Taking our dog for a walk is a daily and necessary part of our dog’s daily routine. Walks are good for both our and our dog’s mental and physical health and is a great way for us to bond with our dog.
Unfortunately, in many places dogs are most often required to be on a leash while walking. This is to keep them safe from the surrounding environment. A leash is most often attached to the dog’s collar or harness when out on a walk. In this blog we look into the effects a collar can have on our dogs both physiologically and behaviourally.
Are you using a collar or a harness when walking your dog?
Have you ever thought about why you are using a collar for your dog? Is it because that is what you or your family have always done? Is it because it is easy or just because that is what you were sold in the pet shop?
The majority of pet owners, despite a rise in popularity for using a harness, are using a collar when walking their dog, but let us look at the effect a collar can have on our dogs, not just behaviourally but also physiologically.
The effect of collars
Collars come in many different shapes and sizes. Some are made of leather, other of fabrics and some in metal. The different material, the width of the collar and whether or not it has any padding and how thick that is, all affect the amount of pressure that is put on the dog’s neck.
Firstly let us address that any tools that are harming a dog in any way such as choke-, prong-,half-prong-, or e-collars should NEVER be used at any point on a dog – not when walking, not when training -NEVER! The damage that those type of collars can do to a dog both behaviourally and physiologically are tremendous and induce unnecessary pain!
Behaviourally these punitive collars use what is called positive punishment (this is not a good thing, read more about what it means here) as they suppress normal dog behaviour, leading to an increase in problem behaviours. So yes, using the wrong collar could cause a dog to develop problem behaviours, such as aggression.
Furthermore, using these punitive tools will also destroy the trust a dog has for his human (Read more about trust between human and dog here) and they do not teach the dog anything other than being afraid.
Different studies have looked at the use of different collars. In one study they found that choke collars could cause lesions. In another, they found that collars affect the intraocular pressure, which is the pressure found in the eyes, potentially leading to eye problems. Physiologically the use of a collar can also cause trauma from pulling and potentially affect the thyroid gland, causing illness in dogs such as skin problems, ear infections and even organ failure.
For heavy pullers or dogs exposed to collar corrections (with any collar) it could cause injuries in the dog’s neck, spine or muscles of the neck. In a Swedish study done by Anders Hallgren, 400 ordinary dogs were examined and 91% of the dogs with neck injuries had been exposed to leash popping or jerks, or was heavy leash pullers. As it turns out, no collars are therefor safe to use when attached to a leash.
However, it is not only about not using a collar on our dogs. Even if we use a harness, which has proven to remove many, if not all of the above mentioned issues both physiologically and behaviourally, we still have to think about how to use that harness correctly.
How are you walking WITH your dog?
A walk should be a positive, enjoyable experience for the both of you. Have you ever thought about how you are using the leash? Unfortunately popping the leash, jerking on the leash and using the leash in general as some sort of correction is still very common.
Despite it still being safer to use a harness even when applying these methods, it could still cause damage behaviourally and definitely damage the trust your dog has for his/her human. The leash or harness are not correction tools to teach a dog a desired behaviour. They are tools to keep a dog safe from his/her environment. To keep dogs from running out in front of a car, or to keep dogs from running away or running over to strangers who might not appreciate a dog greeting. They are not a way to “teach” a dog.
Teaching a dog to not pull the leash can be taught in many different ways. Here is a blog about how to make your dog walk nicely and in addition to that also think about why the dog is pulling in the first place? Is the benefit of pulling greater then to walk with a lose leash? Dogs do what works, and if pulling the leash is beneficial (s)he will not stop doing it, unless staying close is even more desirable (Read about positive associations here).
In conclusion collars can be used to carry your dog’s ID but to attach them to a leash can be, as seen in the above research, very damaging. Using a harness is much safer, decrease problem behaviours and potential physiological damage.
