Reply #13: It's not a choke chain [View All]

[TorchTheWitch]

It's a prong collar used mostly for training/correction and works totally differently than a choke chain. I hate choke chains - they're dangerous as hell. None of my dogs ever wore the prong collar unless they're on the leash - it's not meant to be used as a regular collar, and it stays attached to the leash so instead of taking off the leash when we're done with it I unclip the prong collar and hang up both as a single unit. He does have it on in that photo because I had to refit it with an additional link. A prong collar is made up of separate links that can be added or removed as needed since in order for it to work properly and stay on it has to fit just right. I took that photo when he finally crapped out from playing since all day long I'd been trying like hell to get a good picture of him and failing miserably... he was finally sleepy enough then that I thought it was a good time to adjust the prong collar and get a good picture of him, so I grabbed for the camera. I think I got about 50 photos today of either his butt, the insides of his nostrils or a blank spot on the carpet or outside of the grass since by the time I clicked the camera button he had already zoomed completely out of the frame. EVERY time he's being totally adorable and I'm just about to click the camera button he's off like a shot.

I'm glad that you mentioned the bit about the choke chain though... most people don't realize that they're dangerous, and they don't even serve the purpose very well for which they are intended.

I don't do the show thing myself. It's quite an expensive endeavor, and if you don't have a really exceptional dog you can lose a great deal of money. I always kind of thought of it as more of a well-off person's sort of thing. He may not have made a very good show dog since he lacks the typical Akita cat-like dignity and he keeps dropping his tail instead of holding it up 100% of the time curled over his butt. That was part of the problem why the breeder decided to let him go since if he was going to make it well as a show dog he'd have to devote a whole lot more time working with him that he just didn't have. But he didn't want to sell him to another show person either because he was afraid they would think he wasn't worth the extra effort and then turn around and sell him to Lord knows who. He couldn't stand the idea of that because he really loved this dog, so he made the tough decision to offer him to me since it was much more important to him that he knew puppy was going to go to a loving and forever home as a companion dog instead of a show dog even though the dog is a show quality dog (and it also meant he took a big financial hit with this decision).

I've always been more interested in working type dog jobs like search and rescue, cadaver, therapy and various sniffers. I've been testing him out a little bit and I think he might be a natural for some type of sniffer job. We'll see. I'd be over the moon with joy if he never was anything else than my best buddy and family though I believe it's always a good idea to work with them for whatever they show a natural tendency toward just so they feel they have an important job... working dogs are happiest when they're doing what they believe is some kind of work, but it doesn't matter whether or not it's for an actual job or just for fun for them.