Effective, humane animal training and pet care methods are the foundation of any animal’s healthy socialisation and training and help prevent behaviour problems. Since a wide variety of equipment and tools are commonly used training pets, the pet-owning public needs to be aware of the potential problems and dangers some equipment may pose. Specifically, the use of collars and leads that are intended to apply constriction, pressure, pain or force around a dog’s neck (such as ‘choke chains’ and ‘prong collars’) should be avoided. Distinguished veterinarians and behaviourists worldwide are joining the discussion and calling for the elimination of such devices from the training efforts of both pet owners and professionals.
 

What Do the Experts Say?  

Respected veterinarian and thyroid expert, Dr Jean Dodds, recommends against choke or prong collars

as they can easily injure the delicate butterfly-shaped thyroid gland that sits just below the larynx and in front of the trachea. These collars can also injure the salivary glands and salivary lymph nodes on the side of the face underneath both ears.

 

Bestselling author and canine behaviourist, Jean Donaldson, says:

These devices (choke and prong collars), when they work, do so to the degree that they hurt.
With the advent of modern methods and tools, they are irrelevant.

 

According to veterinarian and veterinary behaviourist Dr Soraya V. Juarbe-Diaz:

Using punishment to stop behaviours is not new. Notice I say ‘stop’ rather than ‘teach’ – I can stop any behaviour, but I am more interested in teaching my students, animal or human, to choose the behaviour I want them to perform because they can trust me, because I do not hurt them and they are safe with me, and because the outcome is something they enjoy.