links. If you have no idea what I'm talking about right now, just watch the videos. Everything will be explained to you and it'll make much more sense. Um, but I just use the links to connect them and disconnect them.

And then just as a side note too, we also add a safety on there, which is just a carabiner. And that just helps keep your dog from being loose if your prong collar comes apart, right? So if you were walking your dog along a busy street and your prong collar just somehow came apart, like if you didn't put it on correctly, or if the metal metal did get bent and your, your prong collar comes off this way, your dog won't be loose.

So always add a safety if you are, uh, walking in a busy area. Um, or if your dog isn't super well-trained, like I think it's important to have that safety on there. Okay? So why are prong collars so magic? Well, here's the thing, guys. Dogs are usually getting conditioned to wearing a collar and having a leash on from the time they're a little puppy, right? And so they actually get really used to the sensation of that collar being there, which isn't a bad thing, but they also get used to the sensation of the pressure when they're pulling.

12:00 — Kati explains how following puppies when they pull can condition continued pulling.

Um, so a lot of dogs are just conditioned to pull from the time they're young, right? Yeah, it's great. We get 'em used to a collar, we get 'em used to a leash, but we also get them used to being able to just pull on it and we follow them around and go wherever they wanna go.

Like they wanna sniff something over there, they wanna check something out over there. They just pull, they feel the pressure and they get to move in that direction. And so we're actually teaching them to pull from a pretty young age. And I'm not saying you should take your eight-week-old puppy and put a prong collar on 'em and teach 'em not to pull. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm just saying this is just a fact of life. Like dogs are learning to ignore that pressure on their throat from their flat collar, from a very young age in most cases.

So what happens is they get conditioned to pull, right? They get, sometimes dogs will even pull hard enough, right, that they start irritating their throat, they start coughing. Um, even if you're not getting any of that, at the very least they're yanking you around and they learn to stay mentally frantic, right?

So a dog that's out ahead of you with that pressure on their neck kind of straining to move forward, the leash is tight. It's not just that they're pulling you, which is bad, right? It could be dangerous. Um, it's physically annoying. Um, sometimes they're irritating their throat and they're coughing. But also mentally they're learning to stay amped up. They're learning to stay very forward-oriented. They're learning to just constantly follow impulses where the environment is concerned and they're not rehearsing anything else. So they're really rehearsing just being frantic, frantic, frantic, frantic, and kind of tuning you out, right?

So all of these things are counterproductive. And here's the thing. You put on a prong collar and now all of a sudden it's a novel sensation and your dog goes, "Ooh, what's that? That's different," right? Most dogs, not all, we've met some absolute insensitive obtuse bolts who you put a prong collar on and there's zero difference and they pull you like an absolute freight train down the street and you have to work pretty hard to fix that.

Um, and we do fix it and it can be fixed. Um, those dogs are pretty rare. But I've had a few <laugh>, I've had a few, I've had a German Shepherd and a Rottweiler that I can think of right off the bat, um, that just come to mind that were like that. Uh, okay, so it creates this novel sensation, right? And so that kind of gets the dog's attention right away, right? And now we can start over with our communication versus just hanging onto the leash. So it kind of gives you a fresh start. If your dog falls into that category like we were just talking about, where they've just kind of been conditioned to ignore that pressure on their throat and they're coughing and gagging, they're yanking you around, they're, you know, mentally frantic.

Now it's like, okay, let's put on a different tool that feels different, that delivers pressure in a different way that gets my dog's attention and I'm gonna start to build something new.

And that is such a beautiful moment, um, to see that now you can take that and you can absolutely just go backwards and teach them to ignore that too, right? Like I was just talking about, some dogs will just pull you like a freight train in it. You can absolutely teach your dog to do that. And so leash handling is super, super important. And you know, I've tried to do a group class on this because I find this skill, um, in these things we're talking about today to be so incredibly valuable and so incredibly helpful to all of our clients when we meet them.

Um, I've tried to do a group class teaching these things and showing people hands-on how to use a prong collar, how to use their leash, how to help their dog settle, all these wonderful things we're gonna talk about.

And people just don't sign up. Like, I feel like nobody sees the value in this stuff, or at least not like they should. So this, I guess it sounds really simple. Like if you, if you're not a dog trainer and you haven't worked with hundreds or thousands of dogs, you don't necessarily understand the gravity of what I'm talking about here. It is night and day. It is absolutely life-changing. No, we're not talking about off-leash obedience and reliability, but most people don't even have that on a leash. And this can change your whole world in 15 minutes.

