The Dangers And The Hidden Dangers

THE DANGERS AND THE HIDDEN DANGERS

In my early introduction to formal "dog club" style training I was told that I could not bring a dog to a training class until he or she was at least six months old, and that I would be expected to use a choke chain. I went along with this believing the information to be correct if a "training instructor" was telling me so.

Many myths have been perpetuated about choke chains and their use

Myth: Sometimes the choke chain is referred to as a "check" chain. There is no difference between a choke chain and a check chain. Handlers who use choke chains often refer to them as check chains - possibly referring to the action used by the handler to "check" the dog.

Myth: "A choke chain is fine, in the hands of experienced handlers" Wrong! Choke chains always choke and they are responsible for a number of medical conditions including:
*Injured ocular blood vessels
Tracheal and oesophageal damage
Severely sprained necks
Cases of fainting
Transient foreleg paralysis
Laryngeal nerve paralysis
Hind leg ataxia
* Animals In Mind - www.animalsinmind.org.uk

Myth: "Choke chains prevent dogs pulling" Nothing could be further from the truth. Dogs pull on choke chains because they haven't been trained not to pull.
SO WHAT WAS MEANT BY "EXPERIENCED" HANDLERS?
Those dog handlers who have been taught how to use a choke chain "correctly" use the following procedures:
1. As the dog pulls forward, the handler stops, and jerks or snatches the lead, causing the dog to falter.
2. The handler then develops the technique of instantly slackening the lead so that the choke chain hangs loosely on the dog's neck, when the dog is by the handler's left knee.
3. The dog is supposed to deduce from this that every time it pulls forward the choke chain will give a painful jerk to the neck and throat. Thus the dog is supposed to stop pulling. (If only dogs could figure this out!)
Rarely does this action stop a dog pulling. If it does, why are handlers to be seen constantly "jerking" the choke chain?
Sadly, those dogs that do stop pulling when this technique is used, stop pulling because the handler is strong enough to make it count! A dog that walks to heel as a result of heavy lead jerking is not a trained dog - he is a fearful dog.
WHY HANDLERS WERE ALWAYS TOLD TO HAVE THEIR DOGS ON THEIR LEFT HAND SIDE?
The photograph above shows a choke chain as it would be slipped over a dog's head if the dog were on the handler's left hand side. If the dog were then transferred to the handler's right hand side the choke chain would not slacken when the lead was loose. However, in my early training days I noticed that even with the choke chain fitted "correctly" and with a dog on the left hand side, the choke chain didn't always loosen when the lead was slack. They can have a habit of sticking, especially on longer coated dogs.
In competition, dogs are always on their handler's left hand side. It's traditional and it also means that everyone is on an equal footing. Left turns and right turns, etc. would be difficult to judge if dogs were allowed to be on either the left or the right hand side. Thus choke chains were fitted as in the photograph.
In the real world dogs can be walked on a handler's right or left - in fact it's very useful to have a dog that walks equally well on either side. Sometimes dogs that are continually walked on a handler's left side develop muscles than enable them to pull when walked on the left. These dogs sometimes forget how to pull when they change sides!

Myth "The dog learns not to pull because he hears the warning "chink" of the chain before it is jerked."
The dog learns how to avoid pain - it's as simple as that. And do we really want to train dogs using pain and fear, not to mention the high probability of injury? Fearful dogs are unreliable and training through fear and pain does nothing to help the dog/handler bond.
IT GETS WORSE!
Dogs do much of their learning by "association". Remember Pavlov's bell? If you pick a lead up - your dog probably gets excited at the prospect of a walk. You didn't teach him this, he made the association after a number of trials. My own dogs learned that the crashing noise of their stainless steel dishes meant that it's time for dinner.

Dogs who bark and get excited when the doorbell rings have learned to anticipate the arrival of an exciting visitor. Nobody taught them, they just made the association after a few repetitions.

