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Post by Tammi21 on Jun 30, 2005 15:45:47 GMT -5
It’s all my fault! Jetta was growing out of her old prong collar. So I thought it would be nice to get her a new one. Well I knew I should have got her one off of the internet, but I gave in and got her one at Petco. It seemed to fit just like it needs to. I tried it out in the yard and it seemed find. I was out walking her yesterday when she seen another dog. She yanked hard on the leash and cried out. Then she got back by me and we walked home. I didn’t think much about it until we got home and I went to take the collar off. It had made four holes in her neck! Well after I made sure she wasn’t bleeding to bad I called my fiancé and tried to tell him what happened. I had to repeat myself five times before he finely got what I was saying. He talked to me until I calmed down enough to drive Jetta to the vet’s. After I told the vet what happened I got a 15min lecture on how prong collars are inhumane. Buy the time we got bake in the car I was shaking so bad, I had to just set and hold my dogie, and tell her I’m sorry she got hurt. I feel so bad, she was hurt because of me. Because I didn’t think it would be a big deal. If you have to get a prong collar don’t get one at petco.
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Post by Am on Jun 30, 2005 16:11:15 GMT -5
Tammi and Jetta! You poor things, that sounds horrible. I would be taking the collar back to Petco and complaining. Tell them you're going to go to the newspapers if they don't pull that unsafe product off the shelves. I'm sure they'll sit up and take notice if you promise them negative publicity - they don't want to be known as a pet store that doesn't care about animal welfare. Edited to say... and did you know that you can often buy extra links for prong collars, especially if it's a good quality brand collar(Herm Sprenger or etc). So you might not need to buy a new collar at all - perhaps you can just buy a couple of new links for the old one? Would save you some money.
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Post by Tammi21 on Jun 30, 2005 16:44:41 GMT -5
I got it in Kansas, I live in Pennsylvania. I had my sister call petco and tell them that the collar was sharp! And they said they would check in to it. edit. thax I did know that but the old one was a hand-me-down from someone else’s dog. It was a bit tarnished so I thought I would just get a brand-new one.
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Post by Nicole on Jun 30, 2005 17:36:49 GMT -5
It had made four holes in her neck! Wow, that is terrible. I don't know what to say other than I hope Jetta is Okay. That should not happen with a properly made collar. Stores like Petco mass produce these types of things without any regard to quality and purpose.
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Post by willow on Jun 30, 2005 19:35:58 GMT -5
Oh, Tammi and Jetta, how awful, and now one more "case against prong collars". As Nicki said, the collar should not do that!! It is defective. The first no bark collar I got was from Petco. I couldn't figure out why Kara was acting so strangly and wouldn't come up on the deck. WELL...when she did and lied down, the collar would bump the deck and go off! My poor baby! I took the collar back and showed them what it did, we tried every other collar there and they all did the same thing. The lady said they would "take care of it". I went back a week or so later and the collars were still there. Later I found out, however, that even the more expensive collars will go off inappropriately, so I will never use a no bark collar on any of my dogs again.
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Post by Tammi21 on Jun 30, 2005 21:25:21 GMT -5
I know that prong collars are not suppose to do that. But I just think I won’t be putting another on her. For my own peace of mind.
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Post by Am on Jul 1, 2005 0:28:20 GMT -5
I would probably feel the same way if that happened to Monsta. Will you go back to walking her on flat buckle collar, or a martingale type arrangement? If you do decide to keep using a prong, I've seen little black rubber tips that you can get to put over the prong ends, so perhaps you could get some of those? Just for your own piece of mind, cos then you know there's absolutely no way the prongs could pierce her skin. And please please do get your sister to have a good growl at the petstore people. They shouldn't be carrying such dangerous equipment - tell them if they want to stock prong collars, they should stock good quality ones, even if they're more expensive.
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Post by Tammi21 on Jul 1, 2005 1:04:22 GMT -5
Dear Am. I had never heard of a martingale until now. I just googled them and I think I will get one. Thank you so much. *hug*
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Post by Am on Jul 1, 2005 3:28:46 GMT -5
Glad I could help!
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Post by Kona on Jul 1, 2005 11:57:59 GMT -5
Tammi, what a horrible thing to happen. I would have been shaking too if my vet had lectured me like that. The best thing that we can all take from this is just to be extra careful about examining the equipment that we use.
*hugs*
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Post by DivineOblivion19 on Jul 1, 2005 16:00:13 GMT -5
Wow how sad! I'm sorry that happened. I probably would have told my vet to go $*@% himself, but that's just me. From my experience a lot of vets (including the vets I've worked for) don't know a damn thing about training. The one I work for now uses a Halti on his GSD that jumps all over the place and it yanks her head/neck around and the other one uses a gentle leader on his super out of control Labrador. So I would have told my vet to shove his training ideas up his arse! He needs to do his job and treat my dog for her injuries and I would be more careful about the quality of the equipment I use.
Yes, I've kinda had a bad day today.... But I imagine if I'd gone through what you did my attitude would be the same as it is now so that would be my reaction to the vet who tried to "educate" me.
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Post by Am on Jul 1, 2005 17:49:07 GMT -5
Yup, but if the vet has seen several injuries from these pet shop prong collars, I can understand that he might feel it is his duty to campaign against them. Obviously it would be better if he told people to get a good quality prong and inspect it before use, instead of telling people that ALL prongs are dangerous.
But perhaps all he has seen are the injuries, and does not know that a good quality prong will not do that to a dog?
Just like if he saw lots of dogs with neck injuries from haltis, I would have nothing wrong with him telling his clients not to use haltis.
Just my 2 cents.
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Post by Aussienot on Jul 1, 2005 19:01:22 GMT -5
Ok it's partly your fault. You shopped at Petco - the doggie equivalent of something less than a Kmart. A prong collar is a bit of speciality training equipment that they shouldn't be dabbling in, particularly since they seem to lack any standard of product quality control. A well made prong collar will not be cheap, and a cheap prong collar will not be well made. I've heard a lot of stories of Petco collars breaking under stress, but it should never be dangerous to use.
Sorry about Jetta. Luckily she sounds like the kind of dog that will forgive and forget. I'm a big fan of the prong, but the martingale is my second choice of collar.
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Post by Tammi21 on Jul 1, 2005 20:25:21 GMT -5
Forgive and forget, ha Jetta doesn’t even know what happened. All she knows is that I keep putting stuff on her neck. And then she tries to get it off. You should see and dog trying to lick it’s own neck. I know I was at fault. I hate to think what would have happened to a dogs neck, had the collar not ben taken off quickly. As for petco I was not aware that they would sale such bad products. Is petsmart the same way? And could you tell me where I could order a good martingale collar?
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Post by amyjo on Jul 2, 2005 16:16:10 GMT -5
Oh I am so sorry for what happened with the prong. I have a cheapo but it isn't sharp like that.
Just my two cents on the martingale. The rescue I work for uses these all the time, in fact they are a requirement because they are supposedly no-slip.
However, every dog I get from them either as a foster dog or as a transportee has the collar on too loose and often the leash is attached to the wrong ring.
If it's too loose then grabbing the collar doesn't really work when/if you need it. I tighten them once they are over the dogs head. I don't know if you are supposed to or not - but a scared, squirmy rescue dog can pop right out if you don't hold the collar in the right place.
Using the wrong ring presents the same problem. I like them too - just be aware.
Hope your baby heals! Amy
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