Choker Chains?

I wouldn't put a choke chain on her at all.  Choke collars can cause damage to your dog's larynx if used improperly.  Try an Easy Walk Harness ([linkhttp://www.premierpet.com]www.premierpet.com[/link]) first and see if she goes well on that.  My students love them!  They're easy to put on, and they work on leverage, and not pain.
If you aren't happy with that, you can always try a Gentle Leader or a prong (looks more barbaric, but at least it releases automatically when the dog stops pulling).
If you want some pointers on teaching your dog how to walk politely on a leash, there are some good articles at www.clickersolutions.com.

Have tried the gentle leader and that did not seem to deter her at all.

ORIGINAL: spiritdogs

I wouldn't put a choke chain on her at all.  Choke collars can cause damage to your dog's larynx if used improperly.  Try an Easy Walk Harness ([linkhttp://www.premierpet.com]www.premierpet.com[/link]) first and see if she goes well on that.  My students love them!  They're easy to put on, and they work on leverage, and not pain.
If you aren't happy with that, you can always try a Gentle Leader or a prong (looks more barbaric, but at least it releases automatically when the dog stops pulling).
If you want some pointers on teaching your dog how to walk politely on a leash, there are some good articles at [linkhttp://www.clickersolutions.com.]www.clickersolutions.com.[/link]

 
Yes! spiritdogs is absolutly correct. The first step is always teaching to not pull through obediance versus force. I understand a 50 pound dog can be overwhelming but by that age and size he should have been very well underway with his obediance training. Obviously these collars were made for the stubborn and you will get a lot of mixed opinions on teh different types of collars. It really boils down to what your dog will respond to. Rory could not use a prong or choke collar because of her high tolerance for pain. She did react very well to the gentle lead. Ideally we would all like for the prong collar to work the way spiritdogs suggested but sometimes that is not the case whether it is used properly or not. A harness might be they way to go, defintly worth a try. We met a trainer at petsmart that was very helpful in this case, she had all of the above options in the back for trial use in the store. Try going in the early morning and speaking to one of them about it even if you dont have your dogs registered there for training!

I too am going to give Anne's advise a big thumbs up.  Forget the choke chains.
 
It's easy to say that by now you should have already taught him to walk nicely on lead, but I know that sometimes life gets in the way as it did with our Thor.  Wonderful 93 lb gsd, but gosh darn he's strong and stubborn and "life got in the way" of our regular walks and practicing leash manners.  I tried and tried and tried everything else FIRST and finally got him a prong.  Of course this is after I roamed around the store with one on ME first so that I knew how it felt, how painful it was....for me tho, the prong was the absolute last resort.  I did work on everything ELSE first.

Did someone instruct you how to fit and use the Gentle Leader?
If you just put it on out of the box, you may not have gotten the best result.  One of the reasons I prefer the Easy Walk is that handlers don't need any special knowledge other than to put it on and adjust it so that the chest strap is level with the ground and you can only slide two fingers under each strap.

Well I don't like to use a chocker or a prong collar on a puppy. Because at this stage what ever you do well reflex on the puppy when it becomes an adult. If you are having trouble with the pup on walks you could either use a harness or a martingale dog collar.

concerned owner, why exactly do you want to put a choker on your dog? are you having pulling problems? choke chains are never a good idea. It takes a lot of skill to use one properly, and many dogs will happily pull against one until they pass out from lack of oxygen. Also they cause neck damage.
Many dogs respond very well to prong collars; the easy walk harness is my favorite. It doesn't activate the "pulling reflex" in dogs like collars and other types of harnesses do.
But bottom line if your dog is pulling, the only way to fix it is to teach the dog to not pull. The tree method works for some dogs-- basically, if the dog pulls on the leash, the owner freezes and refuses to move. Owner (and dog) only get to move forward if the leash is slack.

