Slip leads are often used by dog owners due to their ease of use. They can be easily slipped on and taken off, and automatically correct your dog when pulling on the lead. The use of slip leads does have a flip side, and using one isn’t without danger. Slip leads can permanently injure your pet and lead to negative associations with the world around them. Let’s have a closer look at the dangers of using a slip lead.
What is a slip lead?
The slip lead, also referred to as choke chain, is a type of collar that tightens around the neck when pulled. Slip leads can come as a collar where you click the lead on, or as a collar and lead in one. Slip leads come in different materials such as nylon and metal chain links. As the name implies, the design of this type of collar is to control the dog by tightening around their neck and causing discomfort and pain through choking.
The psychological dangers of the slip lead
When training dogs, one can work with positive or negative reinforcement. When using positive reinforcement, good behaviour is rewarded by providing your dog with something they enjoy, which increases the likelihood of a behaviour happening again. For example, you give your dog a treat after they follow a command you give them. We speak of negative reinforcement when you take something unpleasant away, with the intention of making behaviour occur again. An example of a tool that works with negative reinforcement is the slip lead. The pressure and choking caused by the lead are unpleasant stimuli to the dog, which they experience when pulling. When they don’t pull, this tension and pain goes away, so it increases the likelihood the behaviour will happen again.
A problem with this method when it comes to slip leads, is that dogs learn by association. This means that whenever your dog pulls towards something while wearing the slip lead, it doesn’t only get the negative reinforcement to stop the pulling behaviour, but it will also associate whatever it was pulling to with a pain response. When this happens again and again, the dog will start building a negative association. For example, a dog that wears a slip lead and pulls towards other dogs will not only learn to not pull towards other dogs, but it will also learn that seeing another dog means pain or discomfort, which can lead to anxiety, fear, and fear aggression towards other dogs. Negative associations can also be built with people and kids, and the consequences can be devastating.
The physical dangers of the slip lead
As the slip lead gets placed around the neck, it will open the dog to neck injuries. The neck is a sensitive area which has lots of nerves, big blood vessels, and other important tissues, and sudden yanks or constant pulling can lead to bruising, rubbing injuries on the skin, a whiplash, damage to the larynx, a crushed trachea, and fractured vertebrae. Slipleads, and pressure on the neck in general, can also damage the nerves in the neck that go down to the paws, leading to a sensation which can lead to paw licking, foreleg lameness and scratching in the armpits.
Inside the neck you will also find the jugular vein, and pressure on this vein can lead to a build up of pressure around the brain, and affect the flow of cerebral-spinal fluid. In dogs with a predisposition to epilepsy, this can function as a trigger.
Additionally, slip leads, and even normal collars when dogs pull, can lead to hypothyroidism. Slip leads and collars rest on the neck where the thyroid gland is, and pulling or yanks on the lead, can lead to this gland becoming inflamed. Consequently, the dog’s immune system will attack and destroy the inflamed gland. The damage caused to the glad will lead to a deficit of the thyroid hormone.
In the worst case, a wrong pull or yank from a slip lead can lead to permanent damage or even fatal injuries in a dog. So if your dog is prone to pulling, even on a normal collar, a well fitted harness that does not constrict movement may be a better choice for your dog while you train them not to pull. Would you like to know more of the different pro’s and con’s of collars and harnesses, have a look at our article “Collar vs Harness: The Pros and Cons of Each”.
Using a slip lead for training
Using a slip lead for training is outdated. It may lead to fast results, but it simply only masks a symptom and does not address the root cause of a certain behaviour. When training a dog it’s important to find out why they show a certain behaviour, and work on the root cause, else results won’t be long lasting, and other behaviour issues may arise. For example, when you want to train your dog not to pull or lunge towards other dogs, it’s important to find out why they pull and lunge. Because if they are pulling and lunging as a fear response, learning them to walk next to you through force will not take away their fear. Using forceful methods leads to stress, and stress inhibits learning. It also damages the dog-owner bond.
Conclusion
Using a slip lead is not without danger, and does not address the root cause of the problem when used for training. Using a slip lead can lead to physical injuries, and increased behaviour difficulties. Dogs are living creatures that feel pain and fear, and they deserve to be trained according the latest up-to-date force free methods and without the use of aversive tools.
Would you like to know more about our dog training services, feel free to contact us. We will be happy to help.