It is never too early to accustom your puppy to dog training collars and a leash. It is your way of keeping your dog under control. It may not be necessary for the puppy or adult dog to wear his dog training collar and identification tags within the confines of your home, but no dog should ever leave home without a collar on and without the leash held securely in your hand.
Begin getting your dog or puppy accustomed to his collar by leaving it on for a few minutes at a time, gradually extending the time you leave it on. Most dogs become accustomed to dog training collars very quickly and forget they are even wearing one.
Once this is accomplished, attach a lightweight leash to the collar while you are playing with him. Do not try to guide him at first. The point here is to accustom the pup to the feeling of having something attached to the collar.
Some puppies adapt to a dog training collar very quickly and, without any undo resistance, learn to be guided with the leash. Other pups may be absolutely adamant that they will not have any part of leash training and seem intent on strangling themselves before submitting to any sort of dog shock collar training..
If your puppy is one of the latter, do not continue to force the issue. Simply create a lasso with your leash and put your puppy’s head and front legs through the lasso opening so that the leash encircles his shoulders and chest, just behind the front legs.
Problem pups seem to object less to this method than having the leash around their necks. Encourage your puppy to follow you as you move away. If he is reluctant to cooperate, coax him along with a treat of some kind. Hold the treat in front of his nose to encourage him to follow you. Just as soon as your puppy takes a few steps toward you, praise him enthusiastically and continue to do so as you move along.
Make the initial session very brief and enjoyable. Continue the lesson until the puppy is completely unconcerned about the fact that he is on a leash. With a treat in one hand and a leash attached to your dog training collar in the other, you can begin to use both to guide him in the direction you wish to go.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
The "Command Collar" link 1 bears a striking resemblance to a martingale collar Link 2. The circle can be either of chain or nylon.
I prefer these collars for training as they are much more humane than choke chains or prong collars.
I cannot say anything about his methods. I am unfamilier with him. Generally any training that uses positive renforcement gets my seal of approval (for what it's worth)
His whole “lasso” thing seems a little weird to me. If your dog doesn’t like having the leash attached to it’s collar, then why not just use a harness and attach the leash to that? Or, you could use a martingale leash, like the ones they have at genuinedoggear.com, which is a collar/leash combo as an easy, effective tool to train your dog.