Completely different dog, different relationship, different walk. Um, it's really, really incredible. I've had a lot of people sign up for seven, eight, $900 programs and be like, just this prong collar and leash handling made the price tag worth it. Um, that's what we're talking about here, right?

But seeing is believing. You have to do it <laugh>. So I encourage you, if you haven't, to give it a try. Love the show? Well, I have great news. We are offering an inexpensive subscription to our new premium content. This is content that isn't available to the general public. We make it just for our subscribers. We're gonna cover a variety of new topics in these episodes, and I think it's gonna be a ton of fun. So you can jump right down into the show notes to get that website address and then skip over there and sign up for this premium content.

Just wanted to take a second to let you guys know about that. Thank you so much for your support. And now on with the show. Um, so you add the prong, you get this novel sensation, you get to start over, right? And now no choking, no getting dragged down the street, right?

You have more control both physically and the a piece a lot of people miss is also mentally. So now you get a way to not only have more control over your dog physically, but actually get to dial down all this excitement and frantic chaos mentally, all this forward orientation. Mentally we get to start to dial that back a little bit and again, kind of build something new, right? So, um, the way we do that is definitely gonna be through the leash handling. So it's important for you to know how to do that. Um, so the way that you're gonna communicate with your prong collar is through what we call pressure or pops.

So the communication on the prong collar is not all that different from the e-collar. The only difference is it's delivered through the leash instead of through a button on a remote. And they're both important, right? But they kind of do different things. One is off leash and one is not. Um, and I really believe to be in the best possible position, like both, right, have both, but start with your leash. Like at least have that if nothing else. Um, so here's the thing.

20:00 — Kati compares leash pressure-and-release training with holding and releasing an e-collar button.

Pressure. We teach the dogs pressure on an e-collar, right? We hold the stim down constantly, usually low when we, when we're doing that, of course, and we teach them that when they do the behavior we want, that pressure shuts off. You do the same thing with your leash, right? So you can apply pressure on your leash left, right, backwards or upward. In most cases we're doing it upward. And that tells the dog you want something and, and when they do it, you relax the leash and that shuts your pressure off, right? So on an e-collar, you'd be holding your button down until you get what you want.

And on a prong collar, you'd be holding your leash tight until you get what you want and then you relax it and go back to loose, pressure off, right? So they're both pressure on, pressure off.

See that? It's like magic. So the biggest instance we use this in are nervous dogs. Fearful dogs or dogs that just put on the brakes <laugh>, not to mention any names, English Labs <laugh>, who like to just pancake to the floor and not walk with you 'cause they have their own ideas of what's happening. Um, so in those instances, we would apply leash pressure by pulling the leash tight in the direction that we want the dog to go, right? Like if you have a nervous dog who doesn't wanna walk by a trash can today, right?

Because we know how scary trash cans can be <laugh>. To some dogs they are, right? So we would apply pressure to get them to move forward, right, as we're walking, trying to walk by the trash can, and we're not gonna drag the dog, right? So you can, and there might be sometimes you have to, right?

But that's not the goal. The goal is to just turn the pressure on in the direction we want the dog to move. And then the second they take one step in that direction, we shut that pressure off by relaxing our leash. And then if they freeze up again and they don't wanna go forward, you just turn that pressure back on again. And that's important because if you just keep the pressure on, even when they take that step, then they don't learn how to shut it off, right? So you might be pressure on, pressure off, pressure on, pressure off.

And that's okay. That's actually, even though it seems like you're not getting anywhere in the moment, you are because you're resetting the wiring in the brain to go, oh, right, when there's pressure, I move with it and then it shuts off, right? And every time your dog does this, that, um, response will get stronger and come more naturally.

23:00 — Kati warns that constant leash tension can make pressure meaningless to the dog.

And before you know it, they'll move with it instantaneously. The slightest little bit of pressure. And that's a beautiful thing to see, right? But you can easily teach them the opposite if you don't do that, right? So if your leash is always tight, if there's always pressure, guess what? It becomes meaningless to your dog. And I find that's the biggest mistake people make, right? Because they put the prong collar on their dog and they expect the prong collar to do all of the work for them. And it won't, unless you have an incredibly sensitive dog, it won't.

