Basically at the end of the day the training is negative with a Chain, its a harsh harsh check even when done correctly.

Theres so many more positive methods now days to stop a dog pulling. I sometimes at the end of the day it depends on how you want to train & the status Quo that you want to achieve with your dog.

I "sometimes" use a Half Slip when training HW,(training HW that is NOT to teach a dog to Walk at Heel) But the "movements" are reward based & alot of time & effort has gone into making the "movement" a reward in itself

yeah Inkliveeva My GSD does seem more than content to let me put it on her and walk with her as well and I never feel like im having to hurt her because thats the one reason why i didnt even go there with my staff - i walk the three at once a lot of the time and it is often a preferential way of controlling her and its never strangling her and she responded early on to the tug - would i do soemthing that i thought was damaging my dog? - certainly not - i use three different methods for all three dogs - all geared to what i beleive is most comfortable to them (cav has soft collar and lead, staff a harness and the GSD normally a choke chain )

do police dog handlers use choke chains or other more physical methods to train their dogs - thats not a loaded question by the way - im curious?

Pick me! Pick me!

I met someone in the park who had a choke on a doberman - she was actually using it in the 'correct' way and did a pop on the choke to get the dog to sit as he was getting very over excitable around Takara.

The dog all of a sudden let out an almighty yelp, this was a large male doberman and the sound was excruciating, it had obviously caught him somewhere, it shocked her and she checked to see he was ok (which he was, but it had clearly hurt at the time).

I've also met someone walking a basset hound on a choke chain The poor dog had red raw skin all around his neck and was still pulling (I assume, to get away from the source of pain) If that didn't hurt, the dog must have had no pain receptors!

While I agree there are kinder ways of training & ny current dogs are not on check chains, largely because of my fear of them catching on something while they are running free & choking them I must say in previous times I always used them with my GSDs & they were never upset by them but would fetch them off the peg & bring them to be put on but the two I tried a halti on never accepted them & would do anything they could to avoid having them on & to remove them at every oportunity, so I know which they prefered.

I have to say,, I have seen some hair curling stuff being done to dogs with halti's, I once saw a man yank his dog so hard I dont know how it never broke its neck,,,it was horrid to see, I have also seen them strung upwards at shows {rotties} with the damn thing digging into there eyes, I think most things in the wrong hands can cause injury,, pain stress suffering,, to dogs, Im not really a choke chain person, but the thing is people will and do use them, if they insist on doing so the best we can do is show them wrong from right,, thus poss helping both dog and owner x

my fear of them catching means i never let mine wear hers in the back of my car in case the others got tangled up while i was driving along - then i use a fitted fabric harness though both of us seem to prefer a choke - and like you say I dont like mine having hers on running free as we are awash with rabbits and worry about her crashing through and getting tangled in a thickt while chasing one.

Nickyboy I went to classes that were run by ex police dog handlers and yes their training methods are harsh ! My boys and me couldn't deal with it.

Takara used to wear a leather/chain half check that was too big to tighten on her (as I've already said) to allow her to wear a collar and tag and it not affect her coat for showing (I didn't like her having no collar on in case she got out and had no ID other than her chip).

One day, she got the chain part of her half check stuck in a gap between our kitchen flags whilst rolling around like an idiot on the floor. I will never forget the panic that went through me as she panicked and I tried to get her free and she pulled more, making it even more difficult to slip it off.

She now wears an ordinary rogz flat collar all the time and a normal harness for walking unless we go to town or somewhere else she pulls more when she has a walkezee harness.

yeah i probably couldnt incorporate them as I couldnt bring myself to do it or feel confidnt enough i was doing it correctly - im not going to denounce them though as I think they do fantastic jobs and care for their dogs a great deal

Sorry to hear that Lottie, when i was younger i use to take the family golden retriever puppy to meet her litter mate in the local field and she has a choker on and her sister got her paw caught - i too panicked and luckily there were some grown ups in the dog walking crowd who calmly untangled them as I was uselessly crying my eyes out fearing the worst - as I said before i dont let Lola travel in a choke collar for that reason as paddy the staff and coco are both prone to bundling in the back with her - and slip it off leaving her normal id'd collar on when i let her off - she just walks better with it on when i got the other two with me as she doesnt seem to fight like in the harness.