Dogs that are jerked on choke chains, soon learn to associate the pain and discomfort with whatever happens to be nearby, or happening at the time. In the training club that I belonged to I was told never to allow my dog to even look at another dog, let alone have any contact with other dogs. (A far cry from today's socialization programmes - but it does still go on!) I was told to jerk the lead and choke chain hard, and yell "LEAVE" whenever my dog was looking at another dog. This was supposed to get my dog's attention back on me. As a result, my dog became aggressive to all other dogs and I finally had no option but to rehome her when she severely injured one of my other dogs.

It took a lot of research over the years to discover the reason behind my dog's behaviour. Up until the age of six months she had been a happy, confident, GSD.
Whilst the RSPCA appears not to have a policy on the use of choke chains at least one US based animal charity is not afraid to stand up and be counted. The San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says the following:

"Choke and shock collars are designed to stop dogs from pulling on a leash for barking, through the application of pain. The dog stops pulling - because it hurts. Halters and reward-based training, on the other hand, can achieve more effective results without hurting dogs. The SF/SPCA uses halters and reward-based methods in training all our shelter dogs. And the results have been dramatic - dogs are making progress quicker, and many are fairly well trained by the time they are adopted.

Given that these kinder and more effective alternatives exist, the role of the painful choke and shock collars is questionable at best. In reality their use is unnecessary and often ineffective. In many ways, they may even be cruel."

IT'S STILL LEAD JERKING.....
As the word spread about modern reward based training methods, trainers that were using choke chains began to realize that it was perhaps not good idea in the eyes of the general dog owning public. Many changed their policies and began to advise the use "combi collars". This meant that then the club or trainer could advertise the fact that they didn't use choke chains. Combi's or half checks (sometimes called "half chokers") when fitted properly, do not continue to choke the dog, they only partially tighten. However, these trainers were only paying "lip service" to new training methods. Changing from a choke chain to a "half check" or a "combi collar" does not indicate a change in training policies.
These dyed-in-the-wool trainers continued to use lead jerks as a way of "training" regardless of whatever collar was used. In fact the use of the lead jerk (or "leash pops" as the American trainers say) is still a punishment based training technique. Trauma is still applied to the neck and throat areas. Sadly, training without punishment is not an option for some. Square bashing, lead jerking and shouting orders is the preserve of bullies and trainers with little understanding.

"In a retrospective study on spinal pain, injury or changes in dogs conducted in Sweden, Hallgreen (1992) found that 91% of dogs with cervical anomalies experienced harsh jerks on lead or had a long history of pulling on the lead. Uses of chokers were also overrepresented in this group. This strongly suggests that such corrections are potentially injurious." - Karen Overall, Clinical Behavioural Medicine for Small Animals.

"In 30 years of practice (including 22 as a veterinary advisor to a police dog section) I have seen numerous severely sprained necks, cases of fainting, transient forleg paresis and hind leg ataxia after robust use of the "check" chain. When the practice of slamming the dog sideways with a jerk that brought the foreparts clear of the ground and two or three feet towards the handler, became popular in the 1970's the resulting painful condition was known as "Woodhouse neck" in this practice. Some of these cases exhibited misalignment of cervical vertebrae on radiographs. My ophthalmology colleagues have decided views on the relation between compression of the neck, intraocular pressure distrubances and damage to the cervical sympathetic nerve chain resulting in Horner's syndrome. I personally have seen a case of swollen eyes with petechial scleral hemorrhage and a number of temporarily voiceless dogs" - Robin Walker, Vet Record.

"Some old school, force-based trainers insist that you have to overpower the dog with force, using things like scruff shakes (where the handler grabs the sides of the dog's neck and shakes him), and alpha rolls (where the handler flips the dog onto his back and holds him there until he stops resisting) or, if necessary, by hanging the dog with a choke collar until he submits or collapses in unconsciousness. Most owners, thankfully, are unwilling or unable to inflict this kind of abuse on their dogs. These abused dogs frequently end up biting or becoming enough of a threat that they are surrendered to animal shelters, where they are usually euthanized as dangerous and incorrigible. Sadly, if these dogs had been trained with non-confrontational methods, they might have been fine." Pat Miller - The Power of Positive Dog Training.