Quote Originally Posted by bckrazy View Post
I just wanted to add, as a warning, make sure he doesn't begin to displace the pain he gets when he pulls, to other things that you don't want him to associate pain with. For example, you see a child on a walk; Ajax is excited and tries to pull toward the child but he's stopped by the prong. In his mind, where did the pain come from? Pulling, or the child? This is primarily why I wouldn't use training tools that are pain-based... negative associations can happen in a second, especially with a young dog. And they are much harder to reverse than they are to form. Just be careful!
I tend to disagree. First of all a prong collar if used correctly shouldn't cause pain, a correction with it should never be painful. I do agree it can be abused and misused though. I use them when I walk all three of mine to ensure I have control if I am walking them all. Singly I don't use it but more than one, they can way overpower me if something startles them or goes wrong so it's better safe than sorry. My Tommy is a really big wimp I have to say and if it caused him pain he'd run and hide when I brought it out I'm sure LOL.

The other thing is I think most dogs are smarter than we sometimes give them credit for. When they pull the collar tightens. If they see a child and pull and it tightens a bit, they (the average dog) will stop pulling and the pressure loosens, child is still there. They can easily connect that not pulling means a loose collar, in my opinion. Now if it were a shock type collar situation where there was no rhyme or reason as to where the correction was coming from, I agree they are more likely to associate it with another stimulus.

Again I think the prong can definitely be misused but I do not feel it is a pain device when used correctly.