Are Martingale collars bad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cat person here, so...why not a harness?

Most dogs can back out of a harness just as easily as a collar if they want to. I use harnesses on my dogs because they are not escape prone, but some dogs will see a rabbit or a cat or whatever and take off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A martingale fitted correctly is an extremely safe, comfortable collar for a dog to wear. Not sure why you are having trouble finding one. I buy mine on etsy.

--trainer (purely positive, ftr)

Agree with this. We always use a martingale for our very strong young lab. She can back out of any regular collar and many harnesses. If we use a harness we also have the clip so she is attached to her martingale and her harness.

[Anonymous]

Chewy.com has martingales

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A martingale is different from a choke collar because it has a stop point, and you can get one so that the tightness never gets to the point that the dog is actually choked.

For some dogs, particularly sight hounds, with small heads relative to their neck, they are needed to keep the dog from backing out.

This. Sight hounds can easily slip regular collars. I'm not putting a choker on my greyhound, so martingale it is.

I have a greyhound too. I hadn’t checked or tightened his martingale collar in a while. I noticed it was loose last week on a walk and figured I’d tighten it when we got back home. He was walking behind me and a few minutes later, I heard a noise and suddenly the leash went completely slack. I turned around and there was the collar, still attached to the leash, but laying on the ground, and my dog just standing there, looking like WTF? Lesson learned.

Off leash greyhound are hilarious. Mine has pulled the leash out of my hand, taken a few strides and then realized and just loped back with their head down. I've never had a dog with less desire to run free

Mine has always had very low prey drive (he wants to befriend every animal he meets), and now he’s blind, so the risk of his taking off running is next to nil. About 6 months after we adopted him (when he could still see), we were in the kitchen and could hear him whining near the front door. We investigated and found that one of our kids hadn’t shut the front door completely when they went outside and it had swung all the way open. Our dog hadn’t made any attempt to leave. He lay down as soon as we came into the foyer. He didn’t even want to go out, he just knew the door was supposed to be closed and was letting us know it was open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A martingale fitted correctly is an extremely safe, comfortable collar for a dog to wear. Not sure why you are having trouble finding one. I buy mine on etsy.

--trainer (purely positive, ftr)

Agree with this. We always use a martingale for our very strong young lab. She can back out of any regular collar and many harnesses. If we use a harness we also have the clip so she is attached to her martingale and her harness.

I've got a fearful dog that will back out so we got a safety clip that goes on the collar (Martingale) and the harness

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A martingale fitted correctly is an extremely safe, comfortable collar for a dog to wear. Not sure why you are having trouble finding one. I buy mine on etsy.

--trainer (purely positive, ftr)

Agree with this. We always use a martingale for our very strong young lab. She can back out of any regular collar and many harnesses. If we use a harness we also have the clip so she is attached to her martingale and her harness.

We have a harness with a handle on top and a really stubborn dog. If he thinks he will back out (?? not sure since it's also around his chest ??) I just lift the harness a bit so he knows who is in charge. And just a bit because he weighs 120

[Anonymous]

My 60lb poodle was a horrible puller on his harness. A trainer recommended a martingale and man, what a world of difference. His behavior immediately changed. He's still not great on the leash and will walk ahead of me, BUT he no longer tries to drag me down the street. We can walk comfortably and if he gets too far ahead and the leash is no longer loose, I can give a quick tug tug (that the trainer showed me), and he understands and comes back to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cat person here, so...why not a harness?

A harness actually encourages a lot of dogs to pull. A collar gives you control of their front/heads, so you can turn the dog easier. If you change direction with a harness, the clip point is the center of their back so you kind of yank them over. With a collar you are directing them better. Think front wheel drive on a car. One of the best ways IMO to teach loose leash walking is constant directional changes on a collar.

--trainer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cat person here, so...why not a harness?

A harness actually encourages a lot of dogs to pull. A collar gives you control of their front/heads, so you can turn the dog easier. If you change direction with a harness, the clip point is the center of their back so you kind of yank them over. With a collar you are directing them better. Think front wheel drive on a car. One of the best ways IMO to teach loose leash walking is constant directional changes on a collar.
--trainer

This is why we use a harness with a chest clip. It's not perfect, but discourages our large dog from pulling for more than a few seconds.

[Anonymous]

Adopted my toy poodle from a rescue organization that insisted the dog wear only martingales. So she’s been in one for the past year. She definitely knows how to back out of a harness. She did it to me once, about a month after we first gotten her, when there is another dog on the street and it freaked her out. She ran down the street and it was very hard to get her. It scared me to death. So she is still in a martingale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cat person here, so...why not a harness?

Most dogs can back out of a harness just as easily as a collar if they want to. I use harnesses on my dogs because they are not escape prone, but some dogs will see a rabbit or a cat or whatever and take off.

But that's the point of a harness - they can't back out of it. If anything could, it would be a cat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cat person here, so...why not a harness?

Most dogs can back out of a harness just as easily as a collar if they want to. I use harnesses on my dogs because they are not escape prone, but some dogs will see a rabbit or a cat or whatever and take off.

But that's the point of a harness - they can't back out of it. If anything could, it would be a cat.

I guess you're going to have to take our word for it? Some dogs -- especially those with relatively large chests/small heads (think sighthounds), have absolutely no trouble slipping a harness. They don't even need to try that hard.

I have tried 4 different harnesses, and none will hold my dog.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cat person here, so...why not a harness?

Most dogs can back out of a harness just as easily as a collar if they want to. I use harnesses on my dogs because they are not escape prone, but some dogs will see a rabbit or a cat or whatever and take off.

But that's the point of a harness - they can't back out of it. If anything could, it would be a cat.

My dog literally jumps backwards, throws her legs forward, ducks her head, and backs out of the harness. She definitely can back out of it. And it happens very fast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cat person here, so...why not a harness?

A harness actually encourages a lot of dogs to pull. A collar gives you control of their front/heads, so you can turn the dog easier. If you change direction with a harness, the clip point is the center of their back so you kind of yank them over. With a collar you are directing them better. Think front wheel drive on a car. One of the best ways IMO to teach loose leash walking is constant directional changes on a collar.

--trainer

So tired of reading anti harness bias from a few trainers. For some reason, trainers like you just can't stand that the harness works for many dog owners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cat person here, so...why not a harness?

A harness actually encourages a lot of dogs to pull. A collar gives you control of their front/heads, so you can turn the dog easier. If you change direction with a harness, the clip point is the center of their back so you kind of yank them over. With a collar you are directing them better. Think front wheel drive on a car. One of the best ways IMO to teach loose leash walking is constant directional changes on a collar.

--trainer

So tired of reading anti harness bias from a few trainers. For some reason, trainers like you just can't stand that the harness works for many dog owners.

+1

My dog has been in the Freedom Harness for years, and she doesn't pull at all if it is clipped on the front. It doesn't encourage her to pull at all.