Whether it’s a person tugging on a leash to control a dog, or a dog pulling on a leash to go where they want, when one of those things occurs when a collar is being worn, there are major health ramifications. This is true for so termed also for “limited choke” or Martingale collars. Pinch collars or chains should plainly be illegal, as they are in Europe.
Stop to contemplate for a second what organs reside in the neck! When a leash pulls back on a collar, there are blood vessels being constricted, pressure on the thyroid gland, probable deforming of the base of the tongue, and potentially even nerve injury.
That is absolutely not acceptable.
BUT DON’T HARNESSES ENCOURAGE PULLING?
The best dog training in Manhattan offered by specialists ensures that you don’t tug and pull the leash. There’s a longstanding (but erroneous) misconception that, because of their intrinsic opposing response, harnesses encourage dogs to pull against the leash as they lean into the harness, sort of as sled dogs do.
That’s always been a problem of equating correlation with causation. Sled dogs tug on their harnesses because they’re trained to do so, not because the harness inherently fosters that behaviour.
In truth, a dog that wants to pull is going to do it whether they’re wearing a collar or a harness. The difference is that harnesses don’t have a significant danger of inflicting damage when pulling (which is exactly why sled dogs are outfitted with harnesses rather than collars) (which is precisely why sled dogs are equipped with harnesses rather than collars).
Let’s be clear: a leash should be a safety tool, not a steering device. Yanking and leash-snapping only result in further yanking and leash-snapping. Yanking and leash snapping is really terrible.
The issue is that, all too frequently, a leash act as a steering tool, whether it’s the dog trying to direct the person by tugging, or the human attempting to pull the dog along or back.
In a perfect world, that pulling movement wouldn’t happen. But because it does happen, it’s better that the force is diffused throughout the dog’s body with a harness rather than centred solely on the neck with a collar.
SIZE, AGE, AND BREED DON’T REALLY MATTER.
But although there could be further considerations depending on these features – like how to handle long hair or where to connect the leash – none of these contradict the conclusion that harnesses are better over collars.
Young dog, elderly dog, tall dog, short dog – when it comes to collar vs harness, all canines are better off with a harness.
