I agree with Jessica. I don't think it was the title of the thread that bothered me, but when people keep saying that it's cruel, it irks me. It makes me feel like people think I'm being intentionally abusive to animals.

I've heard several times people mentioning haltis, etc, and these are some reasons I prefer the prong collar. Not to say any of these other methods are "cruel." Different things for different dogs.

With the prong collar, Timber knows that if she pulls, the prongs will pinch her. So she doesn't pull, and there's no discomfort. She is relaxed. There is no strain on my arm (I have a bad arm).

The halti has to be one of the worst experiences I've ever had. No matter what size you put on her, if she pulls backwards, she can slip out of it. She pulls so hard and jerks her head around that EVERY single time she wears a halti, her tongue bleeds. And if anyone has ever had a dog with a bleeding tongue, they know that the blood just pours. The halti makes her yelp, it makes her unhappy, and yet she still continues to pull.

Her nylon collar is what she wears all the time. When she wears it with a leash, she pulls, and makes a hoarse "seal" type sound, like she's being choked and can't breathe. If I continuously walked her with that, she would have so much damage to the trachea.

The second best thing I've used is the no-pull body harness. However, if she wants to go bad enough, she can use her entire body to overpower me. The straps cut off the circulation under her legs. It tires my arm.

When she lived with me, she walked fairly well. I used the "stop walking when she pulls" method. However, it didn't work alot of the time, and now that she is living from me, and the bus schedule changed, I can't be there to train her to walk better every single day. Whenever my aunt or uncle tried to take her for a walk, she would pull like crazy. So they never walked her. I reccommended the prong collar because I had seen how well she walked when she wore Leather's. They got one, and now she gets two walks a day. They tried obedience classes, but dropped out shortly because she was too much to handle in such an environment. Luckily I'm getting her back in just over 3 months and I can retrain her and she will do well again. Maybe I can even get her to walk nicely on leash again. But for now, the prong collar is the safest thing for her, and it actually allows her to be walked. If letting her get exersise without any discomfort or stress is negative reinforcement, than I must be a really cruel person for wanting her to have a relaxing and happy walk.

Some dogs will pull no matter what type of collar they wear. Every dog is different, and the prong collar works for Timber.