Husky Safety Hitch
Walking a pack of three exuberant Siberians together at the same time every morning, sometimes leads to life's more interesting moments. During our daily perambulations, we can always count on being greeted by at least 7 and usually 10 canine regulars. These are rarely a problem; the howls of perdition, the snapping and snarling, the lunging are merely a ritualized form of dog ballet, where everybody knows their part. It's the occasional guest visitor making his or her appearance on the morning smell-o-rama tour that causes "incidents". Visitors such as the neighbor's black cat, or the foolhardy rabbit.
The Prong Collar
Having come to the conclusion, that being dragged through bushes, mud and brambles is "not a good thing", I "walk" my pack with all of them wearing a device called a prong collar.
This medieval-looking device actually is non-harmful to the dog, and in my opinion, much safer to use than a choker type collar. Another term for the collar, is a pinch collar. The collar works not by digging in the prongs into the neck, but pinching the rolls of skin and fur around the neck. This simulates the correction applied by the mother when the dog was a puppy. Of course, we only use the collar for walking and training purposes. They shouldn't be just left on the dogs unsupervised .Anybody who thinks that using a prong or pinch collar on a husky is cruel, only has to visit our house and see what happens when one of collars is moved or rattled. I would suggest watching this from a place of safety, as the visitor is liable to be bowled over by a crowd of barking, whining, howling crazed siberian huskies who are of the definite opinion that they are about to go on a walk.
A Safety Hitch
One drawback of using the prong collar for walking a dog, is that a playful siberian husky, through feats of magical levitation, cause the collar to twist and pop open. Since huskies are intelligent (too much so) they probably have watched you put the collar on their teammates and figured out what goes on, must come off. Having this happen to me a few times I came up with a solution. One of my sports is climbing. When you are several hundred feet off the ground, if you drop something, say like your water bottle, chances are good that you're not going to be able to get it back anytime soon. So if something is important to you, you attach a piece of nylon cord to it and clip it into something that is anchored, or to yourself. This is called a keeper sling. It's a backup safety system. My huskies are important to me, and if I let go, changes are good that I'm not going to get them back anytime soon either. So why not a husky keeper sling.
This is basically a short length of nylon cord with a loop at each end. Make sure you back up the knot! Put one end through the ring on the normal collar (I'm using an Alaskan collar here) and pass the rest of the sling through the first loop as above. This makes a girth hitch around the collar ring.
The other end just gets clipped into the lead along with the prong collar. Make the length of the sling long enough, so that even if you have to make a correction with the prong collar, there is still some slack in the sling. This takes only an extra 5 seconds when hooking them up.Now if that crazy husky pops that collar off, you're still in charge!
The Prong Collar
Having come to the conclusion, that being dragged through bushes, mud and brambles is "not a good thing", I "walk" my pack with all of them wearing a device called a prong collar.
 |
| No, it's not a choke collar or instrument of punishment |
This medieval-looking device actually is non-harmful to the dog, and in my opinion, much safer to use than a choker type collar. Another term for the collar, is a pinch collar. The collar works not by digging in the prongs into the neck, but pinching the rolls of skin and fur around the neck. This simulates the correction applied by the mother when the dog was a puppy. Of course, we only use the collar for walking and training purposes. They shouldn't be just left on the dogs unsupervised .Anybody who thinks that using a prong or pinch collar on a husky is cruel, only has to visit our house and see what happens when one of collars is moved or rattled. I would suggest watching this from a place of safety, as the visitor is liable to be bowled over by a crowd of barking, whining, howling crazed siberian huskies who are of the definite opinion that they are about to go on a walk.
A Safety Hitch
One drawback of using the prong collar for walking a dog, is that a playful siberian husky, through feats of magical levitation, cause the collar to twist and pop open. Since huskies are intelligent (too much so) they probably have watched you put the collar on their teammates and figured out what goes on, must come off. Having this happen to me a few times I came up with a solution. One of my sports is climbing. When you are several hundred feet off the ground, if you drop something, say like your water bottle, chances are good that you're not going to be able to get it back anytime soon. So if something is important to you, you attach a piece of nylon cord to it and clip it into something that is anchored, or to yourself. This is called a keeper sling. It's a backup safety system. My huskies are important to me, and if I let go, changes are good that I'm not going to get them back anytime soon either. So why not a husky keeper sling.
 |
| Our collar model is Saber |
This is basically a short length of nylon cord with a loop at each end. Make sure you back up the knot! Put one end through the ring on the normal collar (I'm using an Alaskan collar here) and pass the rest of the sling through the first loop as above. This makes a girth hitch around the collar ring.
The other end just gets clipped into the lead along with the prong collar. Make the length of the sling long enough, so that even if you have to make a correction with the prong collar, there is still some slack in the sling. This takes only an extra 5 seconds when hooking them up.Now if that crazy husky pops that collar off, you're still in charge!
Happy Walking!
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