First of all, let the your dog live in a natural and comfortable state of life is certainly the best way, but consider many situations in daily life, it would be better to use one, for example, more and more people in the city take care of the dog as a pet, need to walk them on the street, this time a suitable dog collar/harness is very necessary, on the one hand, to prevent the dog burst to hurt passers-by, on the other hand, also to allow the owner to control over the dog. There are many people customize the dog collar/harness with the dog’s information and name to prevent loss, for first-time dog owners, choosing the right collar/harness is a very difficult thing
Whether you choose a collar or a harness is ultimately up to you but it would be wise for you to at least make an educated decision.
It depends on your dog’s size, personality, behavior, your personal tastes, your training goals, and training philosophy, to name a few. But from a stress-free perspective, there are some types of collars/harness that can be used, some that need to be used with caution, and some that are risky and should never be used.
The most dangerous types of collars to avoid are those designed to stimulate, stress, and or aversive stimuli, including: Choke Chains( P chains fall into this category), Pronged Collars (ring spike chains), Citronella oil spray collar (citronella oil spray collar), any other collar design is forced to obey (any other collar designed to force obedience as a concept)
Our suggestion is, puppies, before they learn to walk with the training, should choose the right harness; during and after the training, they can use the collar traction.
First, let’s talk about harnesses. The advantage of them is that they do not cause damage to the dog’s neck when the dog leash pulling, jumping up or displaying aggression. The disadvantages are: weak control of the dog, not suitable for walking training; also, the wrong size of the harness will affect the puppy’s thoracic development and gait.
As for the collar type traction, the advantages are: good control of the dog, the master leash force directly on the dog’s sensitive neck, can send a clear control signal to the dog, guide the dog to follow the master forward. Disadvantages are: when the dog bursts, the owner of inappropriate force, the dog’s neck cervical vertebrae, trachea, lymph glands, blood vessels caused damage; cervical vertebrae damage is light pain so that the dog lame, heavy dog paralysis; neck artery compression will also lead to increased intraocular pressure, long term too-high-eye-pressure will also induce eye lesions.
As you can see above, harness and collar each have their own advantages and disadvantages, so simply arbitrarily recommending the use of either one is one-sided and wrong. The choice of the style of traction should be based on the dog’s training situation.
Why do we recommend that puppies wear a properly sized harness for walks before learning to walk with them? Because puppies are active and have more delicate necks, and a well-designed harness can minimize injury to your puppy.
During walk training, a collar is the best choice because of the need to use traction pressure to send clear directional signals to the dog. Before basic walk training, we usually do traction pressure training, so that the dog learns to follow the direction of the pressure transmitted by the collar traction. When doing basic walk training, it is done indoors in a distraction-free environment, so the dog will not burst and the collar will not cause damage to the dog’s neck.
After the dog has completed the walk training, the dog has learned to follow the owner’s pace when walking, so the chest and collar traction can be freely chosen according to the owner’s preference.