I'd agree that a lot of dogs will still pull with the choke chain on, and if they do there is definitley the risk of them damaging their neck, gasping of breath,etc. It's also very easy for the owners ( intentionally or unintentionally) to misuse it; since as you will see, there is no 'stopping point' for the collars, they could just keep on choking the dog as hard as you want to pull. The idea with choke chains is to snap it and teh dog would give their attention to you. But, this doesn't happen in most cases where the dog ignores it and you end up pulling on it. ( This is a general 'you' and not directed to just you at all). When I see a dog that continues to pull with one, I just want to tell  the owners to use a prong collar; that it will almost always work so much better. So, that being said, I do use a choke collar with Cassidy for some training. I'm training her through 4-H to be in the dog shows, and for that you have to use a choke chain, no prong collars or anything else is allowed. So during the training I use one for her, to get her used to it, so that she will learn not to pull against that. Because I don't want to be pulling on the collar, just popping it ( start with slack and end with slack is the idea) to get her attention, slow her down, or whatever. Today we had the first class ( she's been trained a lot before this;  so it's just practice mostly) and I used my prong collar on her instead of the choke chain because she was distracted and pulling. I'm going to work up to being able to work with just the choke chain once she gets  more relaxed, and not so distracted.

For just walks, though, or going someplace, I hardly ever use the choke chain, I'll use the pinch ( or prong) collar, since it works a lot better and prevents her from pulling. As far as the age of your dog, 6 months is fine to go ahead and start using that.

Glenda-- I have to ask, and please, no offense meant by my question, I am just curious. You said that you tried everything else before using the prong collar with your dogs, and only used it as a last resort. So if that is the only thing that works, why not just start with the prong collar if you know that it is succesful? I am just wondering why you would not go ahead and use something you knew would work, before you tried other things that didn't really work at all. If you get what I'm saying. I don't believe that the prong is really all that painful; it's just the discomfort of the prongs that keeps the dog from doing the behavior you don't want. I know that my dog hates the Gentle Leader, and would much rather have her prong collar on. It's certianly not more painful than being choked by a choke collar, if that is not used correctly.
 Sheprano-- I can see what you are saying with Rory, and if the GL works better than anything else for you; go ahead and use that. It is not what would work for my dogs though.

OK, sorry for rambling.

The prong was the only thing that worked with THOR.  But that was ONLY because life got in the way of regular practice with him on lead.  We had a series of events that lead up to him getting more headstrong on lead, and likely an age thing as well, and because that is who I am, because I will NEVER use an aversive first, we worked hard on leash manners using other methods FIRST.  Remember, I'm the person who could never bring myself to rub the pups nose in her own mess back in the day that it was "the" thing to do.  I don't like causing pain to my dogs and I would rather teach them to follow me as a benevolent leader.  It was very difficult for me to actually buy a prong and I wore it myself trotting around the store with the trainer behind me before I did.
 
And, since then I've gotten many pups leash trained before send them off to forever homes....without using aversives.  And you have to remember too that some dogs, Sheba for example, would simply shut down if you slapped a prong on them.  She'd be a quivering mess and not walk at all.
 
A prong MUST be used judiciously...on a case by case basis.

Yup, I understand. A prong collar might not be the best thing for some dogs, and works great for others, I agree with you there. Though I tend to be more on the side of the prong collar, I guess. Maybe that is because I'm looking for something easier to use, not necessarliy the best thing I guess, I just like them because they work, for me.

I think there are better options than choke collars these days. I would try the easy walk harness or a prong in extreme cases.

Might be a good idea to find out just where the member lives first.
Prong collars are illegal in many Countries including New Zealand.

I was taught how to use a check chain 30+ years ago on an out of control adult dog and still prefer them. Loose lead only unless checking the dog back rule.

From an Obedience Champion Springer, a Chow with CDX to a Ch. Cavalier who is as happy as larry wearing a check chain and walking lead because he knows we are walking into town. He is always on a loose lead. His normal collar is used with the extender lead when he doesn't have to stay at heel but has to be on lead.

Works for me. []

Either tool needs to be used with extreme caution.  In general I think it's harder to cause damage to a dog with the prong.
 
But I'd try an Easy Walk Harness FIRST.  They won't fit my deep chested shepherds, but they are said to be wonderful.

They won't fit my deep chested shepherds

 
Glenda, Premier is now making more sizes (they got so many requests because of that problem)- maybe you should try again. [sm=happy.gif]
 
cavowner, we "oldies" all learned how to use a slip collar - in those days there was little else.  But, what I don't understand is all the resistance to any new method that might work as well with no discomfort to the dog.  Even Barbara Woodhouse took the time to try to invent a slip that did less damage to the trachea and the haircoat.