Preschool Puppy Training With The Leash and Collar

Because all of your puppy’s formal obedience training will be accomplished with the assistance of a leash and a training collar, its pre-school training should include familiarization with similar paraphernalia. Initially the puppy should be fitted with a comfortable leather or nylon collar.

Care must be taken that the collar is not fixed too tightly, or too loosely. The puppy will immediately make attempts to rid itself of this new “thing”. A loose-fitting collar would allow the puppy to slip its lower jaw underneath the collar. In this situation it could easily panic; or even if it remained calm, it could chew the collar in two.

By the end of its first day of wearing the collar, it will have adjusted to the device and it will no longer attract its attention. You can then attach a light leash to the collar and allow it to drag the leash periodically during the day under your supervision. By exposing the puppy to a leash and collar in this systematic way, no traumatic experience will develop.

You must always bear in mind that you are working with the mind of a living creature. You must always exercise care and loving understanding. To abruptly place slip-chain training collar and leather leash on an eight-week-old puppy cannot possibly accomplish anything, except to create a very negative experience. Negative experiences are the instruments from which trauma develops.

Let Your Puppy Walk

When your puppy is accustomed to wearing the collar and has had the pleasure of romping around the house with the leash attached, carry it outdoors, a few hundred feet or so away from the house. With the leash attached, set the puppy down.

Let it walk you wherever it wants to go (within the bounds of safety, of course). Let it explore for ten or fifteen minutes while you follow it, holding the other end of the leash. When the time is up, pick it up in your arms and take it back to the house and remove the leash. Chances are it will have walked you back in that direction, since a puppy’s instinct directs it backs to the “nest”.

Never Drag Your Puppy

Notice that at no time since the introduction of the collar and leash has anything been said about dragging the puppy. Although the puppy was allowed to drag the leash for a day or two, it must be pointed out and emphasized that the leash should not drag it.

After three or four excursions where the puppy is taken away from the house, with the leash affixed and the puppy allowed to walk at its discretion (with you holding the end of the leash,) it should be ready to walk away from the house.

Still, the leash should not be used as an instrument to drag the puppy. Let the pup do the walking; you hold onto the other end of the leash. By the end of the first week of its association with its new equipment, it will then begin to make the association of the new leash with control.

These daily outings on the leash must be considered as part of your puppy’s preschool training. Human contact and socialization in the outside world is a very important part of this training and a key to the puppy’s future mental and emotional development. It will see big trees, hear noises from power motors and passing automobiles and be admired by an occasional passerby. The benefits produced by proper socialization at this time can never be duplicated later in life.

Many Choices For A Puppy Training Collar

A puppy training collar, in my opinion, is a necessity for anyone getting a dog, just as a regular dog collar is a necessity.  The regular dog collar is a simple cloth collar to the elaborate leather dog collar, it’s all about choice with this one.  There are several types of the puppy training collar available, from the choke chain, pronged collars, bark collars and electronic collars.  We will discuss the possibilities in these categories, but be advised, that if you don’t train your puppy his bad habits will cause you unhappiness.  Eventually some people have their animals put down when the bad habits become more then they want to deal with.  If you bother to take the time to train your dog, all of this can be avoided.

What the Different Puppy Training Collars Are About

While the choke chain sounds like a return on the Inquisition, its not like it sounds, but the name is long standing and isn’t probably going to go away.  You can call it a puppy training collar and avoid the nasty image of the choke chain.  What it actually is, is a simple collar with an ability to tighten as the dog pulls. The best one is the Swedish Training Collar. The collar tightens the more he pulls away.  Most dogs take very little time to get the association, so this puppy training collar is most often quick, painless and the puppy training collar can be quite inexpensive.  This help with teach a dog to walk with you, not walk you.  It can also teach him to sit, heel, etc.

The pronged collar serves the exact same purpose as the choke chain, but there are prongs inside the collar, which pinch the dog if he pulls to hard.  While most people with small animals don’t feel the need to use this, people with larger animals often find it a necessity.  Puppies get excited, they jump, lunge, try to run and do all sorts of things that can injure yourself or others.  This type of puppy training collar is very effective and often only takes a couple of tries before the dog learns what he is supposed to do.

Electronic collars are just the same as the prong collar, and choke chain in purpose, but it uses a small electronic zap to convince your dog he is making the wrong choice.  They also have these collars with virtual fences.

Bark collars are a puppy training collar, but are designed to address the specific problem.  The choices are myriad to a small electronic shock when they bark, to a spray of water or other smell dogs don’t like.

While ongoing training and reminder training never stops, most dog really do learn quickly and the puppy training collar is your most helpful tool.