I kind of agree with Smeagle here. They really aren't appropriate for most dogs and most people in most scenarios, but at the same time if somebody is going to use an aversive I'd MUCH rather see them use a correctly fitted prong than a choke or head halti.
Strider's OB trainer used prongs, albeit very sparingly. No dogs under one year old, no small dogs, no dogs that were soft (obviously stressed by wearing one), etc.
When she explained to the class what circumstances and dogs she felt it was appropriate for, she pointed at Strider and said, "not him, ever. He's a soft dog and he doesn't need it, it will harm his confidence." Then she pointed to a small lady with an extremely exuberant 13 month old dane puppy coming to class for the first! time! evar! *zomg teh funz!!!* and said that was appropriate for the following reasons.
Partially because the owner was comfortable with it (if you're uncomfortable with a training method, your dog will pick up on that and it will affect them), partially because the dog was super duper enthusiastic, non reactive, etc. and when they tested her with it she was not stressed by wearing it. Also, she never administered a correction. It was a situation where the dog was allowed to self correct, and then given loads of praise when it was doing the right things. Something else she said was that if you have to use a prong for more than a month, you're relying on it as a crutch and not actually training. She said it was like power steering big, enthusiastic, non reactive dogs with frail owners until the dogs learned their manners.
Only two dogs in class used them. One was the dane and the other was a super spastic german shorthaired pointer. She made really sure they weren't stressed by wearing it and weren't becoming reactive to other dogs because of it, and they both were out of their prongs by the end of the month.
Strider's OB trainer used prongs, albeit very sparingly. No dogs under one year old, no small dogs, no dogs that were soft (obviously stressed by wearing one), etc.
When she explained to the class what circumstances and dogs she felt it was appropriate for, she pointed at Strider and said, "not him, ever. He's a soft dog and he doesn't need it, it will harm his confidence." Then she pointed to a small lady with an extremely exuberant 13 month old dane puppy coming to class for the first! time! evar! *zomg teh funz!!!* and said that was appropriate for the following reasons.
Partially because the owner was comfortable with it (if you're uncomfortable with a training method, your dog will pick up on that and it will affect them), partially because the dog was super duper enthusiastic, non reactive, etc. and when they tested her with it she was not stressed by wearing it. Also, she never administered a correction. It was a situation where the dog was allowed to self correct, and then given loads of praise when it was doing the right things. Something else she said was that if you have to use a prong for more than a month, you're relying on it as a crutch and not actually training. She said it was like power steering big, enthusiastic, non reactive dogs with frail owners until the dogs learned their manners.
Only two dogs in class used them. One was the dane and the other was a super spastic german shorthaired pointer. She made really sure they weren't stressed by wearing it and weren't becoming reactive to other dogs because of it, and they both were out of their prongs by the end of the month.