collars, martingales, rolled leather...?
Hey everyone, before I made this discussion I looked at other threads and clicked links that would help my search and claire has helped me privately on FB but I am looking for something specific as well...I am getting my JA pup sometime in august and I am shopping around for harnesses or rolled martingales (leather) so this way my pup won't have fur damage. Has or does any know of any online store etc...that sells rolled leather martingales? for id purposes only i am getting the mountain dog rope collar and if I can't find a rolled martingale collar what are peoples takes on the puppia harness (it'll just be used for her puppy stage) or should I just get a regular harness for the puppy stage?? Much needed advice and help...havent shopped for puppy products in such a loooonnngggggg time.
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https://www.facebook.com/KismetCollars?fref=ts
A martingale (unless it is an adjustable one, which I have only seen in nylon and flat leather) has to be sized exactly for the dog's neck, and your new puppy is going to grow like crazy and require a variety of collar sizes for many months. A martingale isnt something you can buy too big and let him grow into, or allow to get too tight. (Writing this reminds me of the time I met a woman with a new puppy wearing her old adult dog's choke chain- super heavy for the little one, way too long and who puts a choke chain on a 3 mo old puppy? furthermore, to take him to the dog field??) I digress- you wouldnt do that! All my dogs wore Lupine 'combo collar' martingales for walks and working - the "tight" circumference being just enough to keep them from slipping their head out, not to choke! and checked every few days for adjusting as they grew.
I'd wait on the rolled leather martingale till puppy is grown and you know what her neck size is going to be be. Rolled leather also starts out very stiff compared to flat, and IMO is too stiff for a puppy. Puppies are delicate! For puppies, a soft adjustable collar will be fine and cheap and safe. It isnt going to wear away/break her fur unless you allow her to wear it too tight and 24/7. Puppy collars should be comfortable- you should be able to easily slip a couple fingers under her collar, but she should not be able to get her mouth on it. She'll outgrow a few collars and then you can get her a nice leather Forever Collar
YES! I will second Hinata- Osy's leather collars are fantastic!! (though she doesnt make rolled, but she does make martingales!) and my dogs' Official, Forever, This Is Who I AM collars were custom made by her. Beautiful and holding up excellently despite all the water, mud and high adventure we wear them in
Congrats on the puppy!
I found with the martingale that Kaede would pull and pull till she was having trouble breathing. The martingale wouldn't release and I would have to reach down and release it. I also noticed that the right side of her neck was starting to loose fur with the martingale.
With the chain she would try to pull but not as much. The key with the chain is quick little corrections. You're not yanking for the sake of yanking. As with everything you stop when the dog is not making any progress. Now - at four years old, she is fine with the chain and rolled collar. This is what I like about the chain... it rarely gets stuck in the fur. If you make a correction or get caught off guard and the dog pulls it releases as soon as you give it slack.
When I am at club picnics, the people who have used just a rolled collar or a nylon collar seem to have dogs that PULL EVERYWHERE. Don't know why, just making an observation. The people who have harness or chains seem to be a lot better.
I'd be thrown out of any of my classes for using a choke chain, even if I was going to consider one, which I wouldn't anyway. I think I'll just leave it at at that, but yeah, I think they are a pretty bad idea, especially for people who don't know how to use them.
Anyway, back to the rolled leather: I've had this problem with finding a collar that won't break the hair first on my Akita, then on my Kai Ken. By the time my Akita was an adult, we got him a rolled leather buckle collar. He is an AA--he does not need a martingale because his head is bigger than his neck. This collar works well for him, and doesn't break his hair.
But I did need a martingale for my Kai Ken, who has a smaller head. They do sell rolled leather martingales but they are expensive--If you want one, wait til your dog is an adult. However, in our case, a regular rolled leather collar still broke the hair off on him. so did a chain martingale. So did everything we tried. Finally, after a rec from another forum member, I got this:
http://www.amazon.com/White-Pine-collar-Medium-Twilight/dp/B003I01QP2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372441141&sr=8-1&keywords=white+pine+slip+collar
Honestly, I was dubious--how is is any better than all the other web collar I had that broke off his hair? Well, the answer is, I don't know why it is better--other than it is extremely soft--but it is, and it doesn't break his hair off, he hasn't managed to chew it, and it was cheap, and we love it. So you might try this while your dog is a pup!
(I would love a pretty leather collar for Leo, but I think we'd be back to the hair breaking problem....)
http://www.whitepineoutfitters.com/index.cfm
All my dogs wear a thin rope collar for ID 24/7. Its the only collar I have tried (and I've tried many, many types) that does zero damage to the Japanese Akita's triple coat. As a bonus, after sliding it over the dog's head, it can be tightened down so that its too small to slide back off. That makes it much less likely the dog will lose it. ID tags are useless if they get lost.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003Y0D7MQ
The ID collar is not designed to be used with a leash or be pulled on in any way, so we don't have anything to clip a standard leash to most of the time. Instead, for a quick walk or general purposes, we usually use a slip lead. Its fast to put on and is the same thing that groomers and vets use, except ours are rope instead of nylon to be more comfortable. I prefer slip leads over leash + collar in general, because they they tighten when pulled against. Leashes are useless if the dog backs out of the collar.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00074W3RM
This is the harness I use for outdoor activities, exercising the dogs, and circumstances when I need to bodily control the dog (help lifting into a car for example). It has an extra girth strap, again, to keep the dog from being able to get out of it. You may notice a theme in my choice of canine hardware. :P
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005OTY7A6
This specially designed harness is one of the two tools I use when leash training my dogs not to pull (if necessary). It has leash attachment on the front and no strap across the breastbone, which is supposed to reduce the dog's ability to pull against it. In practice I don't think it is as effective as the halter, however, it gives a better impression and is less damaging (more on that below). The lack of breast strap also makes it harder to get out of than a normal harness.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009ZBKG4
Lastly, a halter is the best tool I've found for leash training a dog that likes to pull. It takes NO corrections and very little movement to steer the head, which in turn steers the dog. It has a few major drawbacks, however. It leaves marks on the dog's muzzle for a couple hours after use and people on the street think it is a muzzle and may accost you for having a "dangerous dog" in public. Also, training a dog not to pull while wearing a halter does not seem to translate to not pulling while wearing a collar/harness. I've had a dog able to paw the strap off of her nose, so definitely not escape proof.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00074L4W2
I LOVED that ID collar made of the rope. Loved it! Unfortunately, Leo did too, and managed to get it off and chewed it up. We had it less than 48 hours.
In addition to everything else, we were having sizing problems as a young dog, so it was big enough he could get his mouth on it..It didn't tighten up enough, and slipped open (probably if I had known that, I could have tightened it more by clamping it down tighter, but it was off and chewed apart too soon for me to realize what had happened). It may be now that he's grown I could find a way to get one to work better, but I'm leery of trying anything twice on him.....perhaps he just thought that rope was better as a toy!
I want to give another shout out to the gentle leader. My Akita is big. 110 pounds. And while he walked well as a youngster, as an adult, he's a puller, and he can pull a person down. So the other day I found the gentle leader. He never really got used to it, so it was pretty much putting it on him new. Of course he hated it. But after a few turns around the yard, he was ready to go and we went for a walk, and he was so good! He remembered all that earlier training, and stayed right at my side, and was so happy! We still have a lot of work to do (he'll lunge at dogs, so we need to work on that still) but it really does make walking him possible, because he pulls way too much in his ruffwear harness). It's not a miracle cure--you still have to train the dog to walk well--but it really helps you get there! Again, though, if you're not used to using one, you'll need help learning how to use it correctly.