In keeping with tradition, when Tawny turned 8 weeks old she
was given a collar – the softest, lightest one possible. It was, in fact, an
old one rubbed soft with white wax floor-polish and worn by many puppies and
several fawns. It had been clipped short
so that just a fraction protruded beyond the buckle. No matter if it wasn’t
strong enough to hold her: its only purpose was to get her used to the feel of
it.
She jumped
and rubbed and scratched and moaned as if she felt a string of grass-seeds
strangling her. I took her immediately on an interesting ramble to take her
mind off it. By the next day she hardly
noticed it, just as one stops noticing the feel of a wrist-watch.
Several
days later, when the collar no longer meant anything to her, I took it off
again. Thereafter I put it on when we went out for a walk, and took it off as
soon as she got home. In this way she soon connected it with an exciting walk
and welcomed it.
At least
two weeks went by before the collar was used for any form of control, and then
a very light lead was attached to it for her first lesson in walking to heel.
Living in
the bush one is faced with the dilemma of whether to leave collars on the dogs
permanently or not. If they go off hunting on their own, will they get hitched up
on a branch or on the horn of a buck they have bayed? Would the tusk of a wild
pig get under it and break the dog’s neck? On the other hand, many dogs caught
in wire snares around the neck have been saved from strangulation by their
collars. Once one of my dogs, leaping between me and a cobra we’d disturbed,
took the full force of the snake’s strike and was unharmed.
My dogs,
thank heavens, never leave the house without me and in the bush are always
nearby. So a dog in training has her collar put on to go out and removed when
she comes home. If one of the dogs is fierce or bouncy and I’m expecting
fragile visitors sometime that day, I leave the collar on after the dawn walk
and remove it after the evening exercise. I never leave a collar on any dog
when I go out without them; I always feel that if there was any trouble between
the dogs and the labourers or intruders I’d rather the dogs were not too easy
to grab. A young dog I once helped to
treat had been caught by the collar and brutally beaten with grass-slashers
over every part of his body, while his owner was away.
The lead
Once Tawny was used to wearing a collar she was shown the
lead, a light leather one to start with. She was allowed to smell it and play
with it for several minutes while lying down before it was attached to her
collar. Gentle tugs were then made in a playful way; after which, with the lead
on, I played with her in the house.
In spite of
these preliminaries, thrice repeated, she was like a fish on the end of a line
the first time she went out on the lead. I let her pull long enough for her to
realise that it wasn’t going to break but not long enough for her to panic,
before sitting down and calling her into my lap for a hug. Each time she began
to jump around on the lead I distracted
her attention in some way to bring her in closer to me and only then trying a
few more steps forward.
On the
third time out I could see she wasn’t jerking on the lead in fear but in fury.
I put a lead on well-trained TellMe and placed Tawny on her own lead between
us. On command TellMe walked soberly to
heel and in no time at all Tawny saw what it was all about and more or less
resigned herself to the task.
Now I could
change her light lead, which really wasn’t strong enough for control, to a
nylon one with a length of chain at the clip end. I find with new puppies the
noise and weight of this short length of chain, although very slight, tends to
worry them too much to be the first to use.
Like many
pups, Tawny thought of picking up the lead about six inches from the clip and
carrying it. In this way, although she still had to come when told, she felt
she had some control over the exercise. It’s a pretty sight to see a little dog
trotting alongside her owner with a loop of lead in her mouth, but it doesn’t
allow for fine control over the dog. I aim to have my dogs as sensitive to a
touch on the lead as a horse is to the rein.
I use
several types of lead – the light leather thong for beginners; the nylon cord
with 10 inches of light chain attached to the clip end with a swivel clip;
another fashioned in the same way but a quarter again as long; the slip-lead –
a strong leather strap of standard lead length ending in a metal ring through
which the hand-hold can be passed to make a choker less harsh than a
choke-chain; a smart all-chain lead with a leather hand-hold loop for town
wear; and a 15-foot training lead of light nylon rope. Bay is so tall that her collar is at my
waist, making a standard-length lead unnecessary when she is walking to heel.
So for town wear, when she has to stay at heel all the time, she has a very
short chain lead with a leather hand-hold. The chain-work on all these leads,
as with choker-chains, is all of flat, smooth, flexible links. When I exercise
or work the dogs in the bush I usually take only the all-leather slip-lead
because of its versatility. It can be collar-cum-lead as it is supposed to be,
a lasso to catch and hold a calf, a halter for a horse, a rope to help me climb
a tree, a tourniquet, and heaven knows what else.
The choke-chain collar
Sensitive, light-boned Tawny proved easy enough to manage
without resorting to the choke-chain, but I use them for the other dogs. If used intelligently the choke-chain can be a
useful aid in controlling a powerful animal, or in teaching a strong, stubborn
puppy exactly where she should be when walking to heel – because when she is in
that position you relax the pull on the lead and the collar becomes completely
slack, not merely less tight as with an ordinary buckled-on collar. Most
puppies soon learn which the most comfortable position is, and that deviating
from it brings an immediate tightening of the collar.
I am
totally against the practice of leaving a choke-chain on a dog in place of a
buckle-on collar unless the ends are tied to de-activate the running-noose
action.
There is
often some initial confusion as to the correct and safe way the choke-chain
should be worn. Here it is, step by
step:
2. Feed the
entire chain through the other ring to form a circle.
3. With the
dog at your left side, facing the
same way as yourself, put the circle over her head. The chain of the collar should travel
straight from the lead across the back of
the dog’s neck and round her throat. (If it goes from the lead under the throat, it can tighten with a
vicious turning motion which can be very damaging to the dog’s throat. If you try to put it on when facing the dog,
it’s easier to get it on wrong.)
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