Originally posted by Kfamr
Not if the dog pulls. It chokes them if they pull. Hence the name 'choke' collar.
If the dog pulls you would correct it, which involves making slack in the leash and then popping the leash out to the side (not backwards) so that the correction is delivered correctly. Generally you don't let the dog get the collar tight enough to choke itself before correcting.
And I've always thought it was called a "choke" collar because of people who didn't know how to use it properly letting their dogs pull until it was tight under the impression that if the dog was smart it would stop pulling and thus stop choking itself. Unfortunately that's not how the collar works and in factm ost dogs will pull against the pressure they feel and then choke themselves more.

There are of course many many other and better ways to prevent pulling.