Puppy's Collar

[bessie]

Hi,

We have an 11 week kelpie. She has been really great, no problems except when we put a collar on her. She turns into a different puppy. She won't come out of her kennel, won't play, just lies there and sulks. We first put it on at about 7 weeks. It is a cat collar so its really light weight. We left it on for about a day and a half but we felt really bad because she obviously hated it so much. We left it for a few weeks, now i have been putting on a few times a day for about 10 mins while we try to play so she thinks it fun, but nothing seems to be working?

Does anyone have any suggestions on getting her used to it?

Thanks.

[Teebs]

Put it on her for FUN things

Dinner time. If you let her inside then put it on her while she is inside.

TREATS and praise!! when she has it on feed her the treats, praise her for being a good girl

thankfully i have never had a problem with collars or leads.

[ReXy]

treats praise, and lots and lots of praise.. as Tb said feed dinner time,, or just by hand heaps of treats,, pat her and touch her when she has it on reward her for everything.. take a few steps call her and praise her heaps.. she will get used to it eventually . the key is , persistance praise heaps of rewards and take it slowly with her, do it over and over thru the day, a few mins at a time

[Kavik]

When we first put a collar on Kaos he tried to kill it Seriously, he would growl and carry on and try to get it off!

He got used to it though, doesn't notice it anymore.

Do fun things with the collar on, maybe only have the collar on for short periods of time.

EFS

Edited October 15, 2006 by Kavik

[Tonymc]

Sounds like the Pup is in control here.Are you as soon as she shows any sign of dislike towards the Collar, going out making a fuss of her and taking the Collar off?If you are your playing into her Hands or Paws.Put the Collar on and go about the normal routine you have with the Pup.When you do not make a big fuss of the Collar, she will learn not to as well. Tonymc

[curlyking]

We put hair bands on our litters at birth as a means of identifying them. As they grow bigger bands are used up til about 4 weeks when we put a puppy or cat collar on the pups. Since doing this we have found it is so much easier to get the pups to walk on a lead and having a collar is no hassle to them.

I agree with tonymc that the pup seems to be in control here and I think you have to put a small collar on the pup and leave it there. It is not going to hurt and I would, as long as the pup is safe, ignore any protests from it.

The pup may stay in it's kennel but when it gets hungry or wants to play it will forget about the vollar and come out of it's own accord.

[bessie]

Thanks everyone for your advice. We ended up leaving the collar on her all the time and ignoring her sulking.

On the day that we took her to the vet for her vaccination (day 5 of having the collar on all day) she had to have on the collar and the lead which was fine because I was holding her. When we got home we took off the lead and went about our normal routine. By the afternoon she had forgotten about the collar and has been playing happily ever since.

Thanks again. We have our playful puppy back.

[Bea]

That's really good that she's back to her normal self! I find with Mickey that he always pulls the "sulking and sad" trick with me whenever i put him in his harness. I ignore him and he gets over it, lol.

[arby]

soon when she's had all her shots and you start taking her for walks she'll love both the collar and the lead

Humphrey hated both now he cant live without them...he's learnt that lead=walks so now as soon as he sees it he's a little angel. After we give him a bath and he dries off a bit he will actually sit all proud when we put his collar on