Collar vs. halters on dogs?

Question

What are the pros and cons of each and which is better?

Answer 1

For small short-faced breeds like shih tzus, pugs, pekes, etc you should always use a halter. The collars can cause an eye injury known as a proptosis.

For large, heavy, strong breeds a collar is better for control and training purposes. This would be dogs like GSD, Boxers, Pits, and others. Anything large and strong that you need to keep constant control of requires a collar. I like collars for all larger breeds too, but they are required on stronger more dominant breeds.

For the rest, I prefer halters, but some people prefer collars. It's just easier to walk them on halters in my opinion.

Answer 2

It really depends on the dog. I have one dog that is very relaxed on a leash and doesn't pull. We walk her with her regular collar. Our other dog walks at a heel, but startles easily at things and will pull sometimes when that happens. Because he weighs 95 lbs and can really pull hard, I use a Halti on him and it's a good solution. Another friend also had a very large dog that pulled (a doberman/lab mix) and she is tiny, so this was a good solution for her as well.

I like the Halti over using a choke chain (which I will never use again) and would try it first before going to a prong collar (which I have also used in the past). I think it is a more humane approach than a collar for big dogs that are otherwise well trained but occasionally pull when walking, especially when the walker is a relatively small person.

Answer 3

Neither. Prong collars are the preferred tool among those who know. A halti will just get dog upset and a flat collar will let the dog take you for a walk. Both are useless as far as training a determined dog. I do not like chokers because they are equally ineffective and you need to use much more serious corrections with one. A prong collar will work on most dogs. It is the only thing I will use for OB training, other then the Electric collar. That makes everything easier and there is NO pressure on the dog nor do you worry about negative impact on your relationship with it. In short, I suggest you go with a prong collar.

Answer 4

As a training tool I have heard halters do a nice job. That is unless a dog figures out how they work, which my Shepherd did in 15mins. Since I prefer not to use choke chains or prong collars, I use a simple harness. While training, if my dog starts pulling, I move the leash to the ring on the front. That causes them to pull towards me. When they stop, I move the leash back to the normal ring on the back. They get the hang of fairly quickly, and it seems far less violent then all that choking.

Answer 5

i have a collar and halter for my dog i put on the halter when going on for walks and she always wears her collar with the id tags and rabies id shalters are great

if you have a energetic dog she may start running and the colar can choke her a bit so thats one con for the collar
but get halters arent meant to be on all the time and if u loose ur dog she wont have any information

so get both =]

Answer 6

I believe a collar is better since it's easier to train a dog to 'heel'. I have a JRT that insists on walking in front of me, and, I don't mind. Heeling is not a priority with me when I walk him. When we do go for a walk, I use a halter with the leash because he tends to get so excited about the walk, that he chokes himself down. I'm sure other people will say that I'm wrong about my opinion of heeling with my dog, but I'm ok with that. :-) As far as leaving a halter on him all the time, well... he's chewed one off of himself because he just doesn't like to have it on that much.

Answer 7

Halter type collars are training aids and aren't meant to be left on the dog all the time. They are a great training tool especially for dogs that like to pull.

Flat buckle collars can be left on all the time, (unless your dog is crated) and should carry your dogs id tags.

Answer 8

depends a lot on which type of dog you have- if you have a dog that is prone to pulling a harness is going to be bad because it reinforces the pulling == if you have a smaller dog its often good to have a harness that way when you do a correction tug it will not hurt the dogs throat-- with a collar when training to walk i suggest a choke collar that way they will learn early on that pulling is bad and it wont be a problem for its whole life! good luck and watch to dog whisperer to see how to correctly use a collar