Need Help!!! ASAP

As some of you know i have a new dog & have had him for 1 week, in that time he has managed to snap his choke chain (which i dont really like got it with the dog) & then i bought him a new collar of ebay & lo & behold that ****** snapped
& then chased a car in our road, didnt get told about this how can i cure the chasing of cars & most importantly, im going to pets @ home tomorow & i have been told to buy a harness for my dog as he is a very strong border collie, BUT they do them in different materials & sizes so i dont really know where to start!!! i cant take the dog with me tomorow as he has no collar, & i dont drive cant walk him with a lead wrapped round his neck as it isnt nice + we have a main road to go to the pet shop i need something that is safe reliable & pull free as he is as i said very strong.
Please can you help me.

Someone will be along soon to advise on the cars i`m sure.

If it was me I would measure round his neck and then go alone to buy a decent collar and a tag ( legal requirement) for him tomorrow. This will then enable you to walk him to pets at home to try harnesses at a later stage. Even in a harness you will still need a tag on him in public so a collar is pretty much a necessity.Hope all goes well tomorrow.

Hi Fudgely, he had a tag on his collar as i know that this is legal requirement, & thnx for your help!

OOPs did I upset you? I was trying to find a logical way round your problem.

Is he a border collie (in your post) or border terrier (in your dogs owned bit ?) It makes a difference !

If he's a puller, then putting a harness on him might make him pull more, some dogs naturally pull and moreso when a harness is on.

I would buy a good leather slip collar.

How old is he ?

I would put a 25mm wide leather half choke on him (believe me him he won't snap that) with a very short heal lead.

Not only would that stop him pulling you along the road, but would allow you to have far more overall control over him and then each time you see him start to go towards a car you just get him to sit until he has claimed down enough for you to carry on again.

Something I do with my lot when I walking them around town is to get them to sit at each road crossing regardless of whether there is any traffic or not.

Not only does it teach them to wait at the curb and not pull you into the road, but it teaches them not to go into the road.

You really do need some patience as it can add half an hour to each journey because of all the stop starts, but after a couple of weeks it does get better.

Good luck with the training.

I can really recommend the dogmatic headcollar and Gentle Leader easy walk harness - both can be bought on ebay. These are the best we have found for big pullers and are hard to snap or get out of. The harness has come the next day both times we ordered and if you tell dogmatic it is urgent they sometimes get it out quickly. They have both worked for our 42kg dog.

Also you might consider a canny collar. They are made for various sizes and you would have much more control of you dog around cars whilst you are desensitising him.

I have a puller, who still pulls on a collar but walks better on a harness.
This is because many dogs pull away from the discomfort of the collar (they're instinct is to increase distance between the thing that's causing discomfort and themselves so they pull away from the collar making matters worse) so the harness enables them to move more naturally and they don't have the discomfort on their neck - you may find that if he's been walked on a full choke chain before, his neck is a little sore and that's why he's pulling away.

Depending on his size you can get great harnesses/headcollars that will help with pulling but most of them require some degree of training as well they just absorb the shock of the pull.

For the traffic, I'd work out how near he can get without going mad and start there, reward him for good behaviour, then as his behaviour becomes more reliable from that distance, move him further (only as far as he can cope with) and reward good behaviour and gradually keep getting him closer to the road side. This will take a long time and a lot of patience, I know it sounds like I'm talking minutes, but I'm talking days, possibly weeks depending on how he responds.

Good luck with it, someone will be along soon I'm sure to give you more advice, but I'm off to take loads of stuff down to the charity shop! lol!

Please do not use a choker or a harness, the chokers don't really work on dogs that have learnt to pull & harnesses give you no control over the dogs head

Much better to get a well fitting good quality half check with a strong chain section(the stronger the better)& use it in conjunction with a figure of eight head collar(not a halti, canny collar etc)

You need to measure your dogs neck & make sure that you would be able to get the collar over his head. One way of doing it is use a tape measure & then measure a piece of string, wool etc to the same size so you can check it at the pet store.

Figure of 8 collars don't rise up under the eyes & one size fits most medium upwards sized dogs, I get mine from this site as they are sold in aid of charity for pets

You use both together with two leads(or a training lead with two trigger hooks)The half check to prevent forward movement in your left hand & the figure of eight collar to give you control to turn his head the way you want it it to go using your right hand

The way to stop him wanting to chase cars(my Rjj had this problem as a puppy as he has a very high prey drive)is to find somewhere you can see traffic, but be far enough away that he doesn't react & sit with him praising him every time he doesn't react. Then very slowly get nearer & nearer, again praising him every time he doesn't react(you can click & treat for this)& if he does react then go back a step. This isn't a quick fix, but it is a permanent fix