For most dogs, there has to be some leash handling. It's not the collar, it's what you do with it. It's a tool, right? Hammers don't pound in nails by themselves. Um, same thing here, guys. The prong collar doesn't communicate anything to your dog on its own.

It's what you do with it at the other end. It's all handler oriented, okay? So, so you use that pressure to get your dog to move and then you shut it off, right? And then if you have to turn it back on again, you can. The other way that we commonly use pressure is for the settle, right? The nonverbal settle, which means we teach dogs that when we apply leash pressure straight up in the air above their head, right? It's almost like gently pulling their head up. That means we want them to put their butt on the floor.

And that's usually a natural progression for most dogs because the head goes up, the butt tends to go down, right? It doesn't come super naturally for every dog, but for a lot of dogs it does. And they do this right away. I'm not gonna go into the details of how we teach that, you can see that in the video.

Um, but that's what we teach. So we wanna get most dogs to the point where we can apply just a gentle bit of pressure straight upwards and they just sit and it's beautiful. And then of course, the second that butt hits the floor, we relax that leash. Guys, that's so important. That timing is important again, to wire the brain correctly about how to respond to pressure, right? And if you shut it off the moment you get what you want, that's gonna be the most effective, efficient way to get more of that behavior in the future, right?

So now that pressure on the prong collar, that pressure with your leash has become a way for you to talk to your dog and tell them what you want and where to move and get them tuned into you. And it's just a beautiful line of communication to build.

26:00 — Kati connects weaving, whining, pacing, and environmental fixation with a dog's overstimulated state of…

You're also going to start influencing their state of mind. So most of us teach our dogs to be frantic, to stay busy, to stay overstimulated, to prioritize the environment. And they're out in front of us and they're weaving around and they're sniffing and they're whining and they're pacing and they're wrapping you up. And it's just, not only is it chaos physically, but you can't forget how much that is tied to the brain, right? So they're staying in this state of chaos all the time. It's like when you have your dog on a leash, right? You're obviously doing something together.

You should start to pattern like calmness, focus, politeness, right? Standards, right? We are doing something together. I just want you to like pay attention to me, follow me, be calm, be chill. You can hear Aki in the background. Hey, no, nope. Down.

So Aki is a bit much, he's a very high-energy, drivey, uh, Doberman <laugh>. And he doesn't really like holding down. So he is, um, he's kind of a challenging guy in a lot of ways, but thankfully he has a very good personality. So he is a very goofy, lovable guy. Um, but he is absolutely full of it. Alright? Anyway, um, you're going to pattern just a much calmer, not just more respectful, but a calmer, more chill dog who starts to learn how to be less aroused on a normal basis, right? So you just bring that baseline down and that just that alone can be so huge for people.

So huge, right? Because it's not like you can't still have excitement when it's appropriate, right? But it's not appropriate all the time. And unfortunately most people, because they lack these skills or this knowledge or these tools or all of the above, right?

They allow their dogs to just pattern that as their default. They're always excited, they're always overstimulated, they're always distracted, they're always dangerous, <laugh> frankly, all those things. Um, and so now you can start to build something different. You can start to add a little bit of order into your life, into your walk, um, communication, calmness, respect, like all of these things. And it's really, really great. So now you have a way to get your dog to settle and you don't even have to say anything to them, which is beautiful. And it's not that you can't, right?

And I'm not opposed to you giving verbal instruction to your dog, but most of us talk way too much. Having physical communication with your dog and sometimes just keeping it zipped, um, actually is more powerful, right? And your verbalizations tend to drive your dog up whether you know it or not.

29:00 — Kati describes using leash pressure to cue a sit while the handler checks out…

And so now too, especially if you're paying attention to someone else, you're trying to do something else, you're trying to cash out at the pet store, you're trying to talk to somebody, whatever it is, like you can just gentle pressure on your leash and get your dog to sit and then you relax your leash and you're gonna start to do this without even noticing that you're doing it, right? It becomes second nature to the human. It becomes second nature to the dog. Um, and you don't even need to say a word, right? So you have that nice nonverbal settle.

You have a way to disagree with jumping, barking, fixating, right? Getting ready to do something bad. Now you can use what we call a leash pop. So we talked a lot about pressure earlier and how it's a tight leash that just relaxes when you get what you want.

Very similar to holding the button down on low e-collar until you get what you want. Um, and then releasing it, this is the opposite of that. This is a pop, right? So that's the same as tapping your e-collar remote, right? And with both pressure and pops, you can use any level of intensity, right? Both of those things can be very gentle to very firm. So you have a ton of versatility, right? You can use gentle pressure until you get what you need and then shut it off. If you have to increase that pressure to get what you need, then you can until you get what you want and then you shut it off.

Pops are the same thing. There might be a time it's just a gentle, tiny little wrist flick. And there might be other times where you're really leaning into the dog to create some slack and you're really delivering a firm leash pop, right?

Especially for dogs that aren't real sensitive. Um, but dogs that are doing things you just don't want them to do anymore, jumping on people, lunging at another dog, things like that. You can deliver a very firm pop, right? As a way to, like, startle them and correct them and disagree with that behavior. Um, so now you have a way to disagree with that stuff. Um, you have a way to get your dog's attention, right? If they're just kind of being spacey and doofy again, like maybe a little wrist flick, a little, hey, over here, right?

Pay attention, we're doing a thing. Um, you have a way to do that. Now we're on the flat collar. If you did that, you might just be encouraging them to pull harder in the other direction. Um, so this is a much easier way to get your dog's attention.

You have a way to give your dog directional information again: straight up to get them to sit, left to get them to go left, right to get them to go right, right? You now have a way to kind of move your dog around and get them to move in different directions without having to really manhandle that leash and yank them around. And we do encourage you when you're walking your dog on a prong collar to shorten up that leash. So too many people have their dog out on five or six feet of leash. Yes, you can.

Like, the most important thing is don't let your dog pull you. Don't let your dog drag you down the street. 'Cause that just kind of defeats the whole purpose. And like I said earlier, they learn to ignore the prong collar. If you can allow your dog to pull, the second you put that on, and hopefully this is empowering and this is good news for you and encouraging, you cannot allow your dog to pull. So literally the second you put that prong collar on, hopefully pulling is done. Your dog's gonna try to pull, but you are not going to let them, right?

Because if they do, you're going to deliver a leash pop every time they pull you, right? And if they continue to pull you, then that means your leash pop probably isn't firm enough, right? So this is just a matter of having that discussion with your dog. You're not allowed to pull anymore.

Uh, and most dogs we can get that under wraps with just the prong collar. Unless, like I said, you have one of those super rare cases where the dog is just absolutely like a bull, pulls like a freight train in a prong collar. Um, even with firm leash pops, that's super rare. Guys, I've, I've only had two or three, like, my entire career that, like, I really had to add in e-collar to get that behavior to stop. Um, but shorten up your leash, that's just gonna give you a little more control. It's gonna make things a little less messy and it's going to enable you to communicate through your leash.

33:00 — Kati recommends keeping the leash short enough for small arm movements without maintaining constant…

So keep in mind, if your leash is five or six feet long, how do you talk to your dog through the leash? It becomes impossible again, right? Because you'd have to flail your arms around to do it.

So you don't want a tight leash, but you want it to be short enough that when you go to use a pop or you go to use pressure, it's easy to do, right? You don't have to move your arms, but you shouldn't have to hold your arm over your head to get your dog to sit, right? So if you have to do that, your leash is too long. So it's important to have a nice short leash in order to be able to communicate with your dog. 'Cause you wanna be able to do little minute arm movements to do that.

You don't wanna be flailing all over the place 'cause you're gonna struggle. So shorten the leash up, learn how to use pressure, learn how to use pops. Very similar again to e-collar pressure. And don't forget you have the whole spectrum of intensity available to you. You can be as gentle or as firm as is appropriate for the situation. Um, so that makes these tools, like, literally perfect for any dog. I don't care how sensitive or insensitive your dog is, um, it's all handler-controlled, right? It's not the tool that does the training, it's you.

So thanks again for joining me today, guys. If you want a visual to go along with all of this information, encourage you to jump down into the show notes and take a look at those videos. Links are in the notes for you. Don't forget to subscribe. See you next time, guys. Hey guys, thanks for joining us today. I really hope you enjoyed the show. If there's a specific topic you'd like to hear discussed, you can send that to me directly via email or fan mail. Just jump down into the show notes. That information will be there for you.

I really look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for supporting the show, and I look forward to next time.