Out of sight?

Photo taken from onestopcollarshop.com   It is not my collar.  

I stumbled upon this the other day.  When I saw them I sat and looked for a long while considering the whole idea surrounding them and their use.  The secret or hidden prong collar.  After thinking much about how the prong or pinch collar works I thought that these would actually be worse than the original version.  The looseness has been removed by attaching the collar where it is hidden behind.  Making the collar more stiff and less adaptable.

Of course to be absolutely positive that I would be correct in my visual assessment I would have to try it.  But that is not going to happen anytime soon.  I would not put a pinch/prong collar on either of my dogs.  I have used one a prong collar; very longtime a go when positive training had not come around yet.  The pinch/prong collar work by inflicting pain and if anyone wants to explain to me otherwise, you can try.  But this collar seems to lack the flexibility so I can't see how it would pinch and let go at all.  It looks like it would just be stabbing into the neck continually.

Let's get to the real reason these collars are made.  The shame.  The mentality behind the collar has nothing to do with it's use; it has everything to do with "your secret."  Many of the sites where I saw this collar states "you don't have to explain," or "others will never know." If you feel that badly about using a piece of equipment on your dog; then perhaps you should not be using it?  Just a thought.

No I don't like prong collars and that is my opinion and mine alone.  If your opinion differs from mine; that is fine, it is your opinion.  But my opinion is that these are awful.  Hiding truth, pretending that you aren't using a prong collar.  If that isn't enough of a wake up call I don't know what is.  Oh sure you can walk around pretending that you would never use a prong collar; meanwhile it is there under the fancy facade that you are living.

Prong collars use pain to get a message across.  Because they inflict pain they also create many fall out behaviors from the pain.  I have written about association and it is how dogs learn.  Watching a dog with a prong collar on the other day at the park only helps to support my opinion on the issue of prong collars.  The dog was straining, barking and frenzied into a crazy mess as the woman tried to teach her dog to behave.  Every time he tried to say hi to a dog his collar tightened and it created an aggressive reaction response in him.

No I don't think that these are a great invention.  I think that the person who came up with the idea is playing along with the "hide it and you won't have to explain," train of thought.  Shameful.  Our dog's necks are priceless; you wouldn't throw a chain with spikes on it around your child's neck now would you?