Choke chains were once standard equipment for training dogs. That has changed within the last 30 years, thank goodness. Choke chains are now rarely seen in training classes. Why is that?
Choke chains are punitive training tools. In other words, any “training” done with a choke chain involves punishment. Back in the day, when I first started training, the typical class situation required that each dog wear a choke chain. Dogs were fitted with and owners were sold choke chains the first night of class. It was mandated equipment, without which the dog could not take the class.
Needless to say, the procedure of fitting choke chains to every dog before class caused many problems. The majority of dogs entering a beginning training class are not accustomed to having strangers accost them in what is an already chaotic situation. (A bunch of untrained dogs and owners, meeting for the first time? Crowded, noisy, and confusing . . . and that’s just for the humans!) When the stranger then starts authoritatively messing with the dog’s face and neck, most dogs sensibly say, “Who the heck are you and what are you doing with my head?” And the dogs who most resisted being equipped with a choke chain—the big, obnoxious dogs—were often fitted, based on their behavior in this confrontation only, with prong collars instead of choke chains. But I’m getting ahead of myself. More on prong collars another week.
In the days of widespread choke-chain use, the initial session of a beginning class was often a nightmare. Consider the fears and overstimulation of 12 (or more!) inexperienced dogs, for the first time in their lives crowded into a confined area with other dogs they do not know. Combine that with the fears and overstimulation of 12 (or more!) inexperienced owners, confronted not only with their own dog’s nervousness but also with out-of-the-norm reactions from all the other dogs in the class. It can be a very frightening situation for all concerned, and the results are much what you’d expect.
So, what’s the first thing taught at the start of such a beginning class?
How to “correct” your dog.
That’s what the choke chain is for. You attach the leash to what’s called the “live” ring, the one that causes the chain to pull tighter, then “pop” the leash, causing the chain to tighten around the dog’s neck. Does that sound easy? It’s not. The whole point of a “pop” is to avoid strangling the dog—but, honestly, it takes some humans a lifetime to learn to do it right. Doing it correctly is not something most handlers can accomplish the first time they try. It takes practice. Lots of practice.
The theory behind choke chains is that the “pop” of the collar around the dog’s neck simulates a “correction” that would be given by a mother dog to a puppy, probably with her teeth. Does that sound far-fetched? I agree. I think what most dogs experiencing their first “pop” from a choke chain feel is complete confusion. Less confident dogs probably feel fear. Why? They have no context to understand what just happened to them. It would be like one human slapping another across the face in the middle of a party, with no apparent reason for the slap. Confusing and scary, leading to thoughts of escape, or possibly even slapping back. How does that resemble training?
On top of the confusion and possible fright, when the “handler” pops a choke chain (for the first time) on a dog being popped for the first time . . . oh, what could possibly go wrong?
Everything, I’m afraid. Everything can go wrong.
Dogs respond in a variety of ways. For some, that one physical “correction” is enough to shut them down completely. It’s the doggy equivalent of the slapped human slumping to the floor, incapable of either flight or fight, instead turned helpless at this massive breach of trust.
For other dogs—luckily not all—the reaction is far more active. Having been hurt, the dog responds by hurting back, either by turning aggressively on the owner or (worse yet in a beginning class) turning aggressively on another dog in the class. That’s called redirected aggression. The dog doesn’t go for whoever hurt him, but instead for an innocent bystander, dog or human.
Any dog who is aggressed upon by another dog in his first training class will have a very hard time remembering anything else he might “learn” during that hour. Instead, the attacked dog is very likely to associate other dogs with danger. Until he has gotten over that generalized fear, training classes are unlikely to be helpful. I have seen many dogs cringe at the sight (or sound) of a choke chain.
How about the dog who doesn’t respond fearfully or aggressively (itself a fear-based reaction)? What is being taught to that dog by the “popping” of a choke chain?
It comes down to this: the dog is being taught that the pop of the choke chain means something bad.
To a dog, it’s like its human screaming “NO!” in the loudest possible voice when the dog has no idea what might be wrong. To anthropomorphize a bit more, a pop on a choke chain might cause the dog to think: “Help! Not again! Why am I being hurt? What’s wrong? Stop!”
Popping a choke chain to inform a dog that he is doing something wrong makes about as much sense as screaming at a toddler who’s wet his training pants. It’s punishment without context. It conveys no information about what behavior would be “right,” what behavior would be acceptable, what behavior would make the punishment stop!
Popping a choke chain, like screaming at a toddler, becomes a pointless, repeated punishment that may make the handler feel better (“What else could I do? He was being bad!”) but does nothing to accomplish any training with the dog.
Choke chains are not good tools for training, that’s obvious—and crystal-clear, I hope, to anyone who ever watched one of those first class meetings back in the “olden days” when they were required equipment. Unfortunately, though, most beginning trainers at the time accepted the authority of their class instructors, the majority of whom were volunteers with no formal training in instruction themselves. They, too, believed that choke chains were appropriate. (Although it’s always been difficult for me to excuse their seemingly total blindness to the fact that beginners who were training with choke chains failed more often than they succeeded. Hence the high dropout rate in classes at that time.)
What we didn’t know then that we should know now is that choke chains fail not only as training tools (especially in the hands of novices), but that, even used expertly, choke chains have the potential to cause massive physical damage to dogs.
Here’s a short list of physical maladies incurred by the repeated use of choke chains on dogs:
- Tracheal and/or esophageal damage
- Sprained necks
- Foreleg paralysis
- Laryngeal nerve paralysis
- Hind leg ataxia
Most of this damage is long-term, sometimes life-long, and can severely affect a dog’s overall health. To learn more about the physical damage that can be caused by choke chains, I suggest you Google “choke chains” and “physical damage.”
Keep in mind that these injuries often result in disability and may cause a dog to suffer constant pain. Dealing with these physical problems can become extremely expensive and time-consuming for an animal’s humans. Most of these issues do not go away; they only get worse. Then consider the owner’s feelings of guilt when he or she finds out what (and who!) was responsible for causing the damage.
Choke chains. They’re not for training. They’re also certainly not for wearing as a permanent collar that carries a dog’s identification and tags! Choke chains worn all the time tend to discolor the fur on the dog’s neck, wearing it away if the dog has a long coat. Worse, owners who insist on using choke chains as permanent collars are inviting disaster, even if they do manage to secure the “live” ring to the “dead” ring so the collar cannot pull tight. Choke chains are the number-one most likely piece of equipment to get caught in something and imperil the dog. Case in point, the dog who got the rings of his choke chain caught between the boards of his owners’ deck. When he jumped off, he ended up hanging himself.
Choke chains. What are they good for?
Plant hangers. Make ’em into that!
