Welcome to my casbah. . . I am Madam Taraaaah. . . let me predict your fortune. I see. . . when you signed up for your local obedience class they recommended a. . . choke collar! Was I right? See, I told you I was psychic. Wrong? Hey, even Madam Taraaaah has her bad days!

What was the point of that? Well, if you join an obedience class today, the standard fare is the choke collar. It is basically a collar of chain with two rings at each end that makes a slip. It also goes by more pleasant sounding names like slip collar or chain collar. The fact is, it is a choke collar. You pull on it, and it  tightens, effectively choking your dog, even for a second. I have no problem with this, I use chokes in the conformation ring, but that is a case of tradition. I do not train with them any longer.

If you weren't offered a choke collar, and your Aussie is a typically an active one, you were probably told to buy a prong collar. The picture to the right is an example of one. I think they are a lot better than a choke collar, and this site deals with this.

I don't think either of these is a good solution, I'd suggest no collar in private, a flat buckle collar in public. If you have a rambunctios Aussie that will not respond to you unless you can administer some manual attention getting, a great tool is a head halter. There are many halters, the Halti can be bought in most large pet stores, but I like the Promise collar, which can only be bought from liscensed dealers. They will be happy to teach you how to use it, and it is, like my hand trick, and positive obedience, something I wish I'd known about sooner. But, if you use it in public, be prepared for many comments on the "muzzle" (something that it is definitely not, Dusty ripped my sweatshirt open during a play session with it on).

A good general rule of thumb is to use the mildest collar you can. And, from my experience, do NOT go from a choke collar, be it chain or nylon, to a prong collar without absolute assurance that you can apply your correction with confidence. Or, better yet, don't get one, you don't need to correct a dog physically.

Stock Dogs Conformation Obedience Agility Other Activities "Trained or not, he'll always be his own dog to a degree." - Carol Lea Benjamin Don't forget to take advantage of the other areas at this site! Can't find what you are looking for? Try using the search in the top right.