Hiya All,

just wanting to know when I should introduce Amy to a collar and what is the best type for her breed.

Thanks

Claire and Amy

Hi,

How old is the puppy ?  mine was on a collar 1 day after i picked him up we got a cheap nylon cat collar he scratched at it for ages and was generaly in a sad moody state for about 15 mins then he forgot about it he was 8 weeks old when i collected him.  he has so far had 1 cat colar (obviousely)  1 nylon harness (grew out of it but made controlling him easyer)  he currently wears a black leather collar with his home address etc  info on a tag and has his harness (nylon)  for walks and car trips.

we found lead training his was easeyer on the collar but general walks are good on the harness if your expecting to meet other dogs it gives you more controll and is less restrictive to movement of the neck.

How old is your puppy?  if your toilet training it use a collar and lead it makes lead training easyer once there allowed out for propper walks

id actually say that walking them in harness gives less control. I use one, but only when out in the wilderness where i wont meet another dog, ( at least thats my hope! lol)
When I use a harness I do not have the head control I would prefer, my male being dog aggresssive if charged by a strange dog, which happens a lot :/!!
So in close company I always use a collar as I can control his head far easier, as that is the buisness end!

I used a small nylon collar about 1/3 of an inch wide for walking etc for my staff male, but did find it pulled out hair around his neck when it was a house collar too. I changed to a rolled leather collar in the house, which i upgraded as he grew, and now at nearly 3 he still wears one in the house at all times. Iys a handy handle! the rolled leather doese not upset his coat at all. when out walking, i now ue a 2 inch wide niylon collar as I am not a fan of the brass and leather ones. although he always wears his rolled leather collar I never walk him on it as it is too thin and could injure his neck because he is a puller and a half!
all 3 of my staffs wear the leather collars in the house and when out at all times.
Ohh and he got a collar plonked on him the day after I brought him home from his breeder! He was a little over 7 weeks old

Sooner is better i think, a lad near use has got a staffy bitch she is ment to be 13 weeks ..mmmm  tiny as they get then he has a leather collar on it which it doesnt mind at all but wont walk on a leader, his house training seems to be open door put puppy outside pick up puppy bring back in .... as a result he cant get it to move on a leader it anchers down and goes nuts.  his answer to this problem was ... he doesnt use a leader    i made the mistake of thinking the puppy had escaped from its garden  one day and gave bruno to my fiance while i chased and picked up pup  the owner didnt know the puppy had got out and didnt seem that concered as we chatted etc  my fiance found out that he walks the puppy off the leader to the shops (along a very busy street)   as i see it he shouldnt have got the puppy if he doesnt have time to train it properly  he has 2 labs that walk on leads so he takes them on leads ... they were already trained from what we can work out shame really its so easy to train them when there young.

Bruno always has his leather collar on day and night as you say a nice handle :-) the harness is just coming back into play now as he has finaly reached a decent size between small and medium dog it wouldnt fit before :-)  he loves it although he looks like he is going to blind school due to refective yellow strips on it but he is dead proud wearing it, im not a brass lover or leather harness lover they look good at shows but not for walks round the fields the look restrictive

Thanks for the replies,  Amy is now 7 weeks we got her at Christmas and were told that she was 6 weeks old on Christmas eve.  Only to find out (when her KC registration papers came through) that she was born on the 20.11.03 which made her only 5 weeks exactly on Christmas day.  Needless to say that this caused a few problems as I already had her booked into the vets for her first injections and check up.

Anyway, she hasn't worn a collar as such and once we get our back yard jet washed we'll be taking her outside to house train her.  Currently we are using the paper method and I must admit that we have only had about 4 accidents since we brought her home.

I obviously don't want to be picking her up every time I take her out to the toilet, as she has 4 legs that work better than mine do!!  Her neck is really small and I didn't want a collar that was going to weigh down on her neck and cause her discomfort, I suppose I want something which she won't really know she is wearing after a while until she gets a little bigger.

You've both been really helpful, I knew I could count on someone to help me out, I have to admit I thought I had considered everything before we got the pup but I guess I'm still just a novice  !!  :-)

Is there any chance you can train her on a grassed area?   we live in flats and i took bruno to the nearest grass to do hid business (this was a side garden of our flat safe from other dogs)  by doing this he has learnt grass = good   if he needs to go when on walks he will hold it till he is on grass to do his business this has been good because its easyer and cleaner to pick up doggie do of grass than the pavement.

We live in an end terrace and which is half house half chippie.  So we don't have a garden.  There is a huge field opposite but this is frequently used by all the other dog walkers in the area.  As she hasn't had her injections yet would it be feasable to take her there?

The only other option is the yard (which is spacious).  I could wait to take her out after she has had her first injections but at what point is it safe to let her come into contact with other dogs?  Does this have to be after her last injections at 14 weeks?  I had wanted to get started before then.

This yard - is it enclosed so that other dogs (who may well not be vaccinated) have no access? If so, she'll be fine there. My vet told me it's fine to take an undervaccinated pup to visit other dogs provided they are in good health and fully vaccinated (and that, again, the place is not visited by other dogs).
:)

Yard it is then,

Just thought it may be an idea, once the dog if fully vaccinated and a week after last injection start taking it out for walks and try make it perform on the grass if you wish to train this that is, we found on a visit to a friends at about 11 weeks (since 8 weeks pup had been performing on grass)  he wouldnt go in there yard because it wasnt grass, eventualy he went but he looked very confused because he had been taught not to go on paving.

After the first injections you can take the dog to the beach (if your allowed and theres one near you) as long as its on the wet sand just after high tide  we did this a few time but only after one of use had checked there were no doggy prints in the sand. We were told not to have the dog in contact with other dogs but think that was more due to the area we live in a town with a large population of "mongrels"  not saying there not nice but they swap hands at £10 ish so people dont get them vaccinated. definatly take the dog to the yard on the leader though this is the best chance you will get at lead training because it wont know going out with out a lead.