Integrated K9 Services
Training Collar Policy
At Integrated K9 Services it is our goal to make your life easier. We are dedicated to helping our students build a better relationship with their dogs through obedience training. We provide a variety of services and training options to help our clients meet their goals with their dogs from group classes to private training.
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We feel our training method offers a balanced approach. We prefer to praise a dog with physical touch and verbal praise for behaviours that we want to maintain and ‘correct’ them with a leash and collar correction for behaviours that we want to modify. This way, the dog learns that there is a consequence for unwanted behaviour and eliminates the need to constantly use food as a reward although we do use food for certain commands.
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We recommend that our students use one of two basic types of training collars for our classes, a martingale collar or a prong collar, although flat collars can also be used for some dogs. Every dog is an individual and a training collar that works for one dog does not necessarily work for another. We normally suggest a martingale collar for dogs under a year old and especially puppies between 12 to 16 weeks. If, however, a student is still having a problem like pulling on walks after the second or third week of training, we may suggest that they consider trying a prong collar to gain more control of their dog. Ultimately, it is their choice which collar they want to use.
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As with any training tool, there is a right way and wrong way to use it. I have been using prong collars with my students for over 18 years and have never had an issue. We teach our students to use prong collars responsibly and, as long as they follow our instructions, they should notice an improvement in their dog’s behaviour in a relatively short time.
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I also prefer to purchase the prong collars that are used by our students myself. This ensures that the collars they use have rounded tips and also saves them shopping for the collars themselves.
I hope that this Training Collar Policy adequately explains our views on the use of prong collars in our obedience classes. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.
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Wendy Maeots
Head Trainer
Integrated K9 Services
289-759-2362