From the APDT choke chain leaftlet.

Choke chains:
damage dogs
...cause paiin
...can cause behavioural problems

Choke Chains have been directly linked to the
following medical conditions:
Injured ocular blood vessels
Tracheal and oesophageal damage
Severely sprained necks
Cases of fainting
Transient foreleg paralysis
Laryngeal nerve paralysis
Hind leg ataxia

“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 was also over represented in this group.
This strongly suggests that such corrections are
potentially injurious”
Karen Overall MA, VMD, PhD, DACVB 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 paralysis and hind leg
ataxia after robust use of the choke chain.
In the 1970’s, 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,
the resulting painful condition was known as
"Woodhouse neck" in this practice. Some of
these cases exhibited misalignment of cervical
vertebrae on radiographs. It is suggested that an
existing spondylopathy renders these dogs more
vulnerable to injury.
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 syndrom. I personally have
seen a case of swollen eyes with petechial scleral
haemorrhage and a number of temporarily
voiceless dogs"
Robin Walker BVetMed MRCVS

There is one solitary good use for them - attach keys to one end and a belt clip to the other, stops pickpockets being able to steal peoples house or car keys and if dropped you won`t lose a key down a drain etc as they are attached to trouser belt loop on the end of the chain

That`s the only thing they are good for imo

Sometimes I use one on Maddy as a substitute for a show lead when I don't want to take her posh show lead out but want to takes some pics stacking her as you can raise is behind the ears so it gives the head and neck a clean profile as you can't see the chain. I don't walk her on it she is walked on a normal collar usually or a headcollar if I have them all.

Why do you think a prong collar is worse? you can't put it on the wrong way round, it spreads the pressure around the neck rather than concentrating at one point. Despite what a lot of people think, prongs are blunt and do not penetrate the skin.

Ian

PS. FWIW, I use a flat collar for now

I have chains for kaos,,but they are more bling than anything, he never pulls though, {ever} hes such a gent

i should hope people don't think they actually penetrate the skin!

it doesn't spread the pressure around the neck - the whole point (excuse the pun) of the prongs is that they have a low surface area, 'pinching' the neck.. if it spread the pressure around there'd be absolutely no point in it..

I hope it stays that way, I would hate to think you would lower yourself to a prong collar on such a trainable breed,

Sorry, I think I must of either missed something or I'm abit thick......well I am tired.
But firstly I don;t understand why the thread starter is so annoyed about peoples opinions over choke chain collars....has someone said something.

As for choke chains, two of mine have them on but they are not in a choke position, they are put round the neck and thier tags are threaded through both large loops, so the chain will never choke anyway(it's a bling thing). Bruce has a half choke on but again not used as one. I use harnesses when needed(my dogs are mainly off lead except Bruce who is abit young yet)
Choke chains were originally made to use as thread starter states to correct pulling behaviour, BUT so many pople put them on the WRONG way and they pinch leaving blisters on the skin.
Also used the right way the do as they say...Choke.
Now IMO having owned dogs for 46 yrs, why do I want to choke my dogs .
And again (this is IMO) I think there is nothing worse than seeing someone doing a 'quick sharp yank' to get the noise effect to correct the dog.
If my dogs put a choke chain on me ...I wouldn't be very happy, or any type of collar for that matter that caused me discomfort.........Thats my opinion

That's all I'm saying Shona. I am not advicating long term use. As I stated, training. My two dogs are in training and as I stated, only wear the collars outside of the house during training. As soon as they are ready to not wear one, then they will. My girl is just there now really.

Thanks for your comments YoungSteve. I have commented on a few training problems here and met a lot of negative reaction to the chain. So I thought I'd open a discussion.

That seems to have altered since I first read it. It was a study on prong collars... should read -

"A Study on Prong Collars was done in Germany:"

"100 dogs were in the study. 50 used choke and 50 used prong."

http://www.cobankopegi.com/prong.html#